December 2005

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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Although it first aired during the same TV era that also produced the Peanuts Xmas special and Chuck Jones' Grinch, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol isn't a perennial holiday favorite like the other two cartoons. In fact, if I were to go by the turnout on this quiz, I'd conclude that it's practically forgotten today. As a kid, I always liked it best of the three, and after a recent re-watch, I was surprised by how decent it was, especially for a low-budget network show for kids. And compared to most of the TV cartoons that have come since, it looks like Fantasia.

Taking a single, so-so gag-- a half-blind old man who goes around muttering and walking into things-- the Mr. Magoo series went on for decades, mainly thanks to the muttering part, which was supplied by Jim Backus. Backus, most remembered today as Gilligan's rich pal, Thurston Howell III, first played Magoo in 1949, so by the time of Christmas Carol, he'd been doing the character for 13 years. He'd even done a musical Magoo once before, in 1001 Arabian Nights, a putrid version of Aladdin.

Fortunately, with the exception of a typical havoc-wreaking Magoo in the opening and closing, Backus and his character played it straight. So did the rest of the cast, which included veteran Jay Ward players Paul Frees and June Foray (whose career spanned Rocky & Bullwinkle to The Simpsons). It also starred Jack Cassidy as Bob Cratchit-- he sang the first song in last week's audio clue about having "the Lord's bright blessing." As I watched that part, I couldn't help recalling that Cassidy burned to death after passing out drunk with a lit cigarette.

The songs were written by Jules Styne, and as you can tell by the audio clue, they're pretty annoying in places. They're better when they accompany a minor-key scene, like young Ebenezer left alone on Xmas. After Styne finished the score, he and his partner Bob Merrill wrote a song that they thought would be perfect for the show, but animation being what it is, there was no way to shoehorn a new song into the final cut. They included it in their next project, instead: Funny Girl. So next time you hear "People," just remember it was originally written for Mr. Magoo.

Merry Xmas and a stake of holly to the three wise men of the movie quiz, perhaps the only guys old enough to remember this lame cartoon: Wayne Palmer (still the record holder almost 3 years later, with one win over his nearest competitor), E. Yarber (Wayne's nearest competitor, and a longtime friend of this weblog), and Hank Parmer (likewise longtime blog friend, and fellow Casablanca non-friend).

(I got the last two pics from an enjoyable website dedicated to all the Christmas Carol adaptations.)

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 27, 2005 1:20 AM

 

The Monday Movie Quiz #87

Once again, we'll withhold the name of last week's movie and quiz winners for a little while longer (although the quick answer to the latter is Palmer, Yarber, and Parmer), and instead get right to this week's quiz. It's a sound quiz with one audio clue. Hints: the male star is in two of the greatest movies ever made, and the film's director has been mocked mercilessly on South Park. If you know the title, send me an email by late Sunday night. If you're right, expect to see your name in next week's anguished winners circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 26, 2005 3:20 AM

 

"A Christmas Carol" starring Basil Rathbone

Here it is, a 1942 recording of Dickens' story with Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. Merry Xmas, everybody-- see you next week.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 24, 2005 12:47 AM

 

A holiday gift from me to you

Sometime on Xmas eve, I'll be posting an mp3 of an old recording of A Christmas Carol, with Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. It was written by Edith Meiser, who scripted Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes series, and features Arthur Q. Bryan in multiple roles. (If you don't know, Bryan was the voice of Elmer Fudd.) But even if you don't know who Basil Rathbone was, it's still a nice way for the family to pass a little time together while waiting for Santa. Stay tuned, and merry Xmas.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 23, 2005 3:41 AM

 

Oh, Jesus! Still more Xmas comix

From 1953

One of the wonderful, beautiful Dell kids' comics done by the great Walt Kelly

Dell Four Color #607

Monster World #6, 1965-- the bastard son of Famous Monsters of Filmland, which featured comic stories by Wallace Wood (my excuse for including it)

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 23, 2005 3:08 AM

 

The electrifying Tom Cruise (with special guest victim Oprah Winfrey)

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 21, 2005 10:39 PM

 

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

When this blog began in 2003, a fair amount of space was spent on one of my favorite movies, Dancing Outlaw, a documentary made in 1991 for public-TV about tap-dancer and Elvis impersonator Jesco "Jesse" White. It's a film where the eye of the beholder is everything: watching it can evoke shock, fear, revulsion and high hilarity, depending on the viewer.

