Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Duck Soup

Let's end 2008 with one of my favorites:

Duck Soup. 1933 Paramount Pictures (now owned and released to DVD by Universal Pictures).
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo), Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, Louis Calhern, Edmund Breese
Director: Leo McCarey
Part of the Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection, available at Amazon.

One of the funniest movies ever made, this was also Zeppo Marx's final film before his retirement from performing. I'm sure this is strictly a coincidence. Zeppo definitely added something to the early films, and sometimes I wonder how he would've added to later films the brothers made.

Anywho...

The wealthy widow Mrs. Gloria Teasdale (Dumont) insists that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) be appointed leader of a small, bankrupt territory named Freedonia before she will provide some much needed financial assistance. The neighboring country Sylvania is attempting to take over Freedonia, and its ambassador Trentino (Calhern) tries to instigate a revolution when he isn't trying to woo Mrs. Teasdale. He also sends in two spies, Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo) to dig up dirt on Firefly. They fail to find any damaging information, but they quickly infiltrate Freedonia's government after Firefly sees Chicolini selling peanuts on the street. Bob Roland (Zeppo), Firefly's personal assistant, suspects that Trentino is up to something, and recommends that Firefly "get rid of that man at once" by saying something to make Trentino mad enough to strike him. It backfires, and Firefly slaps Trentino after a series of personal insults.

Mrs. Teasdale has Freedonia's war plans, so Trentino orders Chicolini and Pinky to steal them. Firefly catches Chicolini and puts him on trial, which quickly turns into a farce. War is officially declared during the trial, and everyone breaks into song and dance. Chicolini and Pinky join Firefly and Roland in a typical wacky battle against Sylvania. Trentino gets trapped in a makeshift stocks, and surrenders after being pelted with large quantities of fruit. Despite that, Firefly refuses to stop throwing until they run out of produce. Mrs. Teasdale begins singing the Freedonia national anthem, and the boys start throwing fruit at her instead!

Highly, highly recommended.

MST3K #421: Monster a Go-Go

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #421: Monster a Go-Go (with a short, Circus on Ice).
Originally aired January 9, 1993.
Part of the eighth Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection.
Also released in non-MST3K form by Something Weird Video (discontinued).

This is one of my favorite MST3K episodes of all time.

An American astronaut named Frank Douglas (Henry Hite) mysteriously disappears from his spacecraft, which according to the film, is just slightly taller than a man of average height. Douglas is either replaced by, or turned into a tall radioactive humanoid monster. Hite was a legitimate 7'7", so he made a convincing giant, albeit one who made very brief appearances during the movie. A team of scientists and military personnel attempt to capture the monster, and succeed, reportedly keeping him in a storage room for eight weeks according to the narration. The monster escapes, and neither his escape or even his capture are shown, just described by the narrator.

Meanwhile, the monster stumbles through the heartland, randomly killing people, and eventually making his way to Chicago, where the military shuts down the Windy City to track him down. The monster is seen slowly stalking his way through a tunnel, and then came the biggest cop-out ending in cinematic history:

As if a switch had been turned, as if an eye had been blinked, as if some phantom force in the universe had made a move eons beyond our comprehension, suddenly, there was no trail! There was no giant, no monster, no thing called "Douglas" to be followed. There was nothing in the tunnel but the puzzled men of courage, who suddenly found themselves alone with shadows and darkness! With the telegram, one cloud lifts, and another descends. Astronaut Frank Douglas, rescued, alive, well, and of normal size, some eight thousand miles away in a lifeboat, with no memory of where he has been, or how he was separated from his capsule! Then who, or what, has landed here? Is it here yet? Or has the cosmic switch been pulled? Case in point: The line between science fiction and science fact is microscopically thin! You have witnessed the line being shaved even thinner! But is the menace with us? Or is the monster gone?

Director Bill Rebane ran out of money making the movie, and abandoned it in 1961. Hershell Gordon Lewis needed a second movie to show with his own completed project Moonshine Mountain, so he purchased Monster a Go-Go, but didn't complete it until 1965 with some extra scenes and dialogue, which made it into a confusing mess of a film that makes almost no sense, Still, it makes for a hell of a good time when featured on MST3K. Highly, highly recommended!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Jerk

The Jerk. 1979 Universal Pictures.
Starring: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Mabel King, Bill Macy, M. Emmet Walsh
Director: Carl Reiner
Buy The Jerk (26th Anniversary Edition) at Amazon.

Steve Martin, in his first starring role in a film, plays Navin Johnson, a homeless bum, who was the adopted white son of black sharecroppers, growing to adulthood oblivious of his own adoption, standing out in his family not only because of the color of his skin, but also because of his lack of rhythm. One night after hearing Lawrence Welk on the radio, he has an epiphany and hitchikes to St. Louis, where the song was broadcast from. Getting a job at a gas station, and sending a little money home to his adoptive family, Navin comes up with a fix for a fast-talking salesman whose eyeglasses keep slipping off his nose. The salesman thinks he can market the device, and promises Navin fifty percent of any profits.

Navin's simple fix turns out to bring him success beyond his wildest dreams, despite being randomly targeted for an assassination by a crazed gun owner (Walsh). He also falls in love with, and marries a cosmetologist named Marie (Peters). Unfortunately, Navin gets sued by buyers of the "Opti-Grab" device, including famous film director Carl Reiner, because it makes wearers crosseyed. Losing all of his money, and Marie, Navin wanders off to become a bum.

His adoptive family and Marie find him on the streets, and take him home, where they live happily ever after, the end.

Recommended.

Pump Up the Volume

Pump Up the Volume. 1990 New Line Cinema.
Starring: Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Mimi Kennedy, Scott Paulin, Ahmet Zappa
Director: Allan Moyle
Buy Pump Up the Volume at Amazon.

Mark Hunter (Slater), a loner in his suburban Arizona high school, only comes alive every evening when he starts broadcasting his pirate radio station from a transmitter in his bedroom using the handle "Happy Harry Hard-On" as he rants about what's wrong with American society. Nora Diniro (Mathis) is intrigued enough by the nightly pirate radio broadcasts that she tracks down Mark. The show itself becomes more and more popular and influential among the students, to the point that it causes enough problems in town that the FCC is called in to investigate. Also, it is learned that the school principal has been expelling "problem students", especially ones with below average SAT scores, which becomes one of Mark's favorite topics.

Realizing that he's created a monster with his broadcasts, Mark takes it upon himself to stop it, broadcasting his final message as himself. As the movie ends, other students inspired by Mark take to the airwaves on their own pirate signals.

Monday, December 29, 2008

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. 1962 Bryanston & Woodfall Film Productions (released to DVD by Warner Bros.)
Starring: Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave, James Bolam, Ray Austin, John Thaw, Alec McCowen
Director: Tony Richardson
Buy The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner at Amazon.

A movie based on a 1958 short story written by British writer Alan Sillitoe.

Colin Smith (Courtenay) is sentenced to a juvenile prison after robbing a bakery (how he got there is told in a series of flashbacks throughout the film). "The Governor" (Redgrave) oversees the facility, believing that hard work and discipline imposed on the inmates will ultimately make them useful members of society. Colin and his attitude catches the Governor's eye.

One crucial part of the Governor's rehabilitation program is athletics, and he quickly notices that Colin is a talented runner, easily able to outrun even the best runners in the prison. He wants Colin to compete in a five-mile cross country run against someone from a nearby public school, and Colin is treated to special privileges while training for the meet that the other inmates are not offered.

Finally, the big day arrives, and Colin grapples with personal torment while engaged in the race, and it could cost him the whole thing...

Recommended movie, which is based strongly on Courtenay's performance. My only complaint is that the juvenile prison seemed more like an all boys school rather than an actual correctional facility.

Operation Crossbow

Operation Crossbow. 1965 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: George Peppard, Sophia Loren, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courtenay, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle
Director: Michael Anderson
Buy Operation Crossbow from Amazon.

As the invasion of Normandy approaches, Winston Churchill is concerned about reports of a German "flying bomb", and orders Duncan Sandys (Johnson), one of his ministers, to investigate. Shortly thereafter, V-1s start falling on London, and the Allies launch a raid to destroy the factory building them. Soon, the head of British intelligence (Mills) learns that engineers are being recruited for V-2s, which are still in development. Finding three qualified volunteers (all experienced engineers) who can speak German, they are quickly trained, and sent to Germany through Holland. All three men are given identities of real life individuals who are either dead or missing.

Ultimately, one of the volunteers is wanted for murder, and another volunteer is actually a Nazi agent. Will this sabotage the Allied plan to destroy the German weapons factory?

Recommended.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Robin Hood: Men in Tights. 1993 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, Roger Rees, Amy Yasbeck, Dave Chappelle, Issac Hayes, Tracey Ullman, Patrick Stewart, Dom DeLuise, Dick Van Patten, Mel Brooks
Director: Mel Brooks
Buy Robin Hood: Men in Tights at Amazon. It's also part of the Mel Brooks Collection with seven other movies that you've probably already bought before!

