Those Lips, Those Eyes

(1980)
Directed by Michael Pressman
Written by David Schaber
Starring Frank Langiella, Tom Hulce, Glynnis O'Connor, Jerry Stiller, Kevin McCarthy
IMDB Entry

In 1980, Frank Langiella was primarily a stage actor who hadn't made (and didn't seem interested in making) the jump to films.  He had made a version of Dracula that didn't set the world on fire and which nobody remembers, but little else.  Perhaps his love of the stage was why he appeared in Those Lips, Those Eyes.

It's the story of Artie Shoemaker (Tom Hulce), a young man who was bitten by the acting bug and got a job running props for a summer stock theater in the 1950s.  But Artie is inept and nearly loses his job when actor Harry Crystal (Frank Langiella) rescues him and take him under his wing.  Harry helps Artie get back on his feet and also provides a little assistance with his crush on chorine Ramona (Glynnis O'Connor).

The film is mostly a charming slice of life, and affectionate look at the stock theater of the time.  Artie's father (Jerry Stiller) tries to discourage him and get him to finish med school, while Harry shows him the glamour of the stage.

Langiella is at his best.  His Harry is a born showman, a man with enough talent to dream about Broadway roles, but not enough to actually get them. He dominates every scene he's in.*

My favorite was toward the end of the movie.  The play is being performed, and Harry is phoning in a performance, tired and feeling the work isn't worthy of his talents.  Then he hears word that a Broadway agent is in the audience.  He immediately turns it on, becoming mesmerizing on stage.

Despite good reviews, the movie did poorly.  It was the high point of Michael Pressman's directorial career, though he has worked steadily in TV ever since. 

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*Though, even at his best, Hulce was not a dominating actor.  He usually played a schlub, becoming known on the big screen as Larry Kroger in Animal House.  Larry was a recurring character in National Lampoon's Dacron, Ohio, stories -- the owner of the yearbook in their High School Yearbook Parody -- and always very put upon.  As a matter of fact, when I heard he was cast as Mozart in Amadeus, I thought it a horrible choice, but I didn't know what the play was about, and he did an excellent job.

Dinosaurs (TV)

(1991-94)
Created by Michael Jacobs, Bob Young
Voices by Stewart Pankin, Jessica Walter, Jason Willinger, Sally Struthers, Kevin Clash, Sherman Helmsley, Florence Stanley
IMDB Entry

Any description gives the wrong impression.  A show by Jim Henson Associates and Disney, about walking and talking dinosaurs, with cute catchphrases and a view of family life.  It certainly sounds like a children's show, and was marketed as such.  But Dinosaurs was something much more:  an often pointed satire about just about anything it could get its sights on.

The basic concept for the show came from Muppet creator Jim Henson, who wanted to do a show with puppets about dinosaurs living in a 50-style TV sitcom family.  Henson died (far too young) before the concept was developed, but Michael Jacobs and Bob Young fleshed it out and sole the concept to Disney to be aired on ABC.

The show follows the adventures of the Sinclair* family:  Earl (voice of Stewart Pankin), the put-upon father**, his wife Fran (Jessica Walter), son Robbie (Jason Williger), daughter Charlene (Sally Struthers), and their baby, Baby (Kevin Clash).  Earl was a blue-collar traditionalist, while Robbie would often question the values.  Baby was aggressively cute,*** though he would always torture his father.

Other character included Earl's boss at the Wesayso Corporation, the despotic B.P. Richfield (Sherman Hensley), Earl's best friend Roy Hess (Sam McMurray), and his mother-in-law Ethyl Phillips (Florence Stanley).

The voice actors on the show were all just fine, and the puppeteers were amazing.  The characters faces were capable of a wide range of expressions, and their movement is so natural that you forget that these are people surrounded by pounds of foam rubber.

The show was similar to many other sitcoms, but always had a satirical edge, mocking fame, religion, TV shows (sometimes with direct parodies), prejudice, politics, fashion and other issues in a way that was surprisingly pointed.  One of my favorites was the two-part episode "Nuts to War," where the dinosaurs go to war with each other over the years crop of pistachio nuts. 

And then there was the final episode, one of the most surprising finales in TV history.  It had an ecological theme, where the actions of the WeSaySo Corporation leads to the extinction of a beetle, which is the only thing that keeps a certain creeper vine in check.  Fiasco leads to fiasco until Earth is blanketed in clouds, cooling down and becoming uninhabitable.  The last scenes show the Sinclair family in their house as winter arrives, waiting to die.  It's a chilling episode of what always had been a comedy and one of TVs most downbeat moments.  Few shows had had the nerve to end by killing off the entire cast, and this is the only one where it's genuinely tragic and not a gimmick.

The show has been out on DVD, marketed as a children's show.  And though it works on that level, like most Henson projects, it's aimed for a fare more grown-up audience.

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*One of the subtle jokes on the show was naming the characters for oil companies.  "Sinclair" is an especially appropriate choice, since Sinclair Oil used a brontosaurus as its logo on its service stations.

**A redundant description for all 50s sitcoms.

***His voice was the same guy who did Elmo on Sesame Street.

Swamp Thing (comic book)

(1972-1976)
Created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson
Wikipedia Entry

Back in 1971, it was  slow day at work. One of my co-workers suggested I run down to the local drugstore and pick up a couple of comic books.*  He gave me money for one, so I went out and searched for titles.  Among them, was something called Swamp Thing.  I thought it was the stupidest sounding title ever, and knew I had to have it.  Not only was I pleasantly surprised, but the book quickly became a comic book classic.

The origin** was the story of Alec Holland, a scientist working with his wife Linda in the swamp to develop his "bio-restorative formula," sort of a super fertilizer. When enemy agents try to steal the formula, Alec resists, and, for his trouble, is left unconscious in his laboratory with a ticking bomb.  He wakes up just as it explodes and, drenched in the formula and burning up, he runs into the swamp.

The bad guys go after Linda, just as up from the swamp rises a muck-encrusted mockery of a man (love that phrase) -- Alec, turned part man, part plant.  He kills some of the bad guys, but Linda dies, too.  He then goes off to find the people responsible.

On the way, he meets Abigail Arcane, who begins to understand that the creature is human, and his friend Matt Cable, who blames the monster for the death of his friend Alec***.  The concept of a monster who was human, told from the monster's point of view, seemed very fresh at the time.****

The first series had the Swamp Thing meeting up with versions of classic movie monsters like the Patchwork Man (i.e., Frankenstein's monster) and even superheroes like Batman.  Len Wein had a real flair for dramatic writing and powerful incidents so it became more than just a tour of monsters. 

And the art by Berni Wrightson was spectacular.  Wrightson was a master of horror comic art.  His work is finely detailed and very creepy.

After ten issues, though, Wrightson left.  He was replaced with artist Nestor Redondo.  Many didn't notice the change, but while Wrightson's art is appreciated today, Redondo is only the guy who replaced him.  The two were similar in style, but Wrightson was clearly better.

After the first story arc of 13 episodes, Wein left, too, replaced by David Micheline.  The comic, though still a good one, slowly lost readers and a bit of its freshness.  After 24 issues, the series died.

It remained forgotten for six years.  But Wes Craven directed a Swamp Thing film in 1982, and, to cash in, DC started the new Saga of the Swamp Thing comic,  It limped along for a year and a half until they hired a successful UK writer who had never done work in the US -- Alan Moore. Moore completely revamped the character, changing him from a man/plant hybrid to a "plant elemental," and the book became a critical and popular success.*****

People still remember the Alan Moore version, and much of it has been reprinted.  The original run, however, has gotten short shrift. One reprint book stopped at issue 10, to showcase Wrightson's art, but leaves off the last three issues the Wein wrote, essentially leaving out the conclusion of the arc. 

