All-Star Baseball (game)

(1941-1989)
Invented by Ethan Allen
Wikipedia Page
More Detailed History
If you love baseball, winter is hard, so the idea of a game based upon baseball to fill the time between games probably goes back to the 19th century.  Most early games used dice to come up with the play, but those who longed for greater realism were out of luck.  That is, until All-Star Baseball was introduced.
The game was the brain child of Ethan Allen,* a moderately successful major league player of the 20s and 30s.  After he retired, he became head baseball coach at Yale, and it is here where he developed the game and sold it to Cadaco, who made it for years.
Instead of using dice, All-Star Baseball used cards.  Only they weren’t standard baseball cards:  they were circular, with a big hole in the center.  You’d put the card on a spinner on the game board (there was a raised area that matched the hole) and spun the pointer.  The number showing when the spinner stopped determined the results: for example, if you spun a “1,” it was a home run (as everyone who ever played the game remembers).
But the perimeter of the cards were not uniform.  Each section containing a number was a different size.  The size of each option were designed to match the performance of the player.  Thus the home run area (1) for Mickey Mantle was considerably larger than that for Nellie Fox. Although crude, the setup did have the players hitting like they did in real life.  There was a second spinner for the defense, which had limited options (things like holding a runner to one base instead of two on a single), and was probably not bothered with.
The game was far from perfect.  In addition to the lack of defensive options,** there was no consideration for the pitching,*** so a batter would hit just the same no matter who was on the mound.  The design of the cards meant that there was a trick to put them on the spinner, and the game consisted of placing the card, spinning the pointer, then putting down a new card.  Your finger could get pretty sore with all the spinning, too.
On the plus side, the game used the names of real players, both active and historical.  The players were honored to be part of it and granted their permission for next to nothing.  The game also could easily be played in a solitaire version.
As time went by, things changed.  They started adding player photos to the cards, and eliminated the large hole in the center. 
Around 1993, though, they stopped making the game.  One factor was that the Players Association started asking for more money for using the players’ names, but the drawbacks of the game conspired against it.  There were more accurate simulations by that point, and spinning the spinner was hopelessly low tech.  New versions come out sporadically for the nostalgia market
There are still many who look fondly back on the game, but computer games have moved far beyond what you could do with cardboard.  It’s too bad – I actually liked sports games where realism was thrown out the window.
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*No, not the Revolutionary War hero.
**I don’t think many people bothered with it, and it seems to have been added to the game to give the defensive team something to do.
***Pitchers did have cards, but only for batting.  Pitcher cards rarely had a “1” on them.

The Temperance Seven (music)

(Founded 1955)
Members included Paul McDowell , Philip Harrison and Brian Innes (founders) and Clifford Bevan,  Colin Bowles, Alan Swainston Cooper,  John R.T. Davies, Martin Fry, John Gieves-Watson,  Cephas Howard, "Whispering" Paul McDowell, Mac White, Ray Whittam Ian Howarthm, Graham Collicott and a cast of thousands.
Wikipedia Page
Temperance Seven Home Page

I’ve talked about my love for the Bonzo Dog Band.  I’m also a fan of music from the 1930s, so when I discovered the Temperance Seven, it was clearly something I’d want to include here, since they included elements of both.

The Temperance Seven was part of the “trad jazz” musical movement in postwar Britain, where bands started playing dixieland and other songs that their grandfathers listened to.  It remained popular into the sixties (though not often on the singles charts).  But as the movement matured, some musicians began to treat the music in a more ironic mode.  The Temperance Seven was founded at the end of 1955 in order to play that music and to have a lot of fun with it.

Though not a “comedy” music group like the Bonzos, the Seven* did not take their music too seriously.  They wore period costumes when the played and gave themselves bizarre stage names as part of the show.  They revived old tunes like “Tea for Two,” “Charleston,” “Ukelele Lady,” and many other of the era, with a sense of fun and real regard fro the genre.

The group was very influential in the UK, getting a #1 hit with “You’re Driving Me Crazy” in 1961.**  But the trad jazz movement was exclusively a British phenomenon; they didn’t make any impact on the US charts.***

Despite this, the Temperance Seven continued on.  They still seem active today, playing music that is more and more old fashioned but just as delightful as ever.

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*The name of the band; there weren’t necessarily seven members at any given time; most album covers I can see show eight.

**The Bonzo Dog Band were influenced by them.

***About the only trad jazz that made an impact on the US was Mr. Acker Bilk, The New Vaudeville Band, and the Village Stompers and Al Hirt from the US.

Special Event: Futuredaze

As I mention to the left, I’m a science fiction writer.  And tomorrow, March 12, there will be a special, online chat to promote Futuredaze, a new YA anthology containing my story “Spirk Station.”  It also has fiction by authors like Gregory Frost, William John Watkins, Jack McDevitt, Gregory Frost, and many others.

The chat is being held by Bitten by Books  starting at noon, Central time, and will run 24 hours.  If you take part, you earn points; the the two people with the most win $20 Amazon gift certificates. RSVP in advance and get extra points toward them.  Follow this link to the chat:  http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=62201

Sugarfoot (TV)

(1957-61)
Based on a story by Michael Fessler and a screenplay by Frank Davis and Winston Miller.  Original TV screenplay by Devery Freeman
Starring Will Hutchens
IMDB Entry
Wikipedia Entry

In the late 50s, the major movie studios start to think that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em and made the jump into TV production.  Disney was first with Disneyland on ABC, but that was an aberration.* But Warner Brothers realized that there was money to be made in TV production and made a deal with ABC with a rotating group of three shows:  Cheyenne, King’s Row, and Casablanca. Cheyenne became a hit, so they spun it off and added two more westerns, Bronco and the subject of today’s lecture, Sugarfoot.

Tom Brewster (Will Hutchens) was a young would-be lawyer in the TV west, traveling from one job to another and, of course, always running into trouble.  What made him different from other TV cowboys was his deliberate lack of machismo.  He drank sarsaparilla, spoke softly, and didn’t usually carry a gun (though he was a crack shot when necessary).  Because of this, he was called “Sugarfoot” – one step below “Tenderfoot.”

It was a somewhat different sensibility from the other westerns of the time.**  Brewster was awkward and polite to everyone, and preferred to out think and out reason his foes rather than meet them in a showdown.  Occasionally, he’d meet up with his outlaw cousin, the Canary Kid (Hutchins again), and there’d be mistaken identity galore. The show had a light touch to it, playing off Brewster’s seeming naivety. As far as I know, he never got his law degree.

The show ran for four seasons. Afterwards, Hutchens moved on to the sitcom Hey Landlord and as a guest star. 

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*Disney actually wasn’t a major studio at the time.  Walt made the deal because he needed the money to build his theme park.

**Though similar in many ways to the later movie Support Your Local Sheriff, which costarred Jack Elam, who had a recurring role in Sugarfoot.  Small world.