Your typical Mel Brooks spoof, this one is a satire of the Robin Hood legend.

Robin of Loxley (Elwes) is captured during the Crusades, and imprisoned at Khalil Prison in Jerusalem. He escapes with the help of another inmate named Asneeze (Hayes), and frees all of the other prisoners. Asneeze asks Robin to find his son, Ahchoo (Chappelle) in England, which he does almost immediately upon returning. Plot convenience, mind you.

In England, Prince John (Lewis) has seized control of the kingdom while King Richard (Stewart) is away fighting in the Crusades, and John is abusing his power. Robin also finds that his family's castle has literally been taken away for nonpayment of taxes. Aligning with Ahchoo, a blind family servant named Blinkin (Mark Blankfield), Little John (Eric Allan Kramer), and his friend named Will Scarlet O'Hara (Matthew Porretta), Robin vows to regain his father's land and out Prince John from the thrown. Robin also attracts the attention of Maid Marian (Yasbeck), who is seeking out the man who has the key to her heart...and chastity belt.

However, the evil Sheriff of Rottingham (Rees) also desires Maid Marian, and he'll stop at nothing to deflower her. Also, how will King Richard deal with Prince John's mishandling of the empire upon returning from the Crusades? Also, how many references to his past films can Mel Brooks write into this one?

Recommended. It's not the best movie Mel Brooks ever made, but it was the first one I ever saw in a theater, and thus, has some sentimental value. In an English class in junior year of high school during personal introductions, I listed this (at the time) as my favorite movie. Someone asked me "Is there another movie that you've seen recently that you liked?"

Actually, there wasn't. I wasn't too crazy about film back then.

Five Easy Pieces

Five Easy Pieces. 1970 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Sally Struthers
Director: Bob Rafelson
Buy Five Easy Pieces at Amazon.

This film is Bob Rafelson's first project that didn't involve The Monkees in some fashion. Both he and Nicholson collaborated on Head, the only feature film starring the pre-fab band which was meant to break them out of their bubblegum image. It failed at the time. Miserably.

Five Easy Pieces is the story of a former piano prodigy named Bobby Dupea (Nicholson) who is estranged from his artistic upper class family, and working on the oil rigs. Bobby only chose this lifestyle because he wanted to "see the world", and not get stuck in a routine of daily piano practices. In due time, his new life starts to disgust him just as much as a life as a famous concert pianist. When his father falls ill, he goes home to see his family, reluctantly taking his diner waitress girlfriend (Black) with him.

Recommended, and kindly don't hold the chicken between your knees, please.

P.S. Read the liner notes from Criterion's laserdisc release of Five Easy Pieces.

C.S.A. The Confederate States of America

C.S.A. The Confederate States of America. 2005 Hodcarrier Films & IFC Films.
Presented by Spike Lee
Written and Directed by Kevin Willmott
Buy C.S.A. The Confederate States of America at Amazon.
Or, visit the movie's official site.

A mockumentary that dares ask: What if the South won the Civil War?

Presented as a British documentary airing on San Francisco's affiliate (channel 6 if you must know) of the "Confederate Television" network, complete with a disclaimer, faux newsreel footage, and fake, racist advertisements. The credits do claim that some of the products depicted in the fake commercials did exist.

In the fictional timeline, the Confederates succeed in getting aid from England and France during the Civil War, turning the tides in their favor. After they win the war (and after Abraham Lincoln is captured along with Harriet Tubman, and exiled into Canada), the C.S.A. annexes the United States, eventually conquering all of the Western Hemisphere except for Canada. Canada becomes the home of refugee abolitionists and escaped slaves, and a wall called the "Cotton Curtain" separates both nations. Despite this, Canada becomes the pop culture capital of the world, and the C.S.A.'s culture never evolves past government-inspired propaganda. In time, the C.S.A. government outlaws all religion apart from Christianity.

During World War II, the C.S.A. was friendly with Nazi Germany, but disagreed with Hitler's Final Solution, preferring to enslave non-white raves and not exterminate them. After pledging to remain neutral, the C.S.A. attacks Japan on December 7th, 1941. The Axis still loses World War II, and the Vietnam War is briefly hinted at as a C.S.A. "expansionist campaign".

By 1960 in the C.S.A., only 29 percent of voters approve of slavery. John F. Kennedy (depicted as a Roman Catholic Republican in the film) is elected President, unable to change the nation before being assassinated.

In the early 1990s, Democratic Senator John Ambrose Fauntroy V is interested in becoming President, wanting to return the nation to its former Southern Protestant Biblical values (tolerance of adultery and wife beating; intolerance of homosexuals). Instead, rumors circulate that Fauntroy V has slave ancestors and he is part black, which costs him the election and drives him to suicide.

This is one of the most interesting and thought provoking mockumentaries ever made, and a movie not afraid to confront the racism that existed in the early days of America, as well as the racist feelings that sadly exist today. Highly recommended.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Caveman

Caveman. 1981 United Artists.
Starring: Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Dennis Quaid, Shelly Long, Jack Gilford, Carl Lumbly, Avery Schreiber, John Matuszak, Evan C. Kim, Richard Moll
Director: Carl Gottlieb
Buy Caveman at Amazon.

Taking place in One Zillion B.C. on October 9th, Atouk (Starr) is a bullied and dimunitive caveman. He lusts after Lana (Starr's wife Bach), who is mating with the tribe's leader Tonda (Matuszak, also known for playing Sloth on The Goonies). Atouk and Lar (Quaid) are banished from the tribe, and they fall in with other prehistoric outcasts like Tala (Long) and the blind Gog (Gilford). Atouk and his new friends discover sedative drugs, fire, cooking, how to perform music, and they learn how to walk upright.

Atouk uses his new knowledge to lead an assault on Tonda, overthrowing him and taking over the tribe. He also decides to take Tala as his mate, not Lana.

Evan C. Kim plays Nook, a caveman who somehow speaks modern English, which none of the other people can understand.

Recommended.

Waking Ned Devine

Waking Ned Devine. 1998 Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Starring: Ian Bannen, David Kelly, Fionnula Flanagan, Susan Lynch, James Nesbitt
Director: Kirk Jones
Buy Waking Ned Devine at Amazon.

In a small Irish village called Tulaigh Mhór, or Tullymore, whichever you prefer, two elderly best friends named Jackie O'Shea (Bannen) and Michael O'Sullivan (Kelly) hear that someone in the village has won the Irish National Lottery's Lotto game, they decide to track down the winner so they can share the wealth. After hosting a chicken dinner to narrow down their list of who could've won, they make a midnight visit to the only person who didn't attend the party, Ned Devine. Jackie and Michael find Ned in his home, having died of shock after watching the lotto drawing, and realizing he matched every single number. Later on, Jackie has a dream that convinces him that the late Ned wants to share the winnings with his friends, since he has no family to share the wealth.

Also, Maggie O'Toole (Lynch) continues to spurn the romantic interests of an old flame, "Pig" Finn, a local pig farmer, mainly because she can't stand the smell of pigs.

When discovering that the lottery money is far more than anticipated, Jackie and Michael find themselves involving the rest of the village to fool the claim inspector (with one person abstaining). Michael takes it upon himself to pose as Ned Devine, even when the one local resident who refuses to participate in the ruse threatens to blackmail everyone involved by reporting the fraud.

A very funny and dark movie! Highly recommended.

The Devil and Daniel Webster

The Devil and Daniel Webster (Criterion #214). 1941 RKO Radio Pictures (now distributed by Janus Films).
Starring: Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, James Craig, Anne Shirley, Jane Darwell, Simone Simon, Gene Lockhart
Director: William Dieterle
Buy The Devil and Daniel Webster at Amazon.

Jabez Stone (Craig) is a poor New Hampshire farmer. In 1840, he sells his soul to "Mr. Scratch" (Huston) in return for seven years of prosperity. When the deal is almost up, Stone asks the famed orator and politician Daniel Webster (Arnold) to help him find a way out of his deal with the devil, which Webster agrees to.

Mr. Scratch shows up to claim his due, and Webster has to risk his own soul before his opponent will agree to a trial by jury. To make things even more hopeless, Mr. Scratch chooses his own jury members; twelve of the most evil men in history up until that time, with the judge of the Salem witch trials presiding over the case.

Will Daniel Webster save his client?

This is an interesting film. Recommended.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Doctor Detroit

Doctor Detroit. 1983 Universal Pictures.
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Howard Hesseman, Donna Dixon, Lydia Lei, T.K. Carter, Lynn Whitfield, Fran Drescher, Kate Murtagh
Director: Michael Pressman
Buy Doctor Detroit at Amazon.

Clifford Skridlow (Aykroyd) is a shy and geeky professor of literature at a financially struggling Chicago college.

