Mean Girls

Mean Girls
April 30, 2004
Paramount
Comedy
DVD
B+

This may well be the most heavily quoted movie on the Internet.  (Mean Girls/ Harry Potter cross-over memes alone make up a good percentage.)  As such, it's a little hard to watch now because I kept waiting for various lines to come up.  That said, the script by 33-year-old Tina Fey, who plays Math teacher Ms. Norbury, remains not only witty but surprisingly complex, and not just for a teen movie.  Yes, there are such obligatory moments as the makeover and the Girl Vomits on Her Crush, but I like that the movie is willing to show the "mean girl" in every girl (and some of the guys), including our heroine, played by a pre-off-the-rails Lindsay Lohan.  Lohan as Cady (from Cady Woodlawn I wonder?) isn't afraid to play a complex, not always likable character who genuinely does suffer for her choices and make amends (unlike Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed).

It's also great how the supporting and even minor characters (you go, Glenn Coco!) all have chances to shine.  I'll note two performers in particular, since we'll be seeing more of them.  Amy Poehler at 32 is a little young to be playing a mother of a teenager, but it is a scene-stealing role and one of her great comic performances.  She and her SNL costar and friend Fey would often reunite, notably (for the purposes of this blog anyway) in 2008's Baby Mama.  And 18-year-old Amanda Seyfried, who plays dumb blonde Karen, would have much more opportunity to show off her wonderful singing voice in later movies, including Mamma Mia! (also '08).

Bruce Hunter was NSA Agent #1 in Good Will Hunting and is the Mathlete Moderator here.
William R. Phillips was Man at Diner in Romy and Michele and is a Student here, so he presumably looked young for his age.  Jo Chim, who plays the Saleswoman at 135, would soon be Ma Bang's Assistant in New York Minute.

School of Rock

School of Rock
October 3, 2003
Paramount
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B-

This movie isn't as funny as I remembered, although Jack Black (cast to type) does well in the lead role, as does Joan Cusack (cast somewhat against type) as the uptight school principal.  There are a lot of stereotypes in the roles, particularly the kids (although "Fancypants" amuses me), and I could've done without the extent to which writer Mike White plays the best friend role as a doormat.  Also, there are too many moments when Black's character cons people too easily.  That said, the movie is likable enough and the music is pretty good.

MacIntire Dixon was Cole Oyl in Popeye and a Bachelor Party Guest in In & Out, while he's the Bus Driver here.  And Kate McGregor-Stewart was Aunt Becky in In & Out and plays Mrs. Lemmons here.  Lian Moy was a Patron in The Royal Tenenbaums and is a Student here.  Mandy Siegfried was Hana the Hostess in Two Weeks Notice and is Female Employee here.  Heather Goldenhersh is Sheila here and would be Martha Pomeroy in Kinsey.  Carlos Velazquez is a Musician here and would be a Waiter in Music and Lyrics.

Any questions?

In & Out

In & Out
September 19, 1997
Paramount
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B-

Screenwriter Paul Rudnick had appeared as himself in Celluloid Closet, a documentary that showed that for gay characters onscreen, their fates were often tragic, or overly comic.  While this movie is exaggerated (and directed by Muppet veteran Frank Oz), it places its gay stereotypes in a small-town full of stereotypes.  And the twist is that the Kevin Kline character, Literature teacher Howard Brackett, must be gay because he's so smart, nice, and well-groomed.  By the time most of the entire town stands up and says that they're gay, too, in his support, "gay" is definitely a compliment.

But along the way there are of course farcical complications.  The trouble starts when stupid yet Oscar-winning actor Cameron Drake outs his former teacher during an acceptance speech.  (Cam is played by Matt Dillon, 17 years after Little Darlings but passing for his early 20s.  The blond hair helps.)  This comes as a shock to everyone, including Howard, who's engaged to Emily Montgomery, played by 34-year-old Joan Cusack.  And his mother tells him she doesn't care if he's gay, she still wants the big wedding.  (Now 65-year-old Debbie Reynolds, ties George Burns for the longevity record, 45 years after Singin' in the Rain.)  Meanwhile, reporter Peter Malloy (Tom Selleck) wants the real story (and more), and principal Tom Halliwell (Bob Newhart, his stammering and discomfort used to fine effect) wants to avoid scandal, with graduation coming up.

The timeline is all screwy, with the Oscars presented on a Wednesday and graduation the following Monday.  (In what month?)  I have to wonder if this is carelessness, or if it's meant to add to the air of unreality.  It's almost like the story couldn't quite take place in our world.  (That the small town is in Indiana has recently become ironic.)  And it is very much a gay comedy for straight people.  I remember the dismay and then amusement in my theater when Selleck kissed Kline.  I don't think it would be as shocking now.  Although only 18 years have passed, this movie is already a relic, and I suspect that even a few years later we wouldn't have got the trick ending, where it looks like Howard and Peter will get married, but it's actually Howard's parents renewing their vows.  (His dad is played by Wilford Brimley, and I kept thinking, "Because it's the right thing to do.")   As a movie, I think it's still cute, sweet, and sometimes funny.  (The straight guys debating Barbra Streisand films will never get old.)  Kline is a good moral and narrative center for the film.  Everyone else is doing what they're hired for, although this is far from my favorite Joan Cusack role.

Note, there is never a moment when someone says, "Um, Howard, maybe you're bi," although admittedly he's much less sexual than Chasing Amy's Alyssa Jones.  The mainstream was definitely not ready for that kind of complexity.

Joseph Maher was Gridley in Going Ape! and is Father Tim here.  (He's got one of those faces where you feel like you've seen him somewhere before.)  Richard Woods was a Board Member in The Hudsucker Proxy and is Reverend Morgan here.  Marla Sucharetza was Exercising Woman in The First Wives Club and is a School Reporter here, while Debra Monk was Jilted Lover there and is Mrs. Lester here, and J-Smith Cameron was Miss Sullivan there and Trina Paxton here.

Audience Member Todd Stockman would be Dad in The Object of My Affection the following year, while Audience Member Jeannette Gould would be Senior Center Woman in Two Weeks Notice (all uncredited).  John Cunningham, who almost steals the movie as the Be a Man Tape Instructor, would be Justice of the Peace in Two Weeks Notice.  Wally Dunn is Cousin Lenny here and would be Gym Teacher in School of Rock.  MacIntyre Dixon, who was Cole Oyl in Popeye, has a small role as a Bachelor Party Guest here and would be the bus driver in School of Rock.   

This time, Dan Hedaya plays a Military Attorney in the film within a film on Oscar Night.  Jay Leno appears as himself, 18 years after his role in Americathon.  Selma Blair, then 25, has an early role as Cousin Linda.

