Joe Biden: Truth Teller

"Joe Biden: There's Never Been a Day ... I've Been Proud to Be His Vice President" via YouTube
God, I love the Internet.

Some Like It Spot

The new GEICO commercial is nearly a home movie for us, having traveled five times to this exact setting in Arizona-Utah's Monument Valley, our favorite American destination.

"GEICO: The Roadrunner and the Coyote: The Gecko's Journey" via YouTube  We didn't meet these big time celebrities along the way, sadly, but the video may explain my desert headaches.

Meep.

Hubie and Bertie's Mouse Chronicles

Forget "Gone With the Wind." Forget "Star Wars." Forget "The Lord of the Rings." The greatest of all movie sagas follows the adventures of Hubie and Bertie, cartoon mice.

The boys' seven classic 1943-51 animated episodes, based on the sacred books of "The Mew Testament," my cat Morty tells me, are coming to Blu-ray home video later this summer.

I've pre-ordered "Looney Tunes: Mouse Chronicles" because Hubie and Bertie are terrific and overdue for a renaissance. I want to do my part to help and subliminally cue the wife to serve cheese.

Here's a shining example of director Chuck Jones' rambunctious rodents hard at work in "Mouse Wreckers" (1948).



"Mouse Wreckers" via YouTube
Hubie and Bertie's Warner Bros. colleague and fellow mouse, Sniffles, is also seen in this two-disc set. All nine of his cartoons offer something to sniff at.

Big Weekend

Big weekend, watching SUMMERTIME (1955) to entice summertime 2012.

"Summertime" (1955) Movie Trailer via YouTube
We liked this movie, but I was creeped the show was written for Shirley Booth. Director David Lean hired Katharine Hepburn instead.

Makes me ache for Kate as Hazel, chasing Mr. B. and Bobby Buntrock with a spatula.



 "Hazel" (1961-65) Opening Titles via YouTube

100 Things About Me #185

A Lifelong Dream Fulfilled!

I opened for Don Rickles!

10/24/11

100 Things: #1 | Previous | To Be Continued

Slackjaw Dumbstruck: Criswell: 'Someone Walked Over My Grave'

I'm in the mood for above. 

Do tread on me. 

Sole music. 

Laying footsies. 

Criswell: "Someone Walked Over My Grave" via YouTube

---

Thanks to Charlie Flashbacks.

I Got Nuthin'

Consolation Video: The Three Stooges: "We Just Dropped in to Say 'Hello'" from "Gents Without Cents" (1944) via YouTube
Via Shemp Howard on Facebook

Buster Keaton: Rock Wrangler

Image via Wikipedia

The amazing, seemingly fearless physical comedian Buster Keaton was remembered on his birthday, Oct. 4. Some of his admirers, including me, corresponded on the occasion. Me:

Here is one of the most memorable and breathtaking stunt sequences I've seen. So risky as a film-maker's challenge, too. I could not believe the eyes on my first viewing of "Seven Chances."

I'm so glad I wasn't a grip on this picture.

Buster Keaton: "Seven Chances" (1925) Chase Scene via YouTube

Frank Thompson shared this clip ... and says, "Let's celebrate Buster's 116th birthday by showing this brilliant scene from "Seven Chances" in which he's chased by at least 116 rocks."

Thanks for counting.

I Got Nuthin'

Consolation Video: Frank Sinatra: "High Hopes" via YouTube

Separated at Birth: Jerry Lewis and...

Peter Griffin.



Jerry Lewis: "The Errand Boy" (1961) and Peter Griffin: "Family Guy" (2010) via YouTube

I Got Nuthin'

Consolation Video: The Moylan Sisters: "My Little Buckaroo" from "Toyland Casino" (1938) via YouTube

---

Thanks to Frank Thompson

Big Weekend

Oh.

My.

God.

And Ed Sullivan.

Big weekend, overwhelmed by Jackie Evancho, live in concert with The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.



Jackie Evancho: "Nessun Dorma" From "PBS Great Performances" (2011) via YouTube

I turned to my wife and said, "Is this a prank?"

I have never heard or seen anyone like this beautiful child.

Eleven.

She is eleven.

Ten selections. Six prolonged standing ovations. I have witnessed no artist achieve a similar response in such a setting.



Jackie Evancho: "A Time for Us," Atlanta Symphony Hall, Aug. 5, 2011 via YouTube

When I was 11, I was schlepping around, wearing wax buck teeth and impersonating Professor Julius F. Kelp.