Smooth Walker (Hesseman) is the pimp of four high-class prostitutes, and he's in deep to a mob boss known as "Mom" (Murtagh). To save his own skin, Walker makes up a fictitious business partner named "Doctor Detroit", and somehow, Skridlow is conned into posing as Doctor Detroit, trying to protect Walker's girls while hiding his alter ego from his conservative parents and while trying to secure a large endowment grant for his college.

The movie ends with Cliff needing to appear as himself and Doctor Detroit at two events on the same evening at the same time, and how his two worlds come together with "Mom" getting her comeuppance. Recommended.

I also have a fairly interesting story from my youth about this film:

When I first heard of Doctor Detroit after it started airing regularly on HBO after its cinematic run (I was probably seven years old at the time), I wanted to see it, simply because I thought it had something to do with Detroit, the region I was born in back in 1976. Not only was I wrong about that, my parents wouldn't allow me to watch it, because it was an R-rated movie.

Flash forward to one early summer evening. I had gone out to play, and apparently, I had either forgotten to tell my family where I was going, or I came home much later than I was supposed to. Regardless of what happened, I came home to an empty house; even our new dachshund puppy was gone, and it just did not register with me that something may be wrong. So, I turned on the television, and hey, Doctor Detroit is on HBO, fairly early in the evening for an R-rated feature.

Right as the scene where Cliff is hastily changing into his Doctor Detroit persona while running between a ceremony for the college he works in, and the Players Ball in the next building, my parents, sister, and puppy all came home at once, unsuccessful at finding me in the park across the street, or in the immediate neighborhood. When people started yelling at me, asking just what the hell was I doing, I innocently answered "Watching Doctor Detroit?" For a few brief moments, I thought I was going to be punished for being caught watching an R-rated movie, instead of either wandering off without telling anybody, or not coming home on time, and scaring the wits out of everyone in the neighborhood who knew me.

The Big Store

The Big Store. 1941 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo), Tony Martin, Virginia Grey, Margaret Dumont, Douglas Dumbrille
Director: Charles Reisner
Buy The Big Store along with Go West from Amazon.

This was advertised as the final film made by the brothers Marx, but they would make two more before the decade was out.

Phelps' Department Store is up for sale, and a crooked store manager named Grover (Dumbrille) is anxious to own the whole show. It also wouldn't hurt for him to cover up that he's also cooking the books. Singer Tommy Rogers (Martin) wants to sell the store to someone else with the approval of the store's co-owner, Martha Phelps (Dumont). To get Rogers out of the way, Grover has arranged several "accidents".

Martha goes out and hires a useless detective named Wolf J. Flywheel (Groucho), who despite his complete ineptitude, manages to protect Rogers from harm, with some help from his partner Wacky (Harpo) and Tommy's music teacher friend Ravelli (Chico). Ravelli also accidentally captures Grover kidnapping Tommy's girlfriend Joan (Grey) on film, leading to the hilarious chase scene through the store.

Not the best Marx Brothers picture, but still worth your time. Recommended.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Help!

Help! 1965 Walter Shenson Films & United Artists (rights now controlled by Apple Corps).
Starring: The Beatles, Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, Roy Kinnear, John Bluthal
Director: Richard Lester
Buy Help! at Amazon, or maybe you'd prefer to invest in the significantly more expensive deluxe edition?

An eastern cult is intending to sacrifice a woman to the goddess Kaili, but she's not wearing the sacrificial ring. The cult finds out that the ring, an enormous red stone, is on the finger of Ringo. After several failed attempts at retrieving the ring, they confront the Beatles in a restaurant, and tell them that Ringo will be the next sacrifice if he does not return the ring. Attempts by a jeweler to remove the ring fail. The boys visit a mad scientist named Professor Foot (Spinetti) and his assistant Algernon (Kinnear). When his equipment doesn't have any effect on the ring, Foot decides that he must gain control of the ring. The Beatles are unexpectedly rescued by Ahme (Bron), formerly the cult's high priestess.

The band flees to the Alps, followed by the cult and Professor Foot, where a plot to kill Ringo with a "fiendish thingy" fails. Racing back to England, they are still ambushed on Salisbury Plain despite the presense of British military units. The Beatles embark to the Bahamas, where after Ringo is nearly kidnapped, John, Paul and George pose as Ringo to lure the cult members out, where they are arrested by Bahamas police officers. Foot still pinches Ringo, and takes him to a boat to cut off his finger to get that ring off. Ahme comes to Ringo's rescue, and they swim (well, Ringo can't swim) for it, only to be caught by the cult. Taken to the beach, the cult's Swami named Clang (McKern) tells Ringo that the cult is prepared to fight off the other three Beatles and the police when they come to the rescue, and that he'll die instantly if he tries to warn them. While freeing himself, Ringo waves an arm to ward his mates off, only to see the ring fly off. Ringo puts the ring on Clang's finger, and Ahme declares that he will be the next sacrifice. The movie ends with "Help!" playing, the band running around, and the cult members getting arrested.

Not as good as A Hard Day's Night, but a very funny and enjoyable movie nevertheless. The Beatles themselves weren't that impressed with the final product, and admitted to spending a lot of the production stoned on marijuana. Recommended.

A Hard Day's Night

A Hard Day's Night. 1964 Proscenium Films & United Artists (now controlled by Miramax Films).
Starring: The Beatles, Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti, Anna Quayle
Director: Richard Lester
Buy A Hard Day's Night at Amazon.

The screenplay for A Hard Day's Night was written by Alun Owen, who spent several days with the Beatles, and wrote the movie from a viewpoint that the group had been trapped by their own fame. However, their biggest problem isn't their own fame, but Paul's "clean" grandfather (Brambell), who was brought along on the train to London because he's "nursing a broken heart". Hassled by their manager (Junkin, bearing absolutely no resemblance to Brian Epstein at all), and other distractions on the train, they retreat to a caboose for some privacy.

On arrival in London, they are taken to a hotel where all involved feel trapped. The night after Grandfather causes a minor disturbance at a casino, the band is taken to the theater where their performance will be filmed. Bored with the length of the preparations of the show, Ringo takes a walk, trying to have a quiet drink in a pub, walking alongside a canal, and riding a bike. He returns, and the show goes on as planned. Paul's grandfather remembers there's a trap door on the stage, and makes an unscheduled appearance during the show's final song, "She Loves You".

A decent and very influential movie. Seek it out immediately!

A Boy Named Charlie Brown

A Boy Named Charlie Brown. 1969 Cinema Center Films & National General Pictures (released to home video by CBS DVD).
Vocal Talent: Peter Robbins, Pamelyn Ferdin, Glenn Gilger, Sally Dryer, Ann Altieri, Lynda Mendelson
Music: Vince Guaraldi, Rod McKuen, John Stafford Smith
Written by: Charles Schulz
Director: Bill Melendez
Buy A Boy Named Charlie Brown at Amazon.

The first Peanuts animated film, and still the best one they ever made.

This movie was loosely based on a 1966 series of comic strips where Charlie Brown enters a class spelling bee, only to be eliminated on the first turn after confusing the word "maze" with his favorite ballplayer, the great outfielder Willie Mays. Crushed, Charlie Brown lies his head down on his desk, and when asked why he's doing that, he yells at the teacher, earning him a trip to the principal's office. In the cinemas, however, it's a different story.

Charlie Brown, as usual, can't seem to do much of anything right on the ball field, or while trying to fly a kite. Linus Van Pelt tries to cheer him up the next day, saying that people learn more by losing than winning. Later on, Charlie Brown stops by Lucy's psychiatry booth, where she says she can point out his faults better than anyone else, via slide projector and a screen in the Van Pelt house.

Before school, Lucy teases Charlie Brown by suggesting he enter the spelling bee, which Linus seriously thinks would be a good idea. To the surprise of everyone, Charlie Brown finishes first in his class, and is told that he'll be competing against other kids in school. He, Linus, and Snoopy go home, hit the books, and make up a song called "I Before E, Except After C". Charlie Brown almost loses, but thanks to Snoopy's timely intervention outside, he wins the spelling bee. The gang cheerfully follows him home, singing a song called "Champion Charlie Brown". Later on, he is told that Lucy signed him up to take part in a national spelling bee to be held in New York. He hits the books again, and starts worrying about his bad luck.

Charlie Brown departs for New York, but only after Linus gives him his security blanket for good luck, This proves to be a bad move for Linus, and after suffering from withdrawal, he talks Snoopy into going to New York to find Charlie Brown and get his blanket back. After a lengthy search throughout town, they find it. Next, it's the spelling bee at Radio City Music Hall, where Charlie Brown somehow snatches defeat from the jaws of victory at the worst possible moment. But remarkably, the world didn't end.

Highly, highly recommended.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Mickey's Christmas Carol

Mickey's Christmas Carol. 1983 Walt Disney Productions.
Voice Talent: Alan Young, Wayne Allwine, Hal Smith, Will Ryan, Eddy Carroll, Patricia Parris, Dick Billingsley, Clarence Nash
Director: Burny Mattinson
Mickey's Christmas Carol is currently available as part of the Classic Holiday Stories DVD. It's also on the second disc of Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume Two, which is out of print (check Amazon or eBay).