The First Wives Club

The First Wives Club
September 20, 1996
Paramount
Comedy
VHS
C+

I really liked this movie at the time, as did many others, including Katha Pollitt, but that doesn't mean we were blind to its faults, faults that are more obvious a couple decades later.  As directed by WKRP's Hugh Wilson, it is very much a cinematic sitcom, with easy resolutions and cardboard characterizations.  Although it's based on a book (which I've never read), the most serious flaws have to do with the writing, many of the implausibilities and inconsistencies centering around Brenda (Bette Midler).  To begin with, is she Italian or Jewish?  If both, why isn't this established earlier?  And how is ir that her husband (Dan Hedaya, for a change in my movies actually typecast) fails to recognize her boss, even the name?  Also, the whole timeline is screwy, from Yellow Submarine coming out in '69 (rather than '68), to the central trio of first wives (Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton) all about 45, although this seems to be contemporary and they've been out of college for about 27 years.  I'm not even clear how much time is passing in the main story, although there's a vague time pressure (even vaguer than in Don't Tell Mom).  Maybe this is all clearer in the book.

The movie is of course notable for its presentation of the exes, particularly the ex of their suicidal friend Cynthia, as being shallow, insensitive, and ruled by their lust for younger women.  (Sarah Jessica Parker is playing against type as a dumb and tasteless blonde.)  But the wives don't come across as much better and, as in The Women almost 60 years earlier, it's unclear why they regret the loss of such awful men.  Yes, I like seeing the cast, and the theme of female friendship and empowerment is good, but it's often lost in slapstick and stereotyping.  And this isn't 9 to 5, where the stock characters are given believability.  There are nice little moments (like how accepting Keaton is of her lesbian daughter), and even occasional insights about how aging women are viewed, and Maggie Smith proves she can do a lot even with a tiny role, but it just doesn't add up to much.

I don't have any other movies with James Naughton but it's a nice touch to make him Cynthia's cheating ex-husband, since he was Angela Bower's ex on Who's the Boss?  (Cynthia is played by Stockard Channing.)  Victor Garber, who plays Goldie's ex, would be Professor Callahan in Legally Blonde.

Anne Shropshire, who's an A Certain Age cast member, was Mrs. Crawley in Tootsie.  Peter Frechette, who plays the Broadway Director, had his big-screen debut as none other than Louis DiMucci in Grease 2.  (He found a lot of other work in between of course.)  Aida Linares also played a maid in Clueless.

Marla Sucharetza, who's Exercising Woman, would be School Reporter in In & Out, while Debra Monk is Jilted Lover here and would be Mrs. Lester there, and  J. Smith-Cameron is Miss Sullivan here and would be Trina Paxton there.  Rob Reiner plays Hawn's plastic surgeon.  And, yes, that's 41-year-old J.K. Simmons in the small role of a Federal Marshall.

A Very Brady Sequel

A Very Brady Sequel
August 23, 1996
Paramount
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B+

Yes, the sequel is better than its predecessor.  It's funnier, more focused, more musical, and yes, more Brady.  (Bradier?)  Even the youngest kids seem to have more to do here, although again the Marcia-Jan rivalry is the highlight, with Jan going to great lengths to convince her popular older sister of the existence of George Glass.  This seems to have struck a chord in recent months, with even "Sure, Jan" having gone viral.

The main plot though is about a conman who pretends to be Mrs. Brady's not actually dead husband.  He's played by Tim Matheson who had done his share of '60s TV and movies, notably as the college-age dad in How to Commit Marriage (then spelling his last name Matthieson).  This makes his horror at the Bradys, particularly their tendency to burst into bright, cheerful songs and choreography, all the better, with the Brady Kids mushroom trip a high comedically and otherwise.  His "return" also means that Greg and Marcia realize they're not actually related (even by marriage), which leads to some borderline incestuous lust that you're either going to find disgusting or hilarious.  (I'm in the latter camp of course.)

There are again a lot of in-jokes for Brady fans, and this time a pay-off that involves Gilligan's Island.  Also, we get a cameo from Barbara Eden, who seems hardly to have aged in the almost 40 years since she was Miss Carstairs in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? However, neither she nor Groucho now holds the longevity record, because Art Patron Sue Casey turns up 43 years after she was Tall Girl at Arcade in Band Wagon.  (And I know her best as the MILFy Anne Duval in Catalina Caper, but the MST3K version will be discussed on my TV blog someday.)  Steven Gilford and RuPaul reprise their roles as respectively Mr. Philips and Ms. Cummings.

Two of the four writers, Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, would also co-write Josie and the Pussycats, which they would co-direct as well.  In a different way than Bonnie & Terry Turner, they've got a love for garish but bubbly pop-culture kitsch.

Clueless

The now iconic poster

Clueless
July 19, 1995
Paramount
Comedy, Romance
DVD
B+

The same boyfriend that I saw Party Girl with also invited me to this movie.  He most enjoyed the skateboarding sequence, and I wished I had someone to discuss the Jane Austen parallels with.  Luckily, some of the savvier reviews got that this was a modernized, Beverly Hills version of Emma.  Not in every detail (there's no Jane Fairfax for instance), but with enough to have fun spotting.  E.g. Cher (the Emma character, played by Alicia Silverstone) and her best friend Dionne (sort of Mrs. Weston, played by Stacey Dash) are both named after pop-singers, so it's a nice touch that Mr. Elton becomes Elton (as in Elton John).

In retrospect, the parallels seem obvious, but you have to remember that this was just before the Jane Austen revival of the mid to late '90s.  And a teen movie was the last place I expected to find such parallels.  The Austenisms aside, the movie remains a sweet, witty, slightly naughty, very '90s romp.  It was made in partial reaction to grunge (the scene of the boys in backwards baseball caps and baggy pants remains classic, especially since now many of those boys are now middle-aged and still wearing their caps like that), and also as a post-'80s fantasy of various parts of LA.  The vocabulary was close enough to the Val-speak of my own adolescence a dozen years earlier that I could follow it pretty well, although it might seem foreign to those from other backgrounds.

Written and directed by Amy Heckerling, it is both miles from Johnny Dangerously in setting and theme, and not entirely unlike.  Both movies have protagonists who are on top of the world and about to fall, yet still going to come out on top.  They also both have wonderful supporting performances that almost steal the show from the charismatic leads.  And they're both very quotable.

I must note that all three of my 1995 movies have a colorful, happy, and gay-friendly vibe.  This is not how the '90s are necessarily remembered, and it's definitely not true of my '96ers.  But these three embrace a retro, cheerfully defiant attitude, while acknowledging the cynicism of the larger culture.  Also, as in The Brady Bunch Movie, the proliferation of cell phones in LA is used for humor that has dated immeasurably.

Paul Rudd, then 26, makes his big-screen debut as Josh, the Mr. Knightley character, if Mr. Knightley were a smart but slightly pretentious college student who listens to "complaint rock" and briefly grows "chin pubes."  (I told you this was very '90s.)  He would immediately become one of my movie crushes, and remain so these two decades.  We will definitely be seeing more of him.

This time, Dan Hedaya plays Cher's father, Mel Horowitz, cast against type as he was in Tune in Tomorrow....  Julie Brown as Ms. Stoeger, the lesbian PE teacher, is nothing like her character in Earth Girls.  Donald Faison, who's Murray, and Breckin Meyer, who's Travis Birkenstock, would both be Du Jour members in Josie and the Pussycats.  Much of the cast would go on to the Clueless TV series, which ran for three years.

