Skidoo

Skidoo
December 19, 1968
Sigma/Paramount
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B-

This is odd even for a bad '60s movie, and perhaps the oddest thing about it is that, other than the funny opening with the commercial parodies, it gets exponentially more unbelievable as it goes along.  Since I rate movies on their entertainment value (setting aside "good" and "bad" as such), I would give the first half probably a C.  Then Groucho shows up as a mobster named God, and Jackie Gleason accidentally drops acid, upping things to a C+.  By the last twenty minutes, it's suddenly turned into a whacked-out musical, with not only a song & dance number with trash cans but Carol Channing singing the title song (while dressed as either a pirate or George Washington), capped by Nilsson singing the closing credits, down to the Roman numerals in the copyright date!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4IMX26xF9Q 

As you can see, I mean hear, it's a very electic cast.*  I just wish they were given more to do.  This was Groucho's last movie (at age 78) and he looks bored, even when he's undressing 21-year-old Alexandra Hay.  Basically, you've got the mobsters (including Frankie Avalon) and the prisoners and the hippies (nowhere near as cleancut as the ones in How Sweet It Is!, which sounds like it should've starred Gleason), but all of these groups overlap.  It's pointless to talk about the plot, because there really isn't much of one and it's the least interesting aspect of the movie.  In fact, this is a difficult film to discuss because even if you've heard it described, nothing captures its mix of ennui and trippiness, like the way it's never explained why everyone (including a peace poster) uses the word "kiss" for "kill."  So I'll just add is that it is entertaining if you stay with it, but I can definitely understand someone giving up after ten minutes.

*Since my tags are limited and you might not have clicked on the link, I'll add that Arnold Stang gets killed off early on, although he does show up in Gleason's acid trip.  Peter Lawford plays a senator, I guess sort of a reference to him being a Kennedy in-law.  (There's a photo of Governor Reagan in one scene.)  Batman villains Burgess Meredith and Cesar Romero show up as respectively the warden and Hechy.  And the lyrics don't mention that Kirk Douglas and John Wayne appear in footage from Preminger's In Harm's Way.

Sergeant Deadhead

Sergeant Deadhead
August 18, 1965
AIP
Comedy, Musical, Sci-Fi
VHS
B

The same day that you could first see Annette singing about her ambition to be a monkey's aunt, you could watch Frankie "being shot up with a monkey."  (In each case, it's actually a chimp.)  Outdoing his double role in Bikini Beach, Frankie plays the title character, who undergoes a personality change while up in space (with the "monkey"), but he also plays Sgt. Donovan, a patriotic lookalike.  Much of the usual AIP crowd is around (see below), but we also get officers played by Fred Clark, Reginald Gardiner, Gale Gordon, Cesar Romero, and best of all Eve Arden, who has perfect comic delivery and even gets to sing a very Ardenic song, "You Should've Seen the One That Got Away."  She's named Lt. Kinsey, and the movie has a lot of tasteless but amusing sex humor, much of it involving the Frankies and Deborah Walley (as Lucy) at her sexiest.  The movie succeeds at some of what John Goldfarb attempted, including political satire.  Not that this is sophisticated wit-- after all it's still AIP-- but it is very funny.  After I don't know how many viewings (although none in recent years), I still giggle helplessly whenever I listen to Pat Buttram as the irritable, Southern-accented President.  ("If I had my spurs on, I'd kick you in the shins!  I'll sic the dogs on ya!")  I'd go with a B+, like Pajama Party (also penned by Louis M. Heyward), but the first 15 or 20 minutes are a bit slow (Buster Keaton, in his last AIP appearance, is given some unfunny slapstick), and, alas, there's no title song.  On the other hand, I love the sheer goofiness of a military band that can only play "Jingle Bells."

John Ashley is cast against type as a nerd with sinus trouble, while Jody McCrea (who used to be known as Deadhead) is nowhere in sight.  Other beach folk who've joined up include Ray Atkinson, Bruce Baker, Patti Chandler,  Jo Collins, Sue Hamilton, Luree Nicholson Holmes, Mary Hughes, Janice Levinson, Stephanie Nader, and Salli Sachse.  This time Mike Nader is teamed up for comedic purposes with Norman Grabowski, as air policemen.

