Celebrating World UFO Day

 

 Well, folks, today is World UFO Day! It's a day when aficionados get together and "keep watching the skies" for those mostly elusive visitors from alien worlds. World UFO Day is actually celebrated on two different days, depending on the individual (and probably there are some that celebrate it BOTH days...)

June 24 is recognized by some because that was the day, in 1947, that the first modern sighting of a UFO was recorded, when Kenneth Arnold saw flying saucers on a routine flight near Mt. Rainier in the state of Washington. But the official date, July 2 of that same year, is the one that was latched onto to be designated as the official World UFO Day, because that is supposedly when the famed UFO crash occurred near Roswell, N.M. 

Surprisingly (at least it's surprising to me),  World UFO Day didn't become an officially recognized day until 2001. World UFO Day has it's goals (as stated in the link above) "to raise awareness of the undoubted existence of UFOs, and to encourage governments to declassify their files on UFO sightings". Despite official government insistence that pretty much ALL UFO sightings can be explained by naturally occurring events on planet Earth (like "swamp gas", with or without the presence of an actual swamp...), there are a certain segment of people who are convinced the government is hiding the truth.

(BTW: "UFO" stands for "Unidentified Flying Object", the key word being unidentified. So in true definition of the term, a UFO is not necessarily a craft from some other world piloted by aliens. So: a reminiscence from your blogger: In 1997, I had walked down to the local convenience store to get some stuff and on the trip back I observed something in the sky.  It looked to me like three flat balloons bunched together. This thing moved across the sky in a straight line, not bobbing like you would expect if they were actually balloons. It was in broad daylight, not at night. I never found out what it actually was. So in true definition, at least as far as I am concerned, that was an unidentified flying object. Was it piloted by aliens? I doubt it, but since I still don't know what the hell I saw, I can still say I once saw a UFO.)

 

 

 

The Astounding She-Monster (1958): 

In the realm of movies which The Midnite Drive-In has presented to you, the reader, we have had a few big budget features, ones in which the special effects sometimes overwhelm the plot, but are exceedingly well manufactured and entertaining.  There have also been quite a few low budget films, some of which the special effects help to, just barely, keep the movie afloat.

It is a rarity that we get what I would call a no-budget film.  And even rarer that the film in question has, not only, virtually no special effects, but is also saddled with a plot that is so riddled with holes that it virtually indistinguishable from a hunk of Swiss cheese.  This is one of them.  I used to think that no movie could possibly be as bad as Teenage Zombies.

I was wrong.

(OK, so it took 9 years for me to find a movie as bad as Teenage Zombies... Some of you who have been following along this blog since the start may have a different opinion...) 

This movie is part film noir, which I normally like, coupled with an attempt at horror, with a bit of science fiction to add to the mix.  And none it of gels into anything remotely intelligent. 

The movie starts off on a bad footing, with a narration straight out of an Ed Wood movie. And, surprisingly enough, not only was Ed Wood an unofficial consultant, but the director, Ronnie Ashcroft, was an assistant director on one of Woods' films (that being Night of the Ghouls). The narrator starts out by trying to attract the audience into the plot with a series of statements that are undoubtedly the most obvious points he could make. I wouldn't have been surprised if I found out that this was his only credit, but as it turns out, Scott Douglas, the narrator, did have 28 films to his credit...

The basic beginning is the kidnapping of a wealthy socialite, Margaret (Marilyn Harvey), who is kidnapped by a gang of inept would be kidnappers. This crew of bozos are Nat (Kenne Duncan) and Brad (Ewing Brown), along with an alcoholic gun moll, Esther (Jeanne Tatum). The four race along the road, not knowing that nearby an object has crash landed.  

 

A geologist, Dick (Robert Clarke), witnesses the object crash, although he initially thinks it's a meteor. (Clarke is the only saving grace in this film.  Although he admittedly is not much better than the rest, he had some better roles in his career, including several AIP films that I have watched over the years. Beyond the Time Barrier is the only one that has appeared on The Midnite Drive-In, but there are a few others worth checking out.)  

 

Brad, who is driving the car, sees a figure, the alien that came out of the crashed object, on the side of the road and ends up wrecking the car. When asked what his problem is by Nat, Brad claims he saw a naked woman on the side of the road. (She's not naked, BTW, but the glow she gives off might be distracting enough...)

 

The alien, our titular She-Monster (Shirley Kilpatrick), disappears into the woods before the others can see her.  The four end up on foot where, lo and behold, they come across the cabin where Dick is doing his research. They decide to try to hijack Dick's Jeep, but unfortunately for them, the headlights aren't working. And since the daylight filming location outside is actually posing as night, it is revealed it would be dangerous to try to navigate the mountain road in the dark. 

(One of my nitpicks in these kinds of movies is when the budget is so low that they have to use pretty substandard filming techniques to convince you it is night time, when it is obviously being filmed in the day time.  It's obvious many times in this film.  Witness the light shadows on some of the characters faces when they are outside, supposedly in the dark...)