Carl Gottlieb, who's the Priest here, was Dr. Magnus in Johnny Dangerously.  Bobbie Sunday Starr, Passenger in Jeep here, gave Marcia a dirty look in The Brady Bunch Movie.  Aida Linares, who's Lucy the maid here, would be Theresa in The First Wives Club.

"Kind of a Baldwin"?  As if!  Much cuter than Stephen et al.

The Brady Bunch Movie

The Brady Bunch Movie
February 17, 1995
Paramount
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B

This was released on my 27th birthday and I saw it with two younger friends, who are still two of my best friends.  We all enjoyed the movie, but I was the one laughing at nearly every detail, down to the way that Mike hits a golf ball into a glass bottle.  You have to remember that I'd grown up watching B Bunch multiple times, but this was still pre-Internet (for me anyway) and I hadn't had anyone to discuss such details with.  At the time, I probably would've given the movie an A-.

When I saw it again, after buying it and its very Brady sequel on DVD, I found the humor much staler and contrived.  This time, I guess it caught me in the right mood, and I could appreciate it for what it is: a loving if ribald parody of the show.  Having the Bradys inexplicably stuck in the '70s in the era of grunge and car phones (it's never explained why they haven't aged beyond the fourth or fifth season, although there may be some Groundhog-Day-like theory out there) works because their sunny view of life was out of place in the early '70s to begin with.  Also, even after all the Brady parodies in the past two decades (including the clever recent Snickers commercial), this still holds up, due to that attention to detail (most notably in the costumes) and some impersonations that range from adequate to uncanny.

For convenience's sake, I'm going to, well, bunch the Bradys and Alice (with the exception of Shelley Long) under the tag of "Movie Bradys."  They are composed of

• Gary Cole as Mike
• Henriette Mantel as Alice
• Christopher Daniel Barnes as Greg
• Christine Taylor as Marcia
• Paul Sutera as Peter
• Jennifer Elise Cox as Jan
• Jesse Lee Soffer as Bobby
• Olivia Hack as Cindy

The younger kids are adequate.  They look and sound vaguely like the originals.  Bobby is given almost nothing to do, although lisping Thindy has some moments, mostly interacting with the ever versatile Michael McKean, as scheming neighbor Larry Dittmeyer.  Sutera isn't quite right as Peter but he does OK, and ironically is more successful with girls than Greg, whose "Hey, groovy chick" patter and tendency to serenade with songs like "Clowns Never Laughed Before" scare off more chicks than they attract.  Barnes was in a classic Brady homage on the otherwise forgettable sitcom Day by Day, which I will discuss on my TV blog someday.  He's not quite right as Greg either, particularly in looks, but he certainly gives it his all.

Mantel doesn't look quite right as Alice, but she gives a good impersonation.  Long has the burden of her own sitcom image as Diane Chambers on Cheers, but she does capture the worried and cheerful sides of Carol Brady, although not the naughty side.  (Florence Henderson is one of the actual Bradys making a cameo, and at the age of about 60 she shows off a nice pair of gams.)

The real stand-outs are Cole, Taylor, and Cox.  Except for Taylor, none of them exactly looks like their TV counterparts, but they've got the voices and mannerisms down cold.  In this and the sequel (which inspired a lot of memes a couple months ago, more of that in its place), the Marcia-Jan rivalry is raised to eleven, with Taylor's sweet bitch of a Marcia playing off of Cox's neurotic turned psychotic Jan.  (Cox had played Jan onstage in The Real Live Brady Bunch, so she's really got it down pat, from the voice to the hair-swinging.)  And Cole makes us realize how empty Mike's platitudes could be, while he delivers the nonsense with Robert-Reedian earnestness.  Kudos to director Betty Thomas and to screenwriters Bonnie & Terry Turner (of Wayne's World).

If I have any quibbles, I think there should've been more musical numbers (the one at Sears is hilariously out of the blue), and maybe even more cameos.  Note, not only does Davy Jones sing at the dance for Marcia (as he did on the show), but Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz appear later.  Also of note, the movie is relatively gay-friendly, with not only a gay male interracial couple as neighbors, but also Marcia's likable lesbian best friend.  (And even she does better with the ladies than poor Greg.)

This time Archie Hahn plays Mr. Swanson.  Selma Archerd, who had played a PTA Lady on The Brady Bunch in '73, and had various other minor roles in TV and film, including The Big Bus and Can't Stop the Music, here plays a neighbor.  Reni Santoni, who plays a Police Officer, dubbed the voice of the State Trooper in Groundhog Day.

Bobbie Sunday Starr, who plays Girl who gives Marcia dirty look, would be Passenger in Jeep in Clueless.  David Leisure, who plays Jason here, would be Mr. Chapin in 10 Things I Hate About You.  Alanna Ubach, who's Marcia's lesbian friend Noreen, would be Serena in Legally Blonde.  Yolanda Snowball, who plays Mrs. Yeager, would be a Receptionist in Easy A.  (The man playing her husband is much more recognizable, since James Avery was already established as Uncle Philip on TV's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.)

Those reprising roles in the sequel, besides the Bradys and Alice of course, include Stephen Gilborn (whom I best know as Ellen's father on Ellen) as Mike's boss Mr. Phillips and RuPaul as scene-stealing guidance counselor Mrs./Ms. Cummings.

Wayne's World

Wayne's World
Feb. 14, 1992
Paramount
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B

It's very tempting to say, "Let the '90s begin!"  Although the influence of the '80s is still felt in this movie (from Bill & Ted to heavy metal), this has a very '90s sensibility.  It is also far better than you'd expect for a concept inspired by a running sketch on Saturday Night Live.  The funny, often sharp, fourth-wall-breaking script was cowritten by Wayne himself (Mike Myers) with wife-and-husband writing team Bonnie & Terry Turner, whose affection for '60s through '90s pop culture would also be seen a few years later in The Brady Bunch Movie.  From Grey Poupon commercials to Bugs Bunny's drag act, this movie references a lot of things that Gen-Xers in particular can appreciate.  And that fourth-wall-breaking is used to great effect, mostly by Wayne and best buddy Garth (Dana Carvey, acting like a shy, demented child), but sometimes "borrowed" by Ed O'Neill and others.

If I can't rate the film higher, it's that it's not non-stop hilarious, and there are times when Mike Myers gets on my nerves (although nowhere near what he does in his movies from this century).  Also, I can't say I was particularly invested in his romance with cover-singing Cassandra.  Still, there are few better examples of a '90s time-capsule movie, and if you want to hear "As if!" pre-Clueless, or see what sort of technology was then available to beam a live music act into someone's limo, look no further.

Brian Doyle-Murray appears as Noah Vanderhoff, the buffoon sponsor, while Lara Flynn Boyle is Wayne's obsessed ex Stacy.  Alice Cooper yet again plays himself, while Meat Loaf is "Tiny," ha ha.  Carmen Filpi, who plays Old Man Withers in the "Scooby Doo ending," would be Old Man in Bar in The Wedding Singer.