The Disney spin on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (Characters?) It was Mickey Mouse's first appearance in a new cartoon for 30 years, and this is the first time Wayne Allwine provided his voice.

This was also the final film where Clarence Nash voiced Donald Duck. Nash was the only original Disney voice actor to participate. Recommended.

MST3K #321: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #321: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
Originally aired: December 21, 1991.
Available at Amazon.

This one has been a Christmas tradition for me for years, and I've been waiting all month to watch this.

Essentially, Mars needs Santa Claus more than it needs women.

After deciding that the Martian children are spending too much time watching Earth television programs, most notably KID-TV's interview with Santa Claus at his workshop (where he identifies "Nixon" as one of his reindeer), two of the adult Martians consult a sage, who decrees that the kids are growing distracted by Martian society's overly rigid structure. The solution? Let them have fun.

So, the Martians abduct Santa Claus from the North Pole along with two Earth children. One of the Martians, Voldar, wants to eradicate Santa, which eventually alienates him from the other adults. Dropo is another Martian who is apparently the laziest one, but the presense of the real Santa energizes him. He dons one of Santa's spare suits, and becomes the Martian version of Santa. Santa and the two Earth children return home.

This was Pia Zadora's first film; she plays the Martian little girl, and this performance didn't earn her a Golden Globe Award.

The MST3K treatment of this movie is highly, highly recommended, so have a Patrick Swayze Christmas this year! Hooray for Santy Claus! (Cha cha cha)

I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown

I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown
Original airdate: December 9, 2003.

Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales
Original airdate: December 8, 2002

Buy at Amazon (discontinued).

Rerun Van Pelt, envious of Charlie Brown owning Snoopy, wants a dog for Christmas, but his family thinks he'll shoot his eye out. Actually, no, they just think Rerun isn't capable of the responsibilities of caring for a dog. He usually asks Charlie Brown if he can play with Snoopy, even offering to buy him for sixteen cents. Snoopy quickly tires of Rerun's idea of fun and games, and begins to snub the youngest Van Pelt. Instead, Snoopy asks his brother Spike to come in from Needles, California. Horrified at his lack of weight thanks to living in a desert, the family takes him in. Spike gains some weight, but opts to return to California after a while.

Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales is another series of vignettes:

Snoopy tries to get Lucy to join him in the skating show, but obviously, she's only interested in Schroeder. Snoopy dresses like Santa Claus to work as a bell ringer to raise money, choosing to play "Oh! Susanna" on accordion, which isn't very Christmasy.

Linus Van Pelt can't decide what kind of letter he should to send to Santa, and also tries to win the heart of a strange girl in his class who changes her name every day.

Sally Brown decides to give everyone paper airplanes for Christmas, and discovers that "Samantha Claus" is actually Santa Claus, causing her great embarrassment at school. She also decides to go "fall down" a tree for Christmas, since she doesn't know how to chop one down.

Meanwhile, Lucy struggles with "being nice", hoping to get Schroeder and Linus to give her presents. Also, Charlie Brown and Sally prepare for Christmas together.

Recommended.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas
Original airdate: December 9, 1965.

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown
Original airdate: November 27, 1992.

Available at Amazon.

The old holiday classic. Charlie Brown feels depressed despite the upcoming holiday season. Taking Lucy's advice at the neighborhood psychiatric booth, he takes charge of the local Christmas play, or at least he tries to, as the gang seems more interested in dancing onstage than rehearsing. Charlie Brown decides that a tree would help things better, but instead of a glorious looking Christmas tree, he picks out a baby tree, much to the chagrin of the gang. Linus eases the tension by quoting the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke (verses 8 through 14, for the record). Inspired again, Charlie Brown goes out to decorate his little tree, but one ornament is a little too heavy for the branches. After leaving, the rest of the gang, led by Linus and wanting to make things up to Charlie Brown, show up and decorate the tree, turning it into a beautiful Christmas tree. Cue "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", and the show's over.

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown debuted on CBS in late 1992, focusing on Charlie Brown trying to sell wreaths door to door, and later, selling his comic book collection to buy a pair of gloves for a girl named Peggy Jean. Peppermint Patty frets over her Christmas book report, and the whole gang takes part in another Christmas play, where Sally ruins the whole thing by messing up her one line.

Recommended.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Network

Network. 1976 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty
Director: Sidney Lumet
Buy Network at Amazon.

Let's just get it out of the way right off the bat: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" You've probably heard this line before. Network is the original source of that quote. Consider yourselves enlightened.

UBS Evening News anchor Howard Beale (Finch) has been terminated from the network due to sliding ratings. He had two more weeks, but he announces the next night that he plans to commit suicide on a live broadcast. Beale is terminated immediately, but Beale's producer and best friend (and the network news editor) Max Schumacher (Holden) pleads for Beale to be let back on the air. Instead of apologizing, Beale starts ranting about how life is "bullshit", and UBS keeps him on the air. To Schumacher's distress, the network begins to exploit Beale's public breakdown rather than pulling the plug on him.

Beale delivers his inspired diatribe, complete with the oft-quoted catchphrase. UBS gives him a new program called The Howard Beale Show, billing him as the "mad prophet of the airways". Beale's new show becomes the top rated program on the network.

While Beale's popularity skyrockets with the public, Diane Christensen (Dunaway) rises to power. Originally a producer of entertainment programming, she acquires footage of terrorists robbing banks for a new UBS series, charmes other network executives, and ends up in charged of a merged news and entertainment division. It also doesn't hurt that she's having an affair with a married Max Schumacher, but the success of the network remains her obsession...even in the bedroom. It was Christensen's idea to keep Beale on the air.

After finding out that UBS and its owners will be purchased by a gigantic Saudi Arabian conglomerate, Beale attacks the merger on his show, urging his viewers to bombard the White House with telegrams with the oft-quoted catchphrase in hopes of stopping the merger. Beale, by now nearly delusional, meets with Arthur Jensen (Beatty), who owns the parent company of UBS. Jensen manages to talk Beale into abandoning his populist messages in future broadcasts...which results in plummeting ratings. Christensen, ever obsessed with the network's ratings, arranges for the same group of terrorists (who also have their own UBS show) to kill Beale in the middle of one of his broadcasts. The movie ends with news footage of the assassination, mixed in with commercials.

A winner of several film awards, Network is a true classic. Highly, highly recommended.

Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers. 1930 Paramount Pictures (now owned by, and released to DVD by Universal Pictures).
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo), Margaret Dumont, Lillian Roth
Director: Victor Heerman
Buy Animal Crackers as part of the Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection at Amazon.

A musical comedy film starring the brothers Marx. Groucho is the African explorer Captain Geoffrey T. Spaulding, and he is the guest of honor at a party at the estate of society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse (Dumont). While the party is happening, a valuable painting is stolen.

This movie also has two of Groucho's signature songs "Hello, I Must Be Going" and "Hooray for Captain Spaulding"; the latter song was used as the theme for You Bet Your Life.

Also, the American Film Institute listed a line of dialogue from the movie, "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know", as number 53 in their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time.

Highly, highly recommended.

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? 1970 ABC Pictures Corp. (released to DVD by MGM)
Starring: Brian Keith, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, Ivan Dixon, Suzanne Pleshette, Tom Ewell, Bradford Dillman, Arthur O'Connell, John Fiedler, Don Ameche
Director: Hy Averback
Buy Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? from Amazon.

Relations between an Army base called Ft. Blair and a small town referred to only as "The Village" are the lowest they've ever been. This causes an officer named Michael Nase (Keith) no end to his frustration. Also, the local sheriff, a man named Harve (Borgnine) is only to anxious to bust soldiers for minor infractions (spitting, littering, profanity). Sgt. Jones (Dixon) wants to buy a gas station, but the local population has frozen soldiers out of access to loans.

Nace's commanding officer Colonel Flanders (Ameche) wants to retire with a clean record, but that would require making nice with The Village.

Also, will Shannon Gramboni (Curtis) win the heart out of a local bartender named Ramona? (Pleshette)

Not bad, but not that great, either. A few of the main storylines are forgotten at the end of the movie, so that may scare off a few people going in.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

The Gods Must Be Crazy. 1980 CAT Films (released to DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment).
Starring: N!xau, Sandra Prinsloo, Marius Weyers, Louw Verwey, Michael Thys
Narrator: Paddy O'Byrne
Written, Produced & Directed by Jamie Uys
Buy The Gods Must Be Crazy as a single DVD, or with its sequel, The Gods Must Be Crazy II, as a two disc set, both from Amazon.

You may know this as "the movie about the Coke bottle". It's more than that.