The recasting of the Ratz and Mice is less obvious: John Macchia and Andy Romano as Marine MPs, Alberta Nelson as a WAF, but also Jerry Brutsche as the newspaper vendor and Bob Harvey as the bellhop.  (Both Jeromey and Robert find Lucy "Va-va-va-voom!)  As for Harvey Lembeck, he's still inept and menacing, as the man who breaks out of the guardhouse using exploding fountain pens.

Bobbi Shaw is now American and named Gilda.  Donna Loren is another WAF and gets a torchy solo at the wedding reception.  Dwayne Hickman has a brief appearance but gets a special thank-you in the end credits. Romo Vincent, the tuba player, would be Jack Happy in The Swinger.  Newsman Ed Reimers plays himself here but would be an announcer in The Barefoot Executive, which, yes, also features a chimp.

John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!

John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!
March 24, 1965
Fox
Comedy
VHS
C-

While I can't recommend this movie, even as a so-bad-it's-goodie, I suppose some might want to see it to just to say they've seen it.  (Or they have seen it, and can't believe what they saw.)  Briefly, Shirley MacLaine (much much shriekier than in The Apartment, including on the title song*) plays a frigid journalist at Strife Magazine (hardy har) whose editor Charles Lane assigns her to write a story on a harem.  Meanwhile, the title character, played by Richard Crenna, is a sort of combination of pilots Douglas Corrigan and Francis Gary Powers, with the nickname "Wrong Way," and he accidentally lands in the Arabian country of Fawzia while trying to reach Russia.  The King of Fawzia, played by Peter Ustinov, starts a football team for his son, who's been kicked off the Notre Dame team for not being Irish.  (Wouldn't they have noticed right off?)  Oh, and there are various government officials who are trying to spin the situation.

That last aspect was what I liked best, particularly since it involves the sitcom vets Jim Backus as Miles Whitepaper, Fred Clark as Heinous Overreach, Richard Deacon as Charles Maginot, and Harry Morgan as Deems Sarajevo.  Morgan gets the most memorable lines, like the one about the Russians having a case of the cutes, and his reply to Dick "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" Wilson's announcement, "Either Fawz U beats Notre Dame or John Goldfarb goes to Moscow": "Is that an ultimatum or a musical comedy title?"  I'm not saying this stuff is Dr. Strangelove level satire, but it did make me chuckle.  And it's much more palatable than the shrew-taming we get of MacLaine's character, including the "ha ha, the king wants to rape her" subplot.

The script (based on his own book), by none other than William Peter Blatty, later of The Exorcist, is remarkably sexist and anti-Arab, even for its time.  This is not just 21st-century political correctness; contemporary critics hated the movie.  Notre Dame even sued over it!  I realize that I may've made you more interested in seeing the film, so I may as well go on to list some more of its unique cast.

The harem girls include Teri Garr (I don't know under what name); Gari Hardy, who would be "Dumb Blonde" in Speedway; Paula Lane, who was in Dear Brigitte, here playing Polly Benson; Irene Tsu, who was Miss Wu in Take Her, She's Mine and would shortly be a native girl in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini; and Jane Wald, of Take Her and Dear Brigitte.  "Specialty dancer" Nai Bonet would have a more prominent role as a king's belly-dancer in the softcore Fairy Tales (1978).  The football players include James Brolin (as a quarterback); Kent McCord (later of Adam-12), who would do Girl Happy; and Red West, who was in Palm Springs Weekend and would soon be in Girl Happy.

Billy Curtis, who was a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz, is "Little Football Player."  Chick Collins, who was a fencer in Singin' in the Rain, plays a Bedouin here.  Fred Catania, who was Wheeler's bodyguard in The Girl Can't Help It and a used car salesman in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter, has a minor role here.  Jim Shane, who was Dave in Palm Springs Weekend, is Chiang here.

Jackie Coogan (yes, Uncle Fester, here playing Father Ryan); Bedouin Jim Dawson; Milton Frome, here an Air Force general; and Olan Soule, who plays the second editor, would shortly do Girl Happy.  Telly Savalas (yes, Kojak) is Macmuid, the harem recruiter, and would be El Sleezo Tough in The Muppet Movie.  

Patrick Adiarte, who plays Prince Ammud, isn't in any of my of my other movies, but I have to note that he was both David in the Hawaiian episodes of The Brady Bunch and Ho-Jon on M*A*S*H.