"Bohemian Rhapsody"

Back to the Beach

Back to the Beach
August 7, 1987
Paramount
Comedy, Musical
VHS
B-

I have a soft spot for this then-modern-day follow-up to the Beach Party series but I will admit that it can't sustain the wonderful pre-title sequence.  It's never boring, but some of the jokes are a bit clunky and the energy feels off much of the time.  It's certainly one of the most amiable B-s I own and I would recommend it, but let me talk about some of the issues I have with it.

Number one is that at this point, more years have passed since BttB was released than there had been in the gap between this and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and the '80sness has definitely not aged well.  You wouldn't think buxom young blondes could look bad, but see a number of them in the most horrendous of late '80s neon/fluorescent colors and you'll be wishing that Annette's fondness for polka dots had become a trend.  The modern and modernized-'60s music generally does not work, although Annette's revamped "Jamaican Ska" understandably enchants the entire beach.

Number two is the misguided nostalgia.  Now, I know you're saying, Wait, this is a movie starring Frankie and Annette as Frankie and Annette.  But that's kind of the problem.  Frankie was "Frankie" but he was never "The Big Kahuna."  And Annette, as any real Beach Party fan knows, was "Dee Dee" (short for "Dolores").  As welcome as Connie Stevens is (like F & A she looks great in this), she was never part of the series, so setting her up as both Annette's rival and future in-law seems wrong.  I realize this movie was marketed at the mainstream (and did quite well commercially and critically as I recall), but it would've been nice to bring in Deborah Walley, John Ashley, and some more of the gang (Mike Nader! Donna Loren!), rather than make us grateful for "Dick Dale and at least two of the Del-Tones."  (Two of Frankie's real-life sons are part of the band, a nice touch.)

Expanding on point number two, the movie has an odd assortment of mostly television cameos, and not ones from The Mickey Mouse Club.  June, Wally, and Beaver Cleaver show up (with a little Siskel & Ebert parody that I presume Gene & Roger liked, since they gave two thumbs up), and I'll admit it's good to see Gilligan and the Skipper (Bob Denver has some of the best lines in the film), and Don Adams is kinda sorta Maxwell-Smart, but what does this have to do with the original low-budget movie series?  O.J. Simpson (in a gag that probably no one under thirty will get now without Googling) and Peewee Herman have even more random cameos.

There are a whole bunch of characters who aren't given much to do (including F & A's daughter), yet we're supposed to care when some girl (I think her name was Robin) who can't swim might have to face the leader of the rival surfer gang.  It's like a lot got lost in the editing, or among the drafts of the no less than six writers.  (Does this, dare I say it, need a director's cut?)

But Frankie & Annette are themselves as delightful as ever, good-naturedly parodying themselves and having fun with the usually deliberately hokey script.  Demian Slade as their 12-year-old son has most of the great lines that Bob Denver doesn't have.  I think they should've had him continue to narrate throughout the film, because, unlike Woody Allen in Radio Days, he adds a whole other great layer to the proceedings.  Overall, I'd put this on a level with the average Beach Party movie, which is impressive considering how different it is and how much time had passed.  I wish it was more than it is, but what it is is good summer fun, even in the winter.

Note, Connie's beach date, Scott L. Treger, was a basketball player in Soul Man.

Grease 2

Grease 2
June 11, 1982
Paramount
Musical, Comedy, Historical, Romance
DVD
B+

Although I used to watch this movie regularly, it'd been a long time since my last viewing, and I'd forgotten how dizzyingly bad it gets at some points, particularly during the musical numbers.  I believe it's roughly equivalent as a so-bad-it's-good movie to Stigwood's Sgt. Pepper, although the feel of it is as different as, well, 1982 was from '78.

We need to start with a discussion of time, because time is one of the themes of the movie and yet it is handled so poorly.  The movie begins in the Fall of '61 and yet seems to end (if the talent show is any indication) in the Summer of '61.  JFK is President, as we're frequently reminded.  And yet there's been very little effort made to capture the look of the time.  Maureen Teefy of Scavenger Hunt, 28 at this point, plays high-strung Sharon, who claims she's got a Jackie Kennedy look, but she's simply been given a pillbox hat and she has no sign of a bouffant.  Twenty-nine-year-old Lorna Luft, as Paulette, is more plausibly modeled on Marilyn Monroe, which may be why the movie is afraid to go forward to the Summer of '62.  The main female character is Stephanie, played by 24-year-old Michelle Pfeiffer, and she looks pure early '80s, from her hair to her makeup to her wardrobe.  The men, including almost-age-appropriate 22-year-old Maxwell Caulfield as Michael Carrington (not to be confused with Sextette's Michael Barrington), fare a bit better, although they're arguably more '50s than '60s.

One of the musical numbers is "Girl for All Seasons."  We first see the "Fall" portion performed, because Paulette (who's a June bride) is always late, so the group (the Pink Ladies and assorted other girls) have to start in the middle.  Then we get "Winter" in another scene.  And then in the end, it's Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, in that order, but this last part is interrupted by Stephanie's "(Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time," which she seems to be singing both in her head, where she's mourning a supposedly D-E-D dead Michael, and onstage to a baffled but appreciative audience.  I think that's the answer: love turns back, forward, and sideways the hands of time in this movie, so that there are crazy continuity "errors" and things like a break-up that takes an entire school year.

Profound, eh?  Well, this also a completely idiotic movie that will have your jaw dropping more than once.  The dialogue is inane and remarkably unrealistic.  In Grease, it was often stupid but plausible.  The same is true of the situations.  G1 achieved some poignancy with Rizzo's pregnancy scare, even if the situation was resolved simply, but here a similar situation is just a throw-away joke, as a nameless girl confides in Eve Arden's Principal McGee that she's missed two periods.  McGee replies that the girl can make them up later.  Ba-dump-bump!

There's no moment in this movie that feels like real life.  But that makes it all the more enjoyable.  Things go completely off the rails during the musical numbers, notably the show-stoppers "Back to School Again," "Score Tonight" (a single-entendre bowling tribute, with nuns!), "Reproduction," and of course the timeless "Rock-a-Hula Luau."  Even the less-crowded numbers, like the so-wrong-but-amazing "Do It For Our Country" and the rancid "Prowling" (sung three times by the T-Bones, sorry, T-Birds) are unbelievable.  The lyrics often have forced rhymes ("motorcycle"/"Michael" and "enigma"/"stigma" stand out) and the choreography, by director/choreographer Patricia Birch, is literally all over the place.

Didi Conn (by then 30 and part of the Benson TV cast) returns as Frenchy, allegedly one of Stephanie's best friends but spending very little time with the current Pink Ladies.  She's mostly there as a confidante for Michael, who (although British) is Australian Sandy's cousin.  Other Grease vets collecting paychecks are the comedy team of Arden (in her last film) and Dody Goodman, the always welcome Eddie Deezen as Eugene (still at Rydell? well, if Frenchy can be...), Sid Caesar as Coach Calhoun, and Dick Patterson as mentally broken down Mr. Spears (Mr. Rudie before).  Dennis Stewart this time is called Balmudo, but it's the same pimply rival gang-leader character.  (Leo Balmudo?)  Newbie teachers are Connie Stevens, still lovely at 43, and equally well preserved 50-year-old Tab Hunter.  I mean, not only do they look good for their ages, but they look like they did twenty years earlier.

