I don’t know, I’ve been close to a few people who live with mental illness (and have had a minor episode myself, truth be told,) and have a hard time being appalled by Arsenic and Old Lace’s farce. I’ve even taken the opportunity to use the line “It practically gallops!” in a relevant context. I really identify with that movie because of the way Cary Grant portrays a man genuinely (but needlessly) concerned about his own sanity as the world goes stark staring mad around him. I think that the LSD therapy he was taking at the time really helped with that amazing performance. (By the way. first name is “Dale,” so when I feel that I might be slipping a bit, I like to whistle that little tune – “There is a happy Dale, far, far away…” Keeps me on track.)
My all-time favourite movie, Harvey, might be construed as making light of mental problems, too. I think the underlying message about the relativity of sanity goes a long way to making things right, though. That scene where Vita Louise is given a forced bath after a misunderstanding about her own competency isn’t played for belly-laughs. Here’s a well-meaning institution that has become totally dehumanized. Every bit as serious as One Flew Over The Cuckoos’ Nest. (Which also makes ya laugh in places, unless you’re dead.)
No, dammit. I meant bumpkis. Means “Your shit don’t mean shit, so shut up.” Derived from the Yiddish bupkis but most likely named for my cousin, Albany “Bumpkus” Von Jones.
I’ve listened to at least a few dozen radio shows during Napster’s heyday from the 1940s and 1950s – including a half a dozen Jack Bennys – and while that’s not a huge sample, Rochester didn’t seem nearly as bad as you say. Heaps better’n than Kingfish, Andy and Sapphire at any rate! That he was self-confessed womanizer (off the air – and I don’t recall his dating ever being that explcit) at a time when most black characters didn’t even express any real romantic affection towards each other at all is a point in his favor. As for gambling and being lazy – the former didn’t seem stereotypically presented and the latter was opportunistic for some types of jokes. He was servile, but he wasn’t, as I originally said, dim-witted, asexual, foolish and superstitious. None of that, “Oh, Lawdsy, I sees a ghost!” nonsense with the bugged out eyes.
Larry Mudd. Arsenic and Old Lace was filmed in 1941, although not released until later. LSD was discovered in 1943. You’re conflating a much later episode of Grant’s life with this picture. Even so, I wasn’t referring to Grant’s acting, which I like to imagine came about from constant suggestions from Capra - more bugeyes, please, Mr. Grant - but of John Alexander’s character. No crazy people ever becomes Napoleon in today’s media, but they were an omnipresent joke in movies, jokes, and cartoons for decades pre-WWII. I’m not sure what changed, but it changed everything.
Askia, The Jack Benny Program started in 1932. The shows available today are almost universally from the later years, after the Rochester character had already changed. You really have to do some reading in radio history to know the backstory.
It is true that Jack Benny’s first radio show premiered in 1932, but the early Benny programs (The Canada Dry Program, The Chevrolet Program, The General Tire Revue) are variety shows. It isn’t until The Jell-O Program that it becomes fully recognizable.
(For the truly trivially inclined: Eddie Anderson’s first apperance was on the 3/28/37 Jell-O Program, and his first appearance as Benny’s valet was on 6/20/37.)
Hey, I didn’t say I don’t believe you, just that he didn’t seem all that bad in the 1940s and 1950s radio and TV shows I’ve heard/seen. I have a hard time believing that even an early version of Rochester would have been so stereotypical as to be"dim-witted, foolish, asexual or superstitious." In either case we’re both right that either characterization could would be a product of its era and wouldn’t work now.
Incidentally, re-reading your post, Eddie Anderson deserves some credit for humanizing Rochester. I’m sure he was the impetus for the change even though Benny and the writers had final say.
To be precise, Mickey Rooney’s character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s is Japanese. And to make things stranger, the film is phenomenonly popular in Japan to this day.
And I’ve never heard a native of Japan complain about Rooney’s character in the film. But I think that’s because they’re all wrapped up in Audrey Hepburn.
:smack: Thanks. I see Mr. Leech started his therapy about fifteen years after shooting Arsenic. (Uh, maybe I shoot rephrase that? You know what I mean.) It probably takes a head to look at Cary Grant sitting on a staircase muttering to himself and conclude that he was drawing on his (future) LSD experiences for the performance.
