Being a Superhero Ain't All It's Cracked Up To Be

This entry is for the We Love Superheroes Week Event hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy




It's been one of those days.  I woke up feeling pretty damn decent about the world.  I slipped on my tights and cape and mask and prepared to do battle against the evil injustice in the world.  But life just handed me a sack of lemons and said "deal with it".

First thing I did was scope out the park.  Sure enough, there was a couple of muggers holding up a little old lady, trying to snatch her purse.  I swooped in, TA-DA, like I always do, and Wham-Bam, save the old lady's pension from the would-be dregs of society.  Bad mistake!  The two muggers were 16 year old kids and now their parents are threatening me with child abuse charges.  Worse, the little old lady thought I was trying to horn in for myself and sprayed me with pepper spray.  And then started beating me over the head with her purse.  She must've had a couple of rocks in there with her money...OUCH!

OK, bad start, but there's still the rest of the day, right? So I headed over towards the bank and sure enough there was a full scale robbery going on. Two rough looking characters were holding the bank customers hostage, and police were surrounded the bank trying to coax them out.  I rush in and resolve the situation.  Pretty neat, eh?  Well, not so much.  It turns out that Hollywood was trying to do a remake of Dog Day Afternoon and the scene was just a movie set.  (So that's why one of the "robbers" was shouting "Attica! Attica!"...)  The director nearly had me arrested for disrupting the shoot (and called me several disparaging names due to my costume... some people are so cruel).

Now, I know that things can't be all that bad for me.  Surely there must be a need for truth justice and the American way somewhere in this place.   So I looked into the activities of my old nemesis, The Dark Legionnaire.  Well, guess what, the old Dark-meister had gotten religion and was now a TV preacher going under the name The Light Warrior...  and he tried to tell me my actions were the specific domain of the Lord and that I was sinning before the Ultimate Ruler of Good.

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.






There are hundreds of do-gooders in the world.  The pantheon of superheroes include such righteous dudes like Superman and Captain America, guys you couldn't get to even jaywalk if there was no traffic.  There are also wanna-bees whose actions are good even if their motives are a bit ego-centric, like Iron Man.  Sometimes the hero is someone who has had the mantle of superhero sort of slapped on him by a twist of fate, but manage to somehow corral in the new found abilities in a way that turns out alright in the end.  Spiderman comes to mind here.  Occasionally you get some vigilante who wants to correct the system because of some deep dark past, like Batman, but for the most part they all have taken the role in stride.

Then there are the doofuses who can't seem to get a handle on the superhero thing, even if they are well-meaning in their attentions.  Sometimes these are just average dweebs who had some chivalric notion of being a hero, and sometimes it is just a guy who had fate hand him the role and still doesn't know how to cope with it.

One of my favorite memories was of coming home one Friday night in 1995 and watching a made for cable feature called The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space.  The essence of this movie is that Pangea, a planet in a galaxy far far away,  is being subjected by an evil villain, Lord Vox of Vestron (Ron Perlman) (something on par with Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon).  The leader of the rebellion is a woman named Tyra (Liz Vassey) who is at her wits end.  Her little brother, Baley (Gregory Smith), is an electronics whiz and goes looking for a solution.  He finds it in a 50's era TV show  called "Captain Zoom".  He uses his electronics genius to zap Captain Zoom from Earth to do battle with Lord Vox.  Unfortunately, as you can well guess, "Captain Zoom" isn't  really a "superhero".  He's just an actor, Ty Farrell (Daniel Riordan), and not a superhero in any sense of the word.  But Farrell is in a serious predicament because everyone believes he is Captain Zoom and eventually he has to use what wits he has (which is not much) to help free Pangea from the clutches of Lord Vox.  (Note:  As far as I know this movie was never released on DVD, but there is a poor quality version of it on youtube).

Meteor Man is a different case.  Jefferson Reed (Robert Townsend) is a school teacher who is doing what little he can as his neighborhood is overrun by hoodlums and a drug lord, Anthony Byers (Frank Gorshin).  In a freak accident Jefferson is hit by a falling meteor and develops some amazing powers, which he incorporates to help defeat the drug lord.  but his ability to control and use his powers often causes more havoc than he is trying to stop.

