It Happened on Fifth Avenue

(1947)
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Written by Everett Freeman (screenplay), Vick Knight (additional dialog), Herbert Lewis (original story)
Starring Don DeFore, Charles Ruggles, Victor Moore, Gale Storm, Ann Harding, Alan Hale, Jr., Dorothea Kent
IMDB Entry

Titles are an art. You need to come up with something that’s both memorable and intriguing. It Happened on Fifth Avenue is not an inspiring name for a film, but the result on the screen is a charming little movie.

Aloysius McKeever (Victor Moore) has a sweet setup. Though homeless, he spends his winters in the mansion of Michael O’Connor (Charles Ruggles) when O’Connor boards it up to spend winters in North Carolina. Jim Bullock (Don DeFore) is a war veteran who loses his apartment when O’Connor buys it to tear down to put up an office building. Jim runs into Aloysius, who invites him to enjoy the mansion with him. Meanwhile, O’Connor’s daughter Trudy (Gale Storm) lets herself into the mansion after running away from finishing school. Jim and Aloysius find her and think she’s trying to squat there. Trudy is attracted to Jim, so doesn’t reveal her identity, since Jim hates her father for putting him into the cold. Jim meets a couple of war buddies Whitey (Alan Hale, Jr.) and Hank (Edward Ryan), who join the crew.

Trudy’s father finds her, but she convinces him to pretend to be homeless, too, because Jim would hate her if he knew she was the daughter the man who evicted him.  He joins the crew, as does Trudy’s mother Mary (Ann Harding), who has divorced her father because he was too devoted to making money.

The movie is light and charming and has something of a Christmas theme. You could make a case that Aloysius is Santa Claus, and, in many ways, O’Connor is Scrooge.. One thing I liked about it was that it resolved comic misunderstandings in the situation without dragging it out.

Victor Moore is quite charming. He was a fairly solid star on Broadway before going into films as a career; this is one of his bigger roles. Don DeFore is best known as Mr. Baxter in the 50s sitcom, Hazel. I remember Gale Storm fondly from the TV shows My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show (Oh! Susannah). And Charlie Ruggles was a successful character actor for years.

There are quite a few familiar faces in the movie. John Hamilton (Perry White in The Adventures of Superman) has a few lines, and the great Charles Lane shows up as a prickly landlord. Alan Hale, Jr. is probably best known as the Skipper on Gilligan’s Island.

Director Roy Del Ruth was one of the top directors of the 30s and early 40s.

The movie has an interesting production history. It was originally planned by Frank Capra as the inaugural film for his Liberty Pictures, but he dropped it when he saw the script to It’s a Wonderful Life. He sold the rights to Monogram Pictures, a poverty row studio best known for B pictures and westerns.Monogram was trying to improve its reputation and created Allied Artists, making It Happened on Fifth Avenue their first production. It was successful enough to Monogram to eventually rename itself.

The movie was nominated for a best Writing Oscar, but lost to Miracle on 34th Street. The complications of syndication kept it off TV screens for years, but it came back recently.

It’s worth seeing out. It’s not quite a Christmas classic, but it is a very good film.

Beyond the Fringe (theater)

(1960-1966)
Written and performed by Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Dudley Moore.
Wikipedia Page

Beyond the Fringe may be the most influential thing I’ve talked about in this blog. It revolutionized British comedy. Without it, there would be no Monty Python, for instance.

The show is a sketch comedy written by the performers. It resembles Python with the absurdity and intellectual depth of the sketches, and also showed a penchant for discussing current events. Much of this is commonplace now, but back in 1960, there were few things that were like it.

Most of the sketches had been used in small revues and college productions. The four writers gathered together the most  successful of their writings and put it together into an evening of theater.

Dudley Moore is probably the most famous of the group. He became a movie star with roles in 10 and Arthur, making him famous all over the world. He also was a first-class pianist* and played music for the revue.

But it is Peter Cook who is recognized as being a genius of comedy. He wrote many of the sketches for the show, and UK sketch comedies are in aw of him. His main talent was his deadpan delivery of mundane lines where he managed to make everything funnier – even lines that were funny to begin with. After the show, he worked as a partner with Moore, and is at his best as the Devil in the original Bedazzled. He was also with Moore in The Wrong Box, where he gets to play off Peter Sellers.

But his movie career never gained notice. Partly because he was a genius at sketch comedy and wasn’t quite the same when he was using other people’s dialog. The only role most people are aware of is his small bit as the vicar trying to run the marriage ceremony in The Princess Bride.

The other two members of the cast also went on the stellar career.  Alan Bennett found his niche as a playwright and won a Tony Award for The History Boys. Jonathan Miller produced and directed several plays as part of the BBC Shakespeare project and directed plays for Broadway.

Beyond the Fringe ran over a year in London and moved to Broadway, with the London version continuing with a different cast. ________________________________________________________
*I saw him perform in a concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (TV)

(2021-2022)
Created and written by Valerie Armstrong
Starring Annie Murphy, Mary Hollis Inboden, Eric Peterson, Alex Bonifer, Brian Howe, Raymond Lee.
IMDB Entry

Back in the 60s, the gimmick show was king with things like My Mother the Car, Bewitched, The Hathaways*, and others. The concept faded, as the gimmicks were more silly than actual humor. But any genre can be revived, if they know how to handle the genre,  and Kevin Can F**k Himself** shows that you can create compelling TV with the right gimmick.

Allison McRoberts (Annie Murphy) is married to her boorish husband Kevin (Eric Peterson), who takes her completely for granted and is oblivious to her feelings. His father Peter (Brian Howe) and her brother Neil (Alex Bonifer) make her the butt of their unfunny and broad jokes. The setup is much like the man-child husband and smart wife formula for shows like Kevin Can Wait, Everyone Loves Raymond, According to Jim, and that ilk. Allison is stuck in a very bad sitcom.

But once she gets away from Kevin and his friends, it’s a different story. The show turns into a semiserious drama about Allison being at the end of her rope. When a man dies in the town library of fentanyl overdose, she realizes that a way to commit the perfect crime and free herself. With the help of her best friend Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden), she begins to plot the murder. In the meantime,her old high school sweetheart, Sam  Park (Raymond Lee) has returned to town to run a diner – and the flame is rekindled despite the fact he’s married.

The gimmick is how the two parts of her life are shot. When she’s with Kevin, it’s a standard three-camera sitcom – limited sets, and a set up like a filmed play. But when Allison is on her own, it’s a one-camera show, set up like a movie. The switch is a clever idea to show the sitcom world vs. the real one.

Allison is not a nice person.*** She holds our sympathy because we see how badly Kevin treats her. Murphy does a terrific job keeping us on her side even when she’s at her most manipulative.

Eric Peterson’s Kevin is also a tightrope act. He is a lout, but manages to play it so that he doesn’t turn you off completely and, to his credit, tries to do better for himself (though never recognizing how badly he treats Allison).  Mary Hollis Imboden is wonderful as the wisecracking best friend who has problems of her own.

After a cliffhanger, the show was renewed for a second season, which will be a final one. I think it’s a great idea not to continue further; the situation just isn’t sustainable over a long run. But what’s there is fascinating to watch.

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*About a family with three chimpanzees.
**Probably the only TV show whose title was never actually displayed -- there was always something blocking two of the letters.