The original Swamp Thing was a landmark in the history of comics, and still stands up well today.

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*Yes, comics were sold in drugstores back then. Also, believe it or not, Marvel Comics were hard to find:  you either got DC or inferior brands like Charlton Comics.

**Actually, Swamp Thing was based upon a one-shot story by the same creative team that appeared in House of Secrets, set in the early 20th century.  In it, Alex Olson makes the discovery.  When he returns from the swamp, his partner is trying to kill Alex's wife.  The Swamp Thing protects her, but, unable to communicate who he was, returns sadly to the swamp. 

***A neat trick that they became such close friends -- they first met in the beginning of the origin issue.

****Sort of.  A few months earlier, Marvel had come out with Man-Thing, who seemed very similar, probably because Len Wein wrote the origin story.  There were no lawsuits, though, since the two comics quickly went off in different directions.  Man-Thing now is best remembered for its Annual -- called Giant Sized Man-Thing.  At the time, all Marvel's double issues were called "Giant Sized," and the obvious double entendre was missed.  In addition to laughs at the name of the issue, the comic featured the debut of Marvel's strangest hero, Howard the Duck.

*****It's probably the only work by Moore I don't particularly care for, though.  There are certainly some excellent episodes, but the entire concept of "plant elemental" just was too labored for me, and I missed the pathos of Alec losing his humanity, the central concept of the original run.

Misfits (TV)

(2009 - )
Written by Howard Overman
Starring Iwan Rheon, Robert Sheehan, Lauren Socha, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Antonia Thomas
IMBD Entry
Complete Episodes Available at Hulu

Misfits is not forgotten, of course.  In the UK, it won the BAFTA award for best drama in its first season, and is currently getting ready for Season 3. In the US, however, it is completely unknown.  I stumbled upon it by accident on Hulu and soon came to realize it was one of the greatest TV shows ever.  It is clearly the best to feature characters with super powers.

The premise is that a mysterious storm travels through an English urban neighborhood, giving people strange abilities.  What makes this different is two things.  First, the characters don't automatically become heroes or villains.  In many cases, their powers have limited use, anyway, and they have to go about their lives. And second, the powers are tied in with the characters fears and desires.  Thus, the nerdy boy who want to be left alone develops the ability to turn invisible.  The girl who's always worried about what people think about her can now read minds.  

The show focuses on five young men and women in a community service program for minor crimes. 

• Simon (Iwon Rehon), a somewhat creepy guy who clearly wants to be left alone.  He's also the smartest of the group, though the others dislike him at first.
• Nathan (Robert Sheehan).  He's the most outrageous personality, someone for whom the phrase "anything for a laugh" is far too tame. He crosses over the line and then continues.  But he gets the funniest lines, and you do get to know the reason for his attitude; it's a strange combination of utter asshole and sweet guy, sometimes all at once.*
• Kelly (Lauren Socha).  She has serious anger management issues and speaks in an accent that US viewers might be hard to follow.  But ultimately, she is worried about what people think of her.
• Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett). A near world-class athlete, but whose career was derailed when he was caught with drugs.  He's the most decent person of the bunch, though he is filled with regrets.
• Lauren (Antonia Thomas).  Party girl supreme, who is not afraid to use her sexuality and good looks to get what she wants.  Her power is actually more a curse than anything useful.

They're basically good, but screwed up just a little, unhappy with their lives and lack of direction.

The gang gets into hot water the very first episode, and things start exploding from there.  Things get dark and scary for them, not only due to their actions, but as they meet up with others with powers.  One of the subplots of the first season is that Nathan seems to have no superpower, though he is sure he must.  When it's revealed, it's a scene that manages to be equally hilarious and horrifying.**

No one tries to take over the world.  No government agency uses the group for spying and derring-do.  This is not that sort of show, and it survives due its plotting and characterization.  We see the main characters change over the events, and things that seem to be heading in one direction often veer off into another.  All the characters have great depth, their actions and powers working in strange ways that almost always contradict your first impression of them.  There are scenes of great sadness and pathos, other scenes that are wildly funny, others that are horrifying.  Often at the same time.

So why is the show on Hulu and not some cable network?  Part of it is that it's made on a British schedule:  six episodes per season; currently only 13*** are available.  But I think the bigger issue is the fact that the show is definitely R-rated.  The language is explicit and there are some blatant sex scenes and there is no good way to censor them for US audiences without losing most of the point. 

If you're looking for something new and different in your TV watching, go to Hulu and start watching Misfits.  By episode two, you'll be hooked.

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*One of the questions about the third series of the show is due to the fact Sheehan has quit; it is a big role to drop.

**And I don't mean this is a horror comedy.  You laugh, but the situation is not played for laughs in the slightest.  Overman does this sort of balancing act all the time:  things that seem utterly stupid, but also menacing and horrifying.

***12 regular, plus a Christmas episode, though the idea of the show doing a sweetness-and-light Christmas seems surprising.

Good Neighbors (TV)

(UK Title:  The Good Life)
(1975-1978)
Written by John Esmonde & Bob Larby
Starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Paul Eddington, Penelope Keith
IMDB Page

Chemistry between the cast can be a big factor in the success of a TV show, and it was the cast of The Good Neighbors that helped turned it into one of the greatest of British comedies.

At the time, Richard Briers was a star of British TV, starring in a handful of shows in for almost 15 years.  A comment of his about turning 40 got writers Esmonde and Larby to thinking, and the results was The Good Neighbors.

Briers was Tom Good, a draftsman working on such important projects as designing a hippopotamus to be given away as a toy in cereal boxes. Tom has just turned 40, and is tired of work and wondering what to do with his wife.  So he decides to chuck it all and live self-sufficiently.  In Surbiton, a suburb of London.  Out goes the back lawn and in comes a garden, chickens, goats and other animals.  He uses the dung to power the house and his excess crops to barter to get other items.  His wife Barbara (Felicity Kendal) joins in.  Though this does cause conflict with their best friends and neighbors Jerry and Margo Leadbetter (Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith).  Jerry thinks the idea is bound to fail, but is happy to put up with Tom's madness.  Margo, on the other hand, thinks the others are crazy, and is worried that the farm next door will ruin the quality of the neighborhood.

The show is funny due to the characters.  Tom is gung ho on living self-sufficiently and is constantly coming up with way to make it work.  Barbara is a bit more skeptical, but seems to get a kick out of the effort and its little triumphs and setbacks.  The two of them have one of the most ideal marriages in TV history -- they're both smart, witty, sexy, and deeply in love with each other. 

Margo is the opposite.  She's is a strong believer in proper behavior, the type who wants everything to be just so.  She feels that the whole enterprise is doomed to failure.  Not that she won't help if called upon -- the Goods are her friends -- but she does get a bit uptight about the idea of pig dung.  Jerry is used to her quirks and perhaps secretly admires what Tom is doing, even if he knows he could never do it.

The acting is perfect.  Tom is a man with an idee fixe, but he's self-aware enough to know that sometimes he goes too far.  He can also the the humor in the situation.  He and Barbara trade quips that are almost up to the level set in The Thin Man.  Felicity Kendal is delightful at every turn.

Penelope Keith's Margo is often the butt of jokes for her lack of flexibility, but basically she's a good person underneath.  Jerry is more down-to-Earth, but indulges her and the Goods.

The show ran three seasons in the UK as The Good Life, so successful that the taping of the final show was attending by Queen Elizabeth.  A few years later, it started showing up in the US as PBS stations in the early 80s, but the name conflicted with an earlier failed sitcom of the same name, so it was retitled Good Neighbors,* where it became a popular PBS Britcom.

