Semiquincentennial Movie Project #41: The White Buffalo

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

Week #41: South Dakota -

 

 

 

The state of South Dakota was established on November 2, 1889

Details about South Dakota:

State bird: ring-necked pheasant

State flower: American pasqueflower

State tree: Black Hills spruce

Additional historical trivia:

As previously stated in last week's entry, both North and South Dakota were admitted on the same day. President Benjamin Harrison didn't want people to know which one was admitted first, but for convenience sake South Dakota is listed as being the second one, because it comes second alphabetically. 

The South Dakota state flag originally had "The Sunshine State" (below) on it, but when Florida hijacked the nickname in the 60's, the state made a new flag, with "The Mount Rushmore State" (above) embroidered on it.

 

The badlands area of the state is often referred to as the "playground of the dinosaurs", due to the large number of dinosaur fossils found there.

Rapid City features a statue of each of the U.S. Presidents in various locations on it's city streets. (I don't know how many of them have actually visited Rapid City...)

 

The state has 4X more cows than people... (not sure if there are just more Hindus, or what...)

Famous people born in South Dakota: Tom Brokaw, Al Neuharth (founder of USA Today), Shawn Colvin, Mamie Van Doren, Cheryl Ladd, Norm van Brocklin, Adam Vinatieri, U.S. Presidential candidate George McGovern and U.S. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey 

 

 

The White Buffalo (1977):

This film is rather an enigma in itself.

It was promoted as a "creature feature", I think, if you watch the trailer:

 

 

And yet.... And yet, the creature, somewhat like the terror that was later known as Jaws rarely is seen on screen. The film itself is more of a character study of the legendary Wild Bill Hickok (Charles Bronson) and the equally legendary Native American war chief Crazy Horse,(Will Samson),{who, by my research, never actually met in real life}. The creature itself really only appears briefly in full view of the camera. (And it doesn't look all that scary when it does.)

 

Not that it's all that disappointing as a film for the lack of an enhanced showing of the "monster" in question. Nor is it lacking in many of the tropes of a standard western, if one were to take it only on those terms. You do get your standard shoot-em-ups and bar fights one would come to expect in a western. The fights, to be honest, seem to be wedged in as an afterthought, but they make for some entertainment in their own right.

 

The basic problem, which may have been part of the problem for this movie to be as familiar as the aforementioned Jaws, is that the character study part lacks from a focus.

Hickok, who has come west ostensibly to take part in the Gold Rush that was then occurring in the Black Hills region, is NOT really there to become a prospector. What he is really there for is to hunt down an elusive nightmare he has been having, that of the titular white buffalo. The white buffalo haunts his dreams, causing him to wake up firing his guns into the nearest wall (or bed, where fortunately, no one is sleeping).

 

The white buffalo haunting the dreams of the protagonist in this film is often associated with the obsession that Ahab has for Moby Dick, the white whale of the famous novel of that name. At various times Hickok says the beast was "eatin' out my soul". Hickok claims that he isn't afraid of anything, except fear, and this monster of his dreams was causing that fear to overtake him.

 

Some of his acquaintances speculate that it may be just his imagination. It is hinted at several times that he battled syphyllis and that the disease may have rattled his brain. It's a sure bet that no one believes there is actually a white buffalo out there in the wilderness.

That is no one except the Lakota tribe that had a first hand witness to the destruction of their encampment by the creature. The buffalo rampaged through the village, taking out several tribesmen, including the daughter of the war chief Crazy Horse. His father tells him that it is unmanly to be such a crybaby about it and tells him that his daughter won't rest in peace in the afterlife unless he mans up and kills the white beast, taking the hide to enclose around his dead daughter. To that effect his father takes away his honored name and says that until he completes this quest he will henceforth go through life with the name "Worm".

Both Hickok and Crazy Horse, then, have the same goal, although it takes a bit of time before they end up pairing up. This is primarily due to the fact that Hickok has a bad name amongst the Indians as an Indian killer. So even when they do finally meet up there is some distrust between the two.

 

But, as will usually happen in movies like these, both eventually gravitate towards a communal truce to hunt down the buffalo. And, in the end, both manage to get some kind of closure to the demons that haunt them.

 

 

Accompanying Hickok is an old friend, Charlie Zane (Jack Warden), who, if anything, is even more rabidly racist against Native Americans than Hickok. Witness his willingness, at various points, to make the world exist with one less "redskin".  