Brad tries to fix the broken headlight and sees the alien creature again, so Nat, who is obviously the brains of the outfit (which is stretching the term "brains"...), sends Brad out to look for it.  He encounters the alien again and tries to shoot it, but the bullets have no effect.  Then the she-monster touches him and he dies. Meanwhile, back at the cabin, things are getting a little out of hand.  Nat eventually goes out to look for Brad leaving the alcoholic gun moll with a gun to watch over the hostages. (Not exactly the most intelligent thing, given her predilection for the bottle...)

 

Nat finds Brad, and also finds the alien. Nat, too, tries to shoot her to no effect, but manages to escape.

At this point there is not much really exciting going on in this film so I will fast forward a bit.  Nat eventually runs into the she-monster again, and maneuvers enough to send her flying off a cliff (in one of the least realistic falls I ever saw in a movie...)  Supposedly, the alien is dead, but guess what?  She's not.

Eventually the she-monster kills both Nat and Esther, leaving our two hostages free, but the she-monster is still looking to be on a rampage.  Dick figures out if he makes a concoction of chemicals he conveniently has on hand in his cabin he can kill it. Which he does.

 

But the final denouement is yet to be revealed.  It seems that the alien was an emissary from a federation of planets to try to get Earth to become a peaceful planet and join said federation.  (Apparently the only reason she killed the others was because they started it, by trying to kill HER...)

As much as I like AIP movies in general, this is definitely one to avoid. Even if the alien girl had actually really been naked, it couldn't have improved this movie enough for me to recommend it.  Outside of Robert Clarke and Kenne Duncan, the cast of the film had very limited success in the film industry and it is readily apparent why. Although it is probably unfair to disparage Shirley Kilpatrick for her role, since she has no lines and only exists to be the killing monster in the film. But on that note, she only had 3 movie credits and the other two were listed as "uncredited", so maybe Hollywood knows something I don't... But cheer up.  The second feature tonight is substantially better than this one.  Read on.  

 

 

Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957):

Sometimes you get something that just blows you away. When I was 7 or 8 years old, I would be, like, "I wanna be a policeman when I grow up".  A few days later I might be, like, "I wanna be a fireman when I grow up". Not too long after that I might wanna be anything from a doctor to a lawyer to a garbage can man.

This movie seems to have no idea what it wants to be when it grows up.  It starts out kind of like a happy family fantasy movie, because the credits feature a book with pages turning presenting the credits and a somewhat upbeat happy tune.  I was reminded of nothing so much as a kind of a slightly spookier version of the opening music to It's a Wonderful Life. The film itself opens with the narrator (also appearing on screen as Artie) describing some events that happened to him recently in a town called, get this, Hicksburg. (Really! So from the beginning, you think, is this going to be a comedy?)

It seems that way starting out anyway.  A brief beginning introduces us to kindly gentleman named Farmer Larkin (Raymnd Hatton).  "Kindly" meaning a crotchety old geezer who mumbles and grumbles about those "consarn kids" who keep coming on his property to use a secluded spot as a Lover's Lane. Not to mention getting his prized bulls and cows drunk on their beer. (Apparently in Hicksburg even underage high school  kids can get their hands on beer...)

 

Segue to a diner where our narrator, Artie (Lyn Osborn) and his pal Joe (Frank Gorshin) are contemplating on what to do for fun. Artie and Joe are apparently hucksters who are in town just to make a few bucks. (Why in a backwoods town like Hicksburg probably says more about their intelligence than I probably could...) 

 

Artie is all for going back to the room where they are staying but Joe wants to keep up the quest for fun. And Joe is apparently not drunk enough to call it a night. (I should mention that Joe constantly pull drags off a bottle he keeps in his pocket, but Artie is laying off the sauce. Remember that, because it's important.)  Joe, while out driving, sees a flying saucer land in a nearby field.  (So now it's a sci-fi movie...) Ever looking for the play that will rake in the bucks, he heads back to wake up Artie.  But Artie thinks Joe has had a little too much to drink and thinks Joe is just seeing things. So Joe goes back out to get more proof for his friend.

Meanwhile, our heroes, the kids, Johnny (Stephen Terrell) and Joan (Gloria Castillo) have made their way to Lover's Lane and are making out like the rest of the town's libidinous teenagers.  But Farmer Larkin's bull comes along and ruins the mood. And what with Johnny having seen the lights from the saucer and deciding to leave with Joan, they travel down the back roads (without headlights) and run over one of the aliens who just landed.  

 

The alien is killed, or at least most of it...  It's hand separates from the dead body and manages to puncture Johnny's tire, leaving the kids on foot.  They go to Farmer Larkin's house, but since Larkin isn't home, they just walk in and use his phone to call the police.  But the police think it's a joke and hang up on them. 

 

Meanwhile, Joe arrives and finds the dead alien, but while he is investigating, the alien's pals show up and inject him with some poison from their claws. (Which turns out to be pure everyday alcohol, BTW). They take their alien pal's body and leave Joe's body in front of Johnny's car to make it seem like the kids actually ran over Joe instead of an alien. (This story was originally inspired by a short story called "The Cosmic Frame" {as in "frame-up"} so the aliens are basically trying to frame Johnny for the death of Joe.) 