Arthur Upfield (author)

(1890-1964)
Wikipedia Page

Mystery stories are about gimmicks:  the gimmick that makes the murder stand out, the one that leads the detective to the solution.  And, of course, the detective him- or herself.  And its these gimmicks that create great detectives.  Arthur Upfield used an off-beat detective and a talent for creating great mysteries to create a long career that is underappreciated in the US.

Upfield was English, but moved to Australia as a boy, where he spent most of his life.  After WWI, he worked on various stations in the outback and started writing.  His first novel, The House of Cain, was successful enough, but his second, The Barrakee Mystery, introduced his signature character:  Inspector Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte.

Bony* had an Aboriginal mother and white father (something that was extremely daring when the book came out in 1929), and leaned heavily on this Aboriginal background.  It wasn’t mystical mumbo jumbo, though, but rather the application of both keen observation and a knowledge of the natural world of the Australian bush.  Bony was sure of his own abilities and proud of never having let a case go unsolved.

The mysteries themselves were also clever and well constructed.  Upfield was always on the lookout for new twists (usually one that related to Australia). 

In one occasion, The Sands of Windee, he even did it too well,  The “Murchison Murders” were committed by an acquaintance of Upfield who used it to dispose of bodies of people he killed.  He didn’t follow the method perfectly, though, and Upfield testified against him at the trial.**

Upfield also wrote some other mysteries,*** but it was Bony who made his reputation.  He completed 29 novels with the character until his death in 1964.  His work is still well known in Australia, of course, and in the UK, but most American mystery fans have never heard of him.  His Bony books can be found, though, and are worth the effort to dig up.

In memory of the Wombat: jan howard finder (March 2, 1939 – February 26, 2013).

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*He insisted everyone use that name.

**He later wrote a nonfiction book about the case.

***The Beach of Atonement, which was next to impossible to find, was recently reprinted.  I designed the cover.

Schweppes Bitter Lemon (food)

1957-???

When I was a kid, I had oddball taste in food.  Among other things, I didn’t care for soda.  I didn’t like the carbonation – it stung – and was used to drinking milk, so the sweetness had no appeal.  But in my early teens, I discovered a soda I actually enjoyed drinking:  Schweppes Bitter Lemon.

Bitter lemon had a long history, first developed in the 1830s as a mixer.  It was a combination of lemon juice and tonic.  It’s name described it:  it had a slightly bitter taste and the tang of lemon juice. 

It was a change from the usual sugary sodas for me.  One difference was the presence of a little bit of lemon pulp. Even though I wasn’t concerned about “all-natural” in those days, the little bits of lemon floating made it seem more real to me, and the fact that it wasn’t cloyingly sweet made it very refreshing.

It was never a very popular brand in the US.  If you found it in a supermarket, it would be with the cocktail mixers with bloody mary mix and swizzle sticks.  You had better luck in a beverage store and, possibly, in liquor stores in states that allowed for its sale. For me, it was a real treat.

There was also a Bitter Orange, which was the same thing, only the orange juice was sweeter.  I haven’t seen it in years, and it seems that they stopped making it in the US in 2011.* 

There are some attempts to market the flavor in the US, though it’s limited to knockoffs of Bitter Orange.  Polar, for instance, has Orange Dry, which is a less-sweet orange soda, but with no tonic, and it was the taste of quinine that made Bitter Lemon so good.

I probably wouldn’t drink it enough now to support the brand if it came back, but I hope that someone might try.

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*It’s still available in the UK, Germany, and Canada.

Shel Silverstein (music)

(1930-1999)
Wikipedia Entry

Yes, everyone knows Shel Silverstein.  When the Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree are classics of children’s literature, still in print after 50 years. But Silverstein was a complete talent.  In addition to writing and cartooning, he was a songwriter, with songs that often were far different from what you’d expect from a children’s book writer.*

Silverstein grew up in Chicago and started out as a cartoonist, with some of his work appearing in Army magazines while he was in Korea in the 50s.  He began appearing in major magazines and had a series of special articles for Playboy.  In 1963, after publishing several books of adult cartoons, he went into children’s books with Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back.

Silverstein took up music in college and starting to write successful songs in the 1950s.  By the mid-60s, his songs had been recorded by Peter Paul and Mary (“Boa Constrictor”), Johnny Cash (“25 Minutes to Go”), and the Irish Rovers (“The Unicorn”).  Cash then had one of the biggest hits of his long career with Silverstein’s “A Boy Named Sue.”

That was typical of Silverstein.  He was, after all, a cartoonist, so his songs were often funny, with a sardonic sense of humor that sometimes bordered on the macabre.**

Silverstein had one weakness.  While a great songwriter and top-notch accompanist, his voice was no great shakes.  In 1970, he was composing a musical score for Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? when a producer brought in a group that was working hard to break in, thinking they’d be perfect for Silverstein’s material.  Evidently they were, because Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show rose to prominence on the strength of his material.

Their first song from him, “Sylvia’s Mother,” was a massive hit.  It’s an over-the-top ballad about trying to talk to an ex-girlfriend and a parody of that sort of breakup song.***  The album was a big hit.

They followed it up with Sloppy Seconds, which was only Silverstein material.  “On the Cover of the Rolling Stone” was another hit, a funny and satirical look at being a rock and roll star. 

Other Silverstein songs for Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show include “Roland the Roadie and Gertrude the Groupie,” “Freaking at the Freaker’s Ball,” “Penicillin Penny,” and “I Got Stoned and I Missed It.” As the titles indicate, the songs were concerned with sex and drugs and were all sardonically amusing.  But Silverstein could also be serious:  “The Queen of the Silver Dollar” is a wonderfully joyous love song.

Dr. Hook started moving on to other songs and songwriters, with further hits, but without Silverstein.  He continued to write for other artists, including the delightful “One’s On the Way” for Loretta Lynn.  He did put out an album with many of the songs that were covered by Dr. Hook, but with little success.

Not that it really mattered to Silverstein’s career.  He already had several irons on the fire with the books and everything else.  And he is very well regarded in music circles (and in country music especially) for his songs. It is an aspect of a great artist that sometimes gets overlooked.

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*Though far more like what you’d expect from a major contributor to Playboy, which Silverstein was.  Like Roald Dahl, he’s best known for children’s works despite the fact he had a long list of very adult works.

**”25 Minutes to Go” is about a man on death row, who ends up hanging at the end.  Johnny Cash sang it in Folsom Prison – true gallows humor.  “Boa Constrictor” has the singer being eaten by a snake.

***At first, a lot of people hated it because they didn’t get the joke.  Even now, some people still think it’s meant seriously, but, really, how seriously can you take a song with the refrain, “And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes, please.”?

Mad Dog and Glory

(1993)
Directed by John McNaughton
Written by Richard Price
Starring  Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Bill Murray, David Caruso, Mike Starr
IMDB Entry

I’ve always noticed that some actors are particularly good when they’re cast against type.  People who started doing a lot of villains, like Telly Savalas and Peter Falk, can play very good heroes when given the chance.  Some who are used to playing good guys, like Fred MacMurray, make really great villains (see The Apartment).  And when more than one actor is cast against type, the results can be surprisingly good.