My own reaction was instant affection. Not since Pete and Ray and the "Shut Up, Little Man" tapes (a longtime staple of this blog) have I found such an outrageous, yet oddly lovable real-life maniac. Taking up the tap-dancing trade from his father, who was the best hoofer in Boone County, West Virginia, Jesco entertains at parties and dreams of the bigtime. The film could also be called "The Three Faces of Jesco," since besides the light and dark sides of his personality, it reveals his secret identity: Elvis Presley.

It also introduces us to the rest of Jesco's family, living and dead (the lawyers in Boone County made a nice living either prosecuting or defending them), as well as his wife, Norma Jean, aka Priscilla. Jesse recounts the story of how his father was killed by a couple enemies of his brother, his days of huffing gasoline and sniffing butane (for his "double-super buzz"), and how the love of Elvis saved his life. All in 30 minutes!

The original Dancing Outlaw, and its sequel, Jesco Goes to Hollywood, are finally out on a legit DVD. (These movies have been bootlegged forever.) The price, however, is prohibitive ($60), and makes one wonder if Jesco isn't right about everybody making money from the film except him. My recommendation to those who know how to use BitTorrent or newsgroups is to check there, since it shows up fairly often.

As you might imagine, the cult of Jesco has led to some interesting websites and archived stories. Here's an interview with Jacob Young about finding Jesse in the first place, and this is a sweet fanpage about meeting Jesco years later. There's some more recent news online, too, and sad to say, it's not that great. A 2003 piece in Creative Loafing ends with Jesse topping off 36 beers with several lines of coke ("It's like drinking a whole lot of coffee at once!"), and this Jesco update mentions his water-free trailer and other travails.

So congratulations to the following unstumpable friends of this weblog who recognized the movie: Wayne Palmer, E. Yarber, Bill Hearne, and Hank Parmer.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 20, 2005 1:09 AM

 

The Monday Movie Quiz #86

I'll post last week's unknown movie and the quiz winners a little later in the day (or evening), but let's get this week's quiz going now. It's a sound-clip quiz-- listen to it here. A hint and a warning: we're not really dealing with a movie this time (although it just played a theater in Des Moines). If you know the title, send me an email by late Sunday night (yeah, it's Xmas, but I still have to work). If you're right, expect to see your name in next week's Dickensian winners circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 19, 2005 3:33 AM

 

More Xmas comix

From EC, the company that begat Mad-- the first issue of Panic, cover by Al Feldstein

Little Lulu #19, 1949-- no comment

What's in the pipe, Santa? Santa Claus Parade, 1952

Merry Xmas from Fat Freddy of the Fabulous Freak Brothers (possibly the source of what's in Santa's pipe)

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 17, 2005 3:32 AM

 

A call from Dr. Death

Long-time Monday Movie Quiz winner E. Yarber introduced me to a collection of answering-machine messages left by Jonathan Winters to one of his friends, and it's as funny as I've ever heard him (Winters, not E.). Each call starts with the cheery greeting of Winters' friend, J.B. Smith, and then Winters goes off on whatever morbid tangent he feels like. He rambles sometimes for minutes, and his insults are frequent, such as, "All my career, I was too smart for the room-- and, of course, you were in the room." Here's a cut where he channels Jack Kevorkian, offering to fly to his buddy's side and put him down if his prostatitis gets to be too much.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 14, 2005 9:30 PM

 

Siskel & Ebert & the movies & the asshole

There's a long piece on the life and career of Roger Ebert in this month's Chicago Magazine. Too long, really, so I'll give you the best parts: this baby picture of Roger, this pic of Ebert with Russ Meyer, and this passage about his relationship with Gene Siskel:

"While they would never be the sort of friends who would hang out at each other's houses, Ebert says, 'I loved him, and there were times when I hated him. There were times when he infuriated me, yet we were good friends.'"