***None of the characters are.

The Four-Sided Triangle

(1953)
Directed by Terence Fisher
Written by Paul Tabori (adaptation/screenplay), Terence Fisher (screenplay) from a novel from William F. Temple.
Starring Barbara Payton, James Hayter, Stephen Murray, John Van Eyssen
IMDB Entry

Not all  50s science fiction involved monsters. There were some examples that dealt with the possibilities – good or bad – of technology. The Four-Sided Triangle is an example of this.

Bill Leggat (Stephen Murray) and Robin Grant (John Van Eyssen) were close childhood friends, who both get childhood crushes on Lena Maitland (Barbara Peyton). Grown up, Lena falls for Bill, leaving Robin the odd man out, and Robin is deeply disappointed. He and Bill are are scientists, developing the Reproducer, which can make exact duplicates of anything.

Robin comes up with the idea of making a replica of Lena so that he can have her. The woman – called Helen – is indeed a duplicate, but also falls for Bill. Robin comes up with a plan to fix that. Of course, it does not work.

I liked the situation, but also the way it avoids the clichés of the genre. In most movies of this vintage, Helen would go horribly wrong. It does from Robin’s point of  view, but no monster is created.

Director Terence Fisher was a very busy man in the fifties, directing several Hammer horror films.* The cast also appeared in Hammer films.

It’s an intriguing situation and an entertaining movie.

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*The Four-Sided Triangle was an early venture by Hammer, before they made their niche in horror.

The Freshman

(1990)
Written and Directed by Andrew Bergman
Starring Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller, Bert Parks.
IMDB Entry

Marlon Brando was one of the greatest movie actors of his generation. He’s best known for his iconic dramatic roles, but he did have a penchant for comedy when he needed it. And one of his great comic turns was in The Freshman.*

Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick) is a young man from Vermont who moves to New York City to attend film school. On his first day there, he meets Victor Ray (Bruno Kirby), who proceeds to steal all his belongings. Spotting Victor a few days later, Clark shakes him down for his things, but Victor no longer has anything. He makes an offer Clark can’t refuse: he’ll get him a job with his uncle Carmine Sabatini (Marlon Brando). Sabatini bears more than a passing resemblance to the most famous of movie gangsters, but Clark, needed the money, goes to work for him.

Sabatini is an importer and runs a special dinner club that charges very high prices to eat endangered animals. Clark is soon caught up in smuggling a Komodo dragon to be the latest meal.

Brando, of course, is riffing on his role as Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather. And the movie doesn’t play that down. Clark sees the resemblance, and sees everything that Sabatini does through the mythology of that movie. The humor comes from Clark’s reaction to being drawn into what looks like a very shady enterprise.

Brando appears to enjoy the chance to vamp on the image. He supposedly told Bergman that he saw Sabatini as the real life person that he based Corleone on. He plays it all very straight, which makes it all the funnier.  Broderick plays his role as a man flustered about what he’s gotten into. Bruno Kirby is also good as the scheming Victor.

One major joke that no one will get these days was the use of Bert Parks. Forgotten today, back in the 50s he took over the job of announcer of the Miss America pageant, and for over 20 years he was known singing “There she is, Miss America” when a winner was announced. He ends up singing the same song, as the Komodo dragon wanders in the dining room ready to be eaten.**

Writer/director Andrew Bergman was a vastly underrated creator of comedy of his era. He had cowritten Blazing Saddles, and moved on to directing.  This was one of several successful films, though his career took a hit when he wrote and directed Striptease.

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*Not a very good title. Not only is is bland, but it competes with Harold Lloyd’s classic silent comedy.

**Parks also sings Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm,” as incongruous a pairing as ever put on film. 

Kindergarten Cop

(1990)
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Written by Murry Salem (story & screenplay), Herschel Weingrod (screenplay), Timothy Harris (screenplay)
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Penelope Ann Miller, Pamela Reed, Linda Hunt, Carroll Baker, Richard Tyson
IMDB Entry

Arnold Schwarzenegger made his name as an action-adventure hero.  But, when given the chance, he showed a fine talent for comedy.* One of his better comic  vehicles is Kindergarten Cop.

John Kimble (Arnold) is a cop looking for the estranged wife of a LA drug dealer (Richard Tyson). With his partner Phoebe O’Brien (Pamela Reed), he goes to Astoria, Oregon where O’Brien goes undercover as a substitute kindergarten teacher.  When she becomes sick, John is forced to substitute for her, though he quickly finds the five-year-olds are often more wild than the most hardened criminal. School principal Miss Schlowski (Linda Hunt) is skeptical of Kimble’s abilities.

The movie is not breaking new ground. Kimble finds the woman he’s looking for, and the big bad shows up and has to be dealt with. It depends on the acting to make  it fresh.

Arnold was never mistaken for an actor with a lot of range,** but he clearly understands his image, as well  as comedy in general. Many of the jokes play off his tough-guy image as he faced with dealing with children.

The supporting roles are well cast. Linda Hunt plays the no-nonsense boss with a soft interior as well as anyone in film and the kids are a delight. They act very naturally and the effect is charming.  Pamala Reed has been a favorite of mine since I spotted her in Eyewitness, but never seemed to get the breakthrough she deserved. She’s worked steadily, but here she disappears for most of the film.***

The movie was a success. This isn’t surprising. Director Ivan Reitman was the king of 80s comedies, including Ghostbusters, Meatballs, Stripes, Dave, and Junior and was still at the top of his game. Of course, Arnold continued to be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

It’s a charming film that’s still fun to watch.

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*It may be a part of his success as an action hero.

**Though his accent probably limits him.

***Oddly, her Wikipedia page lists this as the first role she is known for.

My Name is Julia Ross

(1945)
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Screenplay by Muriel Roy Bolton, from a novel by Anthony Gilbert
Starrring Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Varno, Anita Sharp-Bolster, Queenie Leonard
IMDB Entry

These days, the term “to gaslight” is commonly known – an attempt by a manipulative man to make a woman doubt her sanity. It stems from a successful British play Gaslight, which was made into a movie in 1940*  renamed in the US as Angel Street. Four years later came to best-known version, with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Its success led to other stories with a variation same theme, and one of the first was My Name is Julia Ross.

Julia Ross (Nina Foch) is desperately looking for a job and goes to a new employment agency, who immediately hires her to be secretary to Mrs. Hughes (Dame May Whitty). Julia wakes up two days latter in a house in Cornwall, not London, without any idea how she got there.  Ralph Hughes (George Macready) insists her name is Marion and that she is his wife, who had undergone a nervous breakdown and who is trying to recover. Julia can’t convince anyone of the truth; he only hope is to contact her boyfriend Dennis Bruce (Roland Varno) for help. But Mrs. Hughes stays one step ahead of her.

The movie is tightly written with some strong suspense at the end as you wonder what might happen. It’s a slight variation on gaslighting in that they don’t try to drive Julia insane, but merely try to convince others of her insanity, which makes them discount her sincere cries for help as paranoid delusions.

The most striking performance is Dame May Whitty** as Mrs. Hughes. She is sweet and caring and thoughtful on the surface, even while she is planning Julia’s death. Nina Foch is also quite good and Julia is shown to be resourceful and clever – just  not as clever as Mrs. Hughes.

The movie was unjustly obscure and deserves to be seen.

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*Released as Angel Street, and available online.