Mad Dog and Glory is a case in point.

Wayne “Mad Dog” Dobie (Robert De Niro) is a cop.  Not one who pounds a beat, but a timid police photographer who’s never had to draw his gun.  One night, he stumbles on a convenience store holdup and scares off the crook just before he can kill Frank Milo (Bill Murray).  Milo is grateful.  He is also a crime boss and in his gratitude, he send Mad Dog a present:  Glory (Uma Thurman), a woman who is in hock to Milo and has to follow his orders.  She is Mad Dog’s for one week, to do whatever he wants.

It’s not the best start to a relationship.  But Mad Dog and Glory find an affinity and decide they want to be together once the week is over.  But Milo is not about to allow that:  the deal is for one week, and he’s not the type of person who lets others change the terms of things.

De Niro is quiet and very laid back as Mad Dog,* a nice guy who is a little embarrassed by the whole situation until he gets to know Glory.  Murray gets away from the wiseass persona he had adopted around this point in his career, playing Milo as a menacing bully – who also is seeing a shrink** and performing in a comedy club.

Uma Thurman is also a the top of her game.  Her Glory is a real person with problems in addition to Milo, and needs to move on to some stability.  David Caruso, just before NYPD Blue made him a star,*** is good as Mad Dog’s best friend, while Mike Starr was his usual down-to-Earth self as one of Milo’s henchmen.

The writer, Richard Price, had come to prominence with the script to The Color of Money, and director John McNaughton had made some waves with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. 

But the film didn’t do well at the box office.  People found its mood confusing: it starts out with Mad Dog photographing a couple of bloody murders, the veers to comedy, and then romance, then back.  The climactic scene with Milo and Mad Dog is funny and also very serious.  This is by design – I think both McNaughton and Price knew what they were doing – but audiences weren’t really sure what sort of movie it was.

The film faded from memory as all the actors went on to other things.  It’s still a strange and charming comedy that is a mix of humor, romance, and deadly serious situations.
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*The nickname is ironic, and, of course, has nothing to do with Mad Dog.

**Shades of Analyize This!

***Actually, Caruso first came to my attention in Hill Street Blues, where he had a recurring role as a young gangleader.  Evidently Stephen Bochco had forgotten that when he cast Caruso in NYPD Blue

The Man on the Flying Trapeze

(1935)
Directed by Clyde Bruckman (and W. C. Fields)
Story by “Charles Bogle” (W. C. Fields), screenplay by Ray Harris and Sam Hardy
Starring W. C. Fields, Mary Brian, Kathleen Howard, Grady Sutton, Vera Lewis, Walter Brennan, Carlotta Monti
IMDB Entry

The image of W. C. Fields is that of the snarling con man, the man who kicked babies and thought “anyone who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad.”*  But, unlike the other great film comedians,** Fields didn’t always play the same character.  His characters are on a continuum, with some being what people think he’s like, but others being exceptionally meek and mild and willing to tolerate any indignity.  Some of his best films show that side of him, including The Man on the Flying Trapeze.

In the movie, Ambrose Woolfinger (Fields) is introduced sneaking a sip of whiskey under the nose of his wife Leona (Kathleen Howard). Ambrose is a “memory expert”; his job involves remembering people and events for his boss, and keeping track of important papers (on a giant pile on his desk, though he can find anything instantly).  Ambrose has to endure the jibes of his mother-in-law (Vera Lewis) as well as his lazy brother-in-law (Grady Sutton).  Ambrose is a fan of wrestling, and decides to take his first day off in years in order to go to the big match.  Naturally, things get complicated from there.

Fields portrays Ambrose as a henpecked husband, putting up with the insults and indignities of life (in one sequence, he gets one traffic ticket after another as he tries to comply with the requests of various cops) until he finally snaps.  Fields the writer and director*** may have sneered at the people around him, but Ambrose wouldn’t think to do it.  Fields goes a long way to be the sympathetic character.

Two minor casting notes.  Carlotta Monti, who plays Ambrose’s secretary, was Field’s mistress; she gives a speech where she defends Ambrose when he’s fired for taking the day off.  And Walter Brennan plays a bit part of a burglar who Fields finds in his house and drinking his applejack.

Like most of Field’s films, this was not a big success when it was released.  It made money, but Fields’s comedy was too bitter for the 30s.  His persona started getting wide notice after his death, as impersonators started showing the popular version of his characters. 

The Man on the Flying Trapeze remains relatively obscure Fields.  It has been overshadowed by films like It’s a Gift and The Bank Dick**** and My Little Chickadee.  It also seems to have taken its time to have a DVD, meaning contemporary audiences have overlooked it.  But it’s one of his comedy classics.

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*Which he never said.  The comment was made about him by Leo Rosten at a roast at the Masquer’s Club.

**My list would be Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Fields, the Marx Brothers, Mae West, Jacques Tati, and Woody Allen.  They all were consistently funny, and also were in control of their onscreen images, usually by writing or directing the role.  Only Chaplin showed much variation, and in his case it was an evolution of the character to make him more sympathetic; Fields would switch personas from film to film as necessary.

***Fields took over direction from Clyde Bruckman when the latter fell ill.

****Both of which portrayed characters similar to that in The Man on the Flying Trapeze.

Ace in the Hole

(1951)
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder, Lesser Samuels, and Walter Newman
Starring Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling
IMDB Entry

For a long time, the adjective used to describe Billy Wilder was “cynical.” And, indeed, the director of films like Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, and The Fortune Cookie certainly shows a jaundanced view of humanity.  But there’s a problem being too cynical – at least there was in the 1950s* – so his movie Ace in the Hole was a flop. Still, it is among his best.

The movie follow Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas), a down and out newspaperman.  Tatum’s problems were all his own and he ends up taking a job at the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin, a small newspaper that’s his only chance.  After trying to keep his nose clean, Tatum stumbles upon a story:  a local artifact hunter, Leo Minosa, is trapped in a cave and needs to be rescued.

Tatum sees this as opportunity.  He convinces rescuers to take their time in order to keep the story going.  And he succeeds:  the country focuses on Leo and the attempts to save him.  The site becomes a media carnival (literally) as the news and curiosity seekers converge.

This is a movie with the courage of its cynical convictions.  Tatum never softens in his hustle and brash talk.  Douglas plays him as a pure heel, only out for himself and willing to climb over anyone to get his way and with a dark view of humanity.  Few others show anything but an eye for what’s in it for them; even Leo’s wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) is out only for herself.

The movie flopped.  The audience just didn’t like to see such as bitter look at US society, one where decent people are few and far between.  The studio tried to rename it The Big Carnival to sucker people in, but to no avail.

The flop didn’t hurt Wilder’s career much** and was forgotten by all but fanatical film aficionados.  But it’s far more in tune with attitudes today.***

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* I’m reminded of the slogan, “No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.”

**The studio did some bookkeeping tricks, so that his cut of profits in his next film – Stalag 17 – was cut by the studio.