 

Be that as it may, I think that Zane is probably the most pronounced character in the movie. Sometimes it's hard to garner any sympathy for Hickok. He has some integrity at various points, like when he throws a character off the stagecoach he is riding because that guy is just a little too rude to the female riding with them. But his demeanor towards her is quick to change when he realizes she is just as offensive as his male companion.

The fleshing out of the character study seems to be a little slapdash as well. One reviewer I read blames the director, J. Lee Thompson. Personally I didn't agree totally with the reviewer's criticism, mainly because I am a big fan of some of his other films, including Ice Cold in Alex, Cape Fear, two of the original Planet of the Apes films (Conquest of and Battle for  one for which he was nominated for an Oscar, The Guns of Navarone. Admittedly, The White Buffalo pales by comparison to those movies, but I think he did the best he could with the material he had at hand.

The White Buffalo did not fare well with either the public or the critics. It holds only a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One reviewer, for The Washington Post, is quoted as saying it was "destined for almost instant obscurity in domestic release, a consummation that can't come a minute too soon for director J. Lee Thompson, star Charles Bronson and everyone else in an exposed position on this fiasco."  It was budgeted at $6 million, and I would hazard a guess that most of that went to the cast (besides Bronson and Samson, names like John Carradine, Slim Pickens, Kim Novak, Clint Walker and Stuart Whitman make brief appearances. Ed Lauter, an actor whose face will be familiar, if not his name, also appears briefly playing his typical nasty guy who someone deemed to give a position of authority. as Capt. Tom Custer.)

It's a sure bet the money wasn't spent to make the buffalo all that believable. The brief scenes we get of it look pretty ridiculous to me. It's a sure bet that anyone who saw it wasn't anywhere near as fightened by it as they were by the shark in Jaws. Possibly no one actually DID see it. I couldn't find any information on how it fared at the ticket counter. 

Be that as it may, it's not entirely the washout that it's reputation would lead you to believe. It's entertaining on several levels, especially if you are a big fan of Charles Bronson. And as a western, it fits the bill pretty well. Just don't be fooled by that "creature feature" come on that the trailer above implies. It's just not that scary...

That wraps up this session with the project. Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

  

 

Celebrate the Drive-In Week: Smokey and the Bandit

Celebrate the Drive-In is a tribute to a beloved venue of the past. During it's heyday, a trip to the drive-in was one of my favorite things, both on the rare occasions as a child, and in my early adulthood. This blog is going to celebrate Drive-In Day (Jun 6) with a series of movies that I was too young to see (or in a couple of cases, not even born yet) that I wish I could've experienced in a drive-in. Keep coming back for the entire week as there will be one per day for the duration.

 

Sometimes a movie comes along that just tail grabs you and hangs on for dear life. May I present the next Coming Attraction! Smokey and the Bandit!

 

The trucker and the CB craze of the late 70's gave us quite a number of movies that centered on outlaw truckers using the CB to circumvent that annoying law of 55MPH. I've already covered two of these in a recent post (Convoy and The Great Smokey Roadblock), but there are plenty of others just dying to be included at some point in the future. I won't rehash the CB craze story here. If you are of a mind to check the archives, those two movies I reviewed earlier this year will give you some tantalizing tidbits.  Just to note, there are several I will try to get around to in the coming months, including White Line Fever, Breaker! Breaker!, and C. B. Hustlers.

Burt Reynolds was one of my favorite actors in his younger days. One of my fondest drive-in movie experiences was going to see Cannonball Run and Cannonball Run II with a couple of buddies. I also saw Stroker Ace and City Heat there too (although not a a double feature). 

Those are the only ones that I got to see at a drive-in, but there are plenty others that are worth checking out. Deliverance, although not a comedy (which I prefer of Reynolds' output) is a highly entertaining movie. And I have always said, and always will say, that the Reynolds' version of The Longest Yard is head and shoulders (and torso, and legs) better than the Adam Sandler remake. (not to disparage Sandler: there are plenty of his movies that are good... just not that one).

The whole concept of the first Smokey and the Bandit just hinges on road mayhem as Reynolds tries to get from Atlanta to Texarkana and back in 28 hours. Probably not near as a rough bet as it was in 1978, when the speed limit was still 55MPH. You'd still have to cut corners and go over the speed limit to make it now, I bet, but with that 70 or sometimes even 80 MPH speed limit, it would be a lot more manageable. But then again, see below for a small nitpick on the whole "road trip" part of the film...