After the run, the cast moved on.  Paul Eddington became Prime Minister (in the classics Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister).  Briers did more sitcoms, and appeared in a Doctor Who episode** among other things.  Penelope Keith went on to BBC stardom in To the Manor Born and other shows.  Felicity Kendal did stage work with Tom Stoppard*** and recently appeared in the Rosemary and Thyme mystery series and a Doctor Who Episode.****

While still well regarded in the UK, the show is forgotten in the US, partly because it only appeared in syndication on PBS, so the audience was small. But it's one of the delights of British comedy.

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*The only difference is the title in the opening credits.

**"Paradise Towers," one of my favorites.

***I enjoyed her performance as Christopher in a televised version of Stoppard's farce On the Razzle. "Catch me a half-witted cab, you hansom fool."

****"The Unicorn and the Wasp"

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

(1943)
Written and Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger
Starring Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook
IMDB Entry

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is one of the lesser known major productions of the 1940s (in the US, at least).  It is rarely mentioned in film histories, and was greeted with a good deal of scorn because of the nature and timing of its subject matter.  Its title implied a certain well-known character would be present, but that character wasn't even there in name (though the lead character looked like him).  Yet it is a charming and overlooked film with a lot to say.

The title comes from a series of satirical cartoons by British cartoonist David Low. In his hands, Colonel Blimp was a fat, mustachioed old man who spent his time in the Turkish bath and propounded idiotic nonsense about the nature of the army and war.  Blimp was stupid and ridiculous, and it was odd that Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger chose the title of the film when they were saying something almost entirely opposite.

We are introduced to Major General Clive Wynne-Candy, who is captured as part of a war game exercise he's running when soldiers surprise him in the Turkish bath when the deliberately jump the gun.  Wynn-Candy (who at this point is made up to match the cartoon Colonel Blimp) is irate at this breaking of the rules and when his moustache is ridiculed, he attacks the leader of the soldiers, saying, "You don't know what it means."

The movie then goes back 40 years, where Clive Candy, a recent winner of the Victoria Cross in the Boer War, decides to go to Berlin to stop a German agent from making up lies about the British there.  He meets Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr) and fights a duel with the German officer Theodor Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook), who quickly becomes his friend as the recuperate in the hospital afterward.

Candy returns to England, and ends up fighting in World War I. Too old when World War II breaks out, he starts organizing a home guard.  And his paths continue to cross paths with Kretschmar-Schuldorff.

The theme of the film is about doing the honorable thing.  Wynne-Candy* is of the old school, where you shake hands with your opponent after the fight is over.  He comes to learn that things change.

The major delight of the film is in the details and the surprising emphasis. The lead up to the duel, for instance, is shown in fine detail as everyone discusses the rules and conditions.  Yet the actual duel is not shown, and I think the film is better doing it that way instead of going for the obvious.

The controversy was due to the character of Kretschmar-Schuldorff.  It takes nerve to portray a sympathetic German character in English at the height of the blitz, but Powell and Pressberger manage to pull it off**.  Still people did object.

Of course, the film has some great acting.  Roger Livesey imbues the young Candy with a charming dash and vigor that ages realistically as the character ages.  Woolbrook's Kretschmar-Schuldorff is calm and charming, and is often the voice of reason to Wynne-Candy's delusions of honor.  In her first starring role, Deborah Kerr plays three roles as the loves of their lives.***

The film ran into problems with censorship.  The British government no doubt thought the title referred to the cartoon Colonel Blimp and thought an attack on the military.  Winston Churchill seems to have taken a strong dislike to it, since the cartoon Blimp was often considered to be referring to him.  Because of this, it was not shown in the US until 1945, where a modified form was released.  It was cut down further, so the full version (including the frame tale, which is where the movie drives home its message) was rarely seen.

Appreciation of the film has grown over the years, and it's now considered by most film buffs as a classic.  It was honored by a release in the Criterion Collection recently, with all the scenes restored and a wealth of additional material.  With luck, it will become known outside of the art house crowd and appreciated for its charm.

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*He adds the first part of the hyphen when he marries Barbara Wynne (Deborah Kerr).

**It helps that Kretschmar-Schuldorff is anti-Nazi.

***My wife saw the film without seeing the cast list and decided that Edith Hunter looked a lot like Deborah Kerr.  I told her it was Deborah Kerr.  Then when Barbara Wynne came along, she said, "Now she looks like Deborah Kerr."

Cat People/The Curse of the Cat People

Cat People  (1942)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Written by DeWitt Bodeen
Starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Tom Conway
IMDB Entry
Val Lewton is one of the great names of horror film, even though he never wrote or directed anything.  He was a producer, but managed to put his own stamp on horror by using one rule that is still considered the bedrock of intelligent horror:  It's better to avoid showing the monster, letting the audience's imagination fill in the blanks with something more horrible that anything that could be put on screen.  In 1942, he was named the head of RKOs horror unit, charged with doing low-budget films.  The first of these was Cat People, and it is the bedrock upon which his reputation was built.
The story is about Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), a Serbian-born woman who attracts the eye of Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) when he spots her drawing a black panther at the zoo.  He starts to flirt with her and goes up to her apartment, which has a strange statue of a man on horseback running a cat through with a sword. Irena tells her that in her village, some people turned to evil after an invasion, including devilish rites. 
Oliver buys her a kitten as a gift, but the animal is terrified of her, as are all the animals in the pet store when they go to return it. Despite this, he proposes to her.  They marry, but there's a catch -- she refuses to be intimate with him.  Oliver is caring and patient, but as time goes on, he confides her problems with his co-worker Alice Moore (Jane Randolph). Irena visits a psychologist, Dr. Judd (Tom Conway*), who tries to get to the bottom of things.  But Oliver starts spending more time with Alice -- both at work and out of it.  Much of it is innocent, but Irena takes it the wrong way.  She is spending a lot of time staring at that panther in the zoo. . . .
The horror sequences are well constructed.  The panther that stalks and kills is only shown in quick cuts and shadows, and you never know where it might show up.
Simone Simon plays Irena perfectly:  a woman with a dark secret, who loves Oliver deeply, but fears what that might mean.  She never became a big star -- she was rumored to be temperamental and difficult to work with -- but this is her signature role, and she's just fine as a woman worried about what she is. 
The movie was directed the Jacques Tourneur, who later collaborated with Lewton on I Walked With A Zombie. His atmospheric direction makes the scary sequences work nicely.**  What also makes it interesting is the subtext of sexual frustration and jealousy.
The film was a major hit.  Since it was made on a shoestring, the studio made a hatful of money.  The success allowed Lewton to continue his work redefining horror.  And, also it spawned a sequel.
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The Curse of the Cat People (1944) Directed by Gunther Von Frisch and Robert Wise
Written by DeWitt Borden
Starring  Ann Carter, Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph,  Julia Dean, Elizabeth Russell, Sir Lancelot
IMDB Entry 
Note: Spoilers ahead.  They really won't ruin your enjoyment of the first film, but if you're allergic, watch Cat People first.  I'll wait.
The Curse of the Cat People is probably the weirdest horror sequel ever. And I don't mean that in a good way.  It is clearly a sequel, but has very little horror in it.  Instead, it's a psychological study of a child with an active imagination who is ignored by everyone.
The movie takes part about eight years after the first film.  Oliver and Alice (Smith and Randolph again) are married and living in Tarrytown, NY, raising their 6-year-old daughter, Amy (Ann Carter).  Amy has a very active imagination and sometimes has trouble understanding the difference between fact and fiction.  The other children refuse to play with her, so she's off alone.  But as she passes what the other children call a haunted house, someone waves to her and throws her a ring.  When the houseman (Sir Lancelot***) tells her it's a magic ring, Amy makes a wish for a playmate.  And it is soon granted:  Irena (Simon) appears and starts to play with her.
Eventually, Amy admits to her parents that the woman in  an old photograph of Irena is her playmate.   This creates some serious issues, both with the fact Irena is Oliver's first wife and that she died at the end of the first film.
So where is the horror?  Or, for that matter, where are the cat people?  Nowhere.  The film is actually a psychological study of a lonely girl and her relationship with her parents as well as the strain it puts on both her and them.  It never explains whether Irena is a ghost or a figment of Amy's imagination.****
There are a few scary moments, but that's not the point of the film.  Indeed, the "horror" climax at the end seems a tacked on way to put Amy in danger and maybe give people a thrill.
Ann Carter is the show here.  She's not a great actor -- few child actors of the 40s were -- but she handles is well enough to get the point across.
Lewton wanted to change the name of the film to "Amy and Her Friend," but was overruled by RKO executives, who wanted people to connect this with the extremely popular Cat People.  And that certainly brought in people, only they were disappointed to discover the sequel was nothing like the original.
Lewton made several more horror films of the era, but the Cat People franchise ended until a remake of the original was made in 1982 starring Nastassja Kinski, which got mixed reviews and only did so-so business*****.  But the two originals were first-class movies, one horror, one drama, and both very entertaining.
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*Conway is the brother of George Sanders, and you can see the similarities in their voice and appearance.
**Evidently, the movie led to a bit of Hollywood slang:  "The bus" was a term that mean a scary sound that turns out to be harmless.
***His real name was Lancelot Victor Edward Pinard.  Acting was just a sideline for him:  he made his mark as a Calypso singer, and is considered a major name in both Calypso and Reggae.  His song "Shame and Scandal" (written for I Walked with a Zombie) is a classic.
****Another trait of Lewton films:  it's often quite ambiguous as to whether the events are really happening or just imaginary.  When Alice is being menaced by a panther, it's very ambiguous as to whether the panther really exists, and in I Walked with a Zombie, there is also an ambiguity as to whether anything supernatural had occurred.
*****Its theme song, Cat People (Putting Out the Fire) was sung by Davie Bowie.

