Movie Time: American Graffiti

 It's Movie Time!

Today is the last day of August and Monday is Labor Day so the inexorable march of time begins to take us away from summer.

 

For today's movie post, we’re looking back at a move that takes place on a hot summer August night with a bunch of young men and women who graduated from high school and looking for one last night of fun before moving on to the next stage of their lives.

 

From 1973  from writer/director George Lucas, it’s American Graffiti.

This film is notable for the big commercial and critical breakthrough for George Lucas before he would go on to create that…  other thing….  War Stars or something? It’s not important.

 

American Graffiti features a hodge podge of characters following their own stories through a single night.  The film is a visceral experience; you can almost smell the exhausts from the cars as they rotate ‘round and ‘round on a small town’s main drag, feel the rumble of V8 engines in your bones, you can feel the heat of an August night.  

 

All the while, Wolfman Jack howls between an endless play list of classic rock ‘n’ roll, an omnipresent narrator.

 

Modesto, CA: On their last evening of summer vacation in 1962, a variety of young people meet up at Mel's Drive In to cruise up, down and around main street, aimlessly looking for adventure, love and/or sex, anything for a good time. Among this group are recent high school graduates who will be leaving Modesto to begin the next phase of their lives in college.  

Steve suggests to his girlfriend Laurie that they see other people while he is away at college to "strengthen" their relationship. Laurie does not gracefully accept that idea and it's kind of a mood killer for sex. (Well, duh!) 

Curt spies a really hot blonde driving a white Cadillac and spends the rest of the movie in a futile effort to see her again and get together with her. Curt's wandering brings him into contact with a local gang who "adopt" Curt as their pet, using him to commit various petty crimes.  

Terry (aka "The Toad") is entrusted to take care of Steve's car which Terry against all odds uses to get a girl named Debbie to ride with his (and perhaps more?) But Terry does not get laid AND Steve's car gets stolen.

Then there's John who aged out of this group a few years ago but still persists in riding the Modesto main drag in his hot rod. He spies a car full of young women who might provide some fun for this August evening but winds up Carol, a precocious 12-year-old.  This is NOT what John has in mind for his evening but efforts to get rid of the girl fall apart when he becomes her protector in this wild environment.   

Meanwhile, John is being sought out by a rival for a drag race. After John safely delivers Carol back to her home and winds up giving Laurie a ride after a fight she had with Steve, the rival catches up to John and the drag race is on.

Which ends in a horrendous wreck as dawn breaks over Modesto.   

I don't know if this is still a thing but when both Andrea and I were young, it was something that people would do on a Friday night to loop around and around a main drag in a parade of cars.

In Greensboro, the location for this Friday night cruise was the old High Point Road. In my small home town, the loop extended to a bank on the Southside of down town to a Dairy Cream to the north edge of town.  

No, that was NOT a typo. Our town was too poor for a Dairy Queen but we did rate a joint called Dairy Cream where as a child I enjoyed banana splits served in plastic boat shaped trays I would later play with in the bath tub. 

But I digress.

American Graffiti has a verisimilitude of these nights of automotive parades in search of fun, adventure, desire, anything and nothing. It was something that got you out of the house when there was nowhere else to go.

American Graffiti introduced a number of heretofore unknown actors who would go on to bigger things. Richard Dreyfus (Jaws) and Harrison Ford (Star Wars) would make their film debuts here.  

Suzanne Somers was the blonde in the Cadillac before she would go on to Three's Company.  

Cindy Williams as Laurie would go to be "Shirley" in Laverne & Shirley.   

And Ron Howard would firmly put Opie Taylor behind him as Steve before moving on to Happy Days and beyond that becoming an Oscar winning director.  

In his book The Boys,  Ron writes about making American Graffiti and how Harrison Ford would get drunk and throw stuff from his hotel balcony towards Ron’s VW Beetle, laughing and taunting as Ron tried to protect his car, “Dance, Opie! Dance!” 

If all you know of Ron Howard's acting is as Opie Taylor and Richie Cunningham, his role here as Steve may surprise you. Steve is kind of a jerk.  I mean he wants his girlfirend Laura to put out AND let him see other women? Really? 