 

Smokey and the Bandit (1978):

Bo Darville (Burt Reynolds), who is more well known by his C.B. handle, "Bandit", is a legend, and not just in his own mind, although that helps. 

 

As such a "legend", local bigwigs "Big Enos" Burdette (Pat McCormick) and his son "Little Enos" Burdette (Paul Williams) seek him out to face a challenge. As established in the prologue, these two have tried this same challenge on every trucker down the line, as one of them is told when he is arrested. The Burdettes make this challenge with Bandit, counting on his overinflated ego to push him into it.

 

What's the challenge? Why, to go to Texas and pick up a truckload of beer and bring it back to Atlanta. In only 28 hours. (Which the movie leads you to believe is 900 miles there and 900 miles back, but a check of Google maps says it's less than 700. depending on starting point and ending point, of course, but nowhere near that "900 miles"... So unless they were taking the scenic route, they could have made that trip without breaking the speed limit. but then we wouldn't have a movie.)

So why are they traveling to Texas to get beer in the first place? Because, at the time, Coors beer, the beer they are trying to get, was not distributed east of Texas. So, what with the law being what it is, they would be guilty of bootlegging. The movie tends to play fast and loose with the geography and the technicalities. Here, the basic reason, again at that time, that you couldn't go long distances with Coors beer was because, with the process by which it was made, it required refrigeration, unlike most beers which can sit on the dock for days or even weeks,  and still be fine. And apparently adequate refrigeration was not a constant in those days. So technically, it wasn't illegal, just logistically impossible.

 

Anyway, Bandit ropes in his buddy, Cledus (Jerry Reed), who also goes by his C.B. handle, "Snowman" to drive the rig, while Bandit himself will drive a Trans Am to block and be a lookout for the journey. They make it to Texarkana with time to spare, but due to the warehouse being closed, they essentially have to steal the beer. So far, so good on the bet, even if they've had to play fast and loose with the law.

 

On the way out of Texas, Bandit picks up a hitchhiker, Carrie (Sally Field). It seems that Carrie is a runaway bride, who ducked out on the wedding. 

 

Unfortunately, the father of the groom did not take kindly to this... The father, Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), also happens to be the county sheriff and begins a hot pursuit of Bandit. Not because of the illegal cargo, however. His goal is to get Carrie back, and arrest Bandit for violating the Mann Act. And possibly force Carrie to go through the wedding...? Shotgun wedding, anyone...?

 

(Since some may not know what the Mann Act is, it is a law created to try to cut down on prostitution across state lines, but was broadly used to arrest other, less despicable violators, such as a couple who were consensual companions. Even eloping couples could be arrested at one time.)

The main gist of the movie is the pursuit of Bandit, not only by Justice, but also various law officers across the southeastern states they are traveling. Some of those are just trying to apprehend him because he has been doing 90-110 MPH in a speed zone established at 55 MPH. Some others may have their own agenda. But Justice keeps up his own pursuit, even though he is constantly told by the local gendarmes that he is WAY out of his jurisdiction.

 

Along the way Bandit causes several cars to become unable to continue pursuit, but at only 10 cars and 1 motorcycle cop, it hardly compares to the mayhem The Blues Brothers  caused a few years later. And the damage that is caused to Justice's own police car would make it break down on the side of the road if it were any other car... I think it may have been a distant cousin to the Bluesmobile that the aforementioned Blues Brothers drove. And that one was also a cop car, originally, that had been recommissioned for it's final purpose, so maybe Timex had a hand in it's make. (Old commercials for Timex watches always claimed the watch "could take a licking and keep on ticking"...)

 

Don't miss the final scenes of the movie. At one point, late in the movie, Bandit takes advantage of a convoy to hide from one of the pursuing cops. In that convoy are several familiar faces. One is Hank Worden, a frequent character actor in John Wayne films. And another guy, who looks a lot like Mickey Dolenz, but is actually a former defensive tackle for the New York Jets, Joe Klecko. You are bound to see a few more faces in the film, including Alfie Wise, who was a frequent actor in Reynolds movies.