***See it on a double feature with The Well (from the same year), which deals with the same situation in a more upbeat way.

The Two of Us

(Le vieil homme et l'enfant) (1967)
Directed by Claude Berri
Written by  Claude Berri, Gerard Brach, and Michel Rivelin
Starring Michel Simon, Alain Cohen
IMDB Entry
One of the best things about going off to college for me was the ability to see many more movies.  I grew up in a small town, with only one theater (one screen, of course), so my choices were limited to what they showed as well as anything that was broadcast on the NYC stations (once we got cable).  Not only did I move to an area with a couple of dozen theaters, but our college had its own film programs.  My freshman year, they had a general policy – classics and well-known films on weekends, but art films on Tuesday and Friday.  Which is where I saw The Two of Us.

The movie is set in 1944 in France.  Claude (Alain Cohen) is a Jewish boy living with his parents in secret in Paris.  Afraid he might give them away, they quickly teach him some of the basics of Catholicism and send him to a farm in the French countryside, run by Grandpa (Michel Simon).  Grandpa is prickly, charming, and often very sweet. He is also an anti-Semite, believing the Jews are responsible for the war.

The movie, based upon director Claude Berri’s experiences as a boy, stays away from the usual Hollywood dramatics such a situation would normally bring up. Normally, you’d expect most of the film being made up of Claude fearing being exposed and with many incidents where he just manages to keep from being found out.  While Claude is aware he had to keep his origin secret,* the movie isn’t built around it, nor is it built around Grandpa discovering the errors of his ways.**  The movie is more about the relationship between the two and how it grows into a loving friendship.

Michel Simon had appeared in several landmark French films of the 30s and beyond.***  This film was an attempt at a comeback after an accident involving film makeup paralyzed part of his face, and helped him reclaim his stardom.  His Grandpa is richly pictured as having a strong fatherly love for the boy, while still showing a lot of complexity to the character.

Alain Cohen also turns in a terrific performance, one of the best by a child in the history of film.  He’s perfectly natural and extremely likeable.

This was Claude Berri’s first full-length film, financed after he won a best short subject Oscar.  He continued a successful career with more autobiographical films**** and in 1986 directed his masterpiece:  Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring.  But even the first time out, Berri shows a overflowing talent.
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*For instance, if anyone discovers he’s circumcised, he’s in big trouble. 
**He doesn’t.
***His role in Boudu Saved from Drowning was played by Nick Nolte in a remake fifty years later, Down and Out in Beverly Hills.
****Starring Cohen, using him much like Truffault used Jean-Pierre Leaud for his semiautobiographical work.

Hoppity Hooper (TV)

(1964-56)
Produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott
Written by Bill Scott and Chris Hayward
Starring  Chris Allen, Hans Conreid, Bill Scott, Paul Frees
IMDB Entry

Jay Ward and Bill Scott were superstars of Saturday morning cartoons.  Ward helped produce the first TV show to feature original animation, Crusader Rabbit, and he and Scott were the creators of Rocky and Bullwinkle* and its spinoffs, plus also George of the Jungle.  But their most obscure work was the short-lived series Hoppity Hooper.

The show recounted the adventures of the title character (Chris Allen), a young, somewhat naïve frog from Foggy Bog, Wisconsin.  In the first episode, he runs into a couple small-time con animals, Waldo Wigglesworth (Hans Conreid), a fox, and Fillmore (Bill Scott), a bear.  Waldo manages to convince Hoppity that he’s his uncle, and the three go off on various misadventures.

The stories are reminiscent of those in Rocky and Bullwinkle, the adventures shown in multi-episode pieces filled with puns, wordplay, and silly satire.  Unlike Rocky and Bullwinkle, the adventures were short:  usually four parts.  The Hoppity Hooper cartoons were the first and last of each half hour show, with other Jay Ward cartoons like Fractured Fairy Tales rerun to fill out the time.

Hoppity was very much like Rocky – cheerful, friendly, but not quite as alert to what was going on.  Fillmore was a dumber version of Bullwinkle; his signature was to blow a loud, flat note on his bugle.  Paul Frees handled the narration and any stray characters who came along.

But it was Uncle Waldo who was the centerpiece.  Hans Conreid was at his best in the role, hamming outrageously and having a lot of fun. 

The show ran for two seasons, then was in syndication for some time.  Ward continued with Rocky and Bullwinkle for a few more years, until that sort of cartoon became passé. 

But if you love the Moose and Squirrel, you should see their Frog, Fox, and Bear counterparts.

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*People don’t realize how long a run Rocky and Bullwinkle had.  It lasted almost to 1980 on NBC’s schedule, though in the last few years it ran at 1:00 pm, when most local affiliates switched to other shows.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

(1962)
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Screenplay by Lukas Heller, based on the novel by Henry Farrell
Starring Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
IMDB Entry

Hollywood is tough on aging actresses.  There seems to be a career path from sexy girlfriend, to wife, to “whatever happened to?”  But the glamour is still part of it, and it’s often difficult for an actress to admit to herself that she isn’t as attractive, and even more difficult for a star (especially an old Hollywood star) to play an unglamorous role. In Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, director Robert Aldrich managed to get Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in a movie about a pair of aging actresses.

Baby Jane Hudson is a very successful child star in vaudeville, much to the envy of her sister Blanche.*  And when movies come in, both go to Hollywood, but Blanche (Joan Crawford) is now the star, while Baby Jane (Bette Davis) is the flop.**  Jane turns to alcohol and, on one drunken evening, there is a car crash and Blanche is left permanently injured.

The film then moves to the 1960s.  The two sisters live together. Jane is a bitter woman, lost in the bottle, but spending her time caring for Blanche mostly out of guilt. And Jane is becoming more and more erratic, even planning a comeback, grotesquely singing the songs she did as a child star, despite the fact the are hideously inappropriate.  She hires Edwin Flagg (Victor Buono) to help, and begins to psychologically torture Blanche in a portrayal of classic controlling behavior. 

Director Robert Aldrich was even then best known for action films, and Baby Jane is more about psychological torture than action.  Jane’s erratic behavior terrifies Blanche, and he manages to make the use of a single set – the sisters’ house – in terrifying ways.***

Bette Davis may have been the best of the actresses of Golden Age Hollywood, and her Jane is terrific – childish, bitter, nasty, and walking around with tons of makeup that make her look grotesque.  And yet, at the end, she says one of the most pathetically sad lines in film history, completely changing your opinion of the character.

Crawford was also one of the greats of the time, and her Blanche is, by necessity, a far more subtler performance.  She is the one the audience identifies with, and is the focus of the terror.  She makes a good victim partly because you can sense her inner strength, but helplessness due to the accident.