The "happy" ending where Steve elects to stay in Modesto with Laurie? I think Laurie could do better. 

If all you know about George Lucas is Star Wars, you might be surprised by American Graffiti.  Relatively realistic human people doing human people things and saying human people stuff?  

The film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

American Graffiti is an engaging coming of age film with heart and humor that pulses with the soundtrack of early 1960's rock 'n' roll. Andrea and I enjoyed it a lot and it certainly earns it's accolades in my humble opinion.  

Movie Time: Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies

It's Movie Time!

And today's movie is a movie about movies.

From 2004, it's Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies

This documentary covers the wild and wooly independent American film scene that operated way off the outskirts of Hollywood in the 1950's and '60's.   

"Exploitation" movies were made cheaply, quicky and by people who were figuring things out as they went along.

Nudity was a big draw for exploitation films and one way to deliver that to the masses was to set up cameras in nudist colonies and let them  roll. 

Naked women who just happened to be naked was a loophole in various community morality codes.  A lof exploitation producers would form travelling road shows to set up temporary shop with their collection of short films with women just cavorting naked around in the sunshine, playing volleyball and croquet or just lounging around.

The road show would stick around until the keepers of the community standards caught up to what they were doing and the show would be travelling again to the next town.

Some films got away with nudity in the name of science. There were movies that would show the graphic results of sexually transmitted diseases.

And pregnancy. Wanna see a full on vaginal child birth? Schlock! has a clip of one such scene from an early exploitation film.

But mostly it's just boobies bouncing in the sun.

Which eventually got boring?

Producers began slipping in some corny comedy.  There was a series of "nudies" that included recurring gags from the producers commenting on just how bad their movies were.

These guys can't believe
they're getting away with this shit! 

Director Doris Wishman, the "Queen of the Nudies", went a step further by adding a science fiction story line to one of her nudist colony films.  Astronauts land on the moon to discover a hidden world that looks a lot like Florida filled with naked women, giving us the movie Nude On the Moon.  

Schlock! has numerous clips from the exploitation films of the '50's and '60's along with contemporary interviews with people who brought these crazy films to life.  Sam Arkhoff, Doris Wishman, Roger Corman and more recount their days engaged in gonzo filmmaking.

Roger Corman's legacy in making exploitation films is coupled with also providing a starting point for acclaimed filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppla, Peter Bogdanovich and Ron Howard.  

The documentary begins by asking, "What is an exploitation movie?" There is not an easy answer to that question. It's mostly "you know it when you see it".  

These are movies that appeal to our primal natures, to experience fear or shock or arousal, movies made quickly and cheaply and with little regard for what polite society might have to say about them.  

The free wheeling spirit of exploitation films began to take a decidedly darker turn through the 1960's with the whimsical "nudies" being edged out by "roughies" with sex being expressed through acts of violence. 

It's a shame the film stops short of the 1970's with exploitation delving into horror, martial arts and black culture (Blacula, anyone?) 

Still, Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies is an effective snapshot of an era that produced so really bad movies that had a culmulative impact on our culture.

________________________

Tomorrow: more MOVIE TIME as we go back to the 1970's to go back to 1960. It's American Graffiti. 

Your Friday Video Link: Krypto vs. Lex Luthor

It's Your Friday Video Link as Krypto kicks Lex Luthor's ass!

Who's a good boy? Krypto is! 

When the clip of Kryto turning Lex into a chew toy was posted on Tik Tok, I posted a comment, "Krypto interrupting Lex's super villain rant is the best thing!" 

So far, I've gotten over 100 likes on that comment.

It was not THAT clever or insightful but a lot of people liked what I said. Which kind of bothers me.  

Here's a bonus of clip of Superman interacting with Superman Robot #4 along with the clip of Alan Tudyk in his motion capture suit. 

David Corenswet losing it on Alan's delivery of the improvised line "so is Gary" is... well, it's just the best thing!

Taylor Swift Is Getting Married

Well, how do you like that! Taylor Swift is engaged to football player Travis Kelce.

“Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” the couple said in a joint post on Instagram  on Tuesday.