 

Meanwhile, the bumbling excuse for the local army has heard of the rumor of a landing flying saucer and they head out to investigate.  They find the saucer, of course, but it is apparently unoccupied. (BTW, we only see four of these aliens, and all of them are out on the prowl, but even the small size of those aliens makes this saucer look like it is not quite proportionate enough to have transported them.) 

 

The bumbling army guys try everything to get some response from the ship, including firing guns at it, but the bullets just bounce off.  So these mental giants think the next best solution is to use an acetylene torch. Which blows the damn ship up.

 

Meanwhile the kids have (finally) convinced the cops to show, but they don't find a dead alien only a dead Joe, and haul Johnny and Joan in for involuntary manslaughter. But the cops are just as bumbling as the army guys because they leave the kids alone. And of course, the kids escape, because after all, they just HAVE to prove their alien story is not just a bunch of hooey.  We finally see these aliens in the bushes and boy are they creepy.. (So now it's a horror movie...) The severed hand from the first alien ends up in the car with the two teens.

 

The kids round up Artie and convince him to come help them find the aliens. And every time Artie gets involved in this movie, it gets a little comical. (so now it's a comedy, again...). The kids and Artie eventually find out that the aliens are destroyed by bright lights. (Is there no sun on this alien planet...?) So they round up the rest of the gang at Lover's Lane (all this happens in one night...) and take them to the place where the aliens are and surround them.  And turn on their headlights. And poof! no more aliens.  (It was a great plan by the aliens, and it would have worked, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids...)

 

And we eventually learn that the aliens have pure 200% pure ethyl alcohol in those claws. So the police determine that Joe died of acute alcohol blood poisoning, and was dead before Johnny even hit him with the car.  (Which, of course, we know he didn't actually hit him in the first place, but remember, only the kids have actually seen any aliens, not counting the flying saucer the Keystone Kops Army people blew up....)  

So just exactly why are the aliens here in the first place? Surely they aren't the vanguard of an alien invasion force (despite the title of the movie...) Personally I think they are just on a joy ride and decided to check out this out of the way planet to find out what mischief they can get into. Other than setting Johnny up for the frame job, they don't seem too intent on an invasion.

As always, I point out that these movies aren't exactly Oscar material (did you expect that, with a title like Invasion of the Saucer Men...?) I kind of liked this movie over all, mostly because of the (unintentionally) comedic parts. The actual intentional comedic parts are pretty cheesy, especially Artie and the unfortunate Joe. But there are so many parts of this film that are unintentionally funny that they probably sailed right past the original viewing audience. 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that renowned special effects man from the 50's, Paul Blaisdell, was responsible for creating the monsters from this movie. He also created the monsters from many of the classic drive-in monster movies of the era, including It Conquered the World, The Beast with a Million Eyes, The She Creature and It! Terror from Beyond Space. Although his resume was fairly small, the movies he did create monsters for are memorable for the monsters, even if nothing else.  

So it is definitely worth at least one watch.  It's up to you if you decide to watch it a second time. At least one podcaster I watched likes this movie so much he turned it into a focal movie to review on his podcast and admits to really liking it. Me? I watched it twice. Once for this actual blog posting, but the second just to see if it was really as ridiculous as it was the first time.  (It is...) But, damn, it was fun to watch.  

Well, time to see if I can get the old Plymouth back home.  Don't think I'll be going down any back roads, just in case, though...

 

Quiggy

 

 

Teenage Hormones in Hyperdrive

This is my entry in the Spooky Classic Movie Blogathon hosted by K N Winiarski Writes

"Holy crap, Little Joe!  Get  a grip!"

"My God!  Pa! What are you doing with that girl?"

"Jonathan, I think we need to talk...

(NOT quoted from Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven...)

Whether you were a fan of Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie or Highway to Heaven it's a sure bet you never saw Michael Landon get more than just a little out of sorts.  The crystal clean image we have today, for those of us who remember him, is that Michael was an inspirational character in his three notable television series.  One of his nicknames according to IMDb was "the Jesus of Malibu".  Let's face it, when those of us of a certain age think of family values as presented in Hollywood, most of us likely to picture Michael Landon.

So it probably will come as a shocking surprise that Landon got his big break in Hollywood as an angst ridden teenager in a low budget horror flick called I Was a Teenage Werewolf.   Or maybe it won't be a surprise... after all he was born on Halloween...  (I bet I caught you off guard there...  That's right.  If he were still with us, Michael would be celebrating his 84th birthday today.  OK, I didn't know it either until just now...)  But his start in Hollywood got kicked off in high gear when he was cast as the lead in that movie.

So many people got their start in the most unlikely of places (just check out some of the big names of today who had to start their careers in low budget soft core porn...)  Landon got his playing in what, in retrospect, may seem to be an odd character choice.  Certainly it would if he had played him after we had gotten used to the type of characters he played in later years.

