In the dim recesses of my mind somewhere is the memory of a very strange short film I saw once. I’m wondering if anybody else can place it.
Most of the film featured various odd sequences involving watermelons rolling around and getting smashed, with a soundtrack that chanted “watermelon … watermelon …”. This was long before Gallagher and his “sledge-a-matic” routine, BTW. An image that sticks in my mind is that at one point a machete cuts a watermelon in half, and some hands start removing animal entrails from inside it.
There was a film in the 1970s starring Charles Bronson called Mr. Majestik (sp?) where he played a watermelon farmer being pressured by the mob and a lot of watermelons got smashed, but I don’t remember the chanting. It may or may not be the film you are thinking about.
I cringe to think exactly how dorