It's never a good idea to make anything due to spite- much less a multi-million dollar film. But that is exactly what happened at Paramount in 1979. Paramount Pictures leader Robert Evans had lost a bidding war with Columbia Pictures over the rights to Annie and he was eager to put something (anything) together to beat them to theaters. He asked his staff to locate any property that Paramount owned that could be turned into a big budget musical. The ancient cartoon property Popeye was identified and instantly greenlit as a musical project. The studio hurriedly put the film into production.
Of course, unlike Annie, Popeye was not a musical property. Paramount had to make it one. Who better to make a family musical than Robert Altman, director of M*A*S*H and Nashville? Just about anyone else, but he got the job nonetheless. The job of turning a spinach eating brute into a singing, dancing sensation fell to another odd choice- Harry Nilsson, who was more known for his hippy, dippy music than for lavish musicals. (Though he had already had a box office disaster on his resume- the soundtrack for the 1968 Otto Preminger film Skidoo.) Throw in an adult comedian and a dramatic actress, neither of which had any prior singing experience, and Paramount had what it hoped would be its big musical family hit, starring Robin Williams and Shelly Duvall.
For an auteur like Altman, no fake soundstages would do. With pockets full of Paramount's cash, he flew out to Malta to build a real seaside town on the shore- Popeye's Sweethaven from the cartoons.
No expense was spared on the production. The bean counters back in Hollywood, however, began to get jittery. They had shoveled millions of dollars into this production with nothing to show for it but a very expensive set. Alarm bells ringing, they alerted Mr. Evans who was asked to either rein in his director or find additional funding. He chose to do both, asking Altman to tighten his budget and also enlisting Walt Disney Productions to put up some money in exchange for foreign rights. Disney ponied up the cash and the disastrous Popeye production continued on.
Way over budget, the troubled production finally wrapped. To borrow a trite Hollywood phrase, the money spent is all visible on screen; the vibrant colors and realistic set pieces pop against the sunny vistas. The realness of Sweethaven adds to the production immensely. Shelly Duvall truly looks like Olive Oyl come to life. Other than that, the film is a mess. Most of the songs seem like they're great, but the terrible performances raise serious questions about the sanity of anyone who thought it was a good idea to put any of these actors in a recording studio to sing their own songs. (Mr. Nilsson's soundtrack for Skidoo was similarly marred by the tuneless croaking of Carol Channing.)
(United States DVD Cover Art)
In the end, nobody ended up entertained by this mess of a film; not the aged Popeye devotees, not the family audience and certainly not Altman's fans. The movie was a disaster for Paramount in the United States and Canada, though Disney had better luck with it overseas. Perhaps the foreign voices dubbed over the soundtrack were better sounding to overseas audiences. The film nearly ruined the careers of everyone involved; nobody trusted Robert Altman with such a large budget ever again and Harry Nilsson produced little of note afterwards.
(Foreign DVD Cover art.)
Though released by Disney overseas, the film is not considered an official Disney production, as the company merely provided extra funding for the film. Paramount recovered quickly, though a big question remained; Mr. Altman's lavish sets weren't mere plywood and paste. They were sturdy, usable structures. Useless to Paramount, the people of Malta thought that they could be a tourist attraction. So the studio gave the buildings to Malta who quickly turned them into a theme park of sorts that bizarrely remains open to this very day.