Now . . . go here and watch the outtake. Oh, yeah, good friends.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 14, 2005 12:08 AM

 

Greil Monaco's No-Life Top 10-- The Little Bit-o'-Torrent edition

Many months have gone by and still no cease-and-desist letters from Mr. Marcus's lawyers, so I thought the coast might be clear to rip off his gimmick one more time. I'm working on a story about file-sharing, so-- strictly in the name of research-- I've been going to different BitTorrent sites to see what's out there, especially Divx video files. (Divx is the avi filetype commonly used on the 'net for encoding movies and television shows-- file size is smaller than DVD but quality can be comparable.) Here's some of the stuff I found.

1) This is Orson Welles, a four-tape series of Welles interviews with Peter Bogdanovich. This is the supplemental audiobook that came out at the same time as the Welles/Bogdanovich book of the same name. Those of us in the know bought both, but the tape set was hard to find and has been out of print for years. Good news-- it's available as a bittorent download here. They're cobbled together from 24 hours of tapes, recorded over years and in all different settings, so sound quality is variable, but the conversation is solid gold. Merry Xmas, Welles fans!

2) The Power of Nightmares, BBC three-part series, 2004. Newsgroups and BitTorrent networks are full of interesting documentary programs from the CBC, BBC and other parts of the world. This is a series that has since been released as a film, and has been reviewed extensively, so I won't bother. But I was struck by how much Donald Rumsfeld reminded me of Billy DeWolfe. Am I the only person left who remembers the Frankin Pangborn-wannabe who used to priss around saying he was "busy, busy, busy." Well, listen to Rummy jumping bad on the evil empire, and try not to think of WMDs.

3) Outbreak of Fear, and other radio plays by R.D. Wingfield. The BBC has never stopped producing fine radio drama, and I've only now discovered the work of one of their most popular mystery writers, R.D. Wingfield, even though his work goes back four deacdes. His main detective is Jack Frost (first radio, then novels and TV), but his radio plays are usually about people scrambling for a buck-- he writes about business well-- and what happens to small lives when something huge like murder happens. Outbreak of Fear is a five-part play from 1982, and shows Wingfield at his very best: gruesome, funny, and engrossing from the first line. (I especially like the high level of animosity between his characters, which leads to some great arguments.) They show up on newsgroups that specialize in British radio series-- try to find some, because they're as good as radio mystery gets.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 13, 2005 12:48 AM

 

The Monday Movie Quiz #85

'Tis the season to take it easy, so I thought I'd reward longtime readers as well as give myself a break with this week's unknown movie. It's actually a well-flogged favorite of this weblog, and this sound clue, under another name, is one of our all-time funniest mp3s. (And remember-- the word is "sunglasses.")

Match up the above pic with the dialogue, and if you come up with a movie title (hint: it's another documentary), put it in an email and get it to me by late Sunday night. If you're correct, expect to lose that pre-Xmas depression by seeing your name in next week's winners circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 12, 2005 3:12 AM

 

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

If they gave Oscars for "Best Crock-of-Shit Disguised as a Documentary," last week's quiz movie The Aristocrats would win. At least it should: I was skeptical when I first heard about it, and now that I've seen it, I'm convinced that it's a hoax. Here's why:

1) Before this film came out, I'd never heard the joke, let alone the showbiz lore behind it (that it's a joke that comics over the decades tell to other comics as a virtuoso piece). I'm not a student of old showbiz traditions, but I think it would have come up somewhere in my pop-culture travels. It just seems odd to me that I'd know about Bohemian Grove but not a reknowned gross-out joke favored by Chevy Chase.

2) Most of the people they interview about this classic, much-heard joke look and act like it's the first time they've ever told it. And most aren't funny. (Bob Saget? And he gets more time than Chris Rock?) Even when they are, I still smell horseshit-- for example, I like Dana Gould, but when he claims to have told a lengthy version only to blow the punchline, it looks to me like a story made up on the spot.