 

 

 

 

So happy birthday to Michael in the hereafter.  This wasn't intended to be a birthday tribute, but it is now.

I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957):

Tony (Michael Landon) is a typical young lad.  Well typical except he seems to get into a lot of fights.  And he has a hair-trigger temper.  Pop a balloon behind him and you'll likely get your block knocked off for the effort.  But besides that he is a good kid at heart.

At least he is until the grownups decide he needs to do something about his temper.  And what do most of them suggest?  Therapy.  Good old Dr. Brandon (Whit Bissell) over at the local aircraft plant supposedly can do miracles with hypnotism (hypnotherapy).

But Tony is wary of hypnosis.  After all, when you are hypnotized, they can make you do things that you really don't want to do.  You know, like jump around like a bunny rabbit, or make a fool of yourself in front of others, or even, ye gods! like, buckle down and become a good student.

But shortly after wailing on  good friend for an innocent prank at a party, Tony decides to go and see the good doctor.  Except the "good" doctor is not so good as he seems.  He gets the idea to use Tony s a guinea pig for his new theory in trying to get man to regress to his more primitive instincts.

Using a secret serum, Dr. Brandon gives Tony some gentle subconscious suggestions that ultimately turns him into a werewolf.  Talk about baser primitive instincts!  And one of the things that really sets him off (aside of his temper) is seeing a girl work out in her gymnastics outfit.   That's a pretty base primitive instinct.

When Tony realizes what is happening to him, he goes back to Dr. Brandon to try to work things out, but Brandon dismisses his fears and puts him through the therapy session again.  By now the whole town is on the lookout for Tony.  Because they recognize the outfit the werewolf wears is the same as the one Tony wears.  (I guess no one else has ever seen anyone but Tony dressed in a letterman's  jacket and jeans...)

The man hunt is on for Tony after he kills a couple of people and the story is bound to not arrive at a happy ending.  But it does leave us with one lesson learned: man shouldn't interfere with the realm of God.  (Not to mention don't trust a psychiatrist who has his own personal laboratory in the back room). 

 

That's it from the back seat.  Drive home safely folks.

 

Quiggy

 

 

The 5th Anniversary of "The Midnite Drive-In"

Dateline:  Oct. 24, 2015.  The Midnite Drive-In, a somewhat part-time blog with no sense of purpose had been idle for 6 years.  Then in 2015 I discovered the inspiration that triggered a now 5 year journey to recreate the blog.  What was the inspiration?  Blogathons!  If you have been a regular reader over those 5 years you will have noticed that many of the entries were inspired by blogathons.  I am much better at writing when shoe-horned into a concept rather than just winging it.

You won't find those earlier entries in the first iteration of The Midnite Drive-In.  I erased them all.  They were pretty bad.  My initial attempt was to mimic my movie review idol, Joe Bob Briggs.  I even copied his style of injecting a fictional bunch of malcontents to hang out with.  But I lost interest, probably because I really didn't think the homage was any good.  It's best to leave those entries in the internet grave.

Joe Bob was better at it anyway.  The writer, whose real name was John Bloom, worked for years as a drive-in movie critic for The Dallas Times Herald, and his work has been collected in two books, Joe Bob Briggs Goes to the Drive-In and Joe Bob Briggs Goes Back to the Drive-In.  If you are interested in what originally inspired me to try this gig, check them out.  I have both, but since they seem to be OOP, you may have to haunt used book stores to find them.  (And, no, you can't borrow mine...:-D)

I retained some of the humor that I had tried to inject in the original entries, but I opted for some more real, personal  background to the experiences I've had watching these movies rather than with some fictional friends.  As a result, I am still interested in doing this blog, and 5 years is a milestone.  (The original Midnite Drive-In only lasted about a year, if I recall...)

So here's the deal.  I had to find movies that meant a lot to me to celebrate this anniversary.  I've been doing a lot of standard fare over the years, but the original intent, highlighting the drive-in experience, has been shoved to the side way too often.  So for this 5th anniversary I selected two movies which, although I didn't actually get to see them on a drive-in screen, exhibit much of the same themes that made the drive-in experience so great in it's heyday.  To wit:  two films about aliens, nuclear disasters and giant monsters.  Both of these movies may never have been paired at a drive-in theater, but man, what I wouldn't give to experience both as a double feature in that atmosphere... preferably with a date by my side.  (Note:  According to wikipedia, the original screenings had The Amazing Colossal Man paired with Cat Girl, and Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman  was released with War of the Satellites.  But that doesn't mean it has never been shown as a double feature in later years.  I would do it if my dream of opening a classic drive-in were to come to fruition.)

The Amazing Colossal Man (1957):

Col. Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan) and a group of soldiers are preparing for an exercise to advance into the nuclear zone after the aftershocks of the detonation of a plutonium bomb.  (In those prehistorical days right after the development of bombs, this was a standard exercise.  For more interesting looks at attitudes towards atomic bombs in those days, I highly recommend a documentary called The Atomic Cafe, which is just a collection of newsreels and educational films from the era.  It gives you some insight into the ignorance (or chutzpah) of the government's attitudes towards nuclear power.)