Bedazzled

(1967)
Directed by Stanley Donen
Story by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore; Screenplay by Cook
Starring Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Eleanor Bron, Raquel Welch, Barry Humphreys.
IMDB Entry

Peter Cook is considered one of the great geniuses of sketch comedy. His wry but hilarious style was best appreciated in live acts, where he was a master of the ad lib, without making it sound like an ad lib.  That sort of talent did not translate well to films, but Bedazzled* was one of the better examples of his talent.

Cook started performing comedy in college, and rose to prominence with the seminal British comedy revue, Beyond the Fringe with Dudley Moore, Johnathan Miller, and Alan Bennett.  It was a departure for British comedy, and the spiritual grandfather of Monty Python, a show that wasn't afraid to be topical or to rock the boat.**  Many of the skits were written by Cook.

He and Moore hit it off, and they became partners.  Together, they did TV series, stage plays, and Bedazzled.

The movie is a comic retelling of Faust.  Stanley Moon (Moore) is a poor schlub at a restaurant who pines for coworker Wendy (Eleanor Bron). When he cannot attract her, he tries to commit suicide, but it stopped by George Spiggott (Cook) -- the devil.  George gives Stanley seven wishes in exchange for his soul.  All of them work out disastrously for poor Stanley.

The story, though funny, is second to the character of George.  Cook gave himself all the good lines, surprising little jokes that come out of nowhere and leave you laughing.  There's also a lot of subtle humor, as George quietly goes about creating nuisances like removing a wet paint sign from a park bench.

George introduces Stanley to the Seven Deadly Sins, including Lust (Raquel Welch) and Envy (Barry Humphreys***).  Promotion for the movie did make a big deal about Welch, but she only appears in a handful of scenes.****

The film was directed by Stanlen Donen, whose genius I've written about before. He tried to add a sixties sensibility to the whole affair, and seems to know best what to do with Cook's genius.

Cook and Moore continued to work on screenplays, but never had much success.  After the partnership broke up, of course, Moore appeared in 10 and Arthur and established himself as a star for a short while, but Cook never seemed to find the right vehicle for his talents.  His style and ad libs made him more suited to TV and stage than to movies.

Bedazzled was not a big hit, but is still one of the best examples as Peter Cook's comic talents.

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*The original.  The less said about the 2000 remake, the better.

**I saw Beyond the Fringe on Broadway, but in 1965, when a new cast had taken over.  The original production did win a special Tony Award.

***Who later became an international superstar as Dame Edna Everage, possums.

****Welch in the late 60s was a major sex symbol for two reasons.  But at the time she was not much of an actress; she's managed to improve considerably, but there's a reason she never gets mentioned at Oscar time.

Hobson's Choice

(1954)
Directed by David Lean
Written by David Lean, Norman Spencer, and Wynyard Browne, from a play by Harold Brighouse
Starring Charles Laughton, John Mills, Brenda De Banzie, Daphne Anderson, Prunella Scales
IMDB Entry

David Lean is one of cinema's most honored directors, known nowadays for The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and A Passage to India, as well as some well-regarded Dickens adaptations.  Though primarily known for his epics, like most top directors, his filmography is varied, and Hobson's Choice was his foray into comedy and a charming look at romance enhanced by a very talented cast.

Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) is the owner of a very successful shoe shop.  He's a drunkard and a bully, a minor tyrant who is successful primarily because his three daughters Maggie (Brenda De Banzie), Alice (Daphne Anderson), and Vicky (Prunella Scales) do most of the work without pay.  Maggie actually runs the shop, and she of the others want to be married and free of their father's tyranny.*  While Alice and Vicky have found potential husbands and may be able to leave, Hobson refuses to allow Maggie to see anyone, since she is too useful to him.  Maggie focuses on Hobson's one paid employee, Will Mossop (John Mills) and pushes him to marry her and start out on their own.

The movie is a delight from start to finish.  Laughton always was a dominating screen presence, and, under Lean's direction, is given enough rope to turn in a terrific performance as the likeable bully.  He does show a gift for physical comedy:  watch the opening, where the character is established (skip ahead to 2:30).

Brenda de Banzie matches him in strength and charm, playing Maggie as clearly being her father's daughter -- maybe too much so for her father.  She was primarily a stage actress, it seems, and this is her one notable film role.  She makes it count.  John Mills*** is also fun as her reluctant suitor.

The film seems to have done well at the box office, but, being a British production, slowly faded from viewing. It was so different from the type of big production dramas that Lean became famous for that those who liked his movies probably didn't like this one.

For Brenda de Banzie, this was the highlight of her career, while John Mills ended up winning an Oscar for Ryan's Daughter, also directed by Lean.  Laughton, of course, kept up his larger-than-life persona as a major star for the rest of his career.  In addition to Laughton and Mills, probably the best-known member of the cast was Prunella Scales, who gained popular culture immortality as Sybil Fawlty in the classic comedy Fawlty Towers.****

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*Yes, it's residual sexism, but the film was set in the 1880s, and the women really have no way of setting out on their own.

**Father of 60s Disney star Hayley Mills.  It started out that Hayley was billed as John's daughter; then John was Hayley's father.  Now they're both pretty obscure.  Mills has said that Hobson's Choice was the favorite of all his films.

***Irrelevant bit of trivia: if you ever visit Victoria Falls, you can stay in a Fawlty Towers in Livingstone, Zambia.  Word has it that it has a real touch of class.

52 Pickup

(1986)
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Screenplay by Elmore Leonard and John Steppling, from a novel by Elmore Leonard
Starring Roy Scheider, John Glover, Ann-Margaret, Vanity, Kelly Preston, Clarence Williams III
IMDB Entry

For awhile in the early 90s, my wife went on a Roy Scheider kick. We ended up renting and buying a lot of films by Scheider and I grew to appreciate him as an actor, even though quite a few for his films really weren't all that good.  The one surprise in the lot, though, was a tense thriller called 52 Pickup, which turned out to be an excellent film on many levels.