This is the first time the two actresses worked together.  Often, big Hollywood names of the 40s didn’t have their paths crossing, usually because they worked for different studios.****  In this case, however, there was another reason:  the two women hated each other.  This predated the movie, and there was some wonder in Hollywood as to whether Aldrich could even finish it, given that it had a very low budget.  He knew of the issue, however, and kept them apart except for any scenes they were required to play together.  They two women also appreciated that they needed a good role to keep their careers alive, so swallowed their hatred and made the film.*****

The movie was a major hit, and gave a boost to Davis’s career and garnering her an Oscar nomination.  Aldrich was able to make more hits, including The Flight of the Phoenix and The Dirty Dozen. Crawford did less, devolving into movies like Trog, though she was memorable in an episode of Night Gallery, one of Stephen Spielberg's first TV assignments.

Despite its success, which made the title a catchphrase, the movie seems to have fallen off the radar.  Its type of horror – called Grand Guignol at the time, though it seems far from that today – seems tame, and audiences are more interested in younger actors and more bloody scares.  But Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? still stands as an important landmark in film.

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*The dynamic is similar to that in Gypsy, though with far more conflict between the sisters.

**Actual clips from some of their films of the time were used to show their careers.  Bette Davis suggested Parachute Jumper as the worst film she ever did, so footage from that was use.

***The movie was my first realization of the “gun on the table” principle of writing:  I noticed the door to Blanche’s bedroom opened outward, not into the room as is usual.  It turned out that became an important plot point later on. 

****Davis worked for Warner Brothers, while Crawford was as MGM.

*****After the success of Baby Jane, Aldrich wanted to get the two actresses together again for Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, but Crawford dropped out and was replaced by Olivia de Havilland (whose feud with her sister Joan Fontaine made the Davis-Crawford one seem like a playground spat).  Davis was photographed drinking Coca-Cola, a dig at Crawford, who was on the board of Pepsi and insisted on product placement for Pepsi in every film she was in.

What Time Are You? (music)

(1971)
by Steve Kaczorowski

What Time Are You? is a self-published album of ten songs that came out around 1971. Normally, something like this is handed out to a few friends and relatives and never heard from again.  But in the most recent eBay auction, the album sold for over $1100.  Rare, certainly, but why such a collector’s item?

The story is a long one, and a fascinating one.  I knew Steve.  He went to my high school, a year after me.  I never met him before I graduated, for the simple reason that he transferred in the next year. My brother Ron, who even now does concert gigs back home, introduced him to me; they met because of their interest in performing.

You see, Steve was a rock star.  Under his stage name of Steve Martin,* he was a member of the Left Banke, and wrote their hits Walk Away Renee and Pretty Ballerina.  He clearly kept his contacts in the music business:  when I visited his house, he had promotional copies of dozens of albums.**  He was my age, but a year behind me because of the time he had spent touring. 

And he made his money by writing songs for established artists and then selling all rights to them.  When groups were short a song or two, he’d write something for them as work for hire.  These included “I Got a Line on You” by Spirit,*** “Signs” by the Five Man Electrical Band, and “I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After.  He was also credited (as “Steve Martin”) on an album by the “Bosstown” rock group Orpheus.  He also did music production under the name of Steve Drake.

He used his contacts that spring, when he managed to get permission for what was the first North American production of Jesus Christ Superstar.  Steve alternated in the role of Jesus and word had it that some big names – including John Sebastian and Paul McCartney -- showed up.

And, at about this time, Steve recorded What Time Are You? I remember listening to it and was impressed.  The songs were melodic and catchy, with standouts like “I’d Love to Change the Word,” “Think I Better Find My Way Home,”  “Big Green Pearl,” and several others.  There were also some big names involved:  Robert Fripp, Don McLean, and Nicky Hopkins.  I remember how strange it was to hear one song and realize I knew the people it was talking about.  My father stocked it in his store.

Here’s “I’d Love to Change the World” (co-credited to Alvin Lee of Ten Years After):

I’d Love to Change the World

I then moved on until, a few years ago, I decided to track him down on the Internet.  That’s when I learned that Steve Kaczorowski was hoaxing us all.

It started out, like so many things, with a search on his name.  I found the transcript of an Internet radio that talked about him.  What Steve had done was take obscure album cuts, often by obscure British groups, remove the audio track (or mix it down so it sounded like a backing vocal) and sing the part himself. 

The more I looked into it, the more I discovered that just about everything Steve had told us was untrue.  A little while later, a web page was put up detailing the songs he used and the technical background of it all.  The only thing that is real is that he did, indeed, arrange for the school to do Jesus Christ Superstar, but not because of any contacts:  when Andrew Lloyd Webber found out, it was too close to opening night, so he agreed to allow it as long as no admission was charged.

Steve put out several other albums using the same trick:  taking existing songs, rerecording either the vocals or getting a band to play behind him, and releasing them, now as the “Steve Drake Band.”  These albums are all collectors items among those who know their history.

The funny thing is, no one who knew him begrudges him for this (including one guy who got caught up in a lawsuit when a band found out what was happening).  Steve was a nice guy, and came across as very modest about his “accomplishments.”  He never made any claims about his supposed past to me, for instance,**** and those who worked with him were impressed by his enthusiasm and creativity.

Steve died in 2009.

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*Not the comedian.

**He played Cold Spring Harbor,  the first solo album by Billy Joel.  I was used to seeing promotional albums, because I was working at my college radio station, and a copy of Cold Spring Harbor was waiting at college when I returned.

***He recorded this as a single; my brother did some backing vocals.

****I heard them from other people.

Olive the Other Reindeer (TV)

(1999)
Directed by Steve Moore
Written by Steve Young, from a book by J. Otto Siebold and Vivian Walsh
Starring Drew Barrymore, Dan Castellaneta, Joe Pantoliano, Edward Asner, Peter MacNicol, Tim Meadows, Jay Mohr, Michael Stipe
IMDB Entry

There are times when you realize a TV show or movie is a classic, even before you get to the end. I don’t get that feeling often, but halfway through Olive the Other Reindeer, I knew that this was one.

The story is about Olive (voice of Drew Barrymore), a dog.  Olive loves Christmas, but when Blitzen is injured and can’t fly, she is disconsolate. Her pet flea Fido (Peter MacNicol)* hears Santa saying “Olive the Other Reindeer, and convinces her it means he expects her to help out.  Olive is not like other dogs, as her owner Tim (Jay Mohr) points out, so she decides to go to the North Pole to help out.  Her plans are discovered by an evil mailman (Dan Castellaneta), who hates Christmas because of the burden of extra mail, plus the fact he’s been on Santa’s naughty list.  He tries to stop her.  So, with the help of Martini (Joe Pantoliano), a con man penguin, she goes out to save Christmas.

Now, the “Save Christmas” plot has been done many times. To make it work, you have to do something different and Olive has plenty of this. The story is filled with puns (especially the character names), callouts to other shows (Olive passes Frostbite Falls on her way to the North Pole), good and funny songs (written by producer Matt Groening , creator of The Simpsons), and general silliness (Olive gets out of a tight spot by opening an envelope from “Deus ex Machina”).  The humor throughout is very layered, and you notice more jokes the more often you view the show**.