A tribe of bushmen live deep in the Kalahari Desert in Africa, perfectly content with their simple lives. One day, a Coke bottle is thrown out of an airplane. Thinking this is another gift from the gods, Xi (N!xau) and his tribe find many uses for it. Unfortunately, unlike anything they've had before, there is just one Coke bottle, and the tribe members begin to experience emotions they had never thought of before, jealously, envy, anger, hatred, and finally, violence after two children get into a scuffle over the bottle, and one of them gets hit in the forehead with it. Xi decides the bottle is an evil thing, and sets off on a quest to throw it over the edge of the world, but not before encountering Western Civilization.

Meanwhile, Kate Thompson (Prinsloo) decides to leave her journalism job behind in the fast-paced city of Johannesburg for a teaching job in a remote village in Botswana. Also, Andrew Steyn (Weyers) is a biologist studying the local animals. He drives a Land Rover that either constantly needs to be repaired, or when actually working, is completely unreliable. Not only that, Sam Boga (Verwey) leads a group of guerrillas being pursued by government troops after a failed coup.

All three major plotlines do eventually collide, as Steyn and Xi collaborate to save Kate and her schoolchildren when Boga's rebels take the school hostage. Xi eventually reaches the "edge of the world", and disposes of the Coke bottle.

Highly recommended.

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story. 1983 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley, Ian Petrella, Scott Schwartz, R.D. Robb, Zack Ward
Narrator: Jean Shepherd
Director: Bob Clark
Buy A Christmas Story at Amazon.

Nine year old Ralphie Parker (Billingsley) wants only one thing for Christmas: an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock, and this thing [a sundial!] which tells time.

The stock response from any adult hearing Ralphie's wishes? "You'll shoot your eye out." Ralphie gets it from his parents, his teacher, and even an obnoxious department store Santa Claus, right before sending Ralphie straight down the chute.

Ralphie does get the toy that every kid wants, but still manages to nearly prove every adult right, after a shot he takes ricochets off a traffic sign, and hits him just below the eye, knocking his glasses off.

We really shouldn't neglect to mention the "triple dog dare" for Flick (Schwartz) to stick his tongue to a cold metal pole, which as everyone now knows, he gets stuck to.

Yes, this is a new Christmas classic, and believe it or not, today was the first time I ever sat down to watch it from beginning to end. I know, I'm horrible. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it before, or if you've already watched it every year since it started airing on television every holiday season (on Fox, WGN America, TBS, TCM, TNT, etc.) for the past twenty years.

Don't forget: TBS starts airing the movie for 24 straight hours on Christmas Eve, starting at 8 PM Eastern time. Be there! We double dog dare you.

MST3K #619: Red Zone Cuba

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #619: Red Zone Cuba.
Originally aired December 17, 1994.
Available at Amazon.

"I'm Cherokee Jack!"

This is the last directorial project for Coleman Francis (who also wrote and starred as Griffin), and it manages to be more confusing and poorly edited than his other two films. You have to love the public domain and highly inappropriate background music selected for most of the scenes.

A young newspaper reporter asks an ancient train engineer (John Carradine in a cameo, and he probably did it for the money) about the three men who hopped his train years ago. Those three men are the escaped convict Griffin, who runs across two drifters named Cook (Harold Saunders) and Landis (Anthony Cardoza). They are recruited into a military training facility, where they'll be paid to take part in an invasion of Cuba, all after 30 minutes of intense training. The three idiots realize they've been lied to, and make a run for it, but they are recaptured and forced to participate in the invasion, which fails miserably.

Captured, Griffin, Cook and Landis plot their escape back to the United States, leaving behind their superior officer who is badly wounded. While begging to be included, the officer mentions his family's mine back at home. Once they escape via a stolen light aircraft, the trio commit a variety of crimes to get to the home of the wife of their officer, intending to help her mine those metals (Griffin insists they all go "legit", which lasts all of a few minutes). The movie ends with Cook and Landis surrendering to the police, and Griffin gets shot down while on the run, making it all the way to hell, "with a penny and a broken cigarette".

Highly recommended.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Catch-22

Catch-22. 1970 Paramount Pictures & Filmways, Inc.
Starring: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Norman Fell, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Orson Welles
Director: Mike Nichols
Buy Catch-22 at Amazon.

Mike Nichols directed this film adaption of Joseph Heller's novel of the same name. It was overshadowed at the box office in 1970 by Robert Altman's M*A*S*H, but it still boasts an impressive cast of talent. In addition to his role, Buck Henry also helped Nichols write the screenplay.

Captain John J. Yossarian (Arkin) is a USAAF B-25 bombardier. He and the other members of his squadron are stationed on the island Pianosa in the Mediterranean Sea during World War II. Yossarian is also desperately trying to avoid combat duty, and finds out that no matter how instable he acts, the Army Air Corps trumps him at every turn. His superiors and peers all seem to be genuinely insane, or utterly incompetent, and they all seem very happy to function under irrational orders.

Two examples of the other personnel at the base are Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder (Voight), the mess officer at the base who is obsessed with expanding his "Syndicate", trading goods on the black market, and somehow running a giant business while serving in the military. Bob Newhart plays Captain Major Major Major, who is quickly promoted to Major, making him Major Major Major Major. Upon his promotion, he becomes a recluse, signing false names to paperwork requiring his signature, and entering his office by crawling along a ditch before jumping through a window.

Yossarian finally confronts his personal catch-22: Everyone knows the war is crazy, and only crazy men can be relieved of duty. But if you are sane enough to do crazy things to get out of fighting, it only displays that you are perfectly aware that the war is crazy, and therefore, you must be fit enough to serve. You'll have to keep fighting. Knowing that, he flees the base at the end of the movie and paddles away in a life raft.

Catch-22 is a truly bizarre, but funny film, and one that might need to be viewed more than once to be truly appreciated. Highly recommended.

Scrooged

Scrooged. 1988 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, John Glover, Bobcat Goldthwait, David Johansen, Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum
Cameo Appearances: Mary Lou Retton, Miles Davis, Robert Goulet, Jamie Farr, Buddy Hackett, Lee Majors, John Houseman
Director: Richard Donner
Buy Scrooged at Amazon.

A modernized version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, who probably never even thought of giant corporations programming television networks when he sat down to write that classic.

Your hero and mine, Bill Murray plays Frank Cross, a conceited and cynical programming executive for the TV network IBC ("Yule love it!") He has found great success and wealth in his professional life, but that has cost him his one true love (Allen) and alienated him from his family. Cross is supposed to take charge of a live broadcast of A Christmas Carol on his network, and he finds that his life is mirroring the story he's developing for live television. He is visited by the ghost of his mentor, showing him the error of his ways. Next, the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Johansen), Present (Kane), and Future visit Cross, and he repents his ways.

Best of all, Frank wins the love of his life back.

Recommended.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

And Now for Something Completely Different

And Now for Something Completely Different. 1971 Columbia Pictures & Python (Monty) Pictures.
Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Carol Cleveland, Connie Booth
Director: Ian McNaughton
Buy And Now for Something Completely Different at Amazon.

Monty Python's first movie is a compilation film composed of some of their best sketches (some of them slightly different from the television broadcasts) from the first two seasons of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and it was produced with the intent of introducing Python to American audiences. Oddly enough, the film was more successful in England.

In 1974, after PBS began showing the TV series, the movie was re-released, and was more successful.

Recommended, but if you've seen the original source material from the TV show enough, skip it.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

I saw the 2008 remake on Saturday night, and decided to watch and review the original film today.

This is not to be confused with MST3K experiment #422, The Day the Earth Froze. No Sampo, in other words.

The Day the Earth Stood Still. 1951 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, Lock Martin
Director: Robert Wise
Buy The Day the Earth Stood Still at Amazon.

An alien named Klaatu (Michael Rennie) lands in a Washington D.C. park, declaring that he has come on a goodwill mission, only to get shot by a nervous soldier when he opens a small device. Gort the robot emerges from the spaceship to harmlessly disarm the U.S. soldiers. Klaatu is taken to a military hospital to recover, and that is where he reveals that he has a message for the entire world, but too many of the world's leaders are at odds, and probably wouldn't even agree on a meeting place. Klaatu then, after being told that he is in "protective custody", leaves the hospital and assumes the identity of "Mr. Carpenter", living among normal people to learn more about them.

After a meeting with Professor Jacob Barnhardt (Jaffe), Klaatu is offered a chance to convey his message to a group of scientists, saying that Earth will be eliminated if his message is rejected. Barnhardt asks for a "little demonstration" of Klaatu's powers as a warning, which he does the following day, neutralizing electric power (except for critical systems like hospitals and planes in flight) worldwide for 30 minutes.

The film ends with Klaatu getting assassinated, revived, and telling the assembled scientists that humanity's penchant for violence and its baby steps into space have caused concern among the other spacefaring worlds. The aliens have also created more robot enforcers like Gort, who are capable of dealing with anything. Klaatu warns the people of Earth that they can either abandon warfare and peacefully join other worlds, or be destroyed, making sure to emphasize that the "decision rests with you".

