The Silence of the Hams

Dom DeLuise, Phyllis Diller, Rip Taylor, Shelley Winters, Larry Storch, John Astin. The grand opening of the new Beverly Hills Sears? No, it's the supporting cast of this hit-or-miss-mostly miss-thriller spoof, The Silence of the Hams. Brando look-alike Zane plays — are you sitting down? — FBI agent Jo Dee Fostar, on the trail of his missing girlfriend, who absconded with a bundle of cash. Naming other characters Peter Putrid and Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza would seem the work of a kindergartener. But it's all courtesy of an adult, Italian writer-director-costar Ezio Greggio. If you can stomach the flatulence gags and stupid slapstick, you may get a kick out of the few clever visual puns and that roster — perhaps the oddest movie assemblage since Otto Preminger's Skidoo. C-

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