The voice cast is wonderful.  Drew Barrymore captures the wide-eyed innocence of Olive perfectly and Dan (Homer Simpson) Castellaneta makes the mailman a terrific comic villain.  Joe Pantoliano’s Martini make him the comic highlight of every scene he’s in.

The show mimicked the style of the artist of the original book, J. Otto Siebold.  It looks like paper cutouts of the characters in the books.  It’s a big change from the usual style of animation, and nothing like any American or Japanese animation at all.*** People are used to the three-dimensional computer animation, or something like Anime, or even the Disney style; this may have been a little distracting.

That may have been why it seems to have vanished.  Only the Cartoon Network is showing it this year, and that’s in time slots a long way from prime time.  The show seems to have been a labor of love by Groening, Barrymore, and the rest of the cast.  It’s a shame it’s not better known.****

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*Who is hard of hearing (or, perhaps secretly evil).

**In one scene, Blitzen’s cousin Schnitzel (REM’s Michael Stipe) introduces himself as “flightless, unfortunately.”  Martini responds, “It happens.”

***It seems to me to be more European in style, like the works coming out of Czechoslovakia in the 60s.

****I purchased a copy of  it at the local supermarket; the cashier was confused, wondering why there was a dog on the cover.

In memory of Ed Cassidy (1923-2012)

Drummer and the face of Spirit.

Arthur Christmas

(2011)
Directed by Sarah Smith, Barry Cook
Written by Peter Baynham (screenplay), Sarah Smit (story)
Starring:  James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Ashley Jensen, Ramona Marquez
IMDB Entry

I mentioned recently that I was a big fan of Aardman Animation. But one problem with Aardman is that they’re partnered with Sony Pictures; thus it wasn’t obvious to me that Arthur Christmas was their work.  I fixed that problem and discovered what is probably the best Christmas film since A Christmas Story.

The story is set at the North Pole, where Santa Claus is actually a job description, passed down from  son to father for centuries.  The current Santa (voice of Jim Broadbent) has been modernized by his oldest son Steve (Hugh Laurie) with a giant hi-tech sleigh, the S-1, and thousands of elves on board.  Arthur (James McEvoy), his younger son, is a gung-ho Christmas enthusiast, but far too clumsy to do anything other than answer children’s letters, most notably one from Gwen  (Ramona Marquez), who has many questions about Santa and to whom he writes a personal assurance that he exists and that Gwen will get the present she wants.

The high-tech delivery goes off without a hitch – except one.  Gwen’s present remains on the S-1, undelivered.  Arthur insists it has to be, but Steve and Santa are tired and missing one child out of billions doesn’t seem like a big deal.

But to Arthur, it is.  Joining up with his Grandsanta (Bill Nighy), they saddle up the old sleigh*, get some reindeer, and head off with the stowaway Bryony (Ashely Jensen), a wrapping elf** with the same sense of duty as Arthur.  Naturally, things don’t go very smoothly.

The film is very funny, with gags coming fast and furious without a stop. But the film had a heart, and isn’t afraid to show it.  I also like the fact that there really isn’t a bad guy.  Steve has his shortcomings and is clearly not the ideal choice for Santa, but he isn’t a bad person at heart, and his methods are essential.  The film also avoids showing people teasing Arthur for his clumsiness; though they make comments behind his back, you don’t see any out-and-out cruelty as the elves and family try to indulge him and get him out of the way.

The cast is stellar.  Jim Broadbent and Bill Nighy have never appeared in a bad movie and they bring the characters to life.  Hugh Laurie has a lot of fun as Steve and James McEvoy is wonderful as Arthur, putting across his crazed, sweet idealism.  Imelda Staunton is a subtle delight as Mrs. Claus, who is clearly where Steve gets his organizational skill.  And it was great to hear Ramona Marquez.***

The movie suffered the fate of other Aardman films.  With the name “Aardman” obscured, people might not realize who made it, and the film was, like most Aardman films, more interesting in interesting and quirky characters than recognizable stereotypes.  It did adequately, but got a bit lost among bigger names.  It probably got hurt the most by opening the same week as The Muppets, which aimed at a similar audience but was a known quantity.

Luckily, it’s out on video.  Get a copy and see a real Christmas classic.

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*Named “Eve.”

**Whose job it is to wrap presents.

***An amazing child actress.  She is a regular in the UK TV series Outnumbered, which depends on her ability to improvise a scene.  I suspect that her letter to Santa was at least party written by Ramona herself, who is was natural comedian by the time she was seven

Out of Sight

(1998)
Directed by Steven Soderberg
Written by Scott Frank from a novel by Elmore Leonard
Starring George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle,
Albert Brooks, Dennis Farina
IMDB Entry

Elmore Leonard was a major success as a writer, but it took a long time for him to catch on in Hollywood.  But by the mid-80s and 90s, directors were taking his work and coming up with successful films like 52 Pickup, Get Shorty, and Jackie Brown.  And in 1998, director Steven Soderberg took on his book Out of Sight.

Leonard was great at creating quirky and memorable characters, and there are plenty of them in the film.  Jack Foley (George Clooney) is a small-time bank robber who finds himself in jail when he can't get his getaway car started.  He manages an escape with the help of his friend Buddy Bragg (Ving Rhames).  Unfortunately, Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), a Federal agent with a love of guns, stumbled upon the escape.  Buddy stashes her and Jack in the trunk of his car to make an escape.

An oddball romance ensues.  Sisco is, after all, a cop, and doesn't forget her job is to bring Jack in.  But she is conflicted, so when Jack goes out on "one last job" -- to rob businessman Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks) of some diamonds, she tails along.  Is she going along, or is she playing him?  And what about Maurice Miller (Don Cheadle), a vicious criminal who is also out for the diamonds?

Clooney is unsurpassed in his generation as playing the light romantic lead* and his ability to be charming and funny makes him perfect for the role.  Jennifer Lopez is usually not thought of as a great actress, but she is fine here and the chemistry with Clooney is spectacular.  Don Cheadle is always great when playing a psychotic criminal, and Albert Brooks, Ving Rhames, Dennis Farina (as Karen's father), and an uncredited Michael Keaton** all make for a solid and entertaining film.

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*Only Cary Grant was better.
*Playing the same part, Ray Nicorette, that he played in Jackie Brown, thereby making him one of a small group of actors who played the same characters in more than one non-sequel films.  Others include Akim Tamirof and Brian Donlevy (The Great McGinty and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek), Margaret Rutherford (playing a cameo of Miss Marple in The Alphabet Murders), Don Ameche and Ralph Belaman (Trading Places and Coming to America), and James Cagney (Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Seven Little Foys).

Ikiru

(1952)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Written by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto & Hideo Oguni
Starring Takashi Shimura, Shinichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka, Minoru Chiaki, Bokuzen Hidari, Kamatari Fujiwara
IMDB Entry

Akira Kurosawa is known as Japan’s greatest film director,* known primarily for action-filled films like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Roshomon, and Ran.  But early in his career, he showed a different side with Ikiru.