Elmore Leonard, considered one of the greatest crime writers of his time*, adapted the screenplay from his own novel.  Scheider plays Harry Mitchell, whose is having an affair with Cini, a girl half his age (Kelly Preston).  When porn king and all-around sleaze Alan Raimy (John Glover) finds out, he blackmails Harry, since the information would be disastrous for the political campaign of his wife Barbara (Ann-Margaret).  Harry refuses to pay, so Raimy kills Cini, and frames Harry for the crime.  Harry has to come up with the money, and also wants to take down Raimy for the murder.

The film is nicely plotted, with great dialog from Leonard. Harry becomes a real hero getting himself out of the mess, and the movie knows enough to make sure that Raimy is a top-notch villain.  He's childish, vicious, violent, smart, and everything bad, and Glover's performance is memorable, and one of the greatest villains in film history.  The best part about it is that he is so unpredictable.  I want that in a bad guy -- someone who you can never be sure of.

The entire cast does a terrific job.  One of the surprises is Clarence Williams III, best known for his TV work on The Mod Squad,** who is chilling as on of Raimy's co-conspirators. 

Director John Frankenheimer had established himself as a top-tier director in the 60s, with Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May.  He stumbled a bit in the 70s and clearly was past his prime by the 80s.  52 Pickup may have been his last artistically satisfying film (though, like most of his later films, it was not a hit).

The movie gained mixed reviews, mostly because of the sleaziness of the porn film background*** and the film sank off the charts.  By the time video became commonplace, it was just another forgotten film.  The movie isn't for everyone, but for a dark, hard-nosed crime film, this is hard to top.

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*He has not been well-served in films, though Jackie Brown is an exceptional film.

**Where he was once required to deliver the line, "I can dig it" with grave seriousness, a sure sign he had talent as an actor.

***One scene, at a party, included several well-known porn stars of the time (clothed).

Doctor Doctor (TV)

(1989-91)
Created by Norman Steinberg
Starring Matt Frewer, Julius Carry, Beau Gravitte, Maureen Miller, Tony Carriero
IMDB Entry

Matt Frewer burst upon the TV scene as Max Headroom, a manic "computer generated" personality that had a strong manic streak.  After the show was canceled, he needed a place to show off his talent for wild comedy, and that led to his next starring venture.  It was obvious that comedy would be a good fit, and he was soon cast in the lead of Doctor Doctor.

The show was crated by Norman Steinberg.  The name may mean nothing to you, but you certainly have seen his work:  he was co-writer of Blazing Saddles.  The show cast Frewer as Mike Stratford, who was a doctor in a practice with four other colleagues.  But Mike was also a television personality, doing health segments for the local morning show.

The show set the tone with its opening credits, a wild version of the Rascal's "Good Lovin'"*

Mike was, of course, a caring and very competent doctor behind all his goofiness, but the show was there to give Frewer a chance to go wild.  He's not at the Robin Williams level of manic energy,** but he is pretty close.  I particularly remember one exchange the still makes me chuckle

(The doctors are in a small private plane that has lost power and is hurtling to the ground).
Doctor:  What do we do?
Mike:  Depends.
Doctor:  Depends on what?
Mike:  No.  Depends.  The adult diaper.

Another milestone for the series was Mike's brother Richard (Tony Carriero), who was portrayed a being a well-adjusted gay man.  It was still unusual back in 1989 and won the show nominations for the GLAAD media awards. Mike did joke about Richard's orientation, but never in a cruel way.

I don't mean to ignore the rest of the actors or the scripts:  they were also very funny in their own right.  The show was Frewer's and he certainly benefited by working with other talented actors.

The show was successful in a limited run and was brought back for two full seasons before being canceled.  Frewer never really found the right vehicle, though he worked steadily in canceled series and as a guest star or recurring character.  Julius Carry became a cult favorite as Lord Bowler in The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr.

This is a show that never seemed to get much respect when it was on the air, and seems to have been lost in the shuffle since then. But it's an excellent comedy that always had a skewed version of humor.

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*Robert Palmer's "A Bad Case of Loving You" would have been even more inspired.  I don't know if they were aware of the song, or if they just couldn't get the rights.

**About the only others who came close to Williams were Jonathan Winters and Zero Mostel.

Harvard Lampoon Life Magazine Parody (book)

(1968)
Written by the staff of the Harvard Lampoon, Henry Beard and Doug Kenney, editors.

Doug Kenney may have been the most influential comic mind of the latter half of the 20th century.  He was the mind behind Bored of the Rings, the first editor of the National Lampoon,* and screenwriter of Animal House.  There is also a direct connection between the Lampoon and Saturday Night Life.  And Kenney got his first national exposure as editor of  the Harvard Lampoon Life Magazine Parody.

The Harvard Lampoon had a long history of doing parodies of popular magazines.  It was a regular fundraiser of theirs:  they'd do a parody issue and sell enough copies around Boston and the northeast to make some money.    In this case, they were able to get the issue out to a much wider audience.**

The magazine matched Life accurately, but that was the easy part.  The articles were straight ahead silliness, many based upon the idea that the world is going to end.  There are profiles of intellectuals (philosopher Eric Mouth and poet Harry Umbridge), fashion made out of food (including a "sleeveless bacon blouse" and a salami skirt made out of genoa and bologna***), a recipe for thermonuclear turkey, kids playing war a little too realistically, the adventure and excitement of cows and sheep, and columns paralleling the columnists in the actual magazine.****

The magazine sold decently, making some money for the Harvard Lampoon, and perhaps gave some impetus for the founding of the National Lampoon.  The original is hard to find, probably because it was basically meant to be recycled.  But it's still one of the funniest parodies around, and historically important as a springboard for most of what was successful in American humor.

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*A subject for another day.  Henry Beard was no slouch, either.

**I picked it up in my home town on eastern Long Island.  It made me want to apply to Harvard to work on the Lampoon.  Alas, Harvard turned me down.

*** I have no evidence that Lada Gaga has ever seen an issue, but it make you wonder.

****Life Magazine enjoyed the parody enough to take out several full-page ads in it. There were multiple advertisers, and a modern reader might wonder if they were parodies themselves, but all the ads were genuine.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (music)

(1915-1973)
Wikipedia Entry

Rock and roll music came from a variety of sources:  the blues, rhythm and blues,* country, and -- sneaking in the back way -- from gospel.  And one of the great pioneers of the gospel sound that was incorporated into rock music was Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Tharpe was born in Arkansas as Rosetta Nubin.  Her mother, Katie Bell Nubin,** was an evangelist and singer, and young Rosetta took up guitar at an early age, playing and singing well enough to be something of a sensation by the 1920s.  In the mid-1930s, she moved to New York to further her career as a singer and guitarist, briefly marrying Rev. Thomas Thorpe, and changing her stage name to "Tharpe" once the marriage ended.

She started recording in 1938 and became a popular star because of her ability to perform both traditional gospel numbers and uptempo tunes. She was an early crossover artist, selling the gospel records to one group, and the more rocking numbers to the general public and catching on with white audiences (to the dismay of her gospel fans).

Her most famous song, "Up Above My Head," was recorded in the late 1940s with her singing partner at the time, Marie Knight.  It shows how joyous -- and surprisingly modern -- her music could be.***

Tharpe was not only a great singer, but an excellent guitarist.  She was not content to play rhythm guitar only, but would break off in solos that still sound good today.****

Tharpe and Knight were a popular recording act up until around 1951, when they made a misstep and tried to move into the blues.  It failed, and her gospel audience -- which didn't like the more secular road her music was taking -- abandoned her.  She broke up with Knight and tried to do more popular tunes, but she didn't catch on with the mass audience.  The move may have been too soon -- rock 'n roll had yet to catch on and by the time it did, she had lost her record contract. Still, she continued performing until her death in 1973, respected by musicians, but forgotten by the general public.