Slackjaw Dumbstruck: The Ladybugs: 'I Saw Him Standing There'

The "Petticoat Junction" Girls as The Ladybugs: "I Saw Him Standing There" via "The Ed Sullivan Show" and YouTube
Source annotation:

Airdate March 22, 1964. The Ladybugs were Jeannine Riley, Pat Woodell and Linda Kaye Henning (from "Petticoat Junction") & Sheila James (formerly of "Dobie Gillis").

Zelda?!

---

Thanks to Charlie Flashbacks.

Separated at Birth: Buddy Hackett and...

Peter Griffin. 



Buddy Hackett: "Shipoopi" from "The Music Man" (1962) via YouTube



Peter Griffin: "Shipoopi" from "Family Guy" (2005) via YouTube

Daughter of Blob

Continued From: "Movies in the Movies: 'The Blob' (1958)" and "Son of Movies in the Movies: 'The Blob' (1958)"

The annual Blobfest is underway and I can't make it to the festivities. A gargantuan prehistoric stinkbug is terrorizing my 1993 Saturn without foreplay or a proper introduction.

Special guest star Rutger Hauer is in my kitchen terrorizing our Honey Nut Cheerios® and the box of Popsicles®. Fortunately, he's just here for the day. My poor Craisins®.

The Blobfest, for you latecomers, is nicely summarized by the lazy writer's favorite source, Wikipedia:

Since 2000, the town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania — one of the filming locations — has held an annual "Blobfest". Activities include a re-enactment of the scene in which moviegoers run screaming from the town's Colonial Theatre, which has recently been restored. Chef's Diner in Downingtown is also restored, and is open for business or photographs of the basement on weekday mornings only.

Now, that's kinda tingly, "photographs of the basement." I hope it's still damp down there with Moist Mop Blob Goo® (which I in no way mention to infringe on any pending Lady Gaga signature fragrances).

Reading more about "The Blob," Wikipedia caught my piercing, introspective, kindly, 20/14 eyes with a rundown of all of the film's follow-ups.

A comedy sequel was made in 1972, entitled "Beware! The Blob," directed by Larry Hagman. In 1988, a remake of the same name was made. In August 2009, it was revealed that musician turned director Rob Zombie was working another remake, but is no longer working on this project.

All well and, um, probably crummy, but I haven't seen them. I have viewed what must be the definitive sequel to "The Blob," a sequence from Woody Allen's 1972 hit, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Were Afraid to Ask."

Here is a portion of the footage I call "The Boob" with Woody (no, no, that's not Steve McQueen!), Heather MacRae, and Dort Clark.

(Adult themes, language, milk products)



The Boob From "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Were Afraid to Ask" (1972) via eBaum's World

His Name ... José Jiménez, Astronaut

NASA's shuttle Atlantis launched into outer space this morning, marking the end of an impressive half century for American primates. I remember life before the race to penetrate the heavens and, strangely, find myself living in the future where no more of our astronauts will pop up beyond the Earth's atmosphere strapped inside USA vehicles.

My comment on Twitter got me to reminiscing.

I was around for the USA's first manned space flight & the last. The best thing the NASA programs gave me was José Jiménez.

I was being silly, but, to be truthful, not much.

In 1961, before manned rocket flights, a comedy routine jumped to the top of the airplay on Top 40 radio stations, and elsewhere, becoming a swift national sensation. Comedian Bill Dana released an in-depth Q&A with his comic character, José Jiménez. It seems the endearing innocent somehow positioned himself to become "the first man in space!"

I was nine and completely devoted to this piece of comedy brilliance. So consumed, I demanded -- as much as a kid could dare -- that my mother purchase the 45 RPM double-sided single, which I played on our turntable incessantly, memorizing and simultaneously performing the material in response to interviewer Don Hinckley.

I found "The Astronaut" at YouTube to share here, but this particular copy has an added puppet show performance video inserted by a fan. Underlying, however, is the uncut audio I still adore and enjoy as if it were emanating from a news broadcast.

Before listening, Wikipedia adds an anecdote about José's superstar fame:

Perhaps surprisingly, the character of José Jiménez caught on amongst the seven Mercury astronauts, and Dana became good friends with them. "Okay, José, you're on your way!" Deke Slayton quipped as Alan Shepard's famous first flight launched, in reference to the astronaut parody.

