Forget the Alamo

Texas has often been funny. Mexicans have sometimes been good for a laugh. National Guard soldiers can usually provide a chuckle or two. So can militant right-wingers, harassed sheriffs and discombobulated diplomats. Even the Alamo could be funny. But Viva Max, which is about all these things, manages to be funny about none of them.

Not, of course, for lack of trying. A ragtag unit of the Mexican army, led by General Maximilian Rodrigues de Santos (Peter Ustinov) and Sergeant Valdez (John Astin), straggle across the U.S.-Mexican border, looking simultaneously tired and suspicious. General Max and a sadsack adjutant hijack a car full of gringo tourists and scout the territory. They return to the troops, and in a matter of seconds there is an irregular unit of the Mexican army charging through today's downtown San Antonio on its way to reclaim the Alamo.

Director Jerry Paris manages to ignore whatever humor there is in this situation. Ustinov is merely gross in the title role, Astin looks unhappy, and most of the supporting players--including Pamela Tiffin and Keenan Wynn--wince along with them. Jonathan Winters, as General Billy Joe Hallson, secondhand mattress salesman and head of the San Antonio unit of the Texas National Guard, has a couple of good stumblebum comic moments, as does Kenneth Mars playing a Texas Minuteman. But even they can do nothing about the witless dialogue and vapid plotting, which lace the comic moments in Viva Max with all the kick of day-old cerveza.

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