Anyway, Manning and crew are waiting, but something goes wrong.  The bomb does not detonate on time.  Meanwhile an unidentified and unauthorized airplane enters the forbidden zone and crashes.  Manning, against orders, tries to go to the rescue of the pilot, but while out of his bunker, the bomb does go off, and Manning is hit with full force of the blast of plutonium.  (Quite a bit more plutonium than it would take to send a modified DeLorean into the past, to be sure).

Amazingly, Manning survives the blast.  But the result of it is that he grows, day by day to astounding proportions.  And the result also affects his mind as he becomes rapidly resentful of what nature has inflicted upon him.

As Manning continues to grow, the doctors behind the scenes look for a way to return him to his normal state.  One of them succeeds in developing a serum which, when used on an elephant and a camel, reduce their size so that they fit in a cage on the tabletop of the laboratory.  So it seems that maybe they might just be able to help manning return to his normal size.

 

But time may be running out for the doctors.  As Manning's mind continues to deteriorate he escapes the confines of his place on the base and goes on a rampage, tearing through the desert and winding up in Las Vegas, where he proceeds to destroy Sin City.  (The casinos must've denied him credit.  After all, where would a 100 ft. giant get a viable way to earn money?)

 

 

 Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1958):

A rich heiress, Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes), is married to a rather emotional vacuous man, Harry (William Hudson).  Nancy is portrayed as having alcoholic tendencies and has spent some time in an institution prior to the start of this movie.  But she is out right now and travelling down a desert highway when she runs into a round satellite.

From the sitellite emerges a giant hand (that's all we see at this point) and she runs screaming back in to town to tell the news.  Of course, no one believes her, since of course everyone knows she is an alcoholic and a former mental patient.  Harry, more concerned with making time with a local chippie Honey (Yvette Vickers) is oblivious to her rantings.  The sheriff and his deputies are equally unsympathetic.

Nancy is in a love/hate relationship with Harry.  Although she despises his philandering ways she still wants him to love her.  And manages to convince him to go looking for the satellite.  But when they finally find it and a giant alien  (Michael Ross, who also was cast as Tony the bartender) emerges from it, Harry empties his gun at it and runs off, abandoning Nancy to the alien.

The authorities, as well as Nancy's butler, Jess (Ken Terrell) suspect foul play.  It doesn't help that everyone in town knows that Harry has been fooling around.  But the sheriff and his deputy run across the satellite and it's inhabitant, also discovering that the alien has commandeered Nancy's diamond necklace.  (It is suggested that the alien needs the diamond to somehow power his ship, but it isn't explained how that's possible).

As a result of contact with the alien, Nancy grows to tremendous size (eventually.  It takes almost the entire movie for this to happen).  She breaks free from her restraints and goes on her own rampage like Col. Manning from the previous entry.  But she has a goal in mind.  She's seeking out her philandering husband.

The quality of the graphics in both movies is pretty shoddy.  Because the trick of making the people look like they are of monstrous size, apparently the trick was to superimpose the image of a normal sized person against a backdrop of a significantly reduced town.  This has the effect of making the giants look somewhat transparent.  (You can sometimes see trough the giant to the background behind them.)  I understand this was in the primitive days of special effects, but it still looks a bit ridiculous sometimes.  But the story is interesting enough to hold interest.

Drive safely foks.  And keep an eye out for 50 ft people.  They may be more dangerous than they look.

Quiggy

Hypnotic Pipes

This is my entry in the Van Johnson Blogathon hosted by Love letters to Old Hollywood

Van Johnson could act.  (I particularly liked his acting in such war movie classics like Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Battleground, Go For Broke! and The Caine Mutiny, but he had a distinguished career as a leading ladies man, too.)

Van Johnson could sing.   (As The Minstrel, one of the nemeses of the 60's Batman, he doesn't get too much singing time, but Brigadoon features some singing, as well as a few others that I haven't seen.)

Van Johnson could dance.  (Hell, he started out his career in the chorus line, and anybody whou could keep up with Gene Kelly deserves some praise.)

Van Johnson (probably) couldn't play the flute, however.  Wikipedia says the flute playing he did in The Pied Piper of Hamelin was dubbed.  But that shouldn't be counted against him.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin was a made-for-TV film from 1957 which starred Van Johnson in a dual role; as Truson, a native of Hamelin, and as the Pied Piper himself (although "pied" is kind of a misnomer.  You see, "pied" means multi-colored, but the Van Johnson piper is only wearing red and yellow.  Not exacly "Multi" colored.)

The story follows the plot of the original fairy tale with some added plot devices to help flesh out the stoty, and is rather well done from a 50's standpoint.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957):

In Hamelin, the whole town is striving to get a special tower and clock completed in time for the arrival of the King's emissary.  The are in competition with every town in the country to win the banner for best improvement (or at least something of that nature)

To this extent the Mayor (Claude Rains) and his council outlaw school, play and general fun for the kids in an effort to get them to help build the clock tower in time for the eminent arrival of the King's emissary.  The thorn in the Mayor's side is a rival town, Hamelout (HamelIN, HamelOUT, *groan* the writers don't get any points from me for originality and creativity...).