**Miss Froy from The Lady Vanishes.

The Adventures of Spin and Marty (TV)

(1955-57)
Directed by William Beaudine (et al.)
Written by Jackson Gillis based on a book by Lawrence Edward Watking
Starring David Stollery, Tim Considine, Harry Carey, Jr., J. Pat O’Malley
IMDB Entry

Middle class boys and girls in the 50s had one experience in common:  summer camp.* They would go off for a couple of months, a way to keep them busy without their mother organizing activities.The version in the western part of the US was a ranch, where the kids got to play cowboy for a summer. So when Disney looked around for something to fill the time in The Mickey Mouse Club,” they chose the dude ranch concept and came up with The Adventures of Spin  and Marty.”

Marty Markham (David Stollery) was a spoiled rich boy, raised by his grandparents, who decided a dude ranch would be just the thing. Marty didn’t agree, and had nothing but contempt for the camp and was even afraid of horses. The most popular boy in camp, Spin Evans (Tim Considine) goes to take Marty down a peg or two. Over the course of the season, Marty began to drop his airs and became close friends with Spin. Bill Burnett (Harry Carey, Jr.) looks over Marty’s progress, as does Marty’s butler, Perkins (J. Pat O’Malley).

The stories were all rather basic. Since it was aimed at kids, there were few serious complications, but it was one of the few of the era that actually showed character growth, and Marty lost his contempt and became a part of the ranch.

I'm also amused to see the name of William Beaudine listed as one of the directors. Beaudine gained notoriety due to his direction of low-budget horror films where he would shoot every scene once, no matter how badly it was done, though it seems that reputation was exaggerated. But he was known for shooting movies in a minimal amount of time, a practice that certainly was useful when doing a TV series.

It was a success and two more serials were commissioned. There was also a comic book series.

Tim Considine went on to be Mike of My Three Sons. Stollery had been successful as a child actor before the show, but could not make the jump to grownup star.  Harry Carey, Jr. had made many films before and after this, while J. Pat O’Malley was a very successful character actor, appearing in well over 200 films and TV shows.**

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*I went to three:  Pinecrest Dunes (called Camp Kiwanis for a special one-week session sponsored by the Kiwanis Clubs (a service organization like Lions or Rotary)), Camp Momaweta (as a commuter), and Camp Wawokiye (a full year). All were within 20 minutes of my house, so it wasn’t a question of being sent away to new places.

**His most influential role was in Mary Poppins. Though just an uncredited voice actor, Dick van Dyke used him as a voice coach for his cockney accent. The reason it is so ridiculous is that O’Malley – from the Manchester area and used to playing stage Irishmen – really had little idea about what a cockney accent sounded like.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

(1972)
Directed by Paul Newman
Written by Alvin Sargent, from a play by Paul Zindel
Starring Joanne Woodward, Nell Potts, Roberta Wallach, Judith Lowry
IMDB Entry

It’s a cliché that what actors really want is to direct. Paul Newman managed to get the chance,and made the most of it with films like Rachel, Rachel and the wonderfully titled The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.

It’s ostensibly the story of Matilda “Tillie” Hunsdorfer (Nell Potts), a shy middle school student with an interest in science, which gives her a refuge from her mercurial mother Beatrice (Joanne Woodward). Beatrice is filled with ideas, some sensible, some wildly fantastic,  but never can follow through with them, and often uses Tillie as the subject of her rage. Her other daughter Ruth (Roberta Wallach) is older and trying to form her own identity. The title of the movie* is the description of the experiment Tillie is preparing for the science fair: she exposes marigold seeds to gamma rays to see how they are affected.

The movie is a character study about how toxic Beatrice is her children, without her being aware of it throughout the movie. The title indirectly references this:  how her influence affect her kids.

Woodward is excellent in the role, managing to develop sympathy for a character that is hardly sympathetic.

Of note is Judith Lowry as Nanny, an old woman in a wheelchair that Beatrice takes in as way to make some money. Lowry was a stage actress who retired to raise her kids, but then returned to play old women. She is important to the plot but manages to give Nanny some personality.

The movie was a family affair. Woodward was married to Newman and had already won an Oscar.  Potts was their daughter, and Wallach was the daughter of Eli Wallach.

The movie was a success, with Woodward gaining a lot of notice. Wallach went on to a minor career in TV and movies and is still working today. But it looks like Potts decided not to pursue a movie career:  This was her last film.

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*From the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Paul Zindel.

Antz

(1998)
Directed by Eric Darnell, Tim Johnson
Written by Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
Starring Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman Sylvester Stallone, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Jane Curtin, Danny Glover, Christopher Walken
IMDB Entry

From time to time, two movies come out at the same time with the same general theme. In the early 60s, for instance, there were two biographies of Jean Harlow that came out within a month of each other. Sometimes this is coincidence, but when it is not, and things can get ugly. A prime example of this was Antz.

Z (voice of Woody Allen) is a worker ant who is dissatisfied with his insignificant life. He gets sent out to war by the scheming General Mandible (Gene Hackman), and returns as an inadvertent hero who goes to meet the queen (Anne Bancroft). He also falls for Princess Bala (Sharon Stone) and he has to run from the colony, taking her along as a hostage. Z is looking for Insectopia, a heaven for insects, but General Mandible, seeing Z’s independent thought a threat to his scheme to take over the colony, goes hunting.

The movie does cover some grown-up themes as to the dangers of blindly following a leader, and the importance of individualism. Allen is fine as Z (written for his usual screen persona).*  Hackman makes a great meglomaniac and Stone does a good job voicing Bala.

The main controversy at the time was that Antz was produced by Dreamworks. Jeffrey Katzenbach had been with Disney, and knew that Pixar was also planning an animated film with insects that eventually became A Bug’s Life. John Lasseter of Pixar was appalled that Dreamworks was doing the film, and insisted Katzenbach had stolen the idea, something Katzenbach furiously denied.  The bad blood lasted for years.

I tend to think Antz is the superior film. It was more adult in conception and more edgy**.  A Bug’s Life was more kid-friendly and soft. It’s  not a bad movie (but not one of Pixar’s best), but is less ambitious. Antz*** also uses ant biology in its conception – its ants have six legs.

Ultimately, A Bug’s Life, with the Disney marketing machine and the Pixar name, did far better in the box office. It also helped that it was something kids could enjoy.  Plus Disney can market the DVDs far better.

But Antz is still a fine piece of animation.
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*According to the producers, he came in, knew his lines cold, and recorded it all in five days.

**I note that the images on the DVD soften the characters and make it seem more like  a kids’ movie.

***Like all the best ant movies – Them!, Phase IV.

She Devil

(1957)
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Written by Carroll Young and Kurt Newman (screenplay) based on “The Adaptive Ultimate” by John Jessel (Stanley G. Weinbaum)
Starring Mari Blanchard, Jack Kelly, Albert Dekker, John Archer, Fay Baker, Blossom Rock.
IMDB Entry

50s science fiction has the reputation of being monsters attacking. That’s generally true, but from time to time a movie was made with a different focus.  She-Devil doesn’t fit that model as all.

Dr. Dan Scott (Jack Kelly) is working to develop a project that could curse any disease. The only thing he needs is a human subject, but his mentor, Dr. Richard Bach (Albert Dekker) blocks the idea as too dangerous. But Kyra Zelas (Mari Blanchard), a young woman dying of tuberculosis, seems a perfect subject and Scott manages to browbeat Bach into trying.

