C.H.O.M.P.S.

C.H.O.M.P.S.
December 21, 1979
Hanna-Barbera/American International
Children's, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Action
VHS
B-

I'm closing out the 1970s with two very '70s movies.  (I'll get to Scavenger Hunt in a few days, but I'll mention now that it came out on the same day as this one.)  This is also, probably because of the Hanna-Barbera production, a very televisiony movie, with writing, music, and sound effects straight out of any of their cartoons.  (The frequently recurring theme combines "charge," disco, and action music, while being very bouncy.)  Also, look at this cast: 28-year-old Wesley Land of the Lost Eure and 19-year-old Valerie One Day at a Time Bertinelli play an inventor and his girlfriend, while her father and his employer is Conrad Diff'rent Strokes Bain, and Jim Backus is the head of a rival security company.  Furthermore, the two bumbling crooks are played by Red Buttons and Chuck McCann.  The only signs of AIP-casting are Hermione Baddeley (who was one of the servants in Mary Poppins) as the dotty neighbor Mrs. Flower (a role not unlike Elsa Lanchester's Aunt Wendy in Pajama Party), and, as Merkle, Robert Q. Lewis, who was Mr. Pevney, the poor man that Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman drive insane in Ski Party.  

There are not really any of the odd, subversive touches of AIP movies of the '60s (and '50s), no breaking fourth walls, and every cliche is played straight.  The movie is entertaining enough, but not quite cheesy enough to be memorable.  I will note that the whole concept of the Canine HOMe Protection System doesn't seem so amazing, thirty-five years later, but the film might be worth a look for how it presents two elements that would become more significant in the '80s: technology, and fear of crime.

This time, Regis Toomey (then 81, but living on till 1991) plays the chief of police.  African-American actor James Reynolds, who plays a reporter here, was Officer Wilson in The Magic of Lassie.*  Engineer William Flatley was a truck driver in that movie, and Don Chaffey was the director.  Phil Adams, who's one of the "hoods" here, was Tarzan in Thank God It's Friday.


*There are a relatively high number of black men in the movie, with three in one scene.  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it is compared to some of my other movies, even from the '70s.  To balance that, I couldn't decide if the mean, swearing dog Monster being black was significant (he does say "turkey" at one point), but I think it's just an example of the two-dimensionality of the script.  All of the criminals are white.

Change of Habit

Change of Habit
January 21, 1970
Universal
Comedy, Drama, Romance, Musical
VHS
B-

Welcome to the '70s, sort of.  Obviously, this movie was made at the tail end of the '60s although released at the dawn of the next decade, and movies wouldn't really stop feeling '60sish till I'd say '73.  Nonetheless, the punning title does indicate a shift, not just for Mary Tyler Moore and her two colleagues working as undercover nuns in the ghetto/barrio (more on ethnicity below), but also for Elvis, who, yes, sings four songs but does play a Vietnam vet and a doctor.  The movie is of course laughably dated in how it addresses serious issues, including autism, but there is a good movie buried inside this bad one.  There are too many genres, and too many writers (five), so it probably was not very good even at the time, but it is an interesting period piece.

Yes, the way that sex and race are handled are among the worst aspects.  While there's an attempted rape (of MTM) late in the film, Elvis makes a tasteless rape joke early on.  Another of the nuns, Sister Barbara (the activist one who says "groovy" and exchanges peace-sign fingers with a young priest), wears her dress off the shoulder to get neighborhood men to help her move furniture, and it looks like it's going to turn into a gang rape scene.   More benignly, a 17-year-old girl lusts after Elvis, who turns her down with gentle humor.  And, yes, this is the Elvis/nun romance movie, although that aspect isn't as tasteless as it sounds.  (They never kiss, but they do touch a few times, as when he teaches her to play the guitar.)  The open ending is tasteless, in a funny way, as the camera (offering Sister Michelle's POV) goes back and forth between The King and the King of Kings.

As for issues of race, Latinos and Negroes (I think those are the right period terms for the mainstream, correct me if I'm wrong) are presented both stereotypically and as overlapping groups.  The filmmakers never seem clear what the neighborhood's ethnic mix is, other than somewhat Catholic.  Interestingly, the main villains are white.  (The Hispanic rapist is presented as mentally ill and treated surprisingly sympathetically, although his attack is also taken seriously, if not seriously enough to press charges.)  The white Catholic characters are a mix of good and judgmental.  The most interesting scene that addresses race is marred by unintentionally hilarious dialogue, where two Black radicals ironically tell Sister Irene she "ain't no sister."  One of them says that around there, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution, and the other adds "And we have a feeling you're neither."  She replies, "I'm a Negro, I think that's pretty obvious."

A very late '60s film.  Ed Asner shows up as a reasonable, liberal policeman, but unfortunately he doesn't get any scenes with his soon to be TV costar.  As for Elvis, he was done with acting after this, and he'd be dead before the '70s were over.

Regis Toomey, who plays Father Gibbons, was Sanders in His Girl Friday and was 71 at this point but far from retirement. Timothy Carey, who was South Dakota Slim in a couple AIP Beach Party movies, is the Ajax Market manager.  Robert Emhardt was head of a corporation in Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? and he plays a more sinister "fat cat" here, as the "Banker" exploiting the poor.  Araceli Rey, who plays the elderly protesting Señora Gavilan, was the Italian cleaning lady in The Love God?  Darlene Love sang in that movie as well as this one.  Seventy-four-year-old Ruth McDevitt was Miss Keezy in that movie and plays Lily here.

Some of the kaleiodoscopic experience that this movie is

His Girl Friday

His Girl Friday
January 18, 1940
Columbia
Comedy
VHS
B+

The '40s portion of my movie collection starts with a bang: this funny, fast-paced, smart, still controversial film.  Is the movie feminist or anti-feminist?  Is it racist or anti-racist?  And where does it stand on the death penalty?  It's tempting to say that it's not meant to be a message movie, that its ethics are no purer, its concerns no higher, than those of Walter Burns (Cary Grant), the charming but unscrupulous newspaper publisher who thinks a story about a rooster is "human interest," while "the European war" can be moved off the front page.  (And, yes, this is based on the play The Front Page.)  I think it is a very entertaining movie with a dark side that it hints at without fully exploring.  The reporters, even Hildy (played by Rosalind Russell), think a big story is more important than people.  The movie mocks them but also celebrates them.

Grant and Russell are wonderful together, with Ralph Bellamy as the never-a-real-challenge third side of the triangle, who gets taken advantage of because, well, he looks like Ralph Bellamy.  There are other third-wall-breaking jokes, like Grant's remark about "Archie Leach" and his calling someone a "mock turtle" (his role in the very odd 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland).  Grant and Russell ad-libbed a lot, and director Hawks encouraged them.  But other performers have their moments, mostly funny, although sometimes sad, as with Helen Mack as Mollie Malloy.  I would say, don't watch this expecting a perfect comedy-- it was #19 on the AFI list of 100 best comedies-- but give it a chance, and watch it more than once to really appreciate it.

Frank Orth, who plays Duffy, was the diner chef in At the Circus.  Frank Jenks was in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.  Warden Pat Cooley would go on to The Bank Dick, Frank McClure to Citizen Kane.  Regis Toomey, who's Sanders, kept working into the 1980s, among other things playing a priest in Change of Habit (1969).