The Mystery Men are a bunch of second class superheroes who really really want to be the saviors of the universe, but are hindered by the fact that they don't have any super powers that are much good.  Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), The Blue Rajah (Hank Azaria) and The Shoveler (William H. Macy) are being constantly upstaged by the true superhero of Champion City, Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), a somewhat smarmy and egotistical dilettante.  The Mystery Men recruit three other superhero wannabees, The Spleen (Paul Ruebens), The Bowler (Jameane Garofalo) and Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell) .  (Invisible Boy's Super power is he can become invisible, but only if no one is looking at him...)  The six attempt to rescue Captain Amazing who has been captured by his arch-nemesis, Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), but inadvertently kill him instead.  Now it is up to these third-rate dimwits to mount an attack to stop Frankenstein from his nefarious plans.

Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey) is just a poor shmo who has been walked over by everyone he meets.  But Stanley has the luck (good or bad, your guess is as good as mine...) to find a mask in a dumpster.   Being the average everyday ordinary guy, he puts the mask on his face.  (Yeah, OK, so you wouldn't, and I wouldn't, but if HE didn't there would be no story...)  The mask transforms Ipkiss into...Jim Carrey.  (OK so it transforms him into The Mask, but it is essentially Jim Carrey, and good thing too, since that's who is playing him.) Ipkiss has the usual run ins with the usual bad guys, and through a series of missteps that end up working in his favor, he, as The Mask, manages to save the day.  But is it really all in a day's work?

Raph Hinkley is yet another dweeb with the luck of the angels, or in this case the aliens.  He's a substitute teacher who, on a field trip with his students is given a special superhero suit by an alien force, which he is instructed to use to do good, fighting for truth justice and the American way, and all that crap. But Hinkley being the bumbling fool he is, loses the instruction manual.  He becomes The Greatest American Hero, virtually by luck, since he has to learn by trial and hero how the damn thing works.  And often it is error that causes him to save the day, fortunately for him.  He never actually gets a true superhero name, but he refers to himself, on occasion, as "Captain Crash" and Captain Gonzo".  (I guess "Super Dweeb" was already taken by some other hero.)

Melvin Ferd (Mitch Cohen)  is just your typical 98 pound weakling, a guy who is picked on by every muscle-brained jock in the health club where he works. One fine day he is being chased around and ends up falling out a window into an inconveniently place canister of toxic waste.  What is a can of toxic waste doing outside the window of a health club? Well, how else would you get the dweeb in it?  You think he's gonna jump in it to hide...?  Ferd is transformed into a powerful superhuman creature known as The Toxic Avenger and fights bad guys, doing the job so well he becomes a hero, although not to the Mayor of the city who wants him eliminated.  (You have to watch the movie to find out why the Mayor wants him eliminated, although this comment in itself is probably a clue...)

Another luckless fool who is changed by nuclear waste is Super Fuzz.  Dave Speed (Terrence Hill)  is just your average Joe who has graduated the police academy and on his first mission is sent to deliver a parking ticket to a member of the local Indian reservation.  (Don't ask why he is being sent instead of leaving the ticket on the culprit's car, it will only confuse you.)  The reservation, however, has been evacuated because it is to be the grounds for a nuclear test.  Dave doesn't die from being in the middle of the bomb site, instead he is transformed with super powers.    Which he uses with some serious ineptitude, but still manages to come out on top.

There are plenty of other heroes who just barely make the grade in the superhero world, including Blankman, a nerd who becomes a sort of poor man's Batman (with Damon Wayans in the title role), Underdog, a crime dog reject beagle who gets exposed to various chemicals that give it super powers, an actor (John Ritter) who becomes convinced he is really the superhero he is only pretending to be (Hero At Large) and a couple of heroes that are sure to offend the more timid souls that read this blog, like Orgazmo (a Mormon who becomes a porn star superhero) and Supertwink (a gay superhero).   The world needs more humor, so why not in its superheroes?


Now if you'll excuse me I must be off.  Time to save the world for the nuts, fruitcakes and malcontent bozos who are really my people.   DADADA!

Quiggy

David Morrell & First Blood

This is my entry in the O Canada! Blogathon hosted by Speakeasy and Silver Screenings

David Morrell was born in Kitchener, ON in Canada in 1943.  His most famous creation is that of John J. Rambo, a US Special Forces veteran of the Vietnam war.  That's right.  The loose cannon made famous by Sylvester Stallone, who first appeared in 1982 as Rambo, and spawned, as of today three sequels, was the brainchild of a Canadian author.

Morrell's first published novel was First Blood.  It was well received, for the most part, and was immediately optioned for a movie.  However, the rights to the script bounced around Hollywood for 10 years before anyone ever really made a concerted effort to produce it.