The cure is miraculous. Within a day or so, the TB is gone, and Kyra is able to get out of bed.  Scott and Bach have her stay at their house so they can observe.And they discover that Kyra can do anything in order to adapt:  change her hair color, manipulate people, and seduce them* as necessary.  Dr. Bach wants to put an end to this, but Dan has already been seduced by her and is very reluctant to act. It becomes a moot point as Kyra quickly adapts to thwart their plans. Soon she is nearly invulnerable, so she leaves the house to find more wealthy prey.

The movie is adapted from the story “The Adaptive Ultimate” by Stanley G. Weinbaum.** I’ve talked about Weinbaum before, but, in brief, he wrote one of the most influential  stories in the entire science fiction genre, “A Martian Odyssey.” The movie stays pretty close to the book. It’s also different from most 50s SF in that there is no actual monster. Kyra is manipulative and cruel, but still human in appearance. The grand climax has next to no action, but the point of the movie is the concept and the puzzle of how to stop her.

Jack Kelly became a TV star a few years later as he portrayed Bart Maverick when James Garner had a contract dispute. Here he is a typical 50s leading man – smart and resolute. Albert Dekker was a minor SF icon as the title character of Dr. Cyclops, though you’d be hard pressed to recognize him, since he hasn’t shaved his head and doesn’t wear Coke bottle glasses. He is the scientist who keeps urging Dan to do the right thing. Dekker had a long career in both movies and TV.

Mari Blanchard was busy as an actress, almost always in small roles. He work here shows a lot of range, moving from a woman scared of dying to being a heartless manipulator. She had made quite a few B movies in the 50s, but retired in 1963*** after being diagnosed with cancer. She died in 1970 at age 47.

Of course, those reading the cast list should immediately recognize Blossom Rock. She looks quite different than Grandmama in The Addams Family, but once she speaks, she’s instantly recognizable.

The movie was overlooked. It was rare to see it in discussions of 50s SF.**** I suppose it was because it didn’t fit in the mold for the genre – no action scenes, no giant monsters. It certainly wasn’t successful enough to cause a buzz for a sequel. I found it quite good, if talky.

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*Chastely, of course.  These are the 50s.

**The story was published under his Jessel pseudonym.

***Except for a few small guest starring roles.

****I remember one reviewer (possibly Baird Searles of F&SF) who had no idea it had anything to do with Weinbaum until he saw it and recognized the plot (probably because he didn’t know who Jessel really was).

King Leonardo and His Short Subjects

1960-63
Starring Jackson Beck, Allen Swift, Sandy Becker, Kenny Delmar, Ben Stone
IMDB Entry

Saturday morning TV in the 60s was for kids, keeping them busy as their parents slept in. There was a big market for kids cartoons of the era,  and one producer was Total Television, whose biggest success was King Leonardo and His Short Subjects.

King Leonardo (Jackson Beck*) ruled over the kingdom of Bongo Congo, aided by his loyal assistant Odie Cologne,** a skunk (Alan Swift). Leonardo was slightly dimwitted and Odie often had to bail him out from plots by Biggie Rat (Beck), who plotted to get Leonardo’s even more dimwitted twin, Itchy Brother (Swift).

The stories, like the classic Rocky and Bullwinkle, were in serial form, with Odie always saving the day for the king. Nothing was particularly subtle, but it certainly entertained.

There were two other cartoons making up the show.*

• Tooter Turtle. Tooter (Swift) was friends with Mr. Wizard**** the Lizard (Sandy Becker). Tooter would get enthused about something and ask Mr. Wizard to send him to do it, despite Mr. Wizard trying to warn him against it. Tooter would soon learn that the job or location wasn’t exactly what he thought it would be, and would cry out his catchphrase “Help me, Mr. Wizard.” Mr. Wizard would say the incantation, “Drizzle Drazzle, Druzzle, Drone, time for this one to come home” and Tooter would learn his lesion.
• The Hunter. This one was my favorite. The Fox (Ben Stone) was a wily crook who committed bizarre and improbable crimes. Once he was done, the local police would say, “This is the work of the Fox. And the one man to catch the Fox is the Hunter (Kenny Delmar).”*****  The Hunter was completely clueless, but his blundering always ended up with the Fox going to jail.

The show ran for several years, the name changing to The King and Odie, and, when it was cancelled, Total Television (now dubbed Leonardo Productions) used the characters (and the episodes) in some of their other shows like Tennessee Tuxedo and Underdog).

The show was ignored for decades, along with several other of Total Television. It took awhile to get any DVDs out and they were often published with Rocky and Bullwinkle, which had a similar look, but a much different sensibility.

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*One of the great voice actors, most notable as the announcer of the Superman Radio show (including the iconic opening lines) and as Bluto in many Popeye cartoons.

**I got the pun when I first saw the show.

***Typical of the era, where there were three main cartoons (plus bumpers) to fill a half hour.

****No connection to Don Herbert.

*****The voice Mel Blanc imitates when he voices Foghorn Leghorn.

Star Hunters (comic book)

1977-78
Written by David Michelinie
Art by Don Newton, Don Newton, Bob Layton

Comic books are an iffy medium and there were many times where a comic died early due to lack of interest. One interesting failure was DC’s Star Hunters.

It was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Star Wars.  Marvel had gotten the rights to the Star Wars characters, so DC created their own. The Star Hunters were a group of space adventurers* who were sent off on a mission by the Corporation to find the origins of human life. Their leader was Donovan Flint,** who tried to complete the mission.  He has no choice:  they’ve all be infected with a virus that will kill them if they ever set foot on Earth again.

The seven issues saw the crew finding out new things about the universe, each other, and the Corporation.

I picked up the first issue because of my love of science fiction and the idea of a space opera series that presented something a bit different and I had liked Michelinie’s continuation of Swamp Thing, which managed to pick up the story and take it in new directions. But this story never actually caught fire.

What I do remember best from it was the cover of the fourth issue.  In issue 3, some danger overtook Fint. And the cover of issue 4 says, “What happens when a hero dies?”

Well, the first rule of advertising is to never lead with a question and my thought at once was “He comes back to life again.’

Still, I think the comic was an interesting attempt at comic book space opera, even though it was ultimately unsuccessful. The title folded after seven issues. The characters have made very sporadic appearances, but lay in the forgotten corner of comic book history. Maybe one day someone will try to bring them back.

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*Akin to the crew of the Liberator in Blake’s 7

*Clearly with a nod toward Errol Flynn

Still Game (TV)

(2002-2019)
Created and Written by Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill
Starring Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill, Paul Riley, Mark Cox, Jane McCarry, Sanjeev Kohli, Gavin Mitchell
IMDB Entry

TV (and especially US TV) is youth oriented, showing featuring characters under 40. But sometimes you come across a show that focuses on older characters, and Still Game is both charming and very funny.

It follows the life of Jack Jarvis (Ford Kiernan) and Victor McDade (Greg Hemphill), two old-age pensioners in Scotland. The two have been friends since they were boys and retirement is not very fulfilling for them – spending days at the local pub, and having to fend off the lack of respect from the younger generation. Jack and Victor try to liven it up with schemes and plans, both on their own and with other friends, including Winston Ingram (Paul Riley) who is more of a schemer than the two of them (and more inept), the gossipy Isa Drennan (Jane McCarry), and a pack of recurring characters from the bar, all overseen by the put upon barman Boabby (Gavin Mitchell). Navid Harrid (Sanjeev Kohli), the owner of the local convenience story often comments on their attempts.