Sister Rosetta has been rediscovered and credited as an influence by many big name acts like Elvis, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, and Johnny Cash. She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2007.

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*Similar, but not the same thing.

**There is no record of her father.

***The version with Knight is even better than this, but that was before the days of television and doesn't seem to be available.

***Some writers claim that she invented the "windmill" style of guitar made famous by Pete Townsend of the Who.  However, I haven't been able to track down footage of her doing it.  What I have seen was that she would move her hand away from the guitar as a flourish when the solo ended (see the video above). It's not the full windmill that made Townsend famous. 

The Great Flamarion

(1945)
Directed by Anthony Mann
Screenplay by Ann Wigton (story), Heinz Herald, and Richard Weil, based upon a character created by Vicki Baum
Starring Erich von Stroheim, Mary Beth Hughes, Dan Duryea, Steve Barclay.
IMDB Entry
Watch Online

At at time when an obscure film like Detour has been rediscovered and hailed as a classic of the genre it is surprising indeed that The Great Flamarion is not similarly praised.  Yet Eddie Muller's Dark City, the definitive survey of the genre makes no mention of it, and it just doesn't have the cachet that other titles do.  Maybe the title sounds too silly for the seriousness of the story.  Maybe it's just that films from Republic Pictures are overlooked.  In any case, this is a fine, classic film noir movie that makes the most of its opportunities.

The film is shown in flashbacks.*  The Great Flamarion (Erich von Stroheim) is a vaudeville entertainer, a trick shot artist.**  Connie (Mary Beth Hughes) and Al Wallace (Dan Duryea) are his assistants, who are shot at every night.  But Connie -- who is something of a con artist when men is concerned -- grows tired of Al and his drinking, looking for greener pastures.  So she turns to seducing Flamarion and suggesting that the way to free her from Al is  . . . well, I think you can figure it out.

Erich von Stroheim is considered as one of the great film directors, though his output was small due to the fact that his obsessive perfectionism caused his movies to go way over budget and run far too long.  After the silent days, no one would allow him to director, so he turned to acting, and being billed as "The Man You Love to Hate" for his villainous roles.  But von Stroheim was more than just a villain, and when given a chance, could give his characters (usually stiff-necked military types) some nice depth.***  In this case, in invests some true pathos in the Flamerion, a man whose vaudeville act is his life and who has no real friends, the perfect target for Connie's scheme.  When he finally discovers he's been her patsy, you feel his disappointment strongly.

Dan Duryea was one of the great heavies. He has a menacing presence even in this role, where he is more a victim than a villain.  Mary Beth Hughes is probably too soft a presence to be a true film noir femme fatale, though her cutie looks at least explains why men have themselves falling all over her.  Still, she manages to hold her own against two of the strongest male villains of the era.

The film came out about eight months after Double Indemnity, the landmark of film noir, and probably was influenced by it, since the producer -- W. Lee Wilder -- was the brother of Billy Wilder. Since it was released by Republic Pictures, a poverty row studio, it was quickly forgotten, especially since it did not get particularly good reviews.**** Anthony Mann later developed into a respected director of westerns and film noir.

The film deserves more recognition, especially for von Stroheim's portrayal of Flamarion.  It's a worthy entry in the film noir genre.

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* A common device in film noir.

**His act has him showing up, presumably as the wronged husband, at a tryst between a woman and a man, and using that to shoot at them -- missing them, of course.

***He was especially good as the German commander in La Grand Illusion, and is probably best known to modern-day audiences as Max von Mayerling in Sunset Boulevard, where he played a parody of his own image.

****The New York Times of the era hated it, but I suspect they were not yet attuned to this new film noir sensibility.

Who's in Charge Here? (book)

(1962)
By Gerald C. Gardner
Political humor dates quickly*.  The only way to avoid this is to stay topical, something that radio and TV have managed to do.  It's much harder to do it in a book, but Gerald Gardner came up with the idea to have a series of books, each with some funny topical humor of the year.
Gerald Gardner was a TV writer, best know for scripts for The Monkees and Get Smart.** In 1962, he got the idea of taking news photos and adding humorous dialog that supposedly showed what the people were saying or thinking.  The book was called Who's in Charge Here?, and the cover photo showed John F. Kennedy sitting with Harry Truman, with Truman saying, "So the bathroom still leaks."
Despite the photos of political figures, the book didn't take a political point of view.  It focused more on the absurdity and foibles of the people involves, as well as commenting on what was shown in the picture.
The book was a smashing success.  So much so that Gardner continued with new editions every few years.  There was More Who's in Charge Here, Who's in Charge Here 1966, Who's in Charge Here: Watergate Follies, and many other variations on the theme.  The most recent version I can find was from 1996. 
None were as popular as the original.  And I suspect the gentle ribbing you found in Gardner's books is out of place in today's more vicious style of political humor***.  It's hard to say how well the book hold up, but I think it's not too bad, since you only need to have a vague understanding of the events involved.
The books, though successful, were always just a sideline for Gardner, who was a very successful TV writer and producer both before and after the first volume came out.  It was a minor book, but an entertaining bit of political humor.
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*The clearest example to me was an Art Buchwald column on the Watergate hearings entitled (in our newspaper), "What We Have Learned So Far."  It was the funniest thing I ever read when it first came out.  Rereading it six months later, it was nowhere near as good.  And after a year, I couldn't find anything funny about it at all (I don't think it's was ever reprinted in any of Buchwald's collections).  Once you forgot the details he was satirizing, there was little left.
**A favorite Get Smart episode was "The Diplomat's Daughter," which had one of Smart's best villains:  "The Craw."  ("Not Craw!  Craw!!")
***At least, Gardner didn't suffer the fate of Vaughn Meader, who also joked about JFK. 

The Day of the Triffids (book)

By John Wyndham
(1951)
Wikipedia link

Sometimes when you read a book, the thought crosses your mind that it would make the perfect movie.  And anyone reading The Day of the Triffids would agree*.  It is, in many ways, the perfect monster movie, and it remains a classic of science fiction horror.

Triffids was written by John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, though with a name that unwieldy, you can understand why he shortened it to John Wyndham.  He was born in a small village in the UK, the son of a barrister. He went through various careers in the 1920s and 1930s, selling an occasional science fiction short story to US magazines.  After World War II, he returned to writing and, in 1951, he produced his best-known work, The Day of the Triffids.

The book, like many of his, deals with a disaster.  Bill Masen wakes up after an eye injury that caused him to be bandaged up for several days, and all around the hospital is eerily quiet.  He removes his bandages -- they were due to come off anyway -- and soon learns that everyone seems to have gone blind.  There had been a magnificent display of meteors the night before, but everyone who watched it cannot see any more.

And, worse, there are the triffids.  They a (possibly) genetically engineered carnivorous plant that can walk and has a whiplike poisonous stinger that it uses to kill its prey.  They are useful, though:  cut off the stinger and they can be raised for their high-quality oil.  When the book begins, the triffids are well-established**.  Some have their stingers docked (though they grow back), but many do not.  Without sight, humans have no advantage over them.  And the triffids are on the march.

The book is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece as Masen has to avoid the triffids, find others who can see, rescue some who can't, and help develop a community and a plan to fight back.  There are many chilling moments, like when a sighted little girl describing how she saw her brother being stalked by a triffid, but can do nothing because one would attack her once she made a sound.  There are scenes of triffids herding people like food animals, and blind humans turning sighted ones into slaves to keep them alive.