Joe Klecko (not Mickey Dolenz)

 

Hank Worden

 

Alfie Wise

 

With a budget of only $4 million, Smokey and the Bandit cleared $126 million, making it only second to Star Wars in money draw for 1977. It currently has a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Reviews were mostly kind to it, although Gene Siskel, one part of the two-headed monster of Siskel and Ebert, only gave the film 2 out of four stars, citing complaints about Carrie never revealing her jilted groom was Justice's son. (Although her facial expressions state otherwise, she claims to Bandit that she doesn't know why the sheriff is chasing them across state lines, either.)

Nitpicking aside, both on Siskel's part and mine. Smokey and the Bandit is a fun hour and a half ride. Both Reynolds and Gleason had a part in making this movie ring well with viewers. I gather that Gleason did a lot of improvisation throughout the movie, which just shows what a great showman he was.  

The movie also had an effect on the market for the Pontiac Trans Am. Apparently sales of the Trans Am model doubled within two years of the release of the movie, and even outsold the Chevy Camaro for the first time. Reynolds got the promotional Trans Am (one that was only used to promote the film, but never was used during the actual filming). When Reynolds got into financial difficulties in 2014, one of the things he sold to raise money was that Trans Am. Although estimated to probably go for about $80,000, it eventually sold for $450,000, proving once again the impact the movie had on it's fan base.

Well folks, this old Plymouth would be left in the dust if it had to make that trip, but at least I can count on it to get me home. Come back tomorrow for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad!

 

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

 

 

 

Semiquincentennial Movie Project #10: Greased Lightning

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #10:  Virginia

 

The state of Virginia was established on June 25, 1788. 

Details about Virginia:

State bird: cardinal

State flower: American dogwood

State tree: dogwood

Additional historical trivia:

Jamestown was the first English colony in the United States. 

Both the American Revolution and the Civil War were ended in Virginia. Yorktown was the site of the British surrender in the former conflict, and Appomattox Courthouse was the site where the surrender was made official for the latter. 

Speaking of the Civil War, almost half of the battles fought during that conflict occurred in Virginia.  

Also, speaking of the Civil War, not all of the state of Virginia was behind the secessionist movement. A total of 50 counties separated from Virginia to create their own state, West Virginia. 

The state of Kentucky was once a part of Virginia until it received it's own status as a state in 1792.

Mountain Dew, the popular soda pop, originated in Virginia.

Famous people who hail from Virginia: 

Eight Presidents; George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson were from Virginia. 

Virginia was also the birthplace of such famous people as Booker T. Washington, George C. Scott, Michael Vick, Ella Fitzgerald, and (just because he is a Texas hero) Sam Houston.  

 

Greased Lightning (1977): 

Greased  Lightning is, ostensibly, the story of the first African American NASCAR driver and his trials and tribulations in what was, at the time, an all-white sport. Circa 1945 and beyond, Wendell Scott (Richard Pryor) had to deal with racism from people who still resisted these "uppity n*****s" who were trying to rise above their perceived station (from a racist white point of view).

 

But the racism theme is fairly subdued for the first half of the movie. To be sure, the epithet "n*****" is frequently used, but despite the negative connotation given the word today, much of the time it is not used with animosity towards the main characters. In fact, in an early scene, which involves a young Scott in a bicycle race with a bunch of white kids, it almost comes off as a praise: ("Man, you are one crazy n*****")

 

Given the background of Pryor and the director Michael Schultz (director of such classics as Cooley High, Car Wash, Krush Groove and The Last Dragon), this one is pretty tame by comparison when addressing the racial discrimination issue. It is a primary theme of course, but it's pretty toned down by comparison. 

 

The film opens with the aforementioned bicycle race, which introduces us to just how much of a risk taker Scott is and his determination to win at all costs. From there we segue into a scene in which Scott is returning home from armed forces service during World War II. His bus pulls into the station where there are only a couple of people waiting to welcome him. He expresses disappointment that his friends didn't meet him, but that only lasts until he arrives at home where a surprise party is waiting for him. And he meets the woman, Mary (Pam Grier), who would eventually become his devoted wife.

 

Immediately there is some inner family conflict. it is expected that Wendell is going to work at the factory like everybody else in the family, but he wants to open his own garage. In the meantime he is going to run a taxi. And try to save money for that goal.  But it's slow going. He eventually runs into an old school buddy, Slack (Frederick Dennis Greene), who is helping out a moonshine operation, running the product and outracing the cops and revenuers who want to stop the operation. But the money he gets outweighs any worries about the cops and revenuers...