Which means I won't have my chance to date Taylor Swift.

I mean, I know my chances were remote. I was 257,432, 109th in line but still...

I'm saying I still had a chance. 

A chance to lose my heart then have it broken and shattered completely when Taylor wrote an entire album of music about the experience. 

I suppose there's always Arianna Grande; I'm 218,549, 327th in line for that one.  

Good luck, Taylor! I hope it all works out for you.

And if not...

The divorce will get us a kick ass double album for sure. 

The Cracker Barrel Crack Up

The following post was written before Cracker Barrel made the decision to not move forward with their new logo.

Well, I'm not letting this post go to waste.

Check back in at the end as I update this post on the latest twist in the Cracker Barrel Logo Drama!

________________________

Andrea and I are frequent purveyors of dining at Cracker Barrel.  How frequent? When we're not there for awhile, Charlene misses us.

Charlene is an older woman with golden hair, a friendly gregarious manner and a bright, happy smile who works in the Cracker Barrel store and chats with us when we settle up our bill after our meal. 

Andrea and I go out to eat at Cracker Barrel on Friday night once or twice a month. But over the course of the two months Rosie the Dog lived with us, we did not go as her two emotional support humans (son Dean and friend Jan) do not care for this establishment.

Dean has an aversion to crackers and Jan does not like barrels. Or something.

Anyway, when Andrea and I returned to Cracker Barrel after a nearly two month absence, Charlene was working in the store and immediately upon seeing us, she exclaimed "Goodness gracious! Where y'all been?" and gives Andea a big ol' hug.

Cracker Barrel has been in the news of late due to certain changes.

Such as to their logo.

They lost the "cracker" and the "barrel" as well as the sobriquet of "old country store" in favor of a new minimalist logo that quite frankly is not that interesting.  

My verdict on the new logo: I don't like it.

Not enough to keep Andrea and I from going. 

We don't want to hurt Charlene's feelings.

Speaking of hurt feelings...

MAGA lost it's collective shit over the new logo.

"Cracker Barrel hates real Americans!"

"Cracker Barrel has gone WOKE!"

"Guess I'm not eating at Cracker Barrel any more!"

I honestly thought Donald Trump Jr was going to cry!

Oh my God! You knuckle dragging, mouth breathing, red hat wearing fucking morons, it's JUST A LOGO!

Yeah, it's not a very good one and I don't like it but COME ON!

This kind of behavior could upset Charlene and I more one will not stand for that.

Andrea, give Charlene a hug. 

________________________

So after putting up with negative press and a falling stock price for several days after unveiling their new logo, Cracker Barrel announced the old logo would remain.

And Donald Trump is getting credit for it?

Donald Trump clambered onto the bandwagon to bitch about the Cracker Barrel logo (as if that old orange fucker would ever actually eat there), suggesting the company go back to the old logo and a few hours later, Cracker Barrel says they are going to do just that. 

And Propaganda Minister Press Secretary Joseph Goebbels Karoline Leavitt jumps in with this bull shit.

"President Trump has unmatched business instincts, and an uncanny ability to understand what the American people want! Cracker Barrel is a great American company, and they made a great decision to Trust in Trump!”

You have got to be fucking kidding me! "Unmatched business instincts"? Li'l Donnie saw a parade and jumped (or more accurately shambled) out in front of it. 

"Trust in Trump"? Jesus Christ on a pogo stick! I don't think I can take much more of this.

And I'm not sure Charlene's smile can make me feel any better.

Rosie the Dog Moves Out

Well, we knew the day was coming and alas it came to pass that Rosie is no longer calling the Fortress of Ineptitude home. 

As I wrote earlier this summer,  Rosie was caught between moving out of one apartment and being ready to move into the next one so she along with her emotional support human (son Dean) and her emergency back up emotional support human (friend Jan) took up residence here at the Fortress of Ineptitude.

Andrea and I took every opportunity to give Rosie lots of head pets, butt skritches, snoot boops and belly rubs. 

But it was not enough to convince her to stay and she has moved out and moved on.

3 hours to the east of us, Rosie is settling into her new apartment. 