It’s the story about Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura), a love-level government official toiling at a dull and boring job.  His life is empty, his wife dead, his son not all that interested in him.  When he discovers he has stomach cancer and only a year to live, he is lost in depression.  When he finds a former co-worker, who is now on her own and enjoying life, he realizes he has to break out of his depression and decides to take on small but difficult project:  to convert a vacant lot into a children’s playground.

Watanabe has to battle bureaucracy and the calendar in order to get the playground finished.  Shimura is heartbreakingly good in the role, sad without being maudlin.

The movie has an important message:  that one man can make a difference, even in a small way.  Much of the film shows Watanabe becoming more and more despondent, until he take on his project with the clock running out for him.

Ikiru is often considered one of Kurosawa’s best, but it is not well-known in the US.  It was overshadowed by Roshomon and his next film, The Seven Samurai, and I suspect its long downbeat section turned off audiences who didn’t stick it out to the end.  It also didn’t have Kurosawa’s best-known actor, Toshiro Mifume.  So with an unknown cast, Kurosawa’s reputation was not enough for it to be noticed in the US.

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*Other claimants are Yashijiro Ozu and, if you consider animation (and I do), Hayao Miyazaki

Broken Arrow (TV)

(1956-60)
Based upon the novel  Blood Brother by Elliott Arnold
Starring John Lupton, Michael Ansara
IMDB Entry (pretty sparse)

In the 50s, the western was king of TV.  And the major villains of the westerns were the Indians.*  Oh, there were cattle rustlers and outlaws and bank robbers, but the go-to villains were usually the Indians.  Broken Arrow was one of the few shows that portrayed Indians in a positive light.**

It was based upon the novel Blood Brother, about the actual friendship between Tom Jeffords (John Lupton), an Indian agent, and Cochise (Michael Ansara), chief of the Apaches.  The TV show took this further, showing Jeffords working with Cochise for justice for the Apaches on the reservation.

Cochise was shown to be strong and noble.***  Jeffords was a TV western hero, except that he considered Cochise his friend and worked to balance the white man’s laws and desires with those of the Apaches.  He fought against criminals, both white men and Indians. 

Not that all Indians were this way: Geronimo was a frequent villain, though he was described as a renegade who split away from the rest of the Apaches

The title refers to a custom that you broke an arrow it indicate you were no longer fighting with a foe.  Also, Jeffords and Cochise were blood brothers; I bet a bunch of kids from that era took up the idea.

The show was successful enough to run two season, and was rerun another year on ABC to fill programming time.  It certainly was not one of the biggest westerns of the era, but its point of view made it different from the rest.

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* “Native Americans” had not come into popular use, so I’m sticking with the 50s term.

**There were examples from the movies.  She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and other John Ford films were sympathetic, even in Fort Apache, where they attacked the soldiers, but were clearly provoked.  And Key Largo is sensitive to the Seminoles, though that wasn’t in the old west.

***Possibly too much so.  Ansara complained that the role only allowed him to stand around looking noble.

The Devil and Miss Jones

(1941)
Directed by Sam Wood
Written by Norman Krasna
Starring Charles Coburn, Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Edwin
Gwynn, Spring Byington, S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall, William Demerest
IMDB Entry

There are some actors who are always a delight to see on screen.  For instance, Edwin Gwynn and S. Z. Sakall fit nicely into this category, and also have a propensity of showing up in good movies.  Jean Arthur also fits, as does William Demerest (though mostly due to his work with Preston Sturges).  And all four are in The Devil and Miss Jones.

The movie is a dramatized version of the current reality show, Undercover Boss.  John P. Merrick (Charles Coburn) is the richest man in the world and the owner of a department store who is concerned that his workers are talking about forming a union.  So he joins the store as a shoe clerk to find out who is behind this – with an eye to firing them.  He meets Mary Jones (Jean Arthur), who shows him the ropes and whose boyfriend, Joe O’Brien (Robert Cummings) has been fired for labor agitation.

Merrick learns that his conception of his workers is not what he thought it to be, and acts as Cupid for the couple, all while a romance develops for  him on his job.

Charles Coburn was not your usual Hollywood star.  He took up film acting in his fifties, but became a featured player a few years later.  He was a rotund man noticeable for his monocle.*  He plays the plutocrat very nicely as he changes from the rich, uncaring boss to someone who learns that his workers are not his enemies.  He received an Oscar nomination for the role.

Jean Arthur brought her comic presence to the role of Mary.  She was an actress who was able to play tough, but with a touch of strong emotion and was especially good in comic roles like this one. 

Coburn and Arthur are not well known today.  Coburn was usually a supporting player** and most of his films are fairly obscure to modern audiences.  Arthur is better known from her work in classics like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Shane, but she stopped acting in films after 1953, and rarely appeared on stage or television and became more and more reclusive.***

Director Sam Wood was one of MGM’s most dependable directors in the 1930s and is best known today for his directing A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.  The movie was a success and Arthur and Coburn were teamed twice more.

The biggest reason for the film’s eclipse, though, was the fact the the title was used for a well-known porn film.  The Devil in Miss Jones was one of a group of fashionable porn films in the early 70s.  It is not uncommon to make porn versions of films, but in this case, the porn became better known than the original.****   I suspect this kept the original from being rediscovered, since people knew the X-rated one better.

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*Other than Charlie McCarthy, he’s the only actor to become a star wearing one.  It was no affectation:  Coburn had bad vision in only one eye, and saw no reason to wear lenses on both.

**He won his Oscar in 1994 for The More the Merrier.

***Some reports have said she suffered from terrible stage fright.

****Which was pretty obscure when the porn came out.  Because Sam Wood was not an auteur favorite, and Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn were not big names, The Devil and Miss Jones did not show up  on the revival circuit.

The Great Mouse Detective

(1986)
Directed by Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, Dave Michener, and John Musker
Written by a whole bunch, based upon novels Eve Titus
Starring voice of Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, Vincent Price, Susanne Pollatschek, Candy Candido, Alan Young
IMDB Entry

Strange as it may seen now, by the mid-80s, Disney animation was in trouble.  The market for animated films seemed to have dried up, and Disney hadn’t had a big hit in years.  The pace was slowing:  only four animated films in the 70, and the two in the 80s were the bland The Fox and the Hound and the flop The Black Cauldron.  Disney seemed content to make their money by rereleasing their classics to new audiences.

This was unacceptable to new studio heads Jeffrey Katzanbach and Michael Eisner, who gave the green light to The Great Mouse Detective, probably the second most important animated film in Disney history after Snow White.

The story was based upon a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, Basil of Baker Street, by children’s author Eve Titus.  In the movie, Hiram Flaversham (Alan Young) is (like most of the characters) an anthropomorphic mouse, and a famous inventor among mousedom.  He’s captured by the bad Fidget (Candy Candido) and taken to the mad genius Professor Ratigan (Vincent Price), who wants to use his discoveries to take over the world. Hiram’s daughter Olivia (Susanne Pollatschek), seeks out Basil of Baker Street (Barrie Ingram) to find her father.  With the aid of Dr. David Q. Dawson (Val Bettin), they try to thwart Ratigan’s fiendish plan.