3) The co-creator of the film is Penn Gillette, whose entire career is tricking people.

4) The movie closes with the credit: "For Johnny Carson." Gillette is on record as no fan of Johnny's . . . so why the dedication? Maybe because the movie's phony, too.

Anyway, I know I'm in the minority (with Dick Smothers, who was the voice of dissent in last week's audio clue), but not only did I not think The Aristocrats was funny, I didn't even find it that interesting. Maybe that's because it aims for a brow-level not too far from the floor, as demonstrated by the comics who get the most screen time: Billy Connolly, Drew Carey and the inexplicable Saget.

If I'm wrong, I have no problem admitting I was wrong (although I will have some problem acknowledging that comedy has sunk this low). But if, sometime next year, Gillette and his partner in crime, Paul Provenza, come clean on their little hoax, remember who told you so.

Anyway, congratulations to the relatively few people who got it right: Wayne Palmer, Corey Anderson, Mark Gisleson, Bill Hearne, and Hank Parmer. So much for newer movies being easier!

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 12, 2005 1:34 AM

 

Xmas comix

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 6, 2005 12:57 AM

 

The Monday Movie Quiz #84

We haven't done a sound-clip quiz in some time, so . . . listen to this.

If you know the movie that dialogue comes from, send me an email by late Sunday night. If you're right, expect to see your name in next week's filthy winners circle. Good luck.

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 5, 2005 2:23 AM

 

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Thanks to the movies he's had to make since he came to the U.S., too many Americans think that John Woo is a bad director. Who can blame them? Stuff like Broken Arrow, Face/Off . . . as they used to say in Mad magazine, blecchh! (And Jesus, two John Travolta movies in a row? Not even Tarantino did that to us or himself.) It's saying something pretty bad when the best movie Woo's made in this country to date starred Jean-Claude Van Damme.

(The future's not looking any rosier for John: of the half-dozen upcoming projects listed on Woo's imdb page, one will star The Rock and another is a live-action He-Man picture. Perhaps he should talk to Ang Lee, who's now claiming that making The Hulk almost ruined his career.)

As fans of his Hong Kong films know, however, there is a whole 'nother John Woo, and he was at his absolute best in the 1986 film A Better Tomorrow (now sometimes known as ABT 1, to differentiate it from its two sequels). Besides making Chow Yun Fat an international star (an actor who had been known among HK theater-owners as "Box-Office Poison"), it's also possibly the purest distillation of what makes a great John Woo film.

Less operatic than the better-known Chow hits The Killer and Hard-Boiled, ABT 1 is a near-perfect blend of stunning action sequences and genuine tug-at-the-heart emotion. Its basic story of two warring, opposite brothers-- one a criminal, the other a cop-- has its roots in American gangster movies from the '30s. (The two actors playing the roles, Lung Ti and the late Leslie Cheung, are too often slighted-- they're both terrific.) But it's Chow's movie, and his portrayal of Mark Gor is what sets the film apart from almost anything in the genre. His performance makes me think of how Orson Welles described Cagney and Mifune: huge, but never hammy.

(Poor Chow hasn't fared any better in his few American movies than his former director. A bit of good news is that, currently, he's filming Pirates of the Carribean 3, which can't help but be better than crap like Bulletproof Monk and The Replacement Killers.)

I first saw ABT and its equally-great sequel long ago, when tape dupes were the only way to get it in the U.S. Finally, a "legit" VHS edition came out, but without either the original music (cheesy as the synth score is, the themes are lovely and stay in the mind) or the Chinese dialogue (as I recall, it was dubbed into "Astro-Boy" English). Fortunately, the DVDs that are on the market today, while not perfect (Criterion, get busy!), are more than adequate. I wish I could have seen them looking so good, and I envy anyone getting to see them like this for the first time.

So congratulations to the following Chow hounds who got it right: Wayne Palmer, Jen McCabe, E. Yarber, Bill Hearne, and Hank Parmer. (It's only easy when you know the movie, guys!)

Posted by Steve Monaco at December 5, 2005 12:39 AM

 

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