The show is filled with laugh-out-loud moments. Despite their liking for bending the rules for their advantage, Jack and Victor avoid cruelty unless the victim deserves it. All the character are more than just comic stereotypes, too. There is a genuine affection for everyone, and the show is not afraid to show a person’s vulnerable side. 

Still Game came out of a stage play Kiernan and Hemphill, which was quite successful in Scotland, with the characters reused as a series of skits in a couple of BBC Scotland sketch chows. It became a series on its own, starting in Scotland before moving to the main BBC. It continued sporadically over the years as new one-offs and seasons were produced.

The show doesn’t hide its Scottish roots. The accents are strong,*  but I think that adds a lot to the show. Another thing is the look of the characters. American TV tries to put attractive people in all roles, even ones where the character would not be that good looking in real life. UK shows have no problem casting characters with unusual, but lived-in looks.**  I also love the jaunty theme song.

It’s currently on Netflix. Check it out.***

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*I’m afraid I have to use subtitles to get it all.  Sigh. What a drag is is getting old.

**French shows take it even further, with memorable faces that are hardly movie-star looks.

***And don’t skip the credits.  The post credit sequences are hilarious.

The Funny Company (TV)

(1963)
Created by Kenneth C.T. Snyder
Voices by  Dick Beals,Robie Lster, Nancy Wible,Ken Snyder, Tom Thomas, Hal Smith
IMDB Entry

When people talk about Saturday morning cartoons, they’re usually referring to the theatrical cartoons that were repurposed for TV (Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Popeye) or half-hour made-for-TV shows (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Magilla Gorilla, Tennessee Tuxedo). But that was only a part of it. There were various short syndicated cartoons that were sold to local kid shows as filler. One example of this was The Funny Company.

The cartoon showed a group of kids as the Funny Company, which included Buzzy Bell, Jasper N Parks, Polly Plum, Terry Dactyl (a pterodactyl), Shrinking Violet* (who could shrink down to tiny size). and several others. Each episode had them doing some sort of task, where they crossed paths with Belly Laguna.** Laguna planned some sort of nefarious task, which failed due to the efforts of the Funny Company.

Most memorable was the show’s  theme song

The show came out at a time when television was being criticized for its lack of educational content, so,as a selling point, it stopped the story (what little there was) to show a two-minute educations film, usually with the help of their computer, the Wisenheimer machine.

Over 250 episodes were filmed, filling time not only on Saturday morning, but during the week.

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*No relation to the member of the Legion of Superheroes, who came first. It wasn’t likely a case of plagiarism; both got their names from the flower.

**A Bela Lugosi ripoff.

The Goofers (music)

(1951-1963)
Members: Frank Nichols (Trumpet), Jimmy Vincent (drums), Jimmy Dell (trombone, bass), \Tom Terry Fresh (bass), Jack Holliday (piano)
Tribute page

Lately I’ve been watching reruns of The Ed Sullivan Show. It’s fascinating to see the big-name acts that appeared on the show, plus the acts I remember but who are less well known today. And sometimes, they feature an act I’ve never heard of. Most of these are acrobats.  The Goofers were both.

The band split off from Louis Prima’s band, five musicians who wanted to follow their own path. They included dancing in their act – not too strange, of course, though the Goofers were more acrobatic than most dancers. But Jimmy Dell had something else to offer:  the ability to perform on a trapeze. While playing. Dell would do a few tricks then hung by his feet.  Someone else handed him a double bass, where which he proceeded to perform a solo on while hanging upside down.  After a break, he’d do another solo upside down on a trombone.

Here’s an example:

The group didn’t have any notable hits – not surprising, since they were such a visual act – but played in Vegas throughout the 50s. Their songs were pleasant and jaunty and they no doubt were a big crowd pleaser.

The broke up in the early 60s, I suspect mostly because it was hard to expand the act, but also because audiences were moving on from the jazz/big band sound.

It

(1927)
Directed by Clarence G. Badger
Written by Hope Loring, Louis D. Lighton (screenplay) Elinor Glyn (story and adaptation)
Starring Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, William Austin, Priscilla Bonner, Elinor Glyn
IMDB Entry
Full Movie on Youtube

The title is familiar, but this isn’t the Stephen King novel (and spinoffs). Nor is it the classic story by Theodore Sturgeon. It was a silent movie far removed in theme, and one of the sensations of its era.

Betty Lou Spence (Clara Bow) is a shop girl in a big department store, who takes a shine to the store’s owner Cyrus Waltham (Antonio Moreno). Cyrus’s silly-ass friend Monty spots Betty Lou and declares she has “It,” a combination of charm and sex appeal, a concept he found in a story by Elinor Glyn in Cosmopolitgan magazine. He asks her out, and she agrees, as a way to get closer to Cyrus. They meet and start seeing each other with a trip to Coney Island.

But there’s a problem. Betty Lou’s roommate, Molly (Priscilla Bonner) is an unwed mother, out of a job. When social workers try to take the baby away, Betty Lou claims the baby is hers, and won’t name the father. This creates complications of class and social norms with Cyrus.

The movie made Clara Bow a sensation.  She had been acting and starring in films throughout the decade, but this was the one that put her on the map. She is charming and clearly personifies the concept of “It.”* She was known as the “It girl” from then on.

The movie was a massive success, as expected for something that creates a new term. Bow became a top box office draw. But her transition to talkies was difficult. Nothing was wrong with her voice, but she didn’t like the restrictions on movement it required and had some trouble to adjusting. Her only major talkie was the Oscar-winning Wings and she retired from acting in 1933.

Oddly for a film that was so successful, it was thought for many years to be lost, but a print showed up in the 1960s and it can be seen on Youtube.

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*Elinor Glyn, who appeared in the movie as herself, never conclusively defined what she meant by it, In the original story, it was a man who had “It,” but Hollywood decided it was better to cast a woman. Glyn was happy to adapt the storyy.

Wicked Woman

(1953)
Directed by Russell Rouse
Written by Clarence Greene and Richard Rouse
Starring Beverly Michaels, Richard Egan, Percy Helton, Evelyn Scott
IMDB Entry

Film Noir is often difficult to define, but a common element involves a woman who entices a man into crime. Wicked Woman is clear in that milieu, as the title indicates.

Billie Nash (Beverly Michaels) shows up in a small town and gets a job as a waitress in a café run by Matt Bannister (Richard Egan) and his wife Dora (Evelyn Scott). Billie makes a play for Matt, who is frustrated at the way his marriage is going, especially since Dora has a drinking problem. She convinces him to sell the place and run off with her to Mexico, but there is a problem, of course:  Dora owns half the café and certainly would not agree to sell, especially under these circumstances. Meanwhile, Billie keeps stringing along her neighbor Charlie (Percy Helton), using him when useful and ignoring his obvious desire for her.

Beverly Michaels portrays Billie as a schemer who has no compunction about manipulating men.  She senses weakness in Matt and draws him into her influence. At the same time, she is willing to be charming to Charlie, a lonely and unattractive man, so he’ll help her out. Eventually, he learns he’s being used.

Michaels had a relatively short career in B movies and as a cheesecake model. She married this film’s director, but had few credits, despite the strength of the performance here.

Percy Helton is especially good. There is a pathos to him, as he doesn’t understand he’s being used.  The actor did a lot of TV in the 50s and 60s, as a short, dumpy man with a squeaky voice.  This was purportedly his favorite role.

