I think that was the name. I was so excited when I saw the scene that I just had to post it. (well, that and I can’t sleep).
So go ahead and add your experiences of discovering long after the fact the original from which a TV show, movie, piece of art, etc. spoofed or parodied.
What scene was it?
One of the earliest Zucker movies, Airplane! with Robert Hays, is a direct parody of a film called Zero Hour. And when I saw the latter, I just couldn’t help laughing, even though it’s meant as a serious disaster movie.
Every single time a particular line, scene, set, character, etc, appeared, I was waiting for the jokey punchline associated with it (that subsequently never happened, of course). It is such a great movie to watch if you’re at all familiar with Airplane! I wholeheartedly recommend it!
DAMNIT! this is one of those times where I know some time in the past couple weeks I’ve seen something exactly like this, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.
however, I had the distinct priviledge of seeing said Telephon and what a remarkable cinematic acheivement it was!
Ah, yes, Telefon. That’s the one where a renegade KGB agent is reactivating ‘sleeper’ spies by reading them a line from a Robert Frost poem over the phone. Directed by Don Seigel of ‘Dirty Harry’ fame, if memory serves.
Great poster, with Chuck wielding a telephone reciever as if he is about to beat the viewer over the head with it…
“The woods are loveley, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep. Did you hear me [Russian name]? Miles to go before I sleep.”
I liked Telefon. I’ll have to see it again. I don’t remember the plot to Naked Gun. I’ll have to see that one again too.
In The Naked Gun the scene where (is his name Ricardo Monteban? you know, Khan) demonstrates to Mr. Papshmear sensory induced hypnosis.
“Tell me, have you have heard of anything called sensory induced hypnosis.”
“I think I just have”.
Came right out of Telephon. Only instead of pushing a button on a penlike object, the trigger was the lines quoted by Johnny L.A.
The book Telefon by Walter H. Wager, on which the movie is based, is a heck of a good spy novel. It’s long out of print, but well worth the time to hunt it down.
Mr. Wager, it says on his IMDB site, “Graduated from Harvard Law School. Was a Fullbright Fellow at the Sorbonne in Paris, and diplomatic advisor to Israel’s Director of Civil Aviation, and editor of “Playbill” & “Show”. Has written articles to magazines, written movles under a pseudonym and written documetaries for television and for the US Information Agency.” It also says that he did a novel, “58 Minutes” which either was the basis for 1990’s Die Hard 2, or was an adaption of it. Not clear from the site (at least to me)
The 1977 movie, BTW, features one of my favorite movie villians, Donald Pleasence. Great casting
If one sees Excalibur before one sees Holy Grail, enjoyment of HG is furthered. If one sees HG first, it’s difficult (but not impossible) to take Excalibur seriously.
I thought Weird Al’s “Yoda” was an original. Then I heard some construction workers at my school listening to a familiar melody … didn’t figure construction workers were necessarily the most obvious choices to be Weird Al fans. Then I figured out it wasn’t Weird Al.