In the interim, Morrell continued to write.  He tried his hand in multiple genres.   He wrote Last Reveille, a western and The Totem, a horror novel.  He also wrote a fantasy novellette (which I only just discovered) called The Hundred Year Christmas.

But his niche turned out to be in the thriller and spy genre.  His second most famous creation (at least to fans of Morrell like me) is the story of the orphans who were trained to be assassins in the trilogy of The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fraternity of the Stone and The League of Night and Fog.

He has recently delved into historical detective fiction.  Murder as a Fine Art began an ongoing series which has Thomas De Quincey (of  Confessions of an English Opium-Eater fame) as the central character, trying to solve crimes in 19th century England.  These are good both as crime novels and as an educational look into the Victorian era of English history.  Hopefully it won't be long before Hollywood comes calling again.  I don't think I've ever read a Morrell book that didn't entertain me.  They are all hard to put down.

In the 10 years that it took before bringing the First Blood to the big screen, there were many phases.  Early on, some actors who were considered for the role of Rambo (he was just Rambo in the novel, by the way.  He didn't get a first name until the film), were Clint Eastwood and Robert DeNiro.  Other names were presented as time went by and actors got too old to play the part.  Among them were Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Nick Nolte and even John Travolta.  (You should know each one was still young enough to pull off playing the character at the time they were considered, although both Newman and Eastwood were in their early 40's at the time they were in consideration...)

The final holders of the rights were Carolco Productions and the producers settled on Ted Kotcheff, who personally selected Sylvester Stallone as the anti-hero Rambo.

Kirk Douglas was originally signed to play Colonel Trautman, but quit because he wanted Rambo to die at the end of the film, which he actually does in the novel.  (BTW, if you think it's a spoiler to reveal he doesn't die in the movie, maybe you missed the part earlier where I said there were three sequels...)  Rock Hudson was also approached for the role, but had to bow out due to health reasons.  The role finally went to Richard Crenna, who had first gotten his start in radio.  (He was Walter Denton on the radio and TV versions of Our Miss Brooks, among others).  Character actor Brian Dennehy was cast as the sheriff and it was to be his breakthrough role.

Although the movie ostensibly takes place in Washington state, the movie was actually filmed in British Columbia, and the real town of Hope, BC was the setting for the fictional town of Hope, WA.  According to background details, all the weaponry used in the film had to actually be imported from the US, and apparently some of it went missing (as in stolen)  before the movie wrapped.

The movie held the #1 spot for movie sales for three weeks running and was in the top 20 of money makers for the 1982 calendar year.

First Blood (1982):

An itinerant wanderer appears on the scene.  It is John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), a veteran of the Vietnam War, who is looking for friends from his fighting days.  It isn't in the cards however, because he finds out that the fellow soldier he fought with in the war died the previous summer from cancer, brought on by the chemicals the government used in the war (agent Orange).

Rambo tosses his address book in the fire and becomes a nomad, but in the late 70's early 80's, as even now, people without a goal in life are viewed with suspicion.  When wandering through the town of Hope (now there's a misnomer) Rambo is stopped by police chief Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) and escorted unceremoniously out of town.  But apparently Rambo has reached his breaking point at being a discarded unwanted presence and attempts to go back into town.  

He is arrested for vagrancy. Being treated like a second-class citizen is one thing, but the rough way the police treat Rambo causes flashbacks from when he was a POW in Vietnam.  Now Rambo was a member of an elite assault team of the Green Berets, so he knows how to himself in dire situations.  He escapes the town and heads for the hills.  But this doesn't set well with the macho-minded police.  They intend to go get him and bring him back.  (No exactly a good idea in retrospect)

Rambo lives on what he can find.  He finds an old tarp which he fashions into a cloak.  (It is in the middle of winter when he escapes, dressed only in a t-shirt and jeans, the rest of his clothes left behind during his escape). Meanwhile Teasle and an army of deputies go into the woods searching for him.

Being a Green Beret and the ultimate survivalist, and having knowledge of how to use his skills to build traps and the like makes Rambo a dangerous target, however.  But despite how bloody the reputation this and the rest of the Rambo movies have, very few people actually die in the film (as opposed to the novel where Rambo takes out all but Teasle of the posse from the town).