The odd thing is that the movie doesn’t have the courage of its convictions. Film noir usually ends up with the man and the woman he obsesses over destroyed. There may have been censorship problems – Matt is married and wants to leave his wife, something that the Hays Office would not countenance.  It probably was what they wanted to do, but rewrote it so that he and his marriage survive – barely.

Overall, though, it's an interesting foray into the genre.

The Wrong Box

(1966)
Directed by Bryan Forbes
Written by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, from a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne
Starring John Mills, Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman, Peter Sellers
IMDB Entry

Robert Louis Stevenson is most widely known these days for dark stories like “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “The Monkee’s Paw,” but he did have a lighter side. In 1889, he co-wrote "The Wrong Box” with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne and the farcical novel was turned into a black comedy film in 1966.

The movie is centered on a tontine.* There are only two  people left  from the original group, brothers Masternan (John Mills) and Joseph Finsbury (Ralph Richardson). Masterman’s grandson Michael (Michael Caine) takes care of him while studying to be a physician, while Joseph is attended by his conniving grandsons Morris (Peter Cook) and John Finsbury (Dudley Moore) and his granddaughter Julia (Nanette Newman).

There is a lot of money at stake, and that brings out the greed in several of the participants. Masterman tries to kill his brother, though Joseph is oblivious. At the same time Morris and John want to make sure that Joseph is the one who survives to get the money. The kindly and awkward Michael doesn’t care about the money, but is infatuated with Julia, who reciprocates his feelings.** When a letter comes to Joseph implying Masterman is on his deathbed, Morris pushes Joseph to go to his brother so they take  the train. Which crashes. Morris thinks that Joseph is dead and concocts a plan to ensure the news doesn’t get out until Masterman is dead. But Joseph has actually survived the crash.

Then it gets complicated.

Ralph Richardson is great at Joseph, the most boring man on the planet, who regales everyone nonstop with trivial facts and is oblivious to people’s reactions to him. Caine’s Michael is played as a pure innocent, slowly romancing Julia without and idea of how to approach it. Mills’s Masterman is the more desperate of the brothers.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are always delightful. Moore is a womanizer, while Cook is the schemer, whose schemes never work out well for him.  By now, they had experience working together and make the most of it.

Special kudos have to go to Peter Sellers as Dr. Pratt, a physician of dubious morals and forgetful manner. The scenes with him and Cook are a highlight,as two comic geniuses play off each other.

The script was written by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, who had hit it big with the book of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum on Broadway. Their adaptation of the novel quite faithful to the book, though they added the romance elements, but clearly made fun of the convention when it comes out that Julia and Michael aren’t really cousins, after all.

Director Bryan Forbes continued directing major films for a few more years and was also involved in writing screenplays and acting.

A very funny adaptation of a very funny novel.

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*A financial instrument where a group of people put money into a pot and get interest from it each year. As each of the member dies, the interest is divided up by one fewer person until the last person alive gets the entire pot.

**Turns out they were both adopted, so they aren’t actually cousins.

tom thumb

(1958)
Directed by George Pal
Written by Lasdislas Fodor, based on a story by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm*
Starring Russ Tamblyn, Alan Young, June Thorburn, Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Bernard Miles, Jesse Mathews
IMDB Entry

George Pal was one of the big names in science fiction in the 1950s. He produced and directed a series of big-budget films like The Great Rupert, Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, and The War of the Worlds. In 1958, he decided to start directing and chose the fairy tale, tom thumb.

The lumberjack Jonathan (Bernard Miles) lives in the forest with his wife, Anne (Jessie Matthews). One day, he meets up with the Forest Queen (June Thorburn) who grants him wishes. The final wish is by Anne – who is childless – asking for a child, “even if he’s no bigger than my thumb.” And the next morning tom (Russ Temblyn) appears.

tom has several adventures and gets mixed up with two crooks, Anthony (Peter Sellers) and Ivan (Terry-Thomas). Meanwhile, tom’s friend Woody (Alan Young) romances the Forest Queen.

The movie does utilize some good effects to emphasize tom’s size, winning an Oscar for Best Special Effects. The movie also has songs, but nothing that really became memorable.

Russ Tamblyn is great as tom. He was an excellent acrobat, which allows him to do some impressive physical stunts. He also is peppy and upbeat in just the right degree to make the movie fun.

Peter Sellers had done some TV and UK movies, but this was his first US film. Terry-Thomas became a fixture in films for  years, usually playing a sill-ass Englishman.Of course, Alan Young is familiar as Wilbur Post in Mr. Ed, though before that he was well regarded as an up-and-coming Canadian comic actor.

Jessie Mathews is not well known these days, but she was a major stage star in the 20s and 30s in the UK. Her producers refused to let her film in the US and her career hit the doldrums after World War II as her character – usually a wealthy woman – did not fit into the times.  The movie was an attempt at a comeback as more serious actress.

The movie was  a major success, so big that MGM allowed Pal to chose his next project, which turned out to be The Time Machine.

I thought about this film recently when there was an Internet meme about naming the first movie you saw in a theater. My imperfect memory came up with Sleeping Beauty, but when I was searching around, I discovered tom thumb came out a year earlier.

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*The Grimm brothers didn’t write any of the stories in their books (and never claimed to). They merely collected existing folklore. Jacob Grimm also developed Grimm’s law of phonological change, an important principle in etymology.

**Another film I remembered from about that time – though I only saw the ads for it – was Plan 9 From Outer Space, mostly because I knew who Bela Lagosi was – and that he was dead – and thought that this was his last film.

The Amazing Mr. Williams

(1939)

Directed by Alexander Hill
Written by Dwight Taylor, Sy Bartlett, Richard Malbaum
Starring Melvyn Douglas, Joan Blondell, Clarence Kolb, Ruth Donnelly, Edward Brophy, Donald MacBride, Don Beddoe
IMDB Entry

Sometimes an actor sticks in your memory and you don’t see him again (or even know they name) for a long time. For me, one of them was Clarence Kolb, the gravel-voiced Mr. Honeywell of My Little Margie. His lanky figure and deep, rough voice stayed with me for years until I saw him again in His Girl Friday. And when I heard about The Amazing Mr. Williams, I wanted to check him out. What I discovered was a badly overlooked movie, a combination of romantic comedy and serious detective film.

Kenny Williams (Melvyn Douglas) is the city’s best detective, solving crimes no one else can figure out. He’s engaged to Maxine Carroll (Joan Blondell), who is frustrated that he constantly have to break dates with her  because his boss, Captain McGovern (Clarence Kolb) needs him to solve a murder.

Williams honestly tries to make time for Maxine, but something always comes up. At one point,McGovern asks him to take a criminal Buck Moseby (Edward Brophy) to the upstate prison. The trip would require him to break  another date, so he introduces Moseby as an old friend and they go out on a double date with Maxine’s roommate Effie (Ruth Donnelly). Of course,complications ensue.

The movie strikes a clever balance between the two elements, switching from romance to detective. Williams clearly shows his value as a detective, coming on the scene and finding things that the other cops have missed.

Melvyn Douglas is efficient in the role and shows a character who is married to his work, even though he loves his fiancée. Joan Blondell is excellent as Maxine, and effortless pulls off the twist at the end. Kolb is always fun to watch, as was Edward Brophy, a busy character actor who played slightly dumb criminals.

Alexander Hill was a busy director in the 30s, but few of his movies were all that memorable. The best known seems to be My Sister Eileen,” which formed the basis for Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Town” but the movie was just an adaptation of a Broadway play.