Truson (Van Johnson), the town's schoolteacher objects to the Mayor's hard hearted handling of the production, but his pleas fall on deaf ears.  The Mayor is determined to beat his rival of Hamelout in having the best display for the banner.

The Mayor's daughter, Mara (Lori Nelson) agrees with Truson.  She and Truson are also in love, but the Mayor has other designs for his daughter (namely to get her wed to the King's emissary, which since he hasn't shown yet, and thus unseen, is only a ploy by the Mayor to get more prestige for himself and his town.

Fate lends a hand when Hamelout is devastated by flooding.  But Hamelout's woes also become Hamelin's woes as all the rats that previously had their homestead in Hamelout migrate to hamelin and make a grubstake their instead.  The people are outraged and demand that the Mayor do something about the influx of rats.

To the rescue comes the mysterious figure of the Pied Piper.  He tells the council that he can get rid of the rats with his magical flute, but he demands basically every red cent in the city's coffers for the job.  Eventually the Mayor reluctantly agrees, fully expecting the job to not be a success and therefore he won't have to pay.  but the Piper is true to his word and leads all the rats to drown in the river.

Of course, if you are familiar with the fairy tale (and who isn't, I wonder), the Mayor reneges on his deal.  Truson, of course, insists that the mayor pay up, but he is jailed as a traitor for his efforts.  And the pier goes off, swearing revenge.  Which happens that very night as he leads off the children of Hamelin with his flute into a cavern in the nearby mountain.  A cavern that seals off behind them and no amount of artillery can seem to break through.

Of course, since this is 50's TV and not Grimm's fairy tales (which actually ends with the children NEVER returning), all things come to an end and everybody lives happily ever after.

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

The Wild Blue

This is my entry in the Janet Leigh Blogathon hosted by Love Letters to Old Hollywood

How many major motion pictures can you name where a branch of the Armed Services gets top billing?  By that, I mean one that is not a documentary?

Jet Pilot does just that.  Check out the movie poster below.  The opening credits of the movie bear it out, too.  After the Universal logo we get scenes of jets spinning in the air with the words "Starring John Wayne... Janet Leigh... and the United States Air Force".

And to be honest, that's the best part of the movie, the Air Force.  Although Jet Pilot is not near as bad as The Conqueror, coupled with the latter it ought to have proved to Wayne and everyone else that Howard Hughes was not the ideal boss to work for.  But then I guess Wayne could be forgiven on some level because part of the reasons for making the two films was that he was sucking up for funds to finance the film of his dreams, The Alamo.

With up around 200 appearances in film and television over the span of his 50 year career in Hollywood, there are bound to be a few duds of course.  (Personally, although I am a huge fan, most of the westerns he made in his early days before [and just after] Stagecoach are pretty much interchangeable.)  But Wayne's experience with Howard Hughes seems to be the low point of his oeuvre.


The story is what hampers the movie more than anything else.  For one thing, the movie was actually filmed in 1950, when jet planes were hot stuff, but by the time Hughes had quit screwing around with the film in 1957, jets were becoming passe.  That and the plot line becomes rather lame.  Even Wayne himself admitted that it was a silly movie.  Which just goes to show what happens when you want to make a political statement but don't bother to get the right people behind you.  Howard Hughes was a brilliant businessman, to be sure.  He just should have stayed in the office and let the people who knew what they were doing run the film industry side of it.

Janet Leigh and John Wayne do have a little chemistry which makes it a better than the pairing of Wayne with Hayward in the aforementioned  The Conqueror.  Can't say I actually believe Leigh as a pilot, or for that matter as a Russian (the producers didn't even bother to have any of the actors and actresses playing Russians use a fake accent... James Bond it's not, but still if you aren't paying attention you may not know which country the characters are supposed to be in).  I did have a hard time accepting Wayne falling in love with a communist soldier (not Wayne's character, Wayne himself.  If it had been any less virulent Red-baiter of an actor I might have fell for it more.)

Watch this movie for the very good scenes of aerial photography and as a window into the early age of jet engine technology.  As I stated in my review of The Conqueror, you could probably just as easily turn off the sound and make up your own dialogue.

BTW, Chuck Yeager supposedly is one of the Air Force pilots you see flying those jets.

Jet Pilot (1957):

In the Alaskan frontier, an Air Force base detects the invasion into American air space of a Soviet jet plane.  After forcing it to land, they discover that the pilot is a woman, Anna Marladovna (Janet Leigh).  Col. Jim Shannon (John Wayne) is assigned to scope her out and figure out just what she is up to.

Eventually over the course of  a few days (or weeks or months; it all depends on how believable you think it is for a man to fall in love with a woman he just barely met...), Shannon does fall for Anna.  Although he acts like a typical shy gallant hero (no hanky panky before marriage, no sir!  At one point when her orders he to take off some of her outer gear, he is flabbergasted when she is on the verge of stripping naked in front of him...).