The USC Trojan Marching Band, who were also in The Gong Show Movie, show us why, in Arden's words, it's better to play with a group than with yourself.

Other than the Stigwood stalwarts (listed under G1), the supporting cast is probably most notable for '80s television.  Travolta wannabe Adrian Zmed, 28 then, would later be best known for T.J. Hooker, although I like him on Bosom Buddies in a guest shot as Tom Hanks's old buddy turned rock star.  The Sagal twins, Jean and Liz, would get a sitcom called Double Trouble a couple years later.  (They're the younger sisters of Married with Children's Katey.)  And Tom Villard, who is the guy pretending to vomit during the "Reproduction" scene, shortly went on to the infamously bad We Got It Made sitcom, and came out as gay before dying of AIDS-related pneumonia.

Pamela Segall, then 15 but looking 12 or 13, plays Dolores, Paulette's little sister, presumably a freshman.  She would become a popular voice actress under her married name of Pamela Adlon, but I'll always remember her for this scene-stealing part and her title role in Something Special (AKA Willy/Milly).

Ken Finkleman would go on to write Madonna's Who's That Girl.  Patricia Birch not surprisingly did not go on to direct anything else.

Going Ape!

Going Ape!

April 10, 1981

Paramount

Comedy

VHS

C

In some ways, this is like a low-rent late-release '70s Disney movie, smashed up police cars and all, with the additions of the orangutans and writer/director of Every Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can.  (The exclamation point in the title seems more like a '60s throwback.)  But the movie also has a lot of profanity, as well as one of the "apes" flipping people off, not to mention the two female leads being kissed while dressed as nuns, so I'm not really sure who the audience is.  I don't think the movie even works as a dumb comedy.  It's just sort of there, not painful but pretty forgettable, even with odd moments like a mother-daughter swordfight (40-year-old Jessica Walter vs. 21-year-old Stacey Nelkin), and 36-year-old Danny DeVito as Lazlo, the bearded Gypsy (I think) in a French maid's uniform.  Then almost 30-year-old Tony Danza is the main character (named Foster, rather than Tony), who's inherited the three simians and has to keep them alive for two years in order to get the bulk of his father's estate.  Mild hijinks ensue.  This was in the middle of Taxi's run, so it's interesting to see Danza and DeVito interact as different characters.  And Danza has a scene where he's shirtless, so there's beefcake.  I don't recommend the movie but you know, shrug.

Leon Askin, who's the landlord Zebrewski here, was the chief eunuch in John Goldfarb.  Ruth Gillette, who's Marianne here, was the Song Chairman [sic] in The Shaggy D.A.  Of the actresses playing Danza's sisters, Poppy Lagos was a reporter in I Wanna Hold Your Hand; Marji Martin was Kay in Scavenger Hunt; D. J. Sullivan was Mrs. Williams in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (and apparently did several of the sequels).  Luke Andreas, who plays Carter, was Police Officer in Alley in I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

Popeye

Popeye
December 12, 1980
Paramount
Comedy, Musical, Action, Romance, Fantasy
DVD
B-

When Robin Williams died last month, one of my first thoughts was of this movie.  Although this was not a full-out critical and commercial flop as some think, it didn't live up to expectations, and yet it's grown a fandom in the intervening three decades.  I find it simultaneously comforting, funny, and symbolic that the "Popeye Village" that was built from scratch on a Maltese island has become a tourist attraction, with all the drab Depression-era houses now brightly colored.

The movie is still an oddity though.  As I mentioned in my review of the behind-the-scenes pre-movie-release tie-in book, http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-popeye-story.html, the film is odd and off-putting.  There are some genuinely heart-warming moments, especially with Popeye and the unquestionably adorable but quirky Swee'Pea, but there is a dark, depressing undertone, as exemplified in the "Sweet Haven Anthem."  Additionally, you've got circus performers and other physical comedians acting like cartoon/comic-strip characters but there's also the Robert-Altman quasi-documentary touch in the look of the film and the way things keep happening in the margins.  Williams adds ad-libs on top of the Jules Feiffer script, from the brilliant reply to Swee'Pea's "I'm a baby" to his muttered line about catching "a venerable disease."  Some of this I got at 12 (not the "you expects a cervix" one though), and some I've figured out later.

It's not just Williams's death that made me appreciate his performance here.  It really is great, mixing humor, wistfulness, and of course toughness.  Duvall, as everyone notes, is perfectly cast as Olive Oyl.  Some of the others, like Paul Dooley as Wimpy, don't seem quite right but they're giving it their best shot anyway.  Ray Walston shows up late in the movie and has to do a quick turn-around from villain to good guy and succeeds less than Gary Oldman would as Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but he has some funny exchanges with his film son.  Mostly though, I'd recommend this movie for Williams, as I'd recommend Little Darlings for Kristy McNichol.

This film doesn't quite come together (it really does fit all those genres I've listed and maybe Western and Sci-Fi for all I know), and I can see why it has gotten such extreme reactions, then and now, but I've enjoyed it every time I've seen it and it certainly hasn't gotten stale.

Williams's then wife, Valerie Velardi, has her only movie role, as Swee'pea's mother, Cindy the Drudge.  MacIntyre Dixon, who's Cole Oyl, was the bartender in Thank God It's Friday.  Donovan Scott, who plays Castor Oyl, would be the Sancho-Panza-like sidekick Paco in Zorro the Gay Blade.  Geoff Hoyle, Scoop the Reporter, would have a more substantial role in The Spirit of '76, as Heinz-57.  Allan Nicholls, who's Rough House here, would be "Cutting Edge Director" in Bob Roberts.

Then and now, my favorite visual gag, Bluto seeing red when his fiancee shows up with a stranger and a baby.

Little Darlings

Little Darlings
March 21, 1980
Paramount
Comedy, Drama
VHS
B-

Yes, I'm back.  I moved and didn't have Internet at home for three weeks.  I'd planned to take a little break after the '70s ended, but nothing like this.

So, yeah, welcome to the '80s.  I've already watched most of my movies for 1980 and I'll try to blog at least one a day, and then it'll be a movie every two or three days, since I have a full-time job now.  This is in some ways an odd movie to start with, but there's something odd/off about all of my movies from that year.  I don't think it's just that I turned 12 that year, went from grade school to junior high.  When some decades start (1960 and '70 are other good examples) there's this feeling that people don't know where things are going to land.  In the case of 1980, the deeper I go into the year the more I feel like not only was there a taking stock of the '70s but also a retaking stock of the '60s.  This plays out in different ways in different movies of course.

In this case, what we've got here is what would be a popular teen-movie plot not only throughout the '80s but into the American Pie era: a contest to lose virginity first.  What's different here of course is that, in a script co-written by two women, the contestants are 15-year-old girls.  And even nearly 35 years later, there's a lot of discomfort and hypocrisy surrounding female and/or teen sexuality.  So we've got an R-rated movie in which there's no onscreen sex, or anything shown beyond kissing.  (Even the male nudity is at a distance, through binoculars.)