For his role as José the Astronaut, Dana was officially made an honorary Mercury astronaut.

José Jiménez: "The Astronaut" via YouTube

Movies in the Movies: 'Lucky Me'

Doris Day: "The Superstition Song" from "Lucky Me" via YouTube

Star Doris Day opens the 1954 musical "Lucky Me" by singing a cheery song across the Floridian streets of lovely Miami -- except the entire enterprise was faked on the Burbank, CA lot at Warner Bros.

I've been fortunate to visit the studio twice and stroll the much photographed outdoor set, although I didn't warble show tunes or get gunned down by James Cagney.

Maybe next time.

As Doris passes along the movie theatre's sidewalk, we see posters for "The Command," an actual Warner production released in Feb. 1954. "Lucky Me" hit screens in April, so this ploy was a smart up-to-the-minute product placement to entice sharp eyes.

I do so wish Miss Day had lingered. I'd be under that theatre marquee beside her in a scant 43 years.

We'd have lunch at the commissary, croon the obligatory duet, bungalow in Carmel, and rescue puppies.

"The Command" advertisement boasts its presentation in the months-old technological process of CinemaScope, yet the picture was produced twice for non-compatible cameras. Here's an interesting bit of trivia, found at Internet Movie Database:

Filmed in two separate versions - 3-D and CinemaScope - with different aspect ratios (1.37:1 for the 3-D, and 2.55:1 for the CinemaScope print). Only the wide screen version was ever released, though the 3-D elements still exist in Warner Bros. vault. Also the first wide screen Western of the 1950's. The flat (i.e. non 3-D) 1.37:1 version was also made available to theatres who were not yet equipped to project CinemaScope.

"Lucky Me," by the way, is reported to be the first musical in CinemaScope, although there is conflicting research.

It appears the Judy Garland version of "A Star Is Born" was the first musical to go before the CinemaScope camera. It's 10-month schedule to completion, however, delayed release until October.

"Lucky Me" lucked out.

Breaking News: 'Suspicious Package Found Outside Weiner's DC Office'

Is it wearing grey snuggy undies?

W.C. Fields as 'The Pharmacist'

I'm amusing my way through the robust W.C. Fields festival at the Film Forum in New York, only I'm following along here at the love nest. We're equipped with a state-of-the-art lap cat and surround purr.

"The Pharmacist" is one of the short subjects Fields wrote and starred in for comedy legend Max Sennett. It also happens to be the first 16mm sound film I purchased for my collection during senior year of high school. In those ancient times before home video, the only way I could see obscure W.C.'s was to buy them from a magical underground of fans and/or vendors. I was thrilled to get the used print. I paid $16, concurrently pricey and a bargain.

I wish I had also received the attractive door prize the pharmacist bestows on each customer.



W.C. Fields: "The Pharmacist" (1933) via Internet Archive

Going to Sleep During the W.C. Fields Film Festival

Checking in from the sofa with an update on my own private W.C. Fields retrospective. I'm mirroring the series currently underway in New York City at the Film Forum.


The weekend was solid, featuring three of my favorite Fields-created projects, "The Dentist" (1932), "It's a Gift" (1934), and "Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1935), all on one program and funnier than ever. His largely dramatic guest-star-for-hire gigs comprised another line-up with "David Copperfield" (1935) and "Alice in Wonderland" (1933). Fields surfaces in the classic literature roles of Micawber and Humpty-Dumpty.

He was a fine, nuanced character actor, and watching these movies again made me shake my head again, recalling a big cinematic loss. W.C. turned down the offered, eccentric part of The Great and Powerful Oz in MGM's 1939 "The Wizard of Oz." Frank Morgan is terrific, no argument, but Fields was born to play in the Emerald City.

The fest highlight for me so far?

I got to see what I call "The Insomnia Scene" from "It's a Gift" (video below). (Coincidentally, "Man on the Flying Trapeze" opens with somewhat of a continuation.) I hate to spoil the comedy, so I'll say only that our man in pajamas portrays Harold Bissonette in sleepy pursuit of some early morning shut-eye.

While the footage is priceless, I also love that the so-called plot of the farce stops to include this detour, encompassing 15% of the entire running time of the film!



W.C. Fields: "It's a Gift": Porch Sequence (1934) via YouTube
Also appearing: Baby LeRoy
Not appearing: Carl LaFong