Director Brian De Palma's first film for a major studio (Warner Bros.), who ultimately dismissed De Palma from the project and kept him out of the editing process. It is surely an effort he'd like to erase from his resume--and his eclectic cast of character actors might want to follow suit. A business executive ditches his high-paying but life-depriving job to study at a school for tap-dancing magicians; after graduating, he takes his act on the road. Absurdist, episodic comedy leaves a lot of talented people looking helpless on-screen, although Orson Welles, sending himself up, appears blithely indifferent to the deadpan lunacy. Allen Garfield is once again an inscrutable nut, this time as a salesman who knows all there is about brassieres. In the lead, Tom Smothers has an open face and an affable, low-key manner that is appealing, but he's been stripped of a personality; his goofy grin and incredulous wide eyes eventually grow tiresome without something going on underneath. As his love-interest, Katharine Ross has it even worse. John A. Alonzo's handsome cinematography includes a snazzy overhead tracking shot at the beginning that shows off De Palma's flair. Unfortunately, the 'story' from screenwriter Jordan Crittenden, designed (I presume) to be a head-scratcher, is a chore: unfunny and uninvolving. * from ****