 Here is Rosie piled up in a plethoria of plushies.  

We hope you enjoy your new apartment.  

We miss you.

And your emotional support humans.   

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Resident Alien

A couple of weeks ago, Andrea and I caught up to the series finale of Resident Alien.  Given that the episode was made before the formal annoucment of the show's cancellation, the cast, writers and producers did a remarkable job bringing Resident Alien in for a very satisfying landing.

Producer Chris Sheridan saw the writing on the wall after the series narrowly avoided being cancelled after season 3 and wisely anticipated season 4 would be their last chance to wrap things up.  

If I tell you that Resident Alien stars Alan Tudyk as "Harry Vanderspeigle", an alien in human form who finds himself often befuddled by human behavior, well I could probably stop the sales pitch right there. Alan Tudyk elevates everything he's in. (His brief role as "Robot #4" or "Gary" in this year's Superman movie is a scene stealer.)   

But as good as Alan is in this series, the depth and development of the supporting cast is where Resident Alien really shines. 

The friendship of Asta and D'Arcy, the relationship between Sheriff Mike and Deputy Liv, the not always stable marriage of  Ben and Kate Hawthorne were among the strong character arcs over the course of 4 seasons.  

The series ends with both Asta and Harry leaving Patience, CO. Asta leaves the safety and security of her home to finally go out into the world to explore what her true calling is. And Harry returns to the stars to reunite with Heather and their children.  

Kudos to Robert Duncan McNeil who directed both the penultimate action packed penultimate episode (Harry and the gang in a race against time to stop the Mantid from eating everyone in Patience) and the more languid and reflective final episode.  McNeil who was Tom Paris on Star Trek: Voyager is a graduate of the Jonathan Frakes Star Trek School of Directors and has proven to be a very strong and creative director.  

It is sad to say good-bye to Resident Alien and the found family of the folks in Patience, CO but all things must end and I will say that the ending of Resident Alien stuck the landing with an emotionally satisfying conclusion. 

That is that for this week's Touchbase.

Coming up next time, the end of  FUBAR and the return of Wednesday.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Wally the What the Fuck Frog Strikes Again

 It's been a minute since I posted about the latest bullshit from Donald Trump and the snivelling sycophants who do his bidding.  

To play catch up, I will be assisted by Wally the What the Fuck Frog.

Say hello to everybody, Wally!  

So....

Trump and Putin meet in Alaska to discuss Ukraine. 

The convicted felon rolls out the red carpet for the war criminal and got nothing for it. 

Before the meeting...

Trump: "I demand a ceasefire!"

After the meeting...

Trump: "Ceasefires are overrated!"

Putin convinced Trump he wants to skip "cease fire" and go straight to a peace agreement.  "Peace" being defined as "Russia gets to keep all the territory it stole from Ukraine".  

Not so much "peace" as "surrender". 

Trump thinks President Zelensky should take the deal. 

Zelensky travelled to Washington DC to meet with Trump and to avoid the dust up that occurred the last time Trump meet with Zelensky in February, the Ukrainian President brought friends. 

Leaders from Europe and NATO accompanied Zelensky to make sure that Trump understands that Putin's "deal" is just Russia seeking Ukraine's surrender.

Well, it seemed to work. Li'l Donnie's small mind is easily influenced by whoever is in front of him.  

The next day after a call to Putin, Trump was back on the pro-Russia bandwagon.

Meanwhile, Trump continued his war against America!

He took over Washington DC with armed troops to solve the crime emergency of roving mutant ravagers turning the capital into a hellscape.  

Except that's not happening.

That didn't stop several Republican governors calling up National Guard troops to join the effort of saving Washington from itself.

Trump wants to send troops to other cities.

Li'l Donnie claims black women are begging him to send the army to Chicago.  

Other Republicans jumping to Trump's beck and call was the Texas state legislature who did what Li'l Donnie told them to do: gerrymander the hell out of Texas' voting district to give the state 5 more Republican seats in Congress after the 2026 mid term elections.

Oh, poor dear American democracy. It was nice while it lasted.

And Trump declared war on the Smithsonian for being too "woke" because they're focused on slavery being bad and not how great and awesome America is.  