Yes, it's completely different than the 2008 remake. Recommended, though.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie

Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie: 2003 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Featuring: Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White, Larry the Cable Guy
Also starring: Heidi Klum, David Alan Grier, Chris Cagle
Director: C.B. Harding
Buy Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie at Amazon.

It was inevitable that I was going to get around to this movie and its two sequels. You can thank this movie for the rise of popularity for the comedian formerly known as Dan Whitney, and his numerous catchphrases while parading on stage while either celebrating or parodying the worst traits of the stereotypical American redneck.

Filmed in Phoenix, this is a filmed version of the very successful Blue Collar Comedy Tour from earlier in the decade, which judging from the shots of the audience, appealed to a broad number of people, and not just the people who you would probably be expect to be fans of this kind of comedy. The format is pretty simple: four solo performances from Foxworthy, Engvall, White, and the Cable Guy, followed by all four of them coming together at the end of the show for the encore where all four comedians perform abbreviated, or in the case of White, the PG-13 version of their favorite solo routine.

There really isn't much to be said about a stand-up comedy film, so I'll just say this one is recommended, unless you can't stand this kind of material. Remember, liking this movie doesn't necessarily mean that you're an easily entertained redneck. Got it? Good.

P.S. A YouTube clip of Dan Whitney well before he created the Larry persona, and back when he had a penchant for giggling at the punch lines to his own jokes.

The Rutles: All You Need is Cash

The Rutles: All You Need is Cash. 1978 Above Average Productions Inc., Broadway Video & Rutle Corp (issued on DVD by Rhino Home Video).
Starring: Eric Idle, John Halsey, Ricky Fataar, Neil Innes, Michael Palin, George Harrison, Bianca Jagger, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, etc.
Appearing as Themselves: Mick Jagger, Paul Simon
Directors: Eric Idle & Gary Weis
Buy All You Need is Cash at Amazon.

The Rutles, whose resemblance to The Beatles is purely and satirically intentional, originally appeared on a sketch on Eric Idle's post-Python sketch program on BBC2, Rutland Weekend Television way back in 1975. When asked to host an episode of Saturday Night Live a year later, Idle brought along some Rutland videotape clips, including one of The Rutles. Lorne Michaels suggested that Idle turn the mock band into a full fledged mockumentary, which aired on NBC on March 22nd, 1978, finishing dead last in the Nielsen ratings for that week. Way to go, guys!

All You Need is Cash is a sketch film closely following the chronology of The Beatles' own rise to fame, with songs written and performed by Innes, who did a wonderful job sounding like actual tunes done by the Fab Four. In a sense, the music, which was released as a soundtrack album, was more successful than the show it was created for, which certainly isn't unusual.

Highly recommended, especially for fans of Python, SNL, The Beatles, or whatever you fancy.

P.S. All You Need is Cash was an inspiration for Rob Reiner when he put together This is Spinal Tap, which will be reviewed here at some point.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Rat Race

Rat Race. 2001 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz, Seth Green
Director: Jerry Zucker
Buy Rat Race at Amazon.

You could consider this the It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World for the new millenium.

Donald Sinclair (Cleese) is the eccentric billionaire owner of a Las Vegas hotel/casino who devises a game to entertain the gamblers who visit his hotel. He puts six special tokens in six slot machines, and the winners are gathered together and told that there's a forutune locked in a train station in Silver City, New Mexico. Everyone is given a key and sent on their way. After all deciding that this is a scam, they all promise one another that they won't be participating...which is a lie, of course. As they all hastily depart Las Vegas, Sinclair and his buddies place bets on who will reach New Mexico first.

A fun movie. Recommended.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

if....

if.... (Criterion #391). 1969 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, Robert Swann
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Buy if.... at Amazon.

This was the first film released as part of The Criterion Collection's deal with Paramount, who has licensed several of their films for DVD release by Criterion.

Malcolm McDowell, in his first film role, plays Mick Travis, who is one of three non-conformist students among the returning class. The "Whips" are senior boys who relish their role of treating the younger students horribly, and they have their eyes on Travis and his two friends.

The first portion of the film depicts the school's customs and traditions, but most of it focuses on Mick's group and their clashes with the school authorities. Mick steals a motorcycle and has an affair with a local waitress, while Wallace (Warwick) finds romance with a younger student. The movie ends with a bizarre segment, where Mick, his girl (Noonan) Johnny (Wood), and Wallace discover some automatic weapons, and launch a Founders' Day attack. The staff and other students find weapons of their own, and start fighting back. Mick's girl ultimately shoots the headmaster to death, and the film ends with a closeup of Mick's face as he continues firing his weapon. Since the character of Mick Travis was featured in two more of Anderson's films, we can presume that he survived the attack unharmed (if it even happened).

My curiousity for if.... started when I saw a parody of the gun battle scene on an episode of Monty Python. However, I was never able to find a copy of the movie for years, so I was pretty excited to hear about Criterion's plans to release it on DVD for the first time in America. What can I say, it was definitely worth the wait when I finally saw it.

Highly recommended, unless you find incidents of school violence upsetting. If that's the case, skip the final chapter.

Night and the City

Night and the City (Criterion #274). 1950 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Francis L. Sullivan
Director: Jules Dassin
Buy Night and the City at Amazon.

Harry Fabian (Widmark) is an American hustler who dreams of the good life, but he's never attained that success he craves so much. While in London, his girlfriend Mary (Tierney) catches him trying to steal 300 pounds, and asks him to find a job, as long as it's done in the daylight. Harry and Mary also work for the owner of the Silver Fox Club (Sullivan), and his wife Helen (Withers). Helen wants to leave her husband and start her own club, and she recognizes that she'll need Harry's talents to pull it off.

Harry has other plans, though: he plans to take control of the professional wrestling circuit from a local promoter and underworld boss Kristo (Herbert Lom). Unlike his other schemes, Harry is absolutely confident that this one could bring him the wealth and fame he desires so badly. Things go horribly awry when Fabian's partner, the retired wrestling legend Gregorius (Stanislaus Zbyszko), and father to Kristo, dies following an impromptu match with Harry's newest "box office draw", The Strangler (Mike Mazurki).

Recommended.

Thieves' Highway

Thieves' Highway (Criterion #273). 1949 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie
Director: Jules Dassin
Buy Thieves' Highway at Amazon.

One of the all-time great noir films depicting the cutthroat world of produce dealers. Nick Garcos (Conte), a veteran turned truck driver, comes home to find his father, who is a farmer, robbed and crippled. Learning that his father was attacked on the orders of a San Francisco produce dealer Mike Figlia (Cobb). Nick vows revenge. Teaming up with Ed (Millard Mitchell), Nick arranges to transport a shipment of apples to Figlia's business. Their first meeting is uneventful, but Figlia steals Nick's crop while he's resting in a prostitute named Rica's (Cortese) quarters. Nick demands, and gets the money for his apples, only to be attacked and robbed while with Rica. Meanwhile, Ed never makes it to San Francisco, and it leads to the final confrontation with Figlia after Nick discovers what happened to the old man.

Recommended.

Pickup on South Street

Pickup on South Street (Criterion #224). 1953 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Richard Kiley
Written and Directed by: Samuel Fuller
Buy Pickup on South Street at Amazon.

On a crowded subway car, pickpocket Skip McCoy (Widmark) steals Candy's (Peters) wallet, which contains microfilm with top secret government information. Candy intended to deliver the goods to Communist agents. McCoy not only finds himself pursued by the feds and the police on one side, but also Candy, her ex lover Joey, and their Communist associates, and they all want that microfilm. Once McCoy finds out the significance of the microfilm, he decides he's not letting it go unless someone makes him a very rich man. Meanwhile, Candy is discovering secrets about her allies that could very well change her allegiances.

Recommended.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Weird Science

Weird Science. 1985 Universal Pictures.
Starring: Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock, Ilan Mitchell Smith, Bill Paxton
Director: John Hughes
Buy Weird Science as a single disc, or as part of the High School Flashback Collection with The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles, both from Amazon.

The story of two of the bigger silver screen teenage nerds this side of Napoleon Dynamite, Gary Wallace (Hall) and Wyatt Donnelly (Mitchell-Smith) are just as unpopular and unable to meet girls as you could expect them to be. One night, inspired by Frankenstein airing on TV, they use Wyatt's computer to design the perfect woman, feeding multiple images (including one from David Lee Roth's "Just a Gigolo" music video) into it, and they also hack into a U.S. government mainframe machine to get their desired results. A freak electrical storm hits just as the simulation finishes, and the boys can't turn off the computer.

Out steps "Lisa" from a red fog in the washroom, and she takes Gary and Wyatt under her wing, turning them from nerds into studs. The boys party down in a blues club, stand up to Wyatt's older brother Chet (Paxton), and throw a huge party. "Lisa" never sleeps with her creators, but by film's end, they are both seemingly on the path to relationships with two girls their own age.