 

But the fact of the matter is that Wendell has even greater dreams. See, "speed" (as in car speed, not the illegal drug) has always been like a drug...) has always been like a euphoria for Wendell, and he has even bigger dreams: to be a race car driver. Highly unlikely in the 40's, when the race car scene was dominated by a whites only country club style atmosphere. But sometimes fate fan stick it's finger in the pie...

Eventually Wendell gets arrested by the local sheriff, Sheriff Cotton (Vincent Gardenia), after a long series of attempts to get him under lock and key. 

 

Cotton is all for keeping him in prison until the cows come home, but a local bigwig, Billy Joe Byrnes (Noble Willingham) has other ideas. He wants to get this hot shot black driver on the local stock ca race track, not just because he is a damn good driver, but also because it will tweak the rest of the crowd of racists who think that stock car racing is the last bastion of white supremacy.

 

So Billy Joe convinces Cotton to drop the charges and release Wendell, with the proviso that Wendell will enter the race. Of course, Wendell is MORE than willing to help out.

The second half of the film centers on both Wendell's struggles to be accepted as a member of the fraternity club that is opposed to him only because of his heritage of birth, but also a fairly good rivalry between himself and the other hotshot driver on the stock car circuit, Beau Welles (played by Earl Hindman, who, even though he doesn't actually look familiar has a voice that will trigger your memory, since he played the neighbor, Wilson, in the TV series Home Improvement).

 

The film plays a little loose with the actual history of Wendell Scott as a race car driver. For one thing, the major first win on the circuit seems to be coming a lot sooner, time wise, than the actual win did. And whether or not the active racist attitudes towards a black man in the whites only club atmosphere of the stock car racing scene was quite so laid back is questionable. To be sure, there WERE many attempts to knock Wendell out of the race that were probably close to true life, but it seems to me that the racism in the picture is rather toned down, at least from the way I would have THOUGHT it turned out. Which seems a bit odd, given that Pryor was involved in the film.

This film doesn't have a rating on Tomato meter (I guess not enough people reviewed it back in the day), but IMDb has it at a 6.4 (out of 10). I couldn't find any information on the financial side to determine how it fared at the box office, but I imagine it did fairly well among people of color, as well as many Pryor fans. My opinion is that the film is entertaining in it's own right. I can't nitpick on the historical aspect of it too much, since my only background of history of Wendell Scott only comes from research during this movie project. Have to admit I never watched car racing in my younger days (any more than I do now). 

Until next time, folks, drive safely.

Quiggy

 

Green Holidaze

 

Yes, folks it's yet another Christmas entry (And you say: "Bah! Humbug! It's not even Halloween yet!").

 

OK, I'll concede to the Scrooge-y outcry. You want Halloween, you say? Bet you weren't expecting this...

 

In 1977 the television animation studios at ABC presented the world with what amounts to a prequel to the classic 1966 Christmas tradition of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Titled Halloween is Grinch Night, it was presented to the public on October 28 of that year, and quickly became a Halloween holiday tradition, much in the same way that it's predecessor did as a Christmas tradition.

 

What's that, you say? This never became a Halloween tradition? Hmm... What a shame! Maybe the ill sweet sour winds were blowing in the wrong direction. 

 

OK, I'll be honest. Although I was alive, and in my late teens, when this cartoon hit the airwaves, I don't recall having ever seen it. In fact, until I ran across a DVD collection called Dr. Suess's Holidays on the Loose, I wasn't even aware that it even existed. (Just a note: You never know what you'll find in those garage sales and resale barns. I paid $2 for this, but I would have never even thought to look for it...)

 

 

 

 

The DVD also includes another Grinch cartoon that I never heard of, this one brought out in 1982. It's called The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat. But in the case of that one, I have an excuse for not even noticing it. It first aired in May of 1982. At that time I was in college and wouldn't have been caught dead watching a kiddie cartoon show.  Besides, at that time I had a job throwing a newspaper route, and was probably asleep so I could be prepared for my job at midnight.

 

Of course, nowadays I wouldn't be so dismissive of children's fare. Possibly because at my age I am looking back at a long life, and regretting that period of my life when I didn't have a childlike innocence and missed out on some fairly good stuff in retrospect. Just for instance: In my 20's, an animated film would have been the LAST choice I would make in picking my weekly theater experience. But just look at what I missed out on during that period: The Black Cauldron, Labyrinth, The Last Unicorn, The Never-Ending Story, The Secret of N.I.M.H., every Muppet movie until  The Muppet Christmas Carol (and I only went to that one because the Dickens story is one of my favorite stories). All of those I have since watched and found entertaining.