Sigh!

Here is the official position of I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuse You on the subject of slavery.

Slavery is bad.

And Li'l Donnie continues to rail against news he doesn't like.

You remember how he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for delivering bad employment numbers?

Well, over at the Pentagon, the general who wrote the report that the air strikes on Iran did NOT obliterate their nuclear program was fired.  

Next up: Trump fires all the mirrors in the White House for daring to tell him he's old and fat.

 And I have not covered all of the WTF stuff associated with Donald Trump and his enablers. 

Like, for example, Trump killing a wind farm project off shore from Rhode Island that was 80% complete with 45 of 60 turbines already installed. The wind farm would have to capacity to provide power to 350,000 homes.  

But Trump HATES windmills (they kill birds and cause cancer and look bad!) so the wind farm needs to go. Contradicting years of studies and research that went into this project. Who cares about that? der Furher says NO so it hasn to go.

And there is so much more.

There is too much shit for one sad What the Fuck frog to cope with at one time.

Take a break, Wally, for now, anyway.

Sadly this nightmare clown show is not done. 

Movie Time: Move Over, Darling

It's Movie Time! 

Today's feature film is the story of a man who lost his wife at sea. Nowhere to be found and presumed dead, the man after several years has his beloved wife declared legally dead and then proceeds to get married to another woman.

Of course is this the time when the first wife turns up alive and all sorts of shenanigan ensue.

If this plot sounds familiar, this is the ground covered by My Favorite Wife  from 1940 which I posted about on Sunday, April 23, 2023.  This film starred Cary Grant as the husband and Irene Dunne as the long lost wife with Gail Patrick as the wannabe 2nd wife.  

In 1962, 20th Century Fox commissioned a remake of the film called Something's Got To Give with Dean Martin as the husband, Marilyn Monroe as the first wife and Cyd Charisse as the replacement wife.  Production fell apart owing to Monroe's persistent failure to show up on set (due to her drug dependencies and mental health struggles) and she was fired  and Dean Martin quit. Monroe would die shortly thereafter by suicide (or if you believe in conspiracy theories involving the Kennedy family, "mysterious circumstances").  

Fox made another go of it 1963 with Move Over Darling with Doris Day, James Garner, and Polly Bergen.   

Lawyer Nick Arden is at the courthouse looking to take care of two things at once. Efficient guy, our Nick, looking to save on gas money and postage.

1) Get the missus declared legally and most sincerely dead. It's been five years since wife Ellen fell out of a plane into the ocean and she hasn't turned up yet.

2) Get a new missus. He's got a new woman in his life name Bianca and he wants to expedite getting married to here because it's been five years, dude! 

The judge is a bit confused but eventually it gets sorted.

Ellen is dead.

Bianca is married.

Off to Monterey for Nick and Bianca and their legally sanctioned heteronormative sexual intercourse!!

Meanwhile, a judge may have ruled she's dead but Ellen would take issue with that decision.  

A U.S. Navy submarine has deposited Ellen back home after rescuing her from a deserted island. 

Since they were babies when she was lost at sea, Ellen's kids do not recognize her and Ellen is uncertain how break that news to them.

And there's the no small matter of her husband's new wife so Ellen is off to Monterey to stop the legally sanctioned heteronormative sexual intercourse!

Nick is overjoyed to be reunited with Ellen but there is the small matter of dear Bianca who is waiting in the honeymood suite horny as hell for her new hubby. 

Nick manages to avoid the legally sanctioned heteronormative sexual intercourse which ticks off a frustrated and angry Bianca.

But he is also slow in telling her the truth that his first wife is still alive which makes Ellen angry as well. 

Then there is also the matter of Ellen's survival on a deserted island.

She was not alone.  

There was a man named Stephen.  

Ellen assures Nick nothing happened and seeks to convince him by introducing a nebbish shoe clerk played by Don Knotts as Stephen.

Nick learns the truth that the real Stephen is a rugged outdoors type of guy played by a young Chuck Connors and now Nick is angry with Ellen. 