The two contestants are 16-year-old Tatum O'Neal as Ferris and 17-year-old Kristy McNichol as Angel.  "Don't let the name fool you," she advises also ironically named Randy (Matt Dillon in a very early role), and the tagline for the movie was "Don't let the title fool you."  I was aware of the movie and its tagline but I was too young to be part of the original audience.  (As for what movies I saw that year, we'll get to that.)  I think it would've been an uncomfortable movie for me at 12 (out to myself for years already as bisexual), especially with its dyke-baiting lines.  And I can remember that "virgin" was indeed an insult then, yes, even for younger adolescents.  Not that you were supposed to be having sex of course!  (It was the same sort of logic that got 10-year-old boys called "fags" if they had female friends.)

Even now, in middle age, it's a disquietening movie to watch.  On the one hand, it wants to be a zany summer-camp movie, like Meatballs, with racy moments like the condom-machine theft.  But on the other, it's also this cuts-to-the-bone drama with a very good performance by McNichol as the tough but sensitive Angel.  She not only plays the dramatic scenes well, but she has an absolutely infectious smile, as if she's indulgently amused at the world.  (Oscar-winner O'Neal is relatively forgettable in her more shallow role of the rich girl.)  McNichol's performance, combined with a instant-nostalgia soundtrack, almost raised this to a B, but the movie is too conflicted, and some of the characters barely rise to the level of cartoon.  (Two girls are named Carrots and Chubby, and other than one being red-haired and the other plump, I couldn't tell you anything else about them.)  I recommend the movie, especially if you're old enough to remember the early '80s (or are curious about them), but don't expect a great film.

Marianne Gordon, who plays Mrs. Whitney (showing up in a flashback that looks and sounds like a feminine hygiene commercial of the era), was Chickie in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.  Laura Whyte, who plays Dana's mother, would be Laura's mother in High Fidelity.  And Cynthia Nixon would go from hippie girl Sunshine to cynical Miranda on Sex in the City.

Foul Play

Foul Play
July 14, 1978
Paramount
Comedy, Mystery, Romance
DVD
B+

I saw this movie at the time, when I was 10, and even now watching the title sequence, with Barry Manilow singing "Ready to Take a Chance Again" (alternately belting it out and almost confiding it to us), as Goldie Hawn drives her little yellow VW Bug along the coast to San Francisco, gets to me in a way that no other title sequence does.  (I get shivers from "Hedwig's Theme" in every Harry Potter movie, but that has less to do with the visuals.)  Hawn plays an uncertain librarian, sometimes in big glasses, but there is the giggly Goldie side at some moments.  And yet, she's also thoroughly convincing as the "damsel in distress" who can sometimes rescue herself and try to solve the mystery of who's trying to kill her and why.  She furthermore has probably never looked so simultaneously beautiful and girl-next-door adorable.  She's well named Gloria Mundy, "glory of the world."

She's perfectly matched, comedically and romantically, with a post-Saturday Night Live Chevy Chase, at the peak of his looks, charm, and talent.  He plays a bumbling but clever cop named Tony, who's assigned to protect her, and there's a nice, very '70s moment, when she balances her feminism and her attraction to him.  He apologizes for his chauvinism, while still talking about her "ass," and they're more attracted than ever.  They have incredible chemistry together, such that I had to bump this up from a B to a B+.  I honestly can't think of a cuter film couple, but it's not just the way they look, but the way they talk and smile, and all they bring out in each other, like his sweetness and her mischief.  Interestingly, perhaps to keep the PG rating (despite the violence, drug use, and profanity, including the old ladies' dirty Scrabble game), we don't see Gloria and Tony do more than kiss, although it's very clear that they spend the night together at his place, and we see him wake up in just his jockey shorts.  The sex being offscreen allowed me to see this movie at such a tender age.

Meanwhile, however, there's the Stanley character played by Dudley Moore.  When Goldie needs a place to hide out, she approaches Stanley in a singles bar and asks him to take her home.  He of course thinks he's going to get lucky.  So while she's nervously peeking through binoculars-- "You're into that, too?"-- he gets his "pad" ready for a night to remember, with the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" record, blow-up dolls, a stag-film projector, and a bed that is almost indescribable.  In these days of Internet porn and all-- I'm considering seeing an R-rated comedy called "Sex Tape" this week-- the pad may seem a lot less shocking than it did 36 years ago, but it's still very tacky, and unlikely to impress Gloria.  She's less outraged than puzzled when she looks away from the window, but their paths will cross again.

The funniest moments probably belong to Billy Barty as a "dwarf" Bible salesman that Hawn attacks when she thinks he's one of the bad guys.  Both the attack, and her hospital visit later that day, are played just right by both Barty and Hawn.  Burgess Meredith also does well, as Hawn's protective landlord with the laughing pet snake.  Chuck McCann has a brief bit as the owner of the revival theater where Gloria first witnesses a death.

The movie was written and directed by Colin Higgins, seven years after Harold and Maude.  (And not long after Silver Streak, which I haven't seen since the time.)  It is for the most part successful, although I do think the last half hour is the weakest, with an Obligatory '70s, not Chase Scene, but Rush to Save the Day Scene, that involves things like driving the wrong way on a one-way street, car crashes, and ethnic and other stereotypes (like Italians who exclaim, "Mama mia!").  And while there's more at stake at the Mikado production than there was in the Night at the Opera finale, I don't think this sequence works entirely.  Still, it's great at the very end to see Chevy & Goldie go from smooching (they are a great team of smoochers) to shrugging and taking bows, as Mr. Manilow proclaims he's ready to take a chance again.  (And I'm not even a Manilow fan, except here.)  Both Chase and Hawn are great reactors, separately and as a team.  Like the rest of the movie, they walk a balance between realism and cartoon.

So how's the movie as a mystery?  Well, it's certainly suspenseful, and I remember being really scared as a kid, especially of the albino, but there are a lot of moments of putting convenient clues together, and the cigarette pack with the microfilm in it (probably the most dated of many dated elements in the movie) turns out to be a complete McGuffin.  If you just apply the Gilligan's Island Rule of Broadcasting, then you know that the television news is repeatedly reporting that the Pope will be visiting San Francisco soon, and thus you know whom the villains want to assassinate.  (When Foul Play was first scheduled to be shown on TV in 1981, it had to be postponed because of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II.)  There are aspects that are homages to Hitchcock, some of which I get, some of which I don't.  I have the sense we're not meant to take the mystery entirely seriously, as when late in the film Tony says Gloria will have to identify the albino because she's the only one who's seen him and "he may be in disguise."  What, in colored contacts and a toupee?

Marc Lawrence, who plays Stiltskin ("The Dwarf"), would soon be another villain, Webster in Goin' Coconuts.  Rollin Moriyama and Mitsu Yashima, who play the Japanese couple in the taxi, would be Chinese in Americathon.  Marilyn Sokol, who plays Stella, would be Lulu in Can't Stop the Music.