 

Dr. Suess had been around for decades prior to the first television cartoon adaptation of his work, the now famous How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but with the exception of a few Private Snafu animated shorts released in theaters during WWII, his work was hardly every translated to film. But after the Grinch a succession of Suess inspired cartoons were made for TV, including Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat and The Lorax. And you are probably already aware of the full length movies released in theaters in recent years that include the Jim Carrey version of the Grinch story and the Mike Myers version of the Cat in the Hat. (I'm still waiting for a film version of "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins", BTW, if anyone in Hollywood is checking out this blog...) 

 

Firstly, just to appease the Grinchier crowd who might be objecting to an early Christmas entry...

 

 

 

Halloween is Grinch Night (1977):

 

 

 

 

Things look pleasant in Whoville, But Josiah (Hal Smith; "Otis" from The Andy Griffith Show) smells a "sweet sour wind" in the air. He gets his wife, Mariah (Irene Tedrow; Mrs. Elkins on Dennis the Menace) to double check, and sure enough, the wind has that sweet sour smell.  That means the local Grunker's Pond will be disturbed, awakening the gree-grumps, who will begin to howl. That will make the hakken-krakks star to yowl.

 

 

 

That can only mean one thing. The villainous Grinch (Hans Conried), who lives on the nearby Mount Crumpit will be lurking about, because it is now Grinch night. The Whos in Whoville scurry inside and lock the doors and windows, and they won't go outside... not even for $1.50... The whole town keeps an ear to the radio for the coming on the Grinch, as posted by Sgt, MacPherson (Jack DeLeon; who was memorable as one of the first openly gay characters on TV, Marty in Barney Miller ), who acts a weather broadcaster, only in this case, the watchful eye of the ill wind of the Grinch.

 

 

 

The Grinch, on the other hand, is ecstatic because it's his night to howl. He loads up his wagon, puts his poor dog Max on the reigns, and begins his descent on Whoville where he plans to have a big party in the Whoville town hall.  He will be the guest attendee.  Really, he will be the ONLY attendee...

 

 

 

Poor Max bemoans the lost childhood he had and his fate at being a slave to the Grinch, but he really has no choice.   As the Grinch begins his ascent to Whoville, Euchariah (Gary Shapiro), the young son of Josiah and Mariah, suddenly realizes he needs to go to the "euphemism" (Really. That's what they call it. Cover your eyes, ye easily shocked readers, because it means he needs to go to the...  outhouse...)

 

 

 

The wind, however, is really strong, and despite his struggle to get there he is blown off course, and ends up om Mount Crumpit, the home of the Grinch.  Euchariah runs into the Grinch and bravely stands up to him, but the Grinch is dismissive of such a small foe. He gives Euchariah the discount store scare and figures that is that.

 

 

 

But Euchariah decides that the only way to save the town from the Grinch is by his own work.  He stands up to the Grinch and basically dares the Grinch to do his best at scaring him.  The Grinch, who is not one to back down from a challenge, proceeds to throw everything he can at young Euchariah. 

 

 

 

Unfortunately for the Grinch, young Euchariah is determined, and despite all the spooks and monsters the Grinch throws at him, he bravely endures. And just long enough, too, because the sweet sour wind of Grinch night dies down, which is basically the death knell on the Grinch's activities for the night. He turns his cart around to make the trek back up the mountain, promising he will be even worse on the next Grinch Night. But his dog, Max, deserts him and becomes the dog of his new master, Euchariah.

 

Hans Conried had to fill in for Boris Karloff as the voice of the Grinch, since Karloff had passed away by the time this prequel was made. He does a passable job of it, but it's not quite the sinister twang that the legendary icon put on the original. But hey, nobody lives forever. It was bound to happen. Fortunately the fantastic deep bass singer, Thurl Ravenscroft, was still around to do the musical parts of the Grinch story.  

 

Just one note here, story-wise: This is supposed to be taking place before the events of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Yet in that later story the Grinch has Max back in his lair. Did the dog decide that life in Whoville was too sedate and return to the Grinch? Or maybe sometime in between the Grinch managed to rope in another dog...  