The whole mess winds up in court in front the of the same judge we met at the start of the movie and if he was confused before, wait until he has to sort out this mess.

• Nick has been charged with bigamy what with Ellen actually being alive when he married Bianca.
• Bianca is looking for an annulment.
• Ellen wants to have her death certificate made null and void.
• And speaking of null and void, Ellen would like a divorce from Nick please.

Well, this is a fine how do you do, ain't it?   

Spoiler: it all works out in the end.

Meta Reference Dept

Ellen mentions once seeing an old movie starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne about a man who got remarried after thinking his first wife was dead which is My Favorite Wife, the movie that Move Over, Darling is remaking.   

While My Favorite Wife is considered a golden age classic, I think that Move Over, Darling has some improvements over the original. As much as I enjoy Cary Grant films, I found his role in My Favorite Wife a bit over the top as opposed to James Garner's more everyday man persona in the remake.   

Oddly enough, James Garner was originally up for the role of Nick in the doomed Something's Got To Give but he had to pass on the role due to a conflict with another movie he was making. By the time Fox was ready to try again with Move Over, Darling, Dean Martin had quit and Garner was done with his other movie and now available to play Nick.   

Doris Day as Ellen is a wonderful performance of both heart warming sincerity and broad comedy. I love the scenes where Ellen has to pretend to be a Swedish nurse.  

Like My Favorite Wife,  Move Over, Darling does hinge on some outdated morality. Such as nothing happening between Ellen and Stephen on their isolated tropical island. Ellen had no idea if Nick was alive and no real expectation of rescue.  It's hard to imagine them not finding comfort in each other arms even if Stephen looked like Don Knotts instead of Chuck Connors.  (OK, a sex scene with Don Knotts is now in your head and I do most sincerely apologize.) 

Move Over, Darling is a bright and amusing confection as we come to expect from a 1960's Doris Day movie. And if pushed to decide, I would give the remake a point over the original.  

Read My Blog!

 

Well, you can't read it if I don't write it.

OK, blog break is over! 

Welcome to I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You, my blog of indeterminate purpose.  

I am Dave-El and I dwell in the Fortress of Ineptitude.  I write about movies and TV shows I watch as well other stuff that happens here at the ol' Fortress and other things of interest in the world around me.

The world around me is a country led by a very very stupid man of questionable moral character so I am usually angry about some damn thing or another.

I did not start this blog to be consumed so much by politics and what not but that's what I get for having a blog of indeterminate purpose.  

By way of understanding my mind set and what you might expect from this blog, allow me to introduce you to the crew that brings you I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You.

Here is the editorial staff.   

Despite their oversight, this blog is filled with typos. Mixing up "as" and "has" is a particularly annoying recurring glitch.  

Here is the team of writers who made this blog possible.  

Larry is working on the Movie Time Post that was supposed to go up on the blog today.  

Think you might have that ready by tomorrow, Larry? 

Next up is Edith, our Director of Ethics and Standards.

 And here's Heather, our Director of Technical Support.

And this is Rudy, our Legal Counsel.

Herbert is the big boss who runs everything here at I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You.

And that is the whole gang who brings you I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You.   

No, I am not on medication. Why do you ask?

Anyway....

Coming up on the blog....

Sunday: it's Movie Time! About some damn movie or another I've seen. I'll know more when Larry turns in his first draft.

Monday: Li'l Donnie Trump has been up to a lot of shit and I will need to play catch up on that.

Tuesday:  It's the Tuesday TV Touchbase as I touch base on the series finale of Resident Alien. 

Wednesday: Life changes at the Fortress... and beyond!

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.

Tuesday TV Bananas

I can't believe I have to do this but I have to call bananas on the Tuesday TV Touchbase.

I was going to wax poetic on the heartwarming series finale of Resident Alien but...

I'm kind of fried.

Not sure what's up but I fighting being super tired.

So...

Blog break! 

I'll work on getting back for this Saturday's Movie Time! 

Until then, remember to be good to one another.  

And I'm still trying to watch TV over here.   

Doctor Who: What's On a Gravestone?