I don’t know that everything’s changed. We’ve just got new cliches. (And jokes.) Delusions of grandeur in which someone imagines themselves to be some famous powerful figure actually happen, sometimes. Of course, they’re not funny at all when they do. I knew a guy who became obsessed with Indiana Jones, and eventually became convinced that he was Indiana Jones. Not Harrison Ford, mind. The character. His reasoning was (of course) bizarre. He was Indian – “Like ‘Indiana’” His high-school girlfriend was named “Marianne” – “Like ‘Marion’” and on and on. He was institutionalized for a while. I don’t know what his diagnosis is. Anyway, we still make cliched ‘crazy’ jokes: Tin-foil hats, bugs in the walls, etc. They’re based on real (non-funny) behaviors, but played for laughs. I think the cliches have moved on – possibly because the way that pyschopathologies typically manifest have moved on, in the technological age. Twelve Monkeys is a fiesta of modern “insanity” cliches, played for laughs. “I’m in contact with superior intelligences on the planet <funny name>,” germ paranoia, brain-implants, mind control, cloning conspiracies, etc. Of course, none of these things are funny when they’re close to you. The old cliches haven’t entirely disappeared, either – Bubba Ho-Tep features a delusional “John F. Kennedy.” (And maybe a similarly-deluded “Elvis.”)
Anyway, sorry for the hijack. I do understand why a cliche like that stands out and is discomfiting, I just think that the forms have changed more than the actual attitude.
BTW, I didn’t know you were an OTR guy. I may have some stuff you’d be interested, if you want to trade public domain stuff. (Even for blank CDs – I like to spread it around. My e-mail’s listed.)
I’m hijack-happy this week. There’s probably a pill you can take to stay on topic – maybe I should look into it.
Um, maybe I’ve been whooshed, but if you seriously think politics was actually that much better back then, you need to change your name. MSGtW is a moving film. But it was as much a fairy tale then as it is now. It’s dated in much the same way as the war movies mentioned in this thread: now we are more aware how much of a fairy tale it is.
I’m terribly fond of the second film. I read the novel, it made me cry. I saw the movie, it made me cry more. Both are embued with a deep " love the earth, love living things " politic.
Trivia point: Silent Running was co-written by Michael Cimino, who later went on to direct the debacle Heaven’s Gate- the feature which caused the financial downfall of United Artists.
I’ve got to nominate Easy Rider. This movie has every sixties cliche ever, from communes to drug trips. It was considered ground breaking in its day, but to modern ears the dialogue is laughable. It seems Dennis Hopper uses “man” every other word.
I agree that they bear that heavy imprint of late 1960s rebellious ecofriendliness. But, I gotta tell you, I thought Silent Running was already dated (and pretty damned stupid) when it first came out. Cool effects and nifty robots, but brainless plot.
I love Tea House Of The August Moon with Marlon Brando as the Okinawan (sp?) foil to the confused American GI, but I doubt it could be done today without protest. I understand that at one point in time it was the most chosen High School play, but I doubt you could perform it today without protests.
Specifically the mall. I love that they aren’t even really sure what it is when they land on it. “I think it’s one of those new indoor malls.”
It’s like an amazing timecapsule. I’m just barely old enough to remember malls that had things like bars, skating rinks, and gun shops… okay maybe not gun shops.
I’m not sure about that. I haven’t seen either movie, but I think I understand the basic concept. Don’t you hink that there’s at least the possibility of a worthwhile movie if you add an ‘e’ to the concept?
“A couple is forced to deal with the conflict between their liberal ideas and inborn prejudices when they meet for the first time their daughter’s fiancee.”
Those malls still exist (there are at least four of them within a half-hour’s drive from my house). Also, there were not particularly new when Dawn of the Dead came out. The film was 1978, but there were three enclosed malls in the area near me by 1970.
Of course, they may have been new when the zombie was last alive. That was probably the point of the joke.
How 'bout Rocky Horror Picture Show ? Whic I realize a lotof people can’t stand and other people give only grudgig repect for the audiene participation part, but I think it’s a great, funny, shlocky movie all on it;sown…and more to the point definatly refective of the decadent '70’s, only just post Stonewall, very pre gay marriage, camp mentality…which I miss (ok, I was, like, four at this point in the heyday, but I still miss it).
I loved that movie, partly because it’s such a time capsule. Being gay in America isn’t all fun and acceptance today, but we’ve come a long way since the time of that movie (and the play it was based upon). It made me sob like a baby watching that, and I understood more why my father assumes all gay people are horribly depressed and damaged. He graduated high school the year that movie was released, so all the context he has are the gay teenagers he knew in the drama department who were full of the knowledge that society, especially here in Texas, viewed them as freaks and perverts. Yeah, that’ll depress anyone, especially a teenager.
Another gay-themed movie that’s definitely a product of its time is Cruisin’ with Al Pacino. (Incidentally, both films were directed by William Friedkin.) It’s not the most gay-positive film ever, but it definitely gives a portrait of a bygone era of bath houses and underground clubs, pre-AIDS.
In general, I LOVE time capsule movies, even ones that aren’t that good.