Grease

Grease
June 16, 1978
Paramount
Musical, Comedy, Historical, Romance, Fantasy
VHS
B-

This is both a beloved "classic" and an entry in the Medveds' lists of turkeys.  I've seen it countless times and I still don't quite know what I think of it.  Well, if you must know, I guess I think it's a movie with good to great songs ("Hopelessly Devoted" probably the best of the lot, although much more '70s than '50s) and mostly not very likable characters.  It's hard to care about the romance between John Travolta (age 24) as Danny and Olivia Newton-John (29) as Sandy, when their personalities are such a poor fit, and the changes they make to prove to be worthy of each other seem pointless.  The secondary couple, Jeff Conaway (27) as Kenickie and Stockard Channing (34) as Rizzo, are much more interesting, she especially.  She's not exactly likable either, but she's got personality, has some of the best lines ("With relish" and the "defective typewriter" one in particular), and her "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" provides the only genuine emotion in the movie, raising this from a C+ to a B-.

As for the unlikability, the characters are often stupid and/or needlessly cruel, as when they mock nerdy Eddie Deezen.  They're not any nicer to their friends, including the way that Jan is called fat (while being asked out!), when she looks petite.  The characters in Grease 2 are no saints, but there's less mean-spiritedness in that film, so in some ways I like it better, although it's certainly worse written, directed, acted, sung, danced, etc.  (But then it's more clearly a so-bad-it's-good turkey.)

Still, yes, watch this film for the musical numbers, from the title track onward.  The songs will get stuck in your head, but you probably won't mind.  Chances are, you already know them.  (Well, maybe not the smuttier lines of "Greased Lightning," if you've seen an edited version of the movie.)

The mostly female school staff includes Eve Arden as Principal McGee, Dody Goodman as Arden's assistant Blanche, Fannie Flagg as Nurse Wilkins, and Alice Ghostley as the shop teacher Mrs. Murdock, but there's also Sid Caesar as Coach Calhoun.  Edd Byrnes plays lecherous National Bandstand host Vince Fontaine.  Joan Blondell is Vi the waitress.  Frankie Avalon is Frenchy's Teen Angel guardian.  Sha-Na-Na, almost a decade before/after Woodstock, is the band at the big dance.

I'm using the "Stigwood stalwarts" tag to cover the many dancers who perform not only here but also Sgt. Pepper and/or Grease 2:  Barbi Alison, Helena Adreyko, Jennifer Buchanan, Carol Culver, Cindy DeVore, Dennis Daniels, Larry Dusich, Deborah Fishman, John Robert Garrett, Sandra Gray, Mimi Lieber, Sean Moran, Bob Quinn, Greg Rosatti, Andy Roth, Lou Spadaccini, Judy Susman, Andy Tennant, and Richard Weisman.  Wendie Jo Sperber is also a dancer here.  (I think she's the girl in the pink dress and dark ponytails in the carnival scene at the end.)  Another dancer, Daniel Levans, would be assistant choreographer on Can't Stop the Music.

Also, Dennis Stewart, who plays Leo, would be a dancer in Sgt. Pepper, as well as Balmudo in Grease 2.  (He's the zit-faced leader of the rival gang.)  Dick Patterson, Mr. Rudie here, would be Mr. Spears in G2.  Didi Conn (26), as Frenchy (the one genuinely sweet character) would be the only one of the main "teenagers" to return for G2.  Scriptwriters Alan Carr and Bronte Woodard would co-write Can'tStM.  And choreographer Patricia Birch would direct G2. 

The "fantasy" tag is for the flying car at the end, and not for the surreal New York accents in sunny California.

The Big Bus

The Big Bus
June 23, 1976
Paramount
Comedy, Action
VHS
A-

This note-perfect parody of '70s disaster movies is not only in my opinion much more enjoyable than the more famous and successful Airplane (1980), but it's the most fun I've had with any of my movies since Some Like It Hot.  It's partly that I'm a '70s kid and I love the bright colors and tackiness of this Ford-era movie, especially on the title vehicle, including the Bicentennial dining room.  But it really is dead on, from its David Shire score (as overwrought as anything in the Airport movies, but with whimsical touches like a sample from "Home Sweet Home" when the "flags of all nations" are raised to slow down the bus), to the dialogue, with such quotable lines as Joseph Bologna defensively exclaiming "You eat one lousy foot-- they call you a cannibal!", and a pre-Benson Rene Auberjonois as a doubting priest taunting Ruth Gordon, "Where's your god now, old woman?"  I also love all the exchanges between a pre-Soap Richard Mulligan and a post-MASH Sally Kellerman as a soon to be divorced couple, as well as Richard B. Shull (around the time of Holmes and Yo-Yo) hitting all the cliches in his "I wanna live" speech when Lynn Redgrave seduces him in a tub.

It's a very big bus, with a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and a piano bar where Murphy Dunne (who wrote his own material) anticipates Bill Murray's lounge singer by a year or so.  The bus is nuclear-powered and on a non-stop trip from New York to Denver, although the scenery is very obviously Californian, from the street with the Thrifty's to the mountains.  And, yes, very '70s, with the sodas that poor Stockard Channing almost drowns in including Fanta and Fresca.

She's wonderful, the whole cast is wonderful!  I haven't even mentioned Larry Hagman as the doctor who insists that Harold Gould (wounded by a St. Christopher's medal) can't be moved, or Ned Beatty and Howard Hesseman as the bickering technicians, or Jose Ferrer and Stuart Margolin as villainous brothers (despite being born almost 30 years apart), or Vic Tayback in a tiny plum of a role as a bus driver who gets in a broken milk carton vs. broken candle bar fight.

I spent most of the time grinning, when I wasn't giggling.  This viewing, I was struck by the fact that it actually works on a story level.  I mean it's not just gags, there's actually a plot that's somewhat resolved.  (After a literal cliffhanger, the bus faces another disaster as the credits start rolling.)  And I don't think you have to have seen Earthquake, Towering Inferno, Poseidon Adventure, Airport, or Airport '75 (they still hadn't released '77 or Concorde at that point) to enjoy it, although it probably helps if you're a movie buff and can appreciate all the tropes.  Even on this viewing, I found new things to appreciate, like the Edith Head glasses on Redgrave's designer character.  Judging from the IMDB reviews and comments, as well as other online reviews, this movie doesn't do it for everyone, but I think if you like it, you'll like it a lot.

This time Vito Scotti plays a barber.  Harry Holcolmbe, who plays the older priest, was Capt. Malone in Escape to Witch Mountain.  Of the unnamed bus passengers, a few would go on to other cult/obscure movies I own: Selma Archerd to Americathon and Can't Stop the Music, Nick Pellegrino to I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Cynthia Szigeti to both The Gong Show Movie and Johnny Dangerously, and Andrew Winner to Valley Girl.

And James Frawley would go on to direct The Muppet Movie.