Ultimately Rambo escapes from capture in the woods and takes the battle into the town.  With the National Guard and various other police forces on the lookout, he still manages to trash the town and ultimately exacts a sort of revenge on his tormentor, Teasle.  The only thing that keeps him from ending up destroying everything is the appearance of his mentor, Col. Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna).  Trautman is the only person whom Rambo actually respects, and the denouement when Trautman and Rambo actually meet is a bit heart-wrenching, although it does come off a bit maudlin.

 The rest of the Rambo movies were a bit hit or miss in their portrayals.  I particularly liked Rambo: First Blood Part II, but Rambo III, although entertaining, does not  work as well for me.  Fortunately the fourth Rambo movie made up for it.  There is currently a remake of the original movie in the works, a Bollywood effort (India's version of Hollywood).  If I get a chance to see it, I will give it a fair viewing, but I can't say whether it will come close to the Stallone version.

That's the view from the back seat this time, kiddies.  Hope you make it home without any trouble from hick sheriffs, but take my advice: Get a haircut and get a real job.


Quiggy

Sailing with Satan

This is my entry in the Clark Gable Blogathon hosted by Love letters to Old Hollywood

Clark Gable was a heart throb to millions of women back in his heyday.   With his iconic mustache and insouciant grin, he charmed his way on the screen in dozens of films.  Beginning with a role in a silent film from 1924, White Man, he parlayed his persona into roles over 30 years.  Sporting Blood, a movie from 1931, was his first credited starring role, and a short two years later he became a darling of the cinema, winning the Oscar for Best Actor in It Happened One Night.

When it came time to film Mutiny on the Bounty, one tragic loss was Gable's mustache.  In order to be historically correct, Gable had to shave his mustache since British Naval code forbade their seamen to have facial hair.  It almost makes him unrecognizable, though, in my opinion.  My first look I was wondering when Gable would appear and then it clicked, that's him in the lead of the press gang!

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962):

The ship The Bounty is scheduled to sail soon and Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) and a group of men are roaming the city looking to garner men in a press gang for sailing a trip to Tahiti. 

The goal of The Bounty  is to collect some breadfruit plants to transplant in the West Indies.   The food is to be used as cheap food for slaves, although this is never really stated in the movie.

After learning that the captain of The Bounty is the notorious Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton), a crew member tries to desert.  Bligh is notorious because he is a hard disciplinarian, ordering disciplinary action (flogging) for even the most minor infractions.  Early on we see how cruel Bligh is when he orders that a man who has been sentenced to be flogged in front of all of His Majesty's ships is flogged in front of The Bounty, despite the fact that the man is already dead from previous floggings.

The ship sails with a newly appointed officer, Byam (Franchot Tone),  for its destination.

Over the course of the trip Bligh ups the ante numerous times, sending men to the top of the ship in a storm, having several men flogged for such things as disrespect for his command, and just generally being a cad of the worst stripe.  Christian gradually comes to dislike his captain, and even goes so far as to defy an order to sign off on an illegal accounting of the stores of the ship.

Upon arriving in Tahiti, Byam goes ashore to live with the ruler of Tahiti, Hitihiti (William Bainbridge), to get a record of the Tahitian language.  But Bligh refuses to let Christian go ashore.  Hitihiti later convinces Bligh to allow Christian a day of shore leave, but Bligh recants on it.   Christian, already ashore, refuses to go and arranges that Bligh is told that Christian could not be found.

A love interest between Christian and a native serves as an introduction to the eventual decline of Christian's relationship with Bligh.  After returning to The Bounty, a few of the seamen are put in irons for a minor infraction (they lost a tub of breadfruit plants, accidentally).  After seeing the poor treatment suffered by the prisoners, Christian finally sides with the men and helps in a mutiny.  Bligh and his faithful are all set adrift in a boat and Christian takes command of The Bounty.

While Bligh and his followers try to get to land, Christian sails The Bounty back to Tahiti, where they take up residence.  Bligh manages to get his crew to land, and the authorities send out another ship to re-capture The Bounty.  Meanwhile Christian, along with Byam, who had remained dedicated to his captain, but was unable to get aboard the boat have began a new life on Tahiti.  But the paradise is soon to be ended as Bligh's  new ship is coming to get them.

The final reel of the film has Christian re-sailing The Bounty to a safer shore with Bligh in pursuit.  And eventually, Byam and a few others who had stayed behind because they were loyal to the Crown and not actually involved in the mutiny end up in the court in England.  What happens to both Byam and Christian in the end I will leave for you to watch the movie.

