Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? is a 1969 musical film directed by and starring Anthony Newley. Newley played the autobiographical title role of Merkin, an internationally successful singer approaching middle age who retells his life story in a series of production numbers on a seashore in front of his two toddler children (played by Newley's actual two children) and aged mother. Merkin focuses on his promi...
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Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? is a 1969 musical film directed by and starring Anthony Newley. Newley played the autobiographical title role of Merkin, an internationally successful singer approaching middle age who retells his life story in a series of production numbers on a seashore in front of his two toddler children (played by Newley's actual two children) and aged mother. Merkin focuses on his promiscuous relationships with women, particularly Polyester Poontang (played by Newley's wife Joan Collins) and the adolescent Mercy Humppe (Playboy centerfold Connie Kreski). Merkin is constantly surrounded by a Satan-like procurer, Goodtime Eddie Filth (Milton Berle), and an angelic 'Presence' (George Jessel) who interrupts Merkin's biography with cryptic Borscht Belt-level jokes to denote births and deaths in Merkin's life. Newley periodically steps out of character to complain about his 'Merkin' role with an unseen director (voiced by Newley),...
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