The triffids themselves are great monsters.  They communicate among themselves, and their ability to move, as well as their poisoned stingers make the memorable and terrifying.  But many of the worst monsters in the book are human beings who try to take advantage of the situation. In a broken down society, the most ruthless prevail if people aren't careful

You'd think that this would make a great monster movie.  A movie was made, but it's terrible.  The problems were many, but the biggest mistake was coming up with a magic solution to kill all the triffids; in the book, it's not magic, but hard work, and there's a long way to go.  In addition, the darkness of the broken down society is shunted to the far background in place of standard "fight the menace" scenes that have very little excitement.  There have also been two better-received TV miniseries, though they are not well known in the US.

Wyndham continued in this vein for most of his writing career,  His next novel, The Kraken Wakes,*** is nearly as good. In it, there's an alien invasion that no one realizes -- because it takes part in the deepest parts of the ocean.  And the aliens start to make over Earth so it's all deep ocean.

There's also his The Midwich Cuckoos, where all the women in a village all become pregnant one day, only to give birth to silver-eyed children who develop psychic powers.  The book was filmed as Village of the Damned, and is a minor classic of 50s horror.

But Wyndham's most terrifying creating never gained widespread popularity in popular culture.  It's too bad, since there's clearly a space for a great horror film from the book.

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*Another one was Gregory Macdonld's Fletch, a book whose cover listed the first few paragraphs of the novel, with the assumption that you'd read that and be hook.  And you were.  It was a tight little mystery thriller.  Hollywood made it into a soggy comedy with Chevy Chase as his most self-indulgent. 

**Masin's eye injury was caused by a few drops of triffid venom, an irony that is noted.

***Retitled in the US to the far less imaginative Out of the Deeps.

ZaSu Pitts (actress)

(1900-1963)
IMDB Entry

In the early 1960s, our local TV station ran reruns of The Gale Storm Show* in the afternoons.  The show starred Gale Storm as a wacky social director on a cruise ship.  Her best friend was Nugie, the ship's manicurist who had a delightfully warbly voice and superb comic timing of every line.  It was my introduction to ZaSu Pitts.

Pitts was born in Kansas around 1900.**  Her unique name was no stage affectation:  she was named for two aunts, EliZa and Susan***.  She moved to Hollywood and started appearing in silent films in 1917, generally comedies.

Her big break came when Erich von Stroheim chose her to play Trina in his legendary production of Greed. Pitts had been generally cast in comic roles; this one was fiercely dramatic.  Trina starts out as Mac McTeague's loving wife, but, after winning the lottery, becomes obsessed with money and more and more miserly, leading to a tragic end.  It is a tremendous performance.

However, the movie's problems**** meant it did little to make her a star.  She returned to comic roles, and it kept her working until sound came in, where her voice was perfect for the character she created:  a somewhat flustered and timid woman, punctuated by vague gestures and a voice that fluttered like a butterfly.

She was tagged in 1931 to star in a series of short subjects with Thelma Todd, but quit in 1933, leaving the Roach Studio for better pastures.  She was a popular supporting player of the 30s.  One director said she ended up on the cutting room floor more than any other actress, since her gestures and expressions tended to upstage the other actors.  Here she holds her own against on of the greats of film comedy:

Her mannerisms and voice were so familiar to moviegoers of the 30s that Mae Questel imitated her when she created the voice of Olive Oyl in Popeye cartoons.

While she never had a real breakthrough role, she enlivened dozens of movies in her career.  Once TV came along, she continued to work regularly, and her role as in The Gale Storm Show was one of the highlights of the show.  In the late 1950s, she developed cancer, but continued to work up until her death in 1963.  Her last appearance was in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Even after her death, she had some influence, mostly on account of her name.  There is something about "ZaSu Pitts" that's almost inherently funny when you say it (no matter how you pronounce "ZaSu"), and it is still used from time to time for comic effect.

I think ZaSu would have like that.

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*Called Oh! Susannah! in syndication.  Back then, it was routine practice to rename shows for syndication, in the belief that people might tune in thinking it's something new.  By the mid-60s, TV executives realized that viewers wanted to watch syndicated shows, so ended the practice.

**Sources vary as to her birth year, dating from 1894 to 1900.  The Social Security Death Index lists her birth year as 1900.

***The name was pronounced a variety of ways.  "Zah-zoo" was most common, though "Zay Soo" was often used in films.  Pitts said the correct pronunciation was "Say Zoo."

****For newcomers, the original movie ran ten hours and was the most costly film of its time.  Von Stroheim cut it down to eight -- suggesting it be shown in two parts.  MGM refused to accept, so he cut it down to four hours, at which point MGM took it away from him and cut it down to a manageable two-and-a-half hours.  But many characters and subplots were cut out,making hard to follow.  The cut footage was eventually burned, though there have been attempts to create the entire film using still photos.

The Last Unicorn

(1982)
Directors: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Written by Peter S. Beagle, from his novel.
Starring (voices): Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Tammy Grimes, Robert Kline, Angela Lansbury, Christopher Lee
IMDB Page

In general, the names Rankin/Bass guarantee one thing:  lousy animated films.  Their Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is, of course, a holiday classic, but it was the high water mark of their TV work, which consisted primarily of holiday specials that are completely forgettable, with a tendency to go with the lowest common denominator and to assume the old "it's for kid, so quality doesn't matter."*

So when they took on Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, there was no reason to be thrilled.** But the result is a classic of animation.

The story follows the novel very closely.  It tells of a high fantasy world where all the unicorns are gone -- except one (Mia Farrow).  She joins up with the incompetent Schmendrick the Magician (Alan Arkin) and Molly Grue (Tammy Grimes) to find out what happened to all the rest.  The patch leads to King Haggard's (Christopher Lee) castle and the monstrous Red Bull.

It's a tale told with poetry and wonder.  Much of the book's dialogue became part of the movie; Christopher Lee, who had read the book, came prepared with a list of lines that should not be omitted.

But in addition to the story and characterization, the animation was first class.  Rankin and Bass had farmed it out to the Japanese studio Topcraft.  This turned out to be an excellent choice:  the animators thought of themselves as artists and used a style that had been barely seen in America; what we now call anime.

The movie was a great combination of storytelling and animation, and still one of the most sophisticated American animated films.

The movie was well received, and did OK at the box office, but at this time Rankin/Bass was on its last legs.  They went out of business a few years later.  The movie also suffered by being released a before DVDs were common.  By the time a tape came out, the movie had been forgotten.

Topcraft also went out of business -- but not before the animators were hired by Hayao Miyazaki to do Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Miyazaki liked their work well enough to hire their core people when he was starting up Studio Ghibli, and you can see similarities in the style of The Last Unicorn and various Studio Ghibli films.

The Last Unicorn is high fantasy at its best, one of the few times that it was translated well to screen.  It's a must for fans of fantasy and animation.

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*Though the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song from  The Year Without a Santa Claus is a classic.  But note the names:  a miser is stingy, but the characters are actually generous with heat and cold.

**Beagle is reported as saying he was "horrified" when he discovered Rankin/Bass would produce.  Their previous forays into high fantasy -- The Hobbit and The Return of the King -- did little to help Tolkien's reputation.

The Roaring 20s (TV)

(1960-62)
Starring Dorothy Provine, Donald May, Rex Reason, John Denher
IMDB Entry
(For the movie, The Roaring Twenties, see this page.)

Warner Brothers studios was one of the first to embrace television.  Hollywood felt TV would steal their audience, and even tried to keep their actors from working with it.  But Warner Brothers saw the wave of the future, and started producing series for ABC, starting with Warner Brothers Presents* in 1955.  One of the last of this wave was The Roaring 20s.

