The Monkey's Uncle

The Monkey's Uncle
August 18, 1965
Disney
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C+

The title and some early scenes suggest that this is going to be sort of a teen version of Bedtime for Bonzo, but Merlin's quasi-adoption of Stanley the chimp is less of the focus than various threats to football at Midvale College.  At least that title allows for one of the better title songs of the '60s, sung by Annette and the Beach Boys, with Sherman Brothers lyrics like this:

Annette: I'd live in a jungle gym in order to be with him.  I love the monkey's uncle, and I wish I were the monkey's aunt!
Beach Boys: Monkey's aunt!....

Annette: On the day he marries me
All: What a nutty family tree!
Mike: A bride!
Brian: A groom!
Beach Boys:  A chimpanzee!

That right there raises the movie from a C to a C+.  (This will be far from the last time that the Beach Boys will do a title song that's much better than the movie it's attached to.)

This time, Merlin's misadventures are slightly more realistic, although "man-powered flight" fueled by an adrenaline smoothie pushes this back into sci-fi.  The first half of the movie is about sleep-learning through LPs.  Questionable ethics again pop up, with the judge urging Merlin to find "an honest way to cheat" on exams, for football player Norm and another idiot jock.  Merlin gets some sexist dialogue about Jennifer being stupid and illogical, you know, feminine.  There's a sort of rival for Jennifer, but because this is Disney, we're cheated of a moment when the girl is supposed to come out of the shower, presumably in a towel.  (By the time of Enchanted, it would be a whole other world of course.)

You'll notice that Annette not only looks non-pregnant, but her hair still has red highlights.  This was actually filmed in '64 (I think shortly before or after Uncle Walt found out that Tommy Kirk was gay), but not released for awhile.

Arthur O'Connell, Darius Green III here, was a reporter in Citizen Kane, and more recently played Gidget's first film father.  Similarly, Frank Faylen, who's the anti-football Mr. Dearborne, was Ernie the cabdriver in It's a Wonderful Life, but he's probably better known as Dobie Gillis's TV dad.  Leon Ames is back as Judge Holmsby, with a much larger role than before.  Connie Gilchrist again plays Holmsby's housekeeper.

It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life
January 7, 1947
RKO
Drama, Comedy
VHS
B

This may be the darkest of all "holiday movies," involving as it does suicide, bankruptcy, and unpunished corruption.*  The hero, George, yells at his uncle, wife, and kids, as well as picks fights with strangers.  He wants to escape his little hometown, but he always does "the right thing."  If we smile and/or cry at the ending, it's partly with relief that, despite all George's problems, it's a good thing he was born.  Jimmy Stewart is just right as this complex yet ordinary man, with all his line readings (stuttered or not) natural and believable.  Lionel Barrymore puts enough sarcasm into his dialogue that he never becomes a simple cartoon villain.  The supporting cast, with a lot of familiar faces (some of them mentioned below), is good, especially glowing Donna Reed as George's loyal wife Mary.  (However, I always laugh out loud that we're supposed to be horrified that alternative-universe-Mary has become, gasp, a spinster librarian!)  This time, I was particularly impressed with the children, the younger versions of George, Mary, and Violet matching up with their adult counterparts, and the Bailey kids not only looking like each other, but acting believably for their ages, with no precocity or wisecracks.  (Compare, for instance, Andrew on Family Ties, with his unbelievable dialogue even as a kindergartner.)

As with Citizen Kane and Casablanca, this is a "great" movie that I still find good after many viewings.  I'd rather hang out with the gang in Morgan's Creek, since the visits to Bedford Falls are draining, but it is interesting to see one man's life in a couple hours.  (There are some glitches in chronology, mostly surrounding younger brother Harry's age.  In the alternative world, he dies at 9 in 1919, although born in 1911.  And he seems to be four years younger than George, who's 12 in 1919, but Harry graduates high school in 1928.)

This is yet another credit for Frank O'Connor, this time as a military officer.  Edward Keane and Art Howard were in A Night at the Opera.  Brooks Benedict was in Follow the Fleet.  Lillian Randolph (Annie the maid) was in At the Circus.  Tom Coleman, Mike Lally, and Suzanne Ridgeway were in Citizen Kane.  George Noisom was in The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane.  Jimmy the Crow has a larger role here than he did in The Wizard of Oz.  Adriana Caselotti, who sings at Martini's here, was "Juliet's" voice in The Wizard of Oz (as well as Snow White's in the Disney cartoon).  Al Bridge, who was the lawyer Johnson in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, has a much smaller role here as the sheriff.

Joseph E. Bernard would shortly appear in The Egg and I.  Brick Sullivan would be in Singin' in the Rain, Hershell Graham in The Band Wagon, and Jack Gordon in Some Like It Hot.  Frank Faylen, who plays Ernie was in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, and would go on to The Monkey's Uncle.  H.B. Warner, who plays Mr. Gower, was then in his 70s and had credits going back to before World War I; he would play himself in Sunset Boulevard.  Charles Lane, who describes himself as a "bright young man," was then 41 and still had decades ahead of him as an actor.


*Well, unpunished except on Saturday Night Live:  http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81249131/

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
March 29, 1939
RKO
Historical, Musical, Drama
DVD
C

Slow, corny, somewhat depressing movie that somehow ends up being proto-propaganda for U.S. involvement in World War II.  It's set 1911 to 1918 and patriotic Brit Vernon joins up when World War I breaks out.  (Astaire shows no trace of a British accent, although Vernon was nineteen when he emigrated to New York.  No New York accent either, for that matter.)  Before that, it's mostly a tale of the real-life celebrity dancers' rise and success.  Around the midpoint, when Edna May Oliver (Aunt March in Little Women) shows up, the movie sort of springs to life, and the montage sequence seems to have a better, livelier director.  Mostly though, Fred and more particularly Ginger are hamstrung by playing real roles, and ones they're not suited for.  (I really missed the sassy, brassy Ginger of Flying Down to Rio, as she played insecure, innocent Irene.)  I was getting so antsy that I started speculating on Walter Brennan as "Walter" having a threesome with the Castles.  (He does seem very taken with Vernon.)  Some of the dancing's pretty good of course, but you're not missing much if you skip this one.

William Worthington was in Duck Soup, Jean Stevens in Room Service, and Esther Muir was "Flo" in A Day at the Races, which also featured Max Lucke.  Leonid Kinskey, who plays the "bohemian" painter, was in Duck Soup as the agitator and would be in Casablanca as Sascha.  Kay Sutton appeared in Roberta, Brooks Benedict in Follow the Fleet.  Tiny Jones, who'd just done You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, shows how she got her nickname, here appearing as the small woman who goes through a revolving door.  Leyland Hodgson was also in Honest Man.  Donald "Jumping Butterballs" MacBride has a more leering, less angry role than in Room Service.  Douglas Walton was in Thank You, Jeeves!, and incidentally was Percy Bysshe Shelley in The Bride of Frankenstein.

Edmund Mortimer, George Irving, and Frank O'Connor were in previous movies of mine, and Mortimer would soon appear in At the Circus.  Rolfe Sedan would shortly be in The Wizard of Oz.  Jack Gargan would go on to The Bank Dick, Adrienne D'Ambricourt to Casablanca.  Eugene Borden plays a Frenchman in All About Eve as well as here.  Frank Faylen, who's an uncredited Adjutant here, would be much more memorable as not only Ernie in It's a Wonderful Life, but as Dobie Gillis's TV father.