In the 2028 documentary What We Left Behind about the making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, actor  René Auberjonois made a prophetic statement about how he would be remembered.  He noted that for all the many movies and TV shows he had appeared him, he knew his obituary headline would be "Actor Who Played Odo On Star Trek Has Died".

Sadly René Auberjonois would pass away a year later and he wasn't wrong about what role got most of the attention with news of his death.

I remembered this when I came across news of an interview with Russell T Davies where he seems to think his role on Doctor Who will not be what he's remembered for.  While promoting his latest gay themed series he created, Tip Toe, Davies remarked, "I do believe Queer as Folk, Cucumber, It’s a Sin and Tip Toe are the ones that will be on my gravestone."

To be fair, Davies was drawing a distinction between those projects he created and owned versus Doctor Who.

"I love Doctor Who, but I don’t own it. It’s not mine. So in the end, my heart will always be with the things that I own."

Well, that make sense to me and it's a sentiment I've heard expressed by other creators.  You hear it a lot from comic book writers who had acclaimed runs with this character or that but other people come along with other ideas. 

I suppose Davies can put in his will what he wants his tombstone to say but he can't control the headlines.  They will not be "Queer As Folk Creator Dies".  

Which I hope is not for a very long time. I want Russell T Davies to stick around for at least one more season of Doctor Who to give him a chance to redeem his legacy from whatever damage may have been done during the Disney+ years.  

_____________________________________________

BLOG BREAK! 

No post on Monday.

Back the day after with the Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Movie Time: The Lost Weekend and Merrily We Go To Hell

Sorry but this is a long post. 

 It's Movie Time!

The theme of today's post is alcoholism.

Most of the time in classic movies, drinking was treated as a sophisticated thing to do with men in tuxedos clinking crystal glasses with women in shimmering gowns while engaging in whitty repartee.  

Drinking in movies was not always so glamorous and cool. There was some poor slob who was in a drunken stupor because some dame done him wrong or some man did her dirty or some damn thing like that.

Movies regarded any drinking problems as a sign of other bad life choices. The idea that drinking in and of itself could be the problem was not often touched upon. 

I wrote here 4 years ago about Days of Wine and Roses, Directed by Blake Edwards, a man better known for his comedies, it was a dark, raw exploration of alcoholism.  Before Edwards made his movie in 1962, another director also known for his more comic films took a swing at the dire consequences of alcoholism.  

Directed by Billy Wilder from 1945, that movie was The Lost Weekend.  

Ray Milland is Don Birnam, an alcoholic New York writer.

Don's girlfriend Helen  and his brother Wick are doing their damnedest to keep Don sober but his tenacity to keep a bottle of whiskey somewhere within reach is daunting. Helen and Wick try to stay ahead of his hiding places for his bottles but Don is unrelenting in his efforts to keep drinking. 

Sometimes Don forgets where he's hidden his own booze. 

The movie begins on a Thursday when Wick and Don are supposed to leave town for a vacation. Don finagles a way to get separated from Wick, staying behind to enjoy a bottle of rye.

By Friday, Don has downed his cache of liquor (except for one bottle he forgets he hid in a hanging light fixture.)  He steals some money Don has left for the cleaning lady to go buy more at Nat's Bar.  

Don tells Nat the story of how he first met Helen and impresses her that he's a writer even though he's written precious little due to his drinking. Don tells Nat he's going to go back home and work on that novel already and make Helen proud of him again.

By Saturday, the paper in the typewriter is still blank and the last bottles he bought are empty.

Don has no concept of the passing of time when he's drunk. 

Don goes to a night club to drink but has no money to pay for them so he attempts to steal money from a woman's purse. Don's caught and he's tossed out onto the street.  

Don begs money off a prostitute but drunk and unsteady on his feet, he falls down a flight of stairs.

On Sunday, Don wakes up in a hospital alcoholics' ward, where he endures the mockery of the attendants and the quivering convulsions of alcohol withdrawal. He escapes from the ward.

He steals a bottle of booze from a store but he experiences nightmarish hallucinations and screams in terror. Those screams led to a neighbor calling Helen.  Helen finds him collapsed on the floor in a delirious state. 