A little story about how I ended up buying this movie. A long time ago, at work, I was standing with a coworker when he suddenly started seeing the theme music to Weird Science, as performed by Oingo Boingo. So, I asked him "Did they play that one [over the PA]?"
"No, but that's my favorite movie of all time! Love it!"
His review was good enough for me. It was a blind buy as soon as I could find a copy.

Weird Science is your typical '80s teenage sex comedy, and you know you wouldn't have it any other way. Highly recommended, and damned funny at the same time.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

High Fidelity

High Fidelity. 2000 Touchstone Pictures.
Starring: John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joan Cusack
Cameo by: Bruce Springsteen
Director: Stephen Frears
Buy High Fidelity at Amazon.

Rob Gordon (John Cusack) plays the central role in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's 1995 novel. Rob is a music fanatic whose understanding of women is...well, it could be said that he has a better relationship with his record collection than any of his past girlfriends. The movie opens with Rob listening to "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the 13th Floor Elevators as his current girlfriend Laura (Hjejle) walks out on him. After Laura leaves, Rob starts looking up some of his former lovers in an attempt to find out exactly what he's doing wrong.

When he's not doing that, Rob spends a lot of time at the music store he owns, Championship Vinyl (on the corner of Milwaukee and Honore in Chicago, if you're curious!) with the "musical moron twins" Dick (Louiso) and Barry (Black). They all compile "top five" lists for just about everything you could think of, while mocking the ignorance of some of their customers, and selling a few records now and then.

Highly recommended for Cusack fans and music freaks, just to see all of the references you could get by watching it.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 5 (Disc 1)

Buy it at Amazon.

The first disc in 2007's installment featured a selection of shorts featuring Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck:

14 Carrot Rabbit, directed by Friz Freleng, 1952 (Wiki).
Ali Baba Bunny, directed by Chuck Jones, 1957 (Wiki).
Buccaneer Bunny, directed by Friz Freleng, 1948 (Wiki).
Bugs' Bonnets, directed by Chuck Jones, 1956 (Wiki).
A Star is Bored, directed by Friz Freleng, 1956 (Wiki).
A Pest in the House, directed by Chuck Jones, 1947 (Wiki).
Transylvania 6-5000, directed by Chuck Jones, 1963 (Wiki).
Oily Hare, directed by Robert McKimson, 1952 (Wiki).
Stupor Duck, directed by Robert McKimson, 1956 (Wiki).
The Stupor Salesman, directed by Arthur Davis, 1948 (Wiki).
The Abominable Snow Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones, 1961 (Wiki).
The Super Snooper, directed by Robert McKimson, 1952.
The Up-Standing Sitter, directed by Robert McKimson, 1948 (Wiki).
Hollywood Daffy, directed by Friz Freleng, 1946 (Wiki).
You Were Never Duckier, directed by Chuck Jones, 1948 (Wiki).

Thoughts: Definitely one of the most enjoyable single discs on all five sets, with some real classics included. Highly recommended disc.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Slap Shot

Slap Shot. 1977 Universal Pictures.
Starring: Paul Newman, Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse
The Hanson Brothers: Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson, Dave Hanson
Director: George Roy Hill
Buy Slap Shot at Amazon.

A hockey franchise called the Charlestown Chiefs are in trouble. The town is in trouble, thanks to mill closings, and the Chiefs are slated to be folded at the end of the season. Reggie Dunlop (Newman) is the player-coach of this bunch of losers, and he unknowingly picks up the people who will end up saving the team, and the season. The Hansons are violent goons on the ice that aren't especially bright. Dunlop keeps them on the bench until one desperate moment in a game, and the brothers end up stealing the show, giving the Charlestown fans something to cheer about.

Dunlop keeps his team motivated by lying about a prospective buyer interested in buying the Chiefs and moving them to Florida, and he ends up meeting the owner of the team, who is content to let the team fold at season's end, taking the tax write-off.

Things come to a head during the final playoff game against a team from Syracuse. Will the Chiefs' newfound penchant for violent play ultimately be their downfall?

Definitely the greatest movie about hockey ever made. Recommended.

Fatal Instinct

Fatal Instinct. 1993 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Starring: Armand Assante, Sherilyn Fenn, Kate Nelligan, Sean Young, Tony Randall
Director: Carl Reiner
Buy Fatal Instinct at Amazon.

Carl Reiner directed this parody of several movies. Ned Ravine (Assante) is a police officer and a lawyer who believes he knows everything there is to know about women, promising to retire from the police department if anyone ever proves him wrong. He encounters Lola Cain (Young) during a stakeout, and she begins pursuing Ned. Meanwhile, Ned's wife (Nelligan) is having an affair with Frank (Christopher McDonald), an auto mechanic, and they devise a plan to kill Ned to collect nine million dollars in insurance money. See, if Ned is shot, falls from a northbound train, and drowns in a freshwater stream, Lana will collect the money, thanks to the triple indemnity rider.

Also, Max Shady (James Remar) is released from prison after a seven year sentence. He plans to kill Ned for failing to successfully defend him in court. Predictably, all storylines collide with the typical wackiness that ensues.

Good movie, but not a great one. Recommended.

Advise & Consent

Advise & Consent. 1962 Otto Preminger Films (released to home video by Warner Bros.)
Starring: Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, Burgess Meredith, Eddie Hodges, Paul Ford, George Grizzard, Inga Swenson, Frank Sinatra (voice only)
Director: Otto Preminger
Buy Advise & Consent individually, or as part of the Controversal Classics box set at Amazon.

There's some shenanigans going on in Washington D.C...

The President of the United States (Tone) is seriously ill, and one of his final acts is nominating a liberal named Robert A. Leffingwell (Fonda) for Secretary of State. The Senate must either approve or deny the appointment of Leffingwell using its advise and consent powers, and supporters and opponents of the President fight it out, hinting at a Communist background for Leffingwell, or accusing one of his detractors (Senator Brig Anderson, played by Don Murray) of engaging in a homosexual affair.

Director Preminger tried to cast Martin Luther King Jr. in the film to play a black Senator from Georgia, but could not do so. At the time of filming, the Senate was completely Caucasian.

Advise & Consent is an interesting film, but it can be a little too wordy at times. Nothing is perfect, though, so don't allow that to scare you away. Recommended.

MST3K #816: Prince of Space

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #816: Prince of Space.
Originally aired August 16, 1997
Part of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, volume 7.

An easy MST3K highlight from the eighth season, and its first season on Sci-Fi. "I like it very much!"

Earth is invaded by visitors from the planet Krankor, which is only half a million miles away, only to be opposed by the Prince of Space, the alter ego for a shoeshine boy named Wally. Prince of Space is seemingly invulnerable to just about everything, as he constantly reminds Krankor's forces that their weapons are useless against him. In the end, the Prince rescues several kidnapped Earth scientists, and saves the day.

This was also the first Sci-Fi episode that I ever taped, during a mini marathon on New Year's Day, 2000. A decent episode worth your time.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

A Woman Under the Influence

A Woman Under the Influence (Criterion #253). 1974 Castle Hill Productions & Janus Films.
Starring: Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands
Written and Directed by John Cassavetes
Buy A Woman Under the Influence as a single disc Criterion edition, or as part of the John Cassavetes: Five Films box set, also from Criterion.

"Mabel's not crazy, she's unusual."

A Woman Under the Influence follows the troubled marriage of Nick and Mabel Longhetti (Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands). He's an abusive husband, and his wife is out of her mind. The film opens with Nick, a city employee, being called to an emergency job downtown on a weekend he and Mabel were supposed to have all to themselves. After Nick calls to tell her what's going on, Mabel simply goes out to the nearest bar, gets loaded, and goes home with the first man she talks to. The next morning, Mabel is absolutely convinced that the man she slept with is really Nick!

In due time, Mabel's behavior gets her committed, but we also see that Nick is an enabler to her mental dysfunction.

The performances of Falk and Rowlands are amazing, particularly Rowlands, who plays Mabel, the borderline insane woman with such conviction that I found myself worrying about her more than I have any other character in recent memory. Falk's character came across as alternately a caring family man, and as one miserable, emotionally abusive bastard who you'd have no problems slugging in the face if the chance ever came up.

Recommended movie.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Thirteen

Thirteen. 2003 Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Vanessa Hudgens, Holly Hunter, Brady Corbet
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Buy Thirteen at Amazon.

Yes, I watched this on December 13th. I know, I'm lame.

Anywho, Tracy (Wood) is a thirteen year old girl who just entered the seventh grade. She's a straight A student who writes poetry and has a penchant for wearing bad clothing. Her mother is Melanie (superbly performed by Hunter), a recovering addict who struggles as a hairdresser (working out of her own kitchen) to support Tracy and her older brother, surfer dude Mason (Corbet). Following a very awkward first meeting with Evie (Reed), the local out of control wild girl, Tracy changes her image. Evie gives Tracy her approval, such as it is, and gives her a fake phone number and an invitation to go shoplifting on Melrose that afternoon. To fit in, Tracy steals a woman's pocketbook, and the girls go on a shopping spree, followed by Evie and Tracy becoming inseparable BFFs (and it's hinted that they may be even more than that). The two girls go into a wild ride filled with drug abuse, sex, lies, body piercings, and more petty crime, capped off by their inevitable falling out at the end of the film.