Gable, along with Laughton and Tone, was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but all three lost to Victor McLaglen in The Informer  (a picture which also won the Oscar for Best Director).  But the movie won the Oscar for Best Picture, and it is surely worthy of the accolade.  As a side note, because of the situation where three actors had been nominated from the same movie, a Best Supporting Actor (and Actress) category was added to the Oscars list.  This was the last time (so far) in Oscar history that a film won the Best Picture Oscar, but failed to win any other Oscar.


This ends our foray on the sea this time, folks.  Be sure to drive home safely, and don't let any irrational captains push you around on the road.

Quiggy

Nanu Nanu, Folks

This is my entry in the Robin Williams Blogathon hosted by Realweegiemidget Reviews and In The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood.




There is an excellent anecdote that the producer of Happy Days, Garry Marshall, asked his 8 year old son Scott what could be done to improve the show.  Scott, being a typical 8 year old boy and an avid fan of science fiction said "Put a spaceman on it."  Whatever Marshall's initial reaction really was, I don't know, since I wasn't there.  I can imagine though that he rolled his eyes and humored the young tyke.

But he brought the idea to the writers and told them it was a great idea.  (The story comes years after Mork and Mindy became a huge hit, so of course he told them at the beginning it was a "great idea".)  The writers thought it was a horrible idea, and, according to Brian Levant, one of the writers, they actually drew straws to see which of them would be the sucker that had to come up with the script.

Several actors, including Dom DeLuise, were approached to play the part, but most of them turned tail and ran from the concept.  Marshall's sister, Ronny Hallin, remembered seeing a young comedian named Robin Williams do a bit about a spaceman on stage.  He was called in and, well, the rest is history.  Of course, everybody knows Robin Williams now, but he was virtually unknown outside the comedy circuit stage at the time.   Much of his performance in the first appearance on Happy Days was the result of some improvisation.  According to Levant, by the time filming came along, much of Williams' schtick during rehearsals was added.

I am indebted to Charlie Jane Anders for the above trivia.  If you'd like to read the whole article you can reach it from here. 

Happy Days: My Favorite Orkan (1978):

Three of Richie's friends are concerned because Richie seems a little off recently.  To cap that supposition, Richie bursts into Al's and tells everyone that he has seen a flying saucer.  Of course, no one believes him.  The Fonz even suggests even suggests that he is nutso, and "humdrum".




Richie returns home where he finds that the rest of the family has gone to see a movie.  Richie settles down to do his studying, when someone knocks on his door.  Enter Mork in a red spacesuit (jumpsuit) and a helmet.

Initially Richie thinks it is Raplh Malph, a notorious trickster, trying to play a joke on him.  But Mork fries the family TV, and Richie becomes aware that it is not Ralph after all.

Richie, who is a budding journalist, realizes this is the event of a lifetime.  He proceeds to interview Mork.  Asked why Mork has come to Earth, he replies that he has come to collect a specimen of Earthmen.  Thinking that Mork wants something special, Richie assumes that he means the President. Or maybe Hank Aaron (who at the time was a star on the Milwaukee Braves baseball team).  When Mork replies that he is looking for an average Earthling, someone who is "humdrum", Richie finally concludes that he is to be the specimen.  Richie initially agrees to go, that is, until Mork reveals that the time span that he calls a "bleen" that Richie will be gone is 2000 years.

When Richie's family comes home, Mork uses his finger to freeze them.

Richie panics and runs away.  He goes to Al's where he tells the Fonz that a spaceman is after him.  When Mork shows up, he and the Fonz duke it out over Richie.

The battle of "cool" versus "the fickle finger" of Mork is pretty funny.  After the battle, Mork decides that he no longer wants Richie, instead he wants Fonzie.  As Mork and his captive leave Richie screams "Don't take Fonzie!"  Richie wakes up on his couch.  It has all been a dream.  There is a knock at the door.  It is Robin Williams again, but dressed in normal clothes, asking for directions back to the highway.

At this point, the original episode ended.  It was originally just a one episode odd entry in the Happy Days canon. But as Mork and Mindy was conceived, the episode was later amended with a scene of Mork conferring with Orson that his new mission was to go to the 70's and observe people in what was then the modern day.   And this is how the episode appears today.

Happy Days: Mork Returns (1979):

Also called the "5th Anniversary Show", this show was just essentially clips of highlights from the first five seasons. The presence of Mork, who had as stated before, gone from 50's middle America to late 70's Boulder, CO, is for Mork to gain some insight on Earth concepts of friendship and love and family.