The brass has the ultimate say in what is going to happen to Anna.  Ultimately, it turns out, Anna is a spy.  She has been sent over by the Soviets to see what she can divulge from the Americans, without giving away any secrets the Soviets might have to which she'd be privileged.  When her subterfuge is uncovered, Shannon determines that the only way to save her from being deported is to marry her.  (Yeah, right...)

But the brass still wants its pound of flesh and determines that they will jail her instead, since they can get away with that.  She is an American citizen now.  But Shannon still has an ace up his sleeve.  On the pretext of taking Anna to authorities south and east of Alaska he instead heads north and west.  Into Siberia.  Yes, that's right, the notorious Communist-hating Wayne defected.  All because of the love of a woman.  (OK, maybe I can see that...)

Of course, now that he's in Russian territory its "the shoe is on the other foot" and Russian authorities are trying to get Shannon to reveal secrets of the Americans.  Well, he may be thinking with his genitalia, but that doesn't mean he's stupid.  There is no point in trying to avoid the spoiler alert, but then if you know John Wayne the actor and his politics you ALREADY know how the movie HAS to end anyway.  Or at least you know the spoiler alert... Shannon doesn't stay in Russia.  But I will leave you with something to watch to see how he manages to get away from the crack superior Russian Air Force.


Time to head home.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

Bridges of Destiny

This is my entry in the William Holden Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema, Love Letters to Old Hollywood and the Flapper Dame

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957):

Com. Shears (William Holden) has been a prisoner of the Japanese Army for quite some time.  As a result he has some small ability to manipulate the lesser officers of the internment camp.  After a burial detail  (there is a very high death rate in the camp, although not always due to the rigors of disease), Shears manages to get he and his companion put on the sick list.  It is from here that he witness the arrival of a cadre of British prisoners.

Led by Lt. Col. Nicholson (Alec Guinness), the cadre of Brits arrive marching smartly in step while whistling "Colonel Bogey's March".  (Once you hear this, I feel certain it will stick with you forever...  I heard it once about 40 years ago, long before I ever saw the movie and still remembered it when I finally watched the movie.)

Col. Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), the commander of the internment camp, informs the prisoners that they will be required to build a railroad  bridge to cross the River Kwai.  He insists that there will be no idleness, that even the officers will be required to work.  Nicholson informs Saito that the rules of the Geneva Convention specifically state that officers cannot be forced to do manual labor.  Thus begins a battle of wills.

Nicholson and his officers are punished and his men react with appropriate British tact and finesse by screwing up the building of the bridge  at every opportunity.  Eventually Saito has to break down and give in, because he is on a schedule from his higher-ups for a certain completion date, but he does it with typical Japanese "saving-face" style, by claiming he is doing it as a part of a celebration of an historical Japanese victory in a previous war.

Meanwhile, Shears and two others attempt to escape.  The two others are killed and Shears is assumed to have drowned.  He doesn't.  He gets away and eventually lands in Ceylon, where he is living a life of luxury.  Until the local British command virtually draft him into helping a squad of men go back into the jungle with the goal of blowing up the bridge Nicholson and his men are building.  Shears, as you might expect, is not too happy about it, and tries to get out of it, going so far as to reveal that he is not Com. Shears, but someone else, who had assumed the role of his dead commander to get better treatment by the Japanese.  But it turns out he wasn't fooling anyone.  The Americans had turned him over to the British to avoid any complications by having him court-martialed.

The film then swaps back and forth between Shears and his squad's attempts to reach and complete their objective and Nicholson and his men trying to do a good job on the bridge.  Nicholson becomes adamant that, despite the intent of the Japanese for use of the bridge, that he and his men will complete the bridge in good order and that it will be something that the British men working on it can be proud of.

What transpires towards the end is surprising,  Guinness won an Oscar for his role.  In fact The Bridge on the River Kwai won every award for which it was nominated except for Best Supporting Actor.  (Sessue Hayakawa lost to Red Buttons for his role in Sayonara)

Flash forward 10 years or so.  In yet another war, this time in Korea.

The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1951):

Fighting the Koreans in the conflict as a jet fighter, Lt. Harry Brubaker (William Holden) runs out of fuel and is forced to ditch his plane in the sea.  He is rescued by a helicopter crew consisting of Mike Forney (Mickey Rooney) and Nestor Gamidge (Earl Holliman).

Forney is a bit of a problem with his superiors.  For one thing, when flying, he wears a non-regulation green top hat and scarf.  And for another he is a (stereo)typical Irishnan and gets in a lot of fights.  But he is a damn good pilot, and Brubaker develops a relationship with him as a result.

Brubaker's wife, Nancy (Grace Kelly) shows up in Japan and Brubaker is given a leave to visit with her and his two daughters.  He reluctantly tells her about the upcoming dangerous mission that he and his fellow pilots will be attempting, that of taking out the crucial bridges located at Toko-Ri.  While in Japan, he also has to bail out his new found friend, Forney, because the latter got in a fight over a Japanese woman whom he, Forney, has decided he is going to marry.  But said woman has left him for another sailor on another ship.