Ratigan is one of the great Disney villains, and perhaps the first to have an established name playing the character.  And who could be better for it than Vincent Price.  He has a perfectly entertaining bit of hammy menace, gloriously evil and insisting above all that he’s a very large mouse, not a rat.

In many respects, this is minor Disney, but it was something very important for the studio:  a hit.  And it encouraged Disney to think that maybe animated films could still be their bread and butter.  The faith was paid off three years later when The Little Mermaid (also directed by Clements and Musker) became a smash hit.

Thanks (TV)

(1999)
Created by Phoef Sutton, Mark Legan
Starring Tim Dutton, Kirsten Nelson, Cloris Leachman, Jim Rash, Erika Christenson, Andrew Ducote, Amy Centner
IMDB Entry
I generally enjoy Cracked.com* for their various lists and snarky comments.  But you have to take things with a grain of salt, and sometimes they get things completely wrong.  The most recent case was their attack on Thanks.**
Created by Phoef Sutton (a writer and producer for Cheers), Thanks was the story of the Winthrop family in Puritan New England in the 17th Century. James and Polly Winthrop (Tim Dutton and Kirsten Nelson) were the parents of William, Abagail, and Elizabeth (Andrew Ducote, Erika Christenson, and Amy Centner). Rounding out the family was James's mother Grammy (Cloris Leachman).
The show poked fun with the stereotype of the stern, repressed Puritan.***  One of the running gags was Abagail using her imagination to talk about new inventions (like a stove that runs on something other than wood) and being sent to the stocks for it.  There was a lot of humor in how the family's feelings ran up against the Puritan ethic.  For instance, this speech by James:

I have decided in hopes of lifting the spirits of the community to hold a gathering in the shop tonight. Everyone’s invited. There will be music and, well, not dancing, because that’s a sin. It will be a, well, not a party, because that would be wrong. But I assure you we’ll have lots of, well, not fun, because that’s against everything we stand for.

Grammy was, of course, the stereotypical horny grandmother.  It wasn't a new idea even back when the show aired, but no one plays that type of role better than Cloris Leachman.
The show was basically a family comedy set in the Puritan age, but that didn't stop it from getting a lot of humor from the juxtaposition.
Alas, the ratings weren't kind.  The show was introduced in August, so it wasn't going to make the fall schedule, and it didn't do well enough in the ratings to be renewed.  It wasn't a great show, certainly, but it had a lot of goofy charm -- a quality I prize very highly.
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*I'm always amused at the reversal between it and Mad Magazine.  For most of my life, Cracked was a second-rate imitator of Mad.  Now, Mad is barely relevant while Cracked has found its footing.
**I'm convinced they never actually watched the show, and got their ideas about it from the sparse Wikipedia article on it.
***Something that is far from the reality; sexually, at least, Puritans were pretty liberal for the time, and most of the stereotype is really Victorianism being projected on them.

Kitchen Stories

(2003)
Directed by Bent Hamer
Written by Jorgen Bergmark, Bent Hamer
Starring Tomas Nordstrom, Joachim Calmeyer
IMDB Entry

One of the points of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is that an observer affects the actions of what he’s observing.  But this applies to things in addition to nuclear physics: one of the first illustrative examples I read about it talked about a survey taker in a country with only one person.  And it has never been better or more charmingly illustrated in Kitchen Stories.

The film is set in Norway in 1950.  A few years earlier, Swedish scientists observed how Swedish women used their kitchens, observing them in order to find ways to make work easier.  Now, Folk Nilsson (Tomas Nordstrom) is sent to Norway to gather data about men use their kitchens, notably the kitchen of Isak Bjorvik (Joachim Calmeyer).  Nilsson’s rules are clear:  observe and don’t interact with the subject.  So he set up a lifeguard chair in Bjorvik’s kitchen, climbs up there each morning, and observes.

The concept is, of course, silly in the extreme.  No one would ever think that anyone would grow used to having a guy in a tall chair watching him cook dinner, eat, set mousetraps, and go for a midnight snack. But the silliness is played very straight by the actors, and that’s the basis for the film’s success.

And, as should be obvious, the observer and observed slowly begin to interact.

This is a type of European-style comedy, where the humor comes from small, surprising, and extremely human reactions.  There is little conversation* and everything is told via how the two characters start to react and change in each other’s presence.  There are plenty of little laughs, and laughs for the best possible reason:  it shows human beings reacting to life.

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*A point most US audiences will miss is the fact that Nilsson speaks Swedish while Bjorvik speaks Norwegian.  The languages are close enough for the other to understand, but they both stick to their own.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

(2012)
Directed by Peter Lord, Jeff Newitt
Written by Gideon Davoe
Starring (Voices of): Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Lenny Henry, BRIAN BLESSED.
IMDB Entry
Pixar may get all the publicity and box office smash, but for my money, Aardman Animations* is the sure thing when going to see a great animated films.  Their movies are not as successful.  Pixar makes films for all ages to enjoy; while Aardman makes films for grown-ups, so kids may not get the subtleties.  But Aardman’s output, though small, is consistently great.
Their most recent was The Pirates! Band of Misfits.**  Adapted from a children’s book, it’s about the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) and his crew, who all agree the best part of being a pirate is Ham Night.  The Captain wants one thing, though:  to be named Pirate of the Year.  In the course of his inept attempt at capturing enough booty to win the crown from
Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven), Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek), and Peg Leg Hastings (Lenny Henry),*** he stumbles across the ship Beagle, and Charles Darwin (David Tennant).  He recognizes that Polly, the Captain’s parrot, is actually a Dodo and convinces him to sail to London**** to win an award from the Royal Society and from Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), who hates pirates.  His second mate, the Pirate with the Scarf (Martin Freeman) is suspicious of Darwin’s motives, and the motives of Darwin’s pet ape, Bobo.

Like many other Aardman films, The Pirates! is animated in stop motion.  The main advantage of this is that it gives a sense of reality to the characters.  They aren’t just ones and zeros; they have a physical presence that still can’t be duplicated by computer animation.*****
But the fun isn’t the technique, it’s the story and the quirky characters and small subtle moments on the periphery.  Everyone, even the nonspeaking characters, have real personalities and there are dozens of small jokes and running gags that you have to pay attention to spot.
The movie did only a middling box office.  That’s a shame.  If you’re a fan of animation, pirates, and comedy, go see it.
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*A few years ago, I was a a theater and the preview started out “From Aardman Animations.”  I immediately said, “Nick Park!” and knew I was going to see that movie.  Turned out, it was Chicken Run.
**UK title:  The Pirates! An Adventure with Scientists.  I like that one better.
***All three, plus BRIAN BLESSED lend their names to the credits but only appear in a very small portion of the film.
****To the tune of “London Calling.”  The song choice had me in hysterics that I couldn’t explain to my wife, since she doesn’t know the song or anything about the Clash.
*****There is some computer animation in the film, but only on backgrounds and effects, not on any of the characters,