Popeye

Family

Robin Williams	Popeye
Shelley Duvall	Olive Oyl
Paul Dooley	Wimpy
Richard Libertini	Geezil
Roberta Maxwell	Nana Oyl
Donald Moffat	The Taxman
MacIntyre Dixon	Cole Oyl
Donovan Scott	Castor Oyl
Paul L. Smith	Bluto
Ray Walston	Poopdeck Pappy
Robert Fortier	Bill Barnacle
Bill Irwin	Ham Gravy
Wesley Ivan Hurt	Swee'pea
David McCharen	Harry Hotcash
Allan F. Nicholls	Rough House

Director	Robert Altman
Producer	Robert Evans; Scott Bushnell; C.O. Erickson
Writer	E.C. Segar; Jules Feiffer

Nothing interests filmmaker Robert Altman more than a contained culture that mixes bare humanity with local eccentricity (think of his M*A*S*H and Nashville). So Altman's Popeye (1980), based on the old comic strip, works best as a portrait of a busy, cluttered, cartoonish town called Sweethaven. But it is much less successful as a comprehensible story about the famous sailor with massive forearms and a relationship with Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall). Robin Williams plays Popeye with his usual brilliance for mimicry, Paul Dooley makes a credible Wimpy, and Paul L. Smith makes an impression as the oversized bully, Bluto. But this strange, disastrous film never becomes more than an expensive workshop airing out Altmanesque themes. --Tom Keogh