Back on his ship, Brubaker starts to get cold feet about the mission.  His commander, CDR Wayne Lee (Charles McGraw) tells him he won't look down on him if Brubaker decides to pull himself out of the fight, but that he will be very upset if Brubaker endangers the mission by following through with basd nerves and ends up scrubbing the mission.  Eventually Brubaker does get a renewed perspective and decides to stay with the mission.

After a successful mission, Brubaker's plane is hit by enemy fire and he attempts to return to the ship before his fuel runs out.  But he ends up having to crash land in enemy territory.  A rescue helicopter with Forney and Gamidge is sent out to retrieve him.   But will they rescue him before he is captured by enemy soldiers?

Although this movie has less dramatic acting than the previous film, it still has something going for it.  It blends a documentary feel for the action in the Korean conflict.  The air attack on the bridges  are fantastic.  And despite the relative low dramatic acting, Holden does hold his own.

Well, folks time to fire up the jets and head home.  Drive safely.

Quiggy

Too Much Knowledge

This is my entry in the Doris Day Blogathon hosted by Love Letters to Old Hollywood.

My earliest memories of Doris Day were when she had a TV show back in the 60's.  I don't really remember anything from those days except that she sang the song "Que Sera, Sera" in the opening credits. But I can still recall the song, which is significant since I probably haven't even heard it done since those days.  (Not including the watching of the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much recently, which I found out is where the song originally appeared onscreen...)

An interesting side note about the song.  Hitchcock was not particularly agreeable to having a song in his film, but the production company, Paramount, insisted that there had to be one.  (Probably due to the fact that Doris Day had been cast for the film.)  Hitchcock approached the writing team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans stating that he needed a song, but he didn't know hat he wanted.  After hearing what the duo came up with he told them that that was exactly what he wanted.  So what may or may not be Doris Day's signature song was the result of a happy turn of events necessitated by a production company's insistence on having a song.

Hitchcock had wanted Doris Day for the role all along, but associate producer Herbert Coleman states in an interview on the commentary of my DVD that he had some misgivings.  He didn't think Day could pull off the dramatic scenes in the movie, especially the pivotal emotional breakdown after finding out about the fate of her son.  But Hitch, as always, got his way, and in retrospect Coleman admitted he was wrong and that she was perfect for the role.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956):

Where is Hitch?: In almost every Hitchcock movie Alred Hitchcock managed to insert himself in the movie. He's the guy on the bottom left here.

Married couple Ben and Jo McKenna  (James Stewart, Doris Day) are on vacation in north Africa with their son, Hank (Christopher Olsen).

  They encounter a Frenchman, Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin) who is very inquisitive about them, arousing Jo's suspicions.

Upon arrival in Marrakesh, Bernard offers to take them to dinner, but cancels out after a mysterious man (Reggie Nalder) appears at their door. 

Instead the go to dinner alone, where they meet Edward and Lucy Drayton (Bernard Miles, Brenda de Banzie).  The four end up eating together and arranging to go sightseeing the next day.

While in the marketplace, a man in Arabian attire is murdered.  It turns out to be Bernard in disguise.  He whispers to Ben, just before he dies, that a foreign dignitary is going to be murdered in London and tells Ben to find "Ambrose Chapell".  When Ben and Jo are questioned by the authorities about the murder they discover that Bernard was an agent of the French secret service (a spy).

But before Ben can tell the authorities what happened he receives a mysterious call telling him that Hank has been kidnapped and will be killed if he, Ben, reveals what he knows.  Thus, Ben's driving force is to find out where his son is and save him.  To such measures he is even willing to let the events play out with the assassination if only he can retrieve his son safely.

Thus begins the frantic search which leads the two to London.  A fruitless attempt to track down Ambrose Chapell reveals that Ben and Jo are on the wrong track. 

And that people are not all whom they claim to be.  Of course, the fact that the Draytons obviously are involved because they were the last ones to be with Hank is not entirely surprising, but there is much more involved in the political intrigue.

Even after the assassination attempt is foiled, the two still have to track down and rescue Hank.  Which leads them to the embassy of the foreign dignitary.

The Man who Knew too Much was a remake of a 1934 film Hitchcock had mad with Peter Lorre, but much of the plot was changed so seeing both films together makes for an entertaining evening.  Hitchcock himself describes the first film as having been made by talented amateur and the second as having been made by a professional.

One should note a few recognizable faces in the film.  Reggie Nalder may look familiar.  He was the vampire in the 1979 TV version of Salem's Lot as well as Zoltan, The Hound of Dracula's master.  And Carolyn Jones, best known as Morticia Addams in the TV show The Addams Family is also recognizable, despite the fact that she is decked out in very short cropped red hair.  And look for Walter Gotell, a familiar Russian agent from James Bond movies in a brief role as a Scotland Yard policeman.

Time to fire up the Plymouth.  Drive safely, folks.
Quiggy