Overall, The Amazing Mr. Williams is a light romantic comedy that holds up fairly well.

Six Hours to Live

(1932)
Directed by William Dieterle
Written by Morton Barteaux and Gorgon Morris(original story), Bradley King (screenplay)
Starring Warner Baxter, Miriam Jordan, John Boles, George F. Marion, Halliwell Hobbes, Irene Ware, Beryl Mercer
IMDB Entry
Full Movie on Youtube

Hollywood was slow to embrace science fiction. Outside of Frankenstein and SF horror, it didn’t really crop up until the 1950, and didn’t become respectable until 20 years later. I was delighted to find a pre-code example when I heard about Six Hours to Live.*

Captain Paul Onslow (Warner Baxter) is representing his county at a treaty conference, where he is the only opposition. His position leads to death threats and when he is returning back to the place he is staying with Baroness Valerie von Sturm (Miriam Jordon), someone takes a shot at him. It misses, but it leads Valerie to fall in love with him, much to the consternation of Karl Kranz (John Boles), her long time friend who loves her. Meanwhile Professor Otto Bauer (George F. Marion) visits the home of Valerie’s father, Baron von Sturm (Halliwell Hobbes) with an exciting new device that can bring the dead back to life – but only for six hours. And when Onslow is strangled, they want to bring him back to catch his murderer.

The idea is a great one, and could have been made into a taut thriller like D.O.A. Unfortunately, they went in a more philosophical direction. I suppose there isn’t much suspense possible with Onslow knowing his murderer from the start, but the story does drag a bit. Still there some good moments, most notably when Onslow gives his money to a prostitute (Irene Ware) in order to give her a new start.**

Warner Baxter was a big star at the time, having just won the first Oscar for Best Actor, and ended up with a long career, most notably as the lead in 42nd Street the same year. Most of the rest of the cast had far shorter careers.

Director William Dieterle was also quite successful, usually with biographies and period dramas. He also did the Max Reinhardt version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1935.

It’s hard to determine the success of the film. Despite the presence of Baxter and some good reviews (The New York Times spoke highly of it), it seemed to have just faded away.

It’s an interesting example of an early SF trope and certainly deserves rediscovery.

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*A terrific title.

**This being pre-Code, they are quite upfront about her occupation. In fact, Ware is billed as “The Prostitute” in the credits. the Times, however, listed the character as “The Woman” in their review.

A Trip to Mars (Himmelskibet)

(1918)
Directed by Holger-Madsen
Written by Ole Olsen from a novel by Sophus Michaelis
Starring Gunnar Tolnæs, Zanny Petersen, Nichola Neiiendam, Alf Blutücher, Svend Kornbeck, Lily Jacobson, Philip Bech, Frederik Jacobsen
IMDB Entry
View entire film on Youtube

People tend to forget how international the silent film industry was. Hollywood was king, but many other countries had film industries and it was relatively easy to translate films so they could be seen in different languages. A Trip to Mars was an example from the Danish film industry, and is a landmark film in many respects.

Avanti Plantearos (Gunnar Tolnæs) decides to make his mission to travel to Mars. Aided by his father (Nicolai Neiiendam) and sister Corona (Zanny Petersen), he spends two years developing the space ship Excelsior, his work scoffed at by Professor Dubius,* who has tried and failed. Nevertheless, Avanti gathers a crew, including his friend Dr. Kraft (Alfe Blütecher) and the American David Dane (Svend Kornbeck). They journey takes months, and after surviving a mutiny, they land on Mars, an advanced civilization of vegetarians who have eliminated all conflict. Trouble ensues, and Avanti is aided by Marya (Lilly Jacobson), daugther of the Mars’s leader (Philip Bech).

The movie it notable in being the first feature science fiction film. Though there were short subjects earlier (e.g., Méliès, A Trip to the Moon), feature films were rare, and science fiction was not considered a good subject. Many of the elements soon became clichés, but weren’t tired in 1918.**

The movie consists of a a series of episodes.*** The mutiny story is quite good for the time, as is the lightning storm and Avanti’s trial.

The film is also a spirited plea for pacifism. Since it was shot while World War I was raging, that’s understandable (Denmark was neutral in the war). There was also a religious theme that seems a bit heavy-handed.

Director Holger-Madsen was an actor and director and continued to direct in Denmark into the 1930s. Of course, once sound came in, markets constricted and Denmark was at an especial disadvantage because the Danish-speaking market was small. Subtitling a movie was far more expensive than reshooting the intertitles, and there was always the problem of not losing them against the background. Danish film suffered and they struggled. The next science fiction film out of Denmark was Reptilicus In 1961.

Overall, though the film is a fascinating look at early cinema, and the effects are pretty good for the time.

Note: The movie is one of many that are available from the Danish Silent Film Website. It’s worth a look if you are interested in silents, and the prints are beautiful

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*The pun might be unintentional (the Danish word for “dubious” is “tvivlsom”) but appropriate. Given the other punny names, though (“Avanti” is Italian for “Forward,” for example) they might have actually meant it, or possibly the name was added by a playful translator.

**I don’t know how popular the film was in the US, but it’s unlikely to have influenced Hollywood films. The Excelsior resembles the spaceships in the Flash Gordon serials, but I doubt it was an influence.

***It’s listed as being “in Six Parts,” but I don’t know if it was shown that way or as one film.

The Horn Blows at Midnight (TV)

(1953)
Directed by Ralph Levy
Written by Leo Davis, Leonard Gerhse, Howard Snyder, Hugh Wedlock, Jr
Starring Jack Benny, Dorothy Malone, Lester Matthews, Harry Shearer
IMDB Entry

As you remember from last time, Jack Benny got a lot of comic mileage from the flop of The Horn Blows at Midnight. But he didn’t seem to actually dislike the movie and In 1949, he starred in a radio version. Then, four years later, it appeared on TV on the show Omnibus.

Omnibus was the type of highbrow show that ran in the early years of television, hosted by Alistair Cook, featured programming about the arts, music, and original plays. The Horn Blows at Midnight was an attempt to produce something a little less highbrow and used Jack Benny’s name to get people to watch.

There is one big difference in the setup of the show. The story is not a dream, probably the biggest misstep in the movie. This time Anthaniel (Benny) is an angel to begin with, send down to Earth to blow the trumpet that will end the world.

Athaniel is given the horn
that will destroy the world

Benny was in his element on the small screen. It helped that a couple of the writers had worked with him on radio, with Howard Snyder making a career of it. The jokes were changed to play up Benny’s TV/radio mannerisms – his vanity and his cheapness. It’s far more gentle. It the original, Benny wakes up just as he’s about the destroy the world; in this, he starts to think that the world doesn’t have to be destroyed from the beginning.

Alexis Smith is replaced by Dorothy Malone, who was just becoming well known and ended up with an Oscar in 1957. The Chief was now Lester Matthews, who became a very busy TV actor.

Much like the original movie, a child actor became a mildly big name when he grew up. Harry Shearer (as Tom) appeared on the final season of the original SNL and was Derek Smalls in This is Spinal Tap. He also did a lot of voice work, including on The Simpsons.