 

Halloween is Grinch Night won the 1978 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program, beating out, among others, The Fat Albert Christmas Special. 

 

OK, you Ebenezers... happy now? 

 

What? Still not ready for cheer and eggnog? OK. I'll play along for now. The second feature on this DVD is:

 

 

 

 

The Grinch Grinches The Cat in the Hat (1982):

 

 

 

This piece (probably) comes after the transformation of the Grinch into a happy carefree figure he became at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, because the sun rises and the Grinch (Bob Holt) is smiling and laughing. Even Max is a little wary, but apparently the afterglow of the events in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (see below) he is a new character.

 

The first thing that comes into play in this piece by the way is the fact that the narrator is none other than Mason Adams. (Adams may not have been a dynamic actor on screen (IMDb only credits him with 77 appearances), but as a voice actor, for me, it's always a treat to hear him. He did narration and voice over credits throughout his career.)  

 

But' in the Grinch's lair, his reflection in the mirror is not so ready and willing to accept this transformation. The mirror image reminds the Grinch of his venomous nature and makes him repeat the "Grinch Oath". With the Grinch apparently saved from a life of charity and goodwill, he leaves the house to find something dastardly to do to prove his Grinch-i-ness.

 

 

 

On the other side of town, the Cat in the Hat (also voiced by Mason Adams) has decided it's such a nice day he is going on a picnic. Unfortunately for him however, he fails to pull his car completely off the road. And the Grinch comes along and hits it.  Of course, the Grinch blames the Cat in the Hat and has a few choice words for him. But the Cat in the Hat, if anything, is accommodating and apologizes.

 

 

But the Grinch isn't going to let it go with just some wimpy apology. Can you say "road rage"? Eventually the Cat in the Hat arrives safely at his own home, but that's not the end of it. In a series of illustrations as to how letting it go and getting over it is the right way of reacting and an endless series of attempts to get revenge is the wrong way, the Grinch errs of the wrong side several times.

 

One way is he has developed a device which distorts sound within a radius, and pointing it at the Cat in the Hat and his surroundings causes confusion. In essence, whenever anyone or anything makes any kind of noise within it's radius, it comes out as gobbledygook. But it doesn't stop there. Because the Cat in the Hat is not turning into the raging antagonist that the Grinch seems to expect.

 

So the Grinch amps it up. He has a device he calls a "darkhouse". It's like a lighthouse, except in reverse.  It casts a shadow of darkness wherever it is pointed. 

 

 

 

This still isn't getting the results so the Grinch casts a pink glow which causes, among other things, to make food look really unappetizing.

 

The Cat in the Hat has an imaginary thought bubble psychiatric session with the Grinch, trying to figure out what makes him tick and why he's so mean-spirited. 

 

 

 

And during this imaginary session a thread of hope comes out. The Grinch really loves his mother, which eventually leads to the denouement. as patrons at the restaurant where the Cat in the Hat was dining when the Grinch used his pink ray all band together to go to the Grinch's house and serenade him with a song about Mom.

 

 

 

The Grinch becomes teary-eyed and sentimental once again. And when the mirror refection tries to entice him back to his Grinch side, Max points the noise disrupting ray at it and it starts spouting gobbledygook.

 

This production was also awarded a Primetime Emmy award, beating out not just one, but two each, of Charlie Brown and the Smurfs cartoon specials. 

 

OK. Now can I do my Christmas theme?  

 

 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas  (1966):

 

 

 

This is the one cartoon that I will make a point to watch every year. I was a wee lad, not even yet 5 when I first saw it. I probably watched it every year until I was well into my 20's, after which it was only if the broadcast was convenient for my work schedule, since I often had a night time job. But somewhere in my late 30's I was able to jump back on board with making it an annual tradition.

 

"Fa-who for-aze! Da-who dor-aze!  Welcome Christmas bring your light!

Fa-who for-aze! Da-who dor-aze!  Welcome in the cold, dark night!

Welcome Christmas, fa-who ra-mooze!  Welcome Christmas, da-who da-mooze!

Welcome Christmas, while we stand, heart to heart, and hand in hand!

Trim up the tree with Christmas stuff, like bingle balls and whofoo fluff!

Trim up the tree with goowho gums, and bizelbix and wums!

Trim every blessed window, and trim every blessed door!

Hang up who boo hoo bricks, then run out and get some more!

Hang pantookas on the ceiling. pile panfoolas on the floor!