The idea of setting a show in the 1920s had been wildly successful with Warner/ABC's The Untouchables,  so they tried again.  The show followed a couple of reporters, Pat Garrison (Donald May) and Scott Norris (Rex Reason) as they investigated crimes.  The shows would alternate focus on the two stars -- they would appear in all episodes, but one would focus on Pat and the next would focus on Scott.**  Warner Brothers was able to use stock footage from their old gangster films to liven up proceedings. 

The reporters always found a way to drop by the Charleston Club, where Pinky Pinkham (Dorothy Provine) was their lead attraction, usually doing a musical number and occasionally helping out Pat and Scott. 

Provine turned into a star.  She sang songs from the era (give or take) with an enthusiasm that told you she was enjoying performing in front of you.  For most people, she was the reason to watch the show and she was able to record an album of songs from it that had a couple of minor hits in the UK.

After the first season, Rex Reason left the show and was replaced by John Denher as Duke Williams, a character I remember far more than any of the other male leads.  I think what I liked was an early one where he wrote an almost poetic description of Gertrude Ederle's*** tickertape parade down Broadway in the rain.  Trouble was, it wasn't raining in New York -- it was raining at the track where Williams had gone to play the horses.

Of special note was that film great Robert Altman directed nine episodes, one of many TV shows where he honed his craft.

The show ran for two seasons under stiff competition until it was finally canceled.  Provine was expected to become a major star, and did move on to movie leads, but never made a big impression.  Her problem, I think, was that though she was great in her ability to sell a song, she was not really an actress.  She eventually retired from acting in 1969, and seemed happy to have left.

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*An early example of a rotating series.  The episodes of Cheyenne were a big hit, and led to a series of Warner westerns like Maverick, Colt .45, Bronco, Lawman and Sugarfoot. WB also did detective series in somewhat exotic locations, like 77 Sunset Strip (Hollywood), Surfside Six (Miami Beach), Bourbon Street Beat (New Orleans), and Hawaiian Eye. The other studio that embraced TV was Disney, who used the money from their Disneyland show on ABC to build an amusement park.

**A fairly common practice in the 50s.  With 39 episodes a year, it was often hard on an actor to be in every scene in every show.  In addition, this allowed for multiple shows to be filmed simultaneously on different sets, cutting production time.

***First woman to swim the English Channel.

The Roaring Twenties

(1939)
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Screenplay by Jerry Wald & Richard Macaulay and Robert Rossen, from a story by Mark Hellinger.
Starring James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Gladys George, Frank McHugh, Jeffrey Lynn
IMDB Entry
For the TV series, go to this link.

The gangster film of the 30s was an entire subgenre unto itself.  Like the later film noir, gangster films were tragedies.  In film noir, the tragedy was brought on by outside forces (usually a woman).  In gangster films, the tragedy was due to the main character being on the wrong side of the law. The Roaring Twenties was one of the last of the subgenre, and one that's almost archetypal of the form.

The film follows three army buddies who meet in the last days of World War I.  Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney), who dreams of going back to run a garage when the war ends, is joined in a foxhole by tough guy George Hally (Humphrey Bogart)* and aspiring lawyer Lloyd Hart (Geoffrey Lynn).

Back in the US, though Eddie finds the going tough.  He can't get his old job back.  The girl who wrote him letters, Jean Sherman, is still in high school.  Eddie ends up sharing a room with his old friend Danny Green (Frank McHugh).  Danny is a cab driver, and he lends Eddie his cab in the off hours.  Eddie is caught inadvertently making a delivery of prohibited liquor to Panama Smith (Gladys George) and takes the fall -- but doesn't finger Smith.  After he gets out of jail, she helps him out as he turns to bootlegging.  He runs into George Hally, who becomes the muscle, and Lloyd Hart, who keeps the law at bay.

As is usual for movies of this vintage, the actors all play types, and usually the types they were famous for.  Cagney is the dominating presence he always was, and Bogart was in the midst of his really bad guy stage.**  Gladys George does well in the "I love him but he doesn't love me role,"*** and Frank McHugh was Frank McHugh -- the best male sidekick of the era.

Roaul Walsh is often overlooked as a director, but his filmography shows an important talent who mixed action and pure romantic films.  He started out in the silent days, and slumped a bit when sound came in.  The Roaring Twenties marked the beginning of the prime of his career, where he directed They Drive by Night, High Sierra, and the topper of the gangster film, White Heat. 

The film was a solid hit, and a triumph for all involved.  But it is far less known than the other gangster films of the era.  Possibly this is because Eddie is different from most gangsters.  He's basically a good guy who gets caught up in crime, instead of the memorable sociopaths in The Public Enemy, Scarface, and Little Caesar.

The movie, though, is a fine representative of the genre and still holds up wonderfully.

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* Whose character is defined quite neatly: when someone comments that a German soldier looks like he's only 15, Hally takes a shot and then comments, "He won't be 16."

**Bogart was badly used in the 30s.  He was typed as a gangster when Leslie Howard insisted he repeat his Broadway role of Duke Mantee in The Desperate Hours, but Warner Brothers already had two major gangster types (Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft, not to mention Paul Muni) already under contract.  Bogart made a name as a second lead, but didn't become a major star until the 1940s, ironically, because Muni and Raft turned down the roles that Bogart snapped up.

***Inspired by real-life speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan (Yes, that's where the name comes for the character in Star Trek:  the Next Generation)

Fizzies (drink)

(1957-197???)
Wikipedia Entry

In general, soft drinks are developed by soft drink companies.  Fizzies was a soft drink developed by a drug company. 

Fizzies were developed by Lem Billings, a chemist.  He probably got his inspiration from Alka-Seltzer, which came in a tablet the effervesced when dropped in water*  Billings developed a tablet that did the same thing -- but turned into a fruit-flavored carbonated soft drink.  The product was introduced by the Emerson Drug Company and eventually bought and marketed nationally by Warner Lambert.

Fizzies came in six main flavors:  orange, cherry, grape, lemon-lime, strawberry, and root beer.**  Each package contained eight tablets.  You'd just drop them into a glass of water and you'd have an instant soft drink.

At least, that was how they were supposed to work.  The problem was that the tablet was not big enough to flavor a full glass of water***.  So, as a kid, you'd drop a tablet into the water and watch it fizz and color the water, but it tasted only vaguely of fruit and the carbonation lasted about 30 seconds after the tablet dissolved.  Sometimes you'd drop in two tablets in the hope of actually getting some flavor out of it; that rarely worked.  Occasionally, on a dare, a kid would put a tablet in his mouth to see what happened.  I never did, but I suspect the result would have been similar to Zotz -- only 20-fold.

Part of it was probably due to one of the things the bragged about in their ads:  Fizzies had no sugar.  Instead, it used saccharine and cyclamates to flavor it.  I would say the chemical taste was a turn off, but I really don't recall much taste at all.

Here is a look at a Fizzies ad, though the one I remember was an on-air plug by Shari Lewis who talked about a boy who had some Fizzies in his bathing suit.  When he went swimming, it was the day Lake Michigan became superior.  The pun was about as good as the drink.

Fizzies died out in the 70s as kids finally caught on, and were probably killed when cyclamates were banned.  It seems to be available online, its sales fueled by nostalgia and selective memory.  Still, there is something great about the concept of soda-in-a-pill, even if it never matched its expectations.

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*The chemicals in Alka-Seltzer that cause the fizz are just baking soda and citric acid; the actual medicine has nothing to do with the carbonation.

**Cola was occasionally added as a flavor.

***At least, not the size shown on the commercials.  Compare the size of the glass where the tablet is dropped (along with the fact that some of the bubbles are animated to make it seem more effervescent) with that the clown drinks from.  Back then, of course, it was considered fair play to do anything in a commercial to make the product look better.