Mork only serves as a link to look back on some classic moments in the TV series, but Williams was still his uncontrollable self in the return.

As an added note, in the first season of Mork and Mindy, Mork remembers for Mindy how Fonzie helped set him up with a date with Laverne DeFazio. This crossover episode incorporated not only Happy Days, but Laverne and Shirley, too.  Check out the youtube clip of this when you get a chance.

Quiggy

Cabin in the Sky

This is my entry in the Busby Berkeley Blogathon hosted by Hometowns to Hollywood.

Cabin in the Sky (1943):

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson stars as "Little Joe" Jackson,  a ne'er-do-well who is married to a devout Christian woman, Petunia (Ethel Waters). Petunia has a faith in God and a belief that He can redeem  Joe, but Joe has his own demons to battle.  For one, he is an inveterate gambler.  But he has decided, to appease Petunia, to give up gambling and get right with the Lord.





But his former playmates have other ideas.  They  wheedle him to ditch the church service and go to the local gin joint with them.  Joe ends up in a fight and he is killed by Domino Johnson (John W. Sublett).  As he lays dying on his bed, Petunia pleads with God to give him another chance because of her faith, God sends an angel, called the General (Kenneth Spencer) and his retinue to revive him.  But the Devil has sent his son, Lucifer, Jr. (Rex Ingram) to protect his own interests.

Joe is revived, but neither he nor Petunia know the deal that God and the Devil made.  Joe just has a six month reprieve to change his ways or he will be sent to his eternal home in that other place...  Junior manages to manipulate the outcome by insuring that Joe wins the Irish sweepstakes, but Joe discards the telegram, since he is unable to read it.

Ever the resourceful type, Junior manages to have Joe's gold digger mistress,  Georgia Brown (Lena Horne) pick up the discarded telegram and after reading it delivers it to Joe.

Joe is happy at the news and intends to make Petunia happy with the windfall.  Unfortunately Petunia walks in at the wrong time and sees Joe offering to buy Georgia a few trinkets and thinks he is cheating on her.  She kicks him out and Joe is obviously on his way to losing his second chance.  In the gin joint, Domino shows back in town after an absence.

Meanwhile, Petunia has shown up at the joint, and Domino puts the moves on her.  Joe is jealous and a fight breaks out and Joe is once again killed.  Unfortunately, so is Petunia. And Petunia was only acting like a loose woman to try to get Joe jealous.  So when the judgement comes, the scales tip enormously in her favor and she is off to Heaven.  But Joe has not done enough to redeem himself and is once again cast out.

Petunia pleads with the Lord that she can't go to Heaven without her man, but nothing doing as far as God is concerned.  But then it is revealed that Georgia Brown, remorseful over the situation back on Earth, became a Christian and gave all of her share of Joe's money to the church.  Joe just barely tips the scales and is going to get to go to Heaven with Petunia.

But that's not the end of the movie.  If you have watched enough of these kinds of movies, I won't need to tell you what comes next.

Most of the movie was directed by Vincente Minelli, but Busby Berkeley had a hand in one number.  Sublett as Domino does a song called "Shine".

I put some polish on my style piece
 I made a shoestring into a tie
I cut the corners off the end of my coat
So they wouldn't fly.

I got my shirt from a silver lining
I got my cane from an old oak tree
And that is just the reason
The folks all nicknamed me

Just because my hair is curly
And just because my teeth are pearly
And just because I always wear a smile
And suits to dress up in the latest style.

Gee, I'm glad I'm living
Why I take troubles all with a smile
Just because my color shade's
A wee bit different, baby
That's why they call me "Shine".

The dance number is focused on just one person, that of Domino, unlike many of the great dance sequences that some of the others in this blogathon have chosen, but it doesn't lack for entertainment.  If you watch closely, you will recognize some of the dance moves, I bet.  Yes, its almost a sure bet that Michael Jackson copied some of the dance moves from this movie into his own act.

About the only drawback to this sequence, although the song is surely a toe tapper, is the fact that  the song seems to revel in the fact that the singer approves of the nickname "Shine".  For those of you unfamiliar with older generations, this was also a derogatory name used by whites to call black people in the day.  Admittedly it didn't have the negative cachet that other words had, but it still feels a little disturbing, but maybe that's just me.

A good double feature would be to pair this with The Green Pastures another all black cast feature film that involves a Christian spirituality.

That ends this post.  Drive home safely, folks.

Quiggy