Trim every blessed needle on the blessed Christmas tree!

Christmas comes tomorrow! Trim you! Trim me!

Trim up the tree with fuzzle fuzz and blipper bloos and wuzzle wuzz!

Trim up your uncle and your aunt with yards of who faunt flant!!!"

 

 

 

The Whos down in Whoville absolutely love Christmas. What joy! What fun! Singing an dancing and Christmas fun! And then there's the toys! All the kids get to enjoy their new found toys and make such noise!

 

Noise! Noise! Noise! That's the one thing that the Grinch, who lives just north of Whoville hates the most. (And just out of curiosity, what is it about the "north" that causes such animosity in these tales. It seems to me that every villainous sort of character in these tales happens to live in the north part of the region...)

 

 

 

Anyway, the Grinch hates all the goody good Whos down in Whoville and their overbearing happiness and good cheer. And most annoying is the Christmas season, when that "good nature attitude" comes out in waves of cheer and good will. But what can he do, it's just going to happen, and that's a part of life.

 

But maybe  not this year.  Maybe, just maybe, the Grinch can pull off a feat of such transcending evil that the Whos will transform from their happy-go-lucky selves into wailing and bemoaning spirits, and that would please the Grinch to no end. 

 

 

 

So what is his plan? He will dress up as Santa Claus and sneak into town while all the Whos in Whoville are asleep and steal every present, every tree, every decoration, and even all the Christmas dinner and just sit back and watch the fun as the Whos discover that there won't be a Christmas in Whoville this year after all.

 

 

 

"You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch, you really are a heel!
You're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel! 

Mr. Grinch!
You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel!

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch, your heart's an empty hole!
Your brain is full of spiders, you've got garlic in your soul! 

Mr. Grinch!
I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch, you have termites in your smile!
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile! 

Mr. Grinch!
Given the choice between the two of you, I'd take the seasick crocodile!

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch, you're a nasty wasty skunk!
Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk!

Mr. Grinch.
The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote: "Stink! Stank! Stunk!"

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch, you're the king of sinful sots!
Your heart's a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots!

Mr. Grinch.
Your soul is an appalling dump heap, overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable... mangled up in tangled up knots!

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch, with a nauseous super "naus!"
You're a crooked dirty jockey, and you drive a crooked hoss! 

Mr. Grinch!
You're a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich, with arsenic sauce!"

 

Note: I really don't understand why the Grinch had to dress up as Santa if he expected to be able to get in and out of Whoville undetected. Of course, as we will see, that Santa outfit did come in handy after all. For, while he is busy trying to stuff a Christmas tree up the chimney, a little who, Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two, wakes up and catches him in the act, and he has to pretend he is Santa and that he is taking the tree back to his workshop to fix a glitch with the Christmas lights on it.

 

 

 

Once the Grinch succeeds in his nefarious plan he heads back to his cave on Mount Crumpit and deliciously anticipates the cries and wails of the lost season down in Whoville. But to his amazement the Whos come out singing and generally expressing joy. Without presents. Without decorations. Without even the Christmas feast. And the Grinch realizes that the Christmas spirit comes from somewhere else, not the things that can be had by the physical realm, but from somewhere deep in the heart. And the Grinch himself has a change of heart, and returns the gifts, and becomes the leader of all the good will that Whoville has to offer.

 

 

 

Outside of Boris Karloff as the narrator and the voice of the Grinch, no one received any credit for their role. Specifically, the classic "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was actually sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, who's big claim to fame at the time was as the voice of Tony the Tiger in Frosted Flakes commercials. ("They're GREEEAT!") Also missing was the credit for the one vocal that was NOT Karloff, that of Cindy Lou Who, who was actually voiced by June Foray.

 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is the only one of these three that was not in the running for an Emmy for children's program the following awards year. Just to clarify, a 1966 filming of the Jack in the Beanstalk was the winner, beating out, among others, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. But in retrospect, in later years it has been awarded it's own heritage in standing. In 2004 a list by TV Guide named it #1 out of the 10 Best Holiday Specials.  (A Charlie Brown Christmas came in second.)

 

Rejoice, ye Ebenezers. It will be after Halloween before the next Christmas themed entry comes your way. Still before Thanksgiving, true, but you gotta take your pleasures where you can find them... (And since today is Halloween, theoretically the next one could be tomorrow...)

 

Quiggy