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Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? is a 1969 British musical film directed by Anthony Newley and starring himself, Joan Collins, Milton Berle, George Jessel and Bruce Forsyth. Newley and Herman Raucher wrote it.

Plot

Merkin is 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 toddlers and aged mother. His promiscuous relationships with women are explored, particularly Polyester Poontang and the adolescent Mercy Humppe. Merkin compares the relationship with Mercy Humppe to that of Humbert Humbert and Lolita.

Merkin is constantly surrounded by a Satan-like procurer, Goodtime Eddie Filth, and an angelic “Presence” 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, two screenwriters, the film’s producers and a trio of blasé movie critics who are turned off by the story’s eroticism and lack of plot.

Cast

Anthony Newley as Heironymus Merkin/Director
Joan Collins as Polyester Poontang
Milton Berle as Goodtime Eddie Filth
George Jessel as The Presence
Bruce Forsyth as Uncle Limelight
Stubby Kaye as fat writer
Connie Kreski as Mercy Humppe
Patricia Hayes as Grandma
Victor Spinetti as critic Sharpnose
Ronald Radd as critic Bentley
Rosalind Knight as critic Penelope
Louis Negin as producer Peter
Julian Orchard as Red Cardinal
Judy Cornwell as Filigree Fondle
Margaret Nolan as Little Assistance