Tracy, while still thrilled to be part of the in-crowd, is still unhappy about Melanie's boyfriend (Jeremy Sisto), and starts shunning her old friends. She turns to cutting to cope with her stress, which Melanie doesn't know about until the climax of the movie.

Okay...Thirteen is not at all a bad film, but to me, it is somewhat unbelievable, mostly because I never knew anyone remotely like any character in the movie when I was that age. This is not to say that there weren't any girls acting as wild as Evie or Tracy do during most of the movie, but I personally never witnessed anyone acting like that.

Well, at least not until the eighth grade in a new state and a new school. Talk about culture shock, but that's neither here nor there. Recommended movie (just not a completely realistic one), even if Catherine Hardwicke was the one who directed the film adaptation for Twilight.

Friday, December 12, 2008

12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men. 1957 United Artists.
Starring: Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber
Director: Sidney Lumet
Buy 12 Angry Men at Amazon.

The 1957 film adaptation of the Reginald Rose play is one of the all time classic movies. You probably know the premise: a kid from the inner city is accused of murdering his father. If convicted, the boy goes to the electric chair.

Henry Fonda is the eighth juror (identified as "Davis" at the end of the movie), and the one who initially votes "not guilty", followed by his questioning the credibility of the two witnesses, and suggesting that the murder weapon isn't as unique as assumed. Over the course of the movie, the other eleven jurors argue about it, eventually changing their votes to go along with Davis, starting with the ninth one (Sweeney). Juror #7 (Warden) simply changes his vote to end the deliberation faster, but he also has two tickets to a Yankees-Indians game, and doesn't want to miss it.

Lee J. Cobb is the third juror, and the one most anxious to convict the accused, partially out of malice towards his own son who he had fallen out with following a fight. After the climatic confrontation with Davis, he breaks down and decides the kid is not guilty.

Highly, highly recommended.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Ocean's 11

Ocean's 11. 1960 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Angie Dickinson, Richard Conte, Cesar Romero, Patrice Wymore, Joey Bishop, Akim Tamiroff, Henry Silva, Norman Fell
Guest Starring: Red Skelton, George Raft
Director: Lewis Milestone
Buy Ocean's 11 at Amazon.

This is one of the two films made that feature the entire Rat Pack (the other is Sergeants 3). Joey Bishop didn't receive top billing with the other four members, but he was the first actor to be shown after the opening credits.

Danny Ocean (Sinatra) leads ten other World War II veterans in a scheme to rob five different Las Vegas on a single night, planning the New Year's Eve heist carefully. Things go swimmingly...until one of the boys suffers a fatal heart attack on the Strip, which ends up ruining everything.

A good movie, which should definitely be of interest to Rat Pack fans who haven't seen it before. Recommended

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Being There

Being There. 1979 Lorimar Productions.
Starring: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, Richard Basehart
Director: Hal Ashby
Buy Being There at Amazon.

Peter Sellers plays Chauncey "Chance" Gardiner, a simple gardener (zing!) for a wealthy man's townhouse in Washington D.C. He has lived there his entire life, with seemingly no contact with the outside world, except from what he sees watching television. Aside from his benefactor, the only other person in Chance's life is Louise the maid, who cooks his meals, and never misses a chance to berate him in some fashion since she only views Chance as a child trapped in the body of an older man. After his employer dies, Chance has to leave his sheltered existance, discovering the outside world for the first time.

One evening, Chance is struck by a car driven by Ben Rand (Douglas), who takes him in to give him a place to recover. Chance talks about being asked to leave his benefactor's house by attorneys, which Rand misinterprets as Chance losing his gardening business after it tanked. Pretty soon, Chance's simple and straightforward commentary about tending a garden are construed as statements containing great wisdom, as well as keen knowledge of business matters and American politics.

The portrayal of Chance by Sellers is truly magnificent as he perfectly captures the world view of an outsider who has literally never strayed from his home, finding himself in some truly awkward situations, like the scene where he calmly approaches a street gang inquiring on where he can find a garden to work in.

Recommended.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Top Secret!

Movie? What movie?

Top Secret! 1984 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, Peter Cushing, Omar Sharif
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker & Jerry Zucker
Buy Top Secret! at Amazon.

Look out, Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker have returned, and they've found a new kid named Val Kilmer to unleash onto the world!

Kilmer, in his first role, plays pop singer Nick Rivers, who goes to East Germany to perform at a festival, and somehow ends up in a resistance movement, helping Hillary (Gutteridge) rescue her captive scientist father.

The film's most notable scene is one in a bookstore that was filmed completely in reverse.

Even though many of the jokes and pop culture references are now pretty dated (Pac-Man, anyone?), it's still a hysterical movie. Recommended.

Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite. 2004 Fox Searchlight Pictures, Paramount Pictures & MTV Films.
Starring: Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Efren Ramirez
Director: Jared Hess
Buy Napoleon Dynamite at Amazon.

A funny, heartwarming film about one of the most unlikeable characters in cinematic history.

Napoleon Dynamite (Heder) is an awkward and socially inept teenager who lives with his grandmother, and his older brother Kip (Ruell), who sits online the entire day "talking to babes" (while "training to be a cage fighter") in a small town called Preston, Idaho. He spends his time drawing, daydreaming, failing at tetherball, and getting picked on by the popular kids.

After his grandmother is injured in a dune riding accident, Uncle Rico (Gries) is asked to watch Nap and Kip. Rico lives in his van, and seems permanently stuck in 1982. He and Kip embark on a project to sell a Tupperware-like product door-to-door. See, Kip wants to meet his online girlfriend who lives in Detroit.

Meanwhile, Napoleon makes two new friends in school. Pedro (Ramirez) is a transfer student from Mexico who immediately decides to run for class president. Deb (Tina Majorino) is a shy and sensitive young lady who takes a liking to Napoleon until Rico tries selling her some breast enhancement herbs and hinting that it was Napoleon's idea. The movie ends well for all; Pedro becomes class president, Kip gets married to his online sweetheart, Rico wins his girl back, Grandma recovers and comes home...and Napoleon becomes friends with Deb again.

Napoleon Dynamite, the character, is somehow one of the more unlikeable characters I've ever seen in any movie, but it still doesn't prevent his own movie from being a good one. Recommended.

Charade

Charade (Criterion #57). 1963 Universal Pictures.
Starring: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walther Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot
Music: Henry Mancini
Director: Stanley Donen
Buy Charade (Criterion Collection #57) at Amazon.

While on holiday, Regina "Reggie" Lampert (Hepburn), who is planning to ask her husband Charles for a divorce, meets a man calling himself (at first) Peter Joshua (Grant). Returning home, Regina discovers that everything in the house is gone, and she finds out from the police that Charles had been murdered and thrown from a train.

Meeting with a CIA agent (Matthau), Regina finds out that Charles was involved in a theft during World War II. He and several other government agents were parachuted behind enemy lines to deliver $250,000 in gold to the French Resistance. They buried it, then were ambushed by German soldiers. After the attack, Charles dug up the gold and sold it. He's dead, but the money is still missing, and the U.S. government wants it back. So do his fellow agents who survived the botched mission.

And how does Peter Joshua fit into all of this?

Charade fell into the public domain due to a legal irregularity, so basically anyone can release it for home viewing. The movie is included as a bonus feature on the DVD release for its 2002 remake, The Truth About Charlie. Personally, I would stick with the Criterion release, even if it is a whole lot more expensive than any other release of the film.

The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate. 1962 United Artists.
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory
Director: John Frankenheimer
Buy The Manchurian Candidate (1962) at Amazon.

During the Korean War, an American infantry patrol is captured by agents for the Soviet Union, and taken into Manchuria, where the soldiers are brainwashed, and in the case of Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Harvey), implanting a subconscious trigger (a Queen of Diamonds card). After being returned to the front line, and later, after they come back home, the Americans have no idea what they were subjected to, and therefore believe that Shaw saved the lives of their entire platoon during combat. Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honor upon returning to America, which is something he is completely unhappy with.

Major Bennett Marco (Sinatra) starts having the same nightmare: a hypnotized Shaw killing two of his platoon before assembled Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean officers while watching a demonstration of the Communist brainwashing procedure. Wanting to investigate, Marco receives no support from Army Intelligence, until another soldier from the platoon comes forward and says he's been having the same nightmare with the same specific Communists in it. Meanwhile, Shaw's relationship with his parents is explored; he hates them both, especially his overbearing mother (Lansbury), and is unaware that they are actually Communist agents with a plan that could take them all the way to the White House, using their brainwashed son as their unwitting henchman.

The Manchurian Candidate is a gripping political thriller worthy of your time. Recommended.