*The theme pops up repeatedly in the movie, especially during the big football game at the end.  John Williams, yes, that John Williams, was the conductor.

Auntie Mame

Auntie Mame
December 27, 1958
Warner Bros.
Comedy, Historical
DVD
B-

This is based on the Patrick Dennis novel, by way of the hit stageplay that Rosalind Russell starred in.  (My review of the book is here
http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/06/auntie-mame-irreverent-escapade.html.)  It's much more sentimental, and much more of a star vehicle than the book, with Patrick often offscreen and the focus, sometimes literal, on Mame.  (Many scenes end theatrically, with the spotlight on Mame.)  The movie also isn't as racy as the book, as seen with the most outrageous word on Patrick's vocabulary list being "heterosexual."  Still, for its time it's pretty out there, and it's interesting to contrast the almost casual "unwed" pregnancy of Agnes Gooch with the coyness of the handling of Trudy Kockenlocker's dilemma in Miracle of Morgan's Creek about fifteen years earlier.  The timeline is somewhat different in AM-the-movie than AM-the book, including mistakenly starting things off in 1928 and having the Crash happen a few weeks later.  Still it's a reasonably faithful adaptation and author Patrick Dennis himself approved.  (His good friend Cris Alexander has a small role in the film and apparently played many roles in the stage production.)

I will admit to sometimes finding the 1974 movie musical Mame, with an offkey too old Lucille Ball, more fun because of it's so-bad-it's-goodness, but I'll discuss that when we get there.

Adolph Faylauer, who plays the sleeping audience member at the play, was part of an onscreen audience more than twenty years earlier, in A Night at the Opera.  Margaret Dumont allegedly plays the noblewoman in the play, but I didn't notice her.  (And IMDB is sometimes wrong.)  Frank McClure was in His Girl Friday and Citizen Kane.  Sam Harris was also in Citizen Kane.  Thomas Martin was in All About Eve.  Rand Harper was in Sabrina.  Lee Patrick (Mrs. Upson) was in There's No Business Like Show Business.  I'm pretty sure Colin Kenny and Carl M. Leviness were in some of my earlier movies, although I don't know which ones offhand.

Bert Stevens was in Citizen Kane and would appear in Some Like It Hot.  Harold Miller would be in Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Willard Waterman (Mr. Upson) in The Apartment, Peter Bourne in I'll Take Sweden, and Louise Land in Dear Brigitte.  Fred Clark was in Sunset Blvd. and would do Sgt. Deadhead, among other movies.  Peggy Cass, who plays scene-stealing Agnes, would be a very different mother in Gidget Goes Hawaiian.

Sunset Blvd.

Sunset Blvd.
August 25, 1950
Paramount
Drama
VHS
B-

This movie is entertaining for the most part, even if it doesn't live up to its reputation.  (And I know Billy Wilder can do much better.)  The main characters, even the "nice girl," are unscrupulous.  (She's cheating on a surprisingly un-deadpan Jack Webb.)  But unlike in Kind Hearts and Coronets, their immorality isn't particularly enjoyable.  Still, it's interesting to see the story unfold, told in flashback by a dead man.  The look of the film, especially the creepy old mansion, works well in black & white, although some scenes are too poorly lit to see details.  And I like that many people play themselves (like Cecil B. DeMille), and in fact Paramount Studios plays itself.  Gloria Swanson is playing a nightmare version of herself in a way, as Norma Desmond, while William Holden would portray other cynical young men as the decade went on.  And, yes, I laugh at the idea of Norma being old at 50 in the way I laugh at Mary being a spinster librarian in It's a Wonderful Life.  Oh, and this is probably my first movie to have a car-phone in it.

This time Frank O'Connor plays a courtier.  Robert Emmett O'Connor (I assume no relation), who plays the older guard at the gate, was Henderson in A Night at the Opera.  Tiny Jones was in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.  H.B. Warner, who plays himself here, was Mr. Gower in It's a Wonderful Life.  Hedda Hopper also plays herself here, but eleven years earlier in The Women she was a fictional gossip columnist.

Although Buster Keaton contributed to some of the MGM Marx Brothers scripts, this is his first onscreen appearance in my film collection, but far from his last.  (Thank you, AIP.  I think.)  Kenneth Gibson would be in Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki.  Fred Clark, who's Sheldrake, would be Mr. Babcock in Auntie Mame.