The show probably was seen by a bigger audience than the original, but that isn’t had to manage. Omnibus was not about ratings. It was sponsored by the Ford Foundation as a way to raise the tone of TV programming and ran Sunday afternoons, a dead time before sports took over. At the time The Horn Blows at Midnight was run, CBS (which aired Omnibus) didn’t even have the rights to the NFL games. They kept in on the air despite weak ratings because of the prestige and the multiple Emmys it won.  It switched to NBC for its last few seasons, with episodes also airing for one year on ABC, making it one of the few shows on three networks.

The TV version is certainly not a classic, but there are plenty of good moments it in, and it was more of a success than the movie.

The Horn Blows at Midnight

(1945)
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Sam Hellman & Jerome V. Kern (screenplay) based on an idea by Aubrey Wisberg
Starring Jack Benny, Alexis Smith, Allyn Joslyn, Guy Kibbee, Franklin Pangborn, Margeret Dumont, Robert Blake
IMDB Entry

Some movies get a bad reputation despite the fact they aren’t all that bad.* It’s even worse when their star turns it all into a joke. Jack Benny often got laughs by referring to his movie The Horn Blows at Midnight and most would think of it as a total misfire. But Benny often joked about things that just were not true** and he saw the references to the movie as a potential for laughs and kept at it. What was on the screen may have flopped, but there’s nothing wrong with it.

Athanael (Jack Benny) is third trumpet in a radio band, but never gets the opportunity to play the highbrow music he wants to play, despite the encouragement of his girlfriend Elizabeth (Alexis Smith). During a commercial, he falls asleep and dreams he’s been delegated by the Chief (Guy Kibbee) to play the trumpet at midnight to destroy the Earth, which has been a disappointment. So Athanael is sent to Earth to fulfill his mission.

The movie is gently humorous throughout. Benny basically just plays himself, though without the usual running jokes that he was famous for. Alexis Smith is good as his love interest.*** The film is pretty much par for the course for comedies of that day.  

The film is filled with the great character actors of the time and even has a small role for Robert Blake, who became a star many years later in Baretta.****

Director Raoul Walsh was a Hollywood veteran with many successes, but primarily with action movies like The Roaring Twenties and High Sierra, He also did comedies, but this was his first attempt at fantasy/comedy. He continued with great films like White Heat.

So why the bad reputation? Certainly Benny had everything to do with it. He often joked about how terrible it was and it certainly was a major flop. I can see several reasons for that. First of all, President Roosevelt died only a week before it premiered, so people were not in the mood for a comedy. In addition, people probably didn’t want to go to a movie about the end of the world while World War II was still raging. And it’s tricky to root for Athaneal trying to kill everyone on Earth. Finally, any story that shows it’s happening in a dream is going to end with the dreamer waking up, removing any stakes from the story.*****

The studio clearly saw the problems with the set up: their trailer makes no mention of any of the plot and plays up the idea of Jack Benny as a romantic lead (Jack Benny?). I understand why they didn’t talk about the story, but the quickest way to turn off an audience is by false advertising.

So the movie was a notorious flop, made more notorious by it becoming a punchline in Benny’s show. Still,it’s a decent 40s supernatural comedy.

But Benny didn’t hate it all that much: he did a radio version a few years later, and redid it for television for Omnibus in 1953. I’ll talk about that version next week.

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*Ishtar, for example.

**I can’t think of any comedian who was so self-effacing, always ready to make himself the butt of a joke. He made a career of playing up his miserliness, but in real life he was a generous man

***Benny resisted her casting, not because he had any objection to her acting or personality, but because he was old enough to be her father.

****Blake actually started out with Our Gang comedies, using the name Mickey Gubitosi. He had a small role in the classic The Treasure of Sierra Madre" as the boy who sells Bogart the lottery ticket.

*****This may have been a way to soften the concept for audiences, but it was a poor one.

The Propaganda Game

(1966 – )
Created by Robert W. Allen and Lorne Greene
Website

Educational games are certainly heavy on the education, but often light on the the game. The Propaganda Game is an example of that, but in this case the education end is something people should pay attention to.

The concept seems to have been developed by Lorne Greene. While not shooting Bonanza,* he considered what went into making a person a clear thinker. He joined up with Robert W. Allen, who had had success with the logic game WFF ‘N Proof, and they created a game to teach the various logical and rhetorical tricks that tricked people in arguments. The final result consisted of six categories (Self-deception, Language, Irrelevance, Exploitation, Form, and Maneuvers) that consisted of 8-10 different types of propaganda techniques. Game play consisted of looking at cards and trying to see which of the techniques was being used.

The actual game was packaged in a small red plastic box**, Inside was the instruction book, some game cards, tokens, and other gear.

I had the game when it came out. It wasn’t much fun to play, but I reread the instruction book over and over to identify techniques. Even now, I use some of the titles instead of the more common ones.***

A list of the techniques can be found on the game’s website.

The game was not exactly a popular smash, but it sold enough, usually to schools. It looks like it’s still available today for teachers as an online teaching tool. I doubt anyone ever put it on their list of favorite games, but the ideas involved should be essential for everyone.

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*Battlestar Galactica came several years later.

**Which, for some reason, fascinated me as a child.

***”Victory by Definition” nowadays is usually called “One True Scotsman,: though there are subtle differences between the two.

Red White and Maddox (play)

(1969)
Written and directed by Don Tucker (book, music, lyrics) Don Tucker (book)
Starring Jay Garner,
IBDB Entry

George S. Kaufman once said, “Satire is what closes Saturday night”; in other words it didn’t last beyond the first weekend. And satire, even at its best, only has a short shelf life. It might be fine in the moment, but six months later it is forgotten.* Still, in the right moment, it can be powerful. An example of this was the Broadway show Red, White, and Maddox.

Let me explain about Lester Maddox. He was a pure segregationist who refused to let Blacks eat at his restaurant, even driving them off with axe handles. Once the Civil Rights Act was passed, he shut down his restaurant and ran for governor, winning the office in 1966. He was not quite as bad as his reputation – he integrated the Georgia State Patrol, hired more Blacks to government positions than any previous governor, and did more to foster integration in the state – but his rhetoric and his public comments did not reflect any of that, and he continued to talk segregation for his four-year term.

The play was written to reflect that. Maddox (Jay Garner) is a vicious attack on him for his segregationist and pro-Vietnam rhetoric. Maddox is eventually elected president in 1972, all  while being ridiculed viciously by the play, in dialog and in song. It was a success in Atlanta before moving to Broadway, probably after the success of Macbird!, a satire about Lyndon Johnson and mashup with Macbeth.

It’s Garner’s show. He’s on stage from start to finish, portraying Maddox as a dangerous buffoon who only cared for himself.

But Kaufman was right. The show only ran 41 performances. I happened be at one of them.** I thought at the time that it was nicely vicious.

Of course, it was never revived. No one knows about Maddox these days and the satire has been lost. Jay Garner*** stayed on Broadway, usually playing politicians and statesmen. His best-know TV role was Admiral Asimov in Buck Rogers.

One actor, however, did break out to become a household word. Christopher Lloyd made his Broadway debut in a small role. Another member of the cast was Fran Brill, who later became a puppeteer for the Muppets (Prairie Dawn and many others, including Vazh from The Land of Gorch.).

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*I remember an Art Buchwald column during the Watergate era called “What we know so far” that I thought was the funniest thing he ever did. I clipped a copy and six months later, I reread it.  I had forgotten the references so that it wasn’t funny at all.

**I loved satire from when I  was very small. Blame Rocky and Bullwinkle.

***Born James Garner, but that name was already taken in Actors Equity