Harold and Maude

Harold and Maude
December 20, 1971
Paramount
Comedy, Romance, Musical
DVD
B+

Thirty-year-old screenwriter Colin Higgins, 42-year-old director Hal Ashby, and 23-year-old Bud Cort (as almost 20-year-old Harold) and 75-year-old Ruth Gordon (as almost-80 Maude) brought their unique, quirky talents together to make this unique, quirky movie, ably supported by 40-year-old Vivian Pickles as Harold's fantastically pretentious, mostly unflappable mother.  This is a tricky film to talk about because it's become a Cult Movie, some people's favorite movie, and it's certainly meant a lot to me since I saw it at 19 on campus.  (They also showed Amarcord and a beach party movie, not all on one night.  It was a very confused film society.)  I think it's one of those not quite great movies.  I don't think everything in it works, like the way Maude keeps stealing cars, but it remains wise, sweet, sometimes joyous, and very funny.  I don't want to oversell it, because it's also in a way a quiet, little movie, with many long-distance shots and details to hunt out (like the PermaSeal on the coffin).  I think when you watch it, you have to get past its reputation and just enjoy it, because that's what Maude would want.

Ruth Gordon is just right as life-loving Maude, although I kept thinking She doesn't look 80, she barely looks 70.  Baby-faced Cort as Harold, despite his faked suicides, has a gentleness that is rare in movies, and when Maude brings him to life, he expresses it whimsically, as when he somersaults.  The script by Higgins is sharp and dry (he'd later pen Foul Play and 9 to 5, two other movies that mean a lot to me), while Ashby not only gets just the right emotions out of everyone (even the cartoony characters, like Harold's uncle), but he has some great shots, like the tombstones that look like a computer punch card from a distance.  And I must say that the Cat Stevens songs fit the movie perfectly, perhaps not as good as the Simon & Garfunkel music in The Graduate, but integrated even more effectively.

Marjorie Eaton, who was Miss Persimmon in Mary Poppins, this time plays Madame Arouet.  Michael L. Davis was Chief of Police in Skidoo and is unconfirmed as a policeman here.  Eric Christmas, who plays the priest disgusted by the idea of Harold's "firm young body" commingling with Maude's "withered" flesh, would be Senator Polk in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!  Shari Summers, who plays Edith Phern (one of Harold's computer dates) would be a nurse in Who's That Girl?

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
June 30, 1971
Paramount
Children's, Musical, Fantasy
VHS
B-

Does it seem weird that I don't exactly know what I think of this movie?  I mean, I grew up with it, and the book it's based on.  (My review: http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/07/charlie-and-chocolate-factory.html.)  Let's start with Willy Wonka, since the title was changed for the movie adaptation (adapted by Dahl himself, although he hated the subsequent rewrite).  Gene Wilder manages to be both charming and creepy.  (Not Johnny Depp level creepy, but that's a later discussion.)  All of the children misbehave, even our hero Charlie, although he at least atones for it.  The chocolate manufacturing plant is at once an awesome little amusement park and a potential death factory*, with an acid-trip boat ride.  The songs are either classic ("Candy Man," "Pure Imagination"), or they're stupid but catchy (the Oompa-Loompa songs), or they're filled with unwieldy Anthony Newley rhymes ("Cheer Up, Charlie," "I Want It Now, etc.).  The humor is either sly (many of Wonka's lines, the teacher's riffs) or pathetic (many of Grandpa Joe's lines).  Speaking of Grampa J, I think he's malingering.  He (along with the other three grandparents) has apparently been bedridden for twenty years, and yet the local news vendor knows him and GJ can somehow sneak tobacco and chocolate into the house.

Anyway, I'm going with my default grade, B-.  The movie could be better, it could be worse.  It's entertaining but not amazing.

Oompa Loompa Rusty Goffe would play two different goblins in Harry Potter movies.  Little person Frank Delfino plays an auctioneer rather than an Oompa Loompa; he was in Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and would go on to play a Kaplutian on The Brady Bunch.  And, no, I don't know why the O-Ls are orange.


*Unlike in the book, we never actually see the bad kids recover.

Before tragedy struck

Hello Down There

Hello Down There
June 25, 1969
Paramount
Comedy, Musical, Sci-Fi, Action
VHS
B+

No, I didn't grow up with this one, but I wish I had.  Even discovering it in my early 20s, I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing, and I still don't.  It's not exactly a kids' movie, too much drug humor and sex humor, although pretty mild by post-1972 standards.  And, yet, just like Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady?, it could pass for a '60s sitcom pilot if you squint a bit.  I mean, look at this cast!  Tony Randall, Ken Berry (as Randall's rival), Arnold Stang (as Berry's stupider [!] assistant, and like in Skidoo he dies, or at least his character is left for dead and forgotten), Jim Backus (Howelling up a storm as Randall's boss), Backus's wife as a concerned parent,  Charlotte Rae (as a wacky maid, there's a stretch), Harvey Lembeck (as a radar technician), Merv Griffin as himself, Janet Leigh, Richard Dreyfuss-- wait a minute.  Janet Leigh and Richard Dreyfuss?  What are they doing here?  Well, like everyone else, they are both embarrassing themselves and playing to their strengths, respectively screaming and being sarcastic.

This was an Ivan Tors production, so we get a lot of shots of dolphins and other sea critters frolicking around the underwater home that Randall, wife Leigh, forgettable blond kids, and the kids' friends (Dreyfuss and the comic relief one named Marvin) live in for somewhere between two weeks and thirty days.  (The movie ends in media res, with Navy parachutists attacking.)  The house is called the Green Onion, even though it's white, so the band that the teens are in is renamed from Harold and His Hang-Ups to, yes, the Green Onion.  There's also an orange submarine that becomes yellow.  Continuity is not this movie's strong point, as seen in the fact that Leigh's character is established as a writer (of Forty Nights in a Harem), and then this is forgotten for over an hour.

The script is co-written by Tors, Art Arthur (who also co-wrote Birds Do It), and a couple other people.  The director is Jack Arnold, who did a lot of TV, including Gilligan's Island.  Obviously, this adds to the TV feel.  But in an attempt to be more contemporary than television, we get McDowall sort of reprising his Tony Krum character in The Cool Ones, this time as "boy millionaire" record producer Nate Ashbury.  (I never said this movie was subtle.)  As in The Cool Ones, there's a computer that determines the potential success of a rock band, this time one that's operated by Catwoman: Lee Meriwether as a miniskirted computer scientist.  The songs are, well, wonderful, in an absolutely cheesy way.  Not only are they worthy of the Archies, but they're quite obviously lip-synced (except for Randall's serenade of Leigh).  No wonder Rae, who drinks tonic that she worries is spiked with LSD, can't resist shaking her groove thang.

I'm still marveling over the cast.  I mean, there's a moment where Merv Griffin translates McDowall's hip slang for Backus, and they're not even the ones stealing the scene.  A couple less familiar faces:  Jay Laskay, Philo here, was Willie in Birds Do It; Janine King, age unknown, plays a crying baby and would turn up as a carnival patron in Scavenger Hunt.

This is, incidentally, the 100th comedy I've reviewed, although I'll admit my genre tags are somewhat arbitrary.  Clearly, this one isn't just a comedy, but, man, is it hilarious!

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.