Well, Don has made it to Tuesday and has given up. He's gotten a gun to shoot himself but Helen intervenes, pleads with him. 

Don pours a glass, then drops a cigarette in the liquor and gets to work writing at his typewriter, writing the story of his gruesome descent into madness over one terrible lost weekend. 

Wow! That was rough. I also did not cover every step in Don's descent. There's so much more and so much worse than what I related above. 

While the film was primarily shot at Paramount studios, exteriors were filmed on location on the streets of New York City as well as the alcoholic ward in Bellevue Hospital. Bellevue would deny such access to future films.  

The film was based on book by Charles Jackson whose story mirrors that of Don Birnam. The book also implies that Don is homosexual which the movie could not acknowledge due to the movie production code.   

The liquor industry worked hard against The Lost Weekend even before its release. Liquor interests allegedly enlisted gangster Frank Costello to offer Paramount $5 million to buy the film's negative in order to burn it. Paramount said "no" but director Billy Wilder quipped he would've burned the negative himself for $5 million. 

If he had done that, then The Lost Weekend would not have gone on to win Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. 

The Lost Weekend is not an easy movie to watch but that's the point.  Watching Ray Milland take Don Birnam on his horrible descent is  a visceral experience. You can feel the desperation, smell the sweat and stale booze as Don falls further into this addiction. The ending feels a bit tacked on to give us and Don some hope but apparently that's how it really went down for Charles Jackson who wrote the book. 

Next up, we go on another bender with another movie with a most intriguing title:  Merrily We Go to Hell, a pre-code 1932 drama. (Sometimes the movie is labeled as "romantic comedy" but it's neither romantic or a comedy. It's one of those "no one is happy" movies!)   

"Merrily we go to hell" is a favorite and frequent drinking toast that Fredric March's character likes to give.  

The picture's title is an example of the sensationalistic titles that were common in the pre-Code era. Many newspapers refused to publicize the film because of its racy title

Jerry Corbett (Fredric March), a Chicago reporter and self-styled playwright, meets heiress Joan Prentice (Sylvia Sidney) at a party and they begin dating. 

Jerry soon proposes to Joan, and even though he's poor as hell and he's an alcoholic, Joan accepts his marriage proposal, against the objections of her father.

Jerry does not nothing to change her dad's mind.

He gets wasted before their engagement party and makes a mess of that. But Joan stands by him anyway.

After several rejections, Jerry sells a play that's gonna be produced on Broadway. It's off to New York City for Jerry and Joan but things take a turn when Jerry has an affair with the plya's lead actress, Claire. And he still has a bad habit of getting drunk way too often.  

Joan continues to stand by Jerry but declares if he wants an open marriage, then by God she'll go off and have her own affairs.  

Jerry continues to fuck around in a drunken haze while Joan finds her own boy toy to play with and...

Damn! No one in the movie is happy! 

Joan becomes pregnant and her doctor warns her that her poor health does not bode well for this pregnancy. Unable to break Jerry of his infatuation with both Claire and the bottle, Joan returns to Chicago to live with her father. 

Jerry cannot write a follow up play and realizes he's hit rock bottom.

Committing himself to sobriety, he returns to Chicago to win Joan back. Her father keeps them apart even though Joan has  been pleading to see Jerry again. 

We find out that Joan's baby died right after childbirth and Joan herself is near death and...

Jesus! This movie is so sad! 

 A repentant Jerry finally gets through to see Joan as he pledges his love to her and they kiss.

OK, that was a lot! 

Yep, that is Cary Grant as Charlie Baxter, Joan's would be fling. 

Merrily We Go to Hell was directed by Dorothy Arzner, the only female director to work within the studio system during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Merrily We Go to Hell joins other pre-Code films in which open marriage or the double standard regarding sex are part of the storyline. In films such as Party Husband (1931), The Divorcee (1930), Ex-Lady (1933) and Illicit (1931), husbands and wives openly commit adultery under the noses of their partners without moral judgement passed on the women. 

While the film was not ostensibly about Jerry's alcoholism, it's clear from the very first scene that drinking is an inescapable addiction. 

OK, those two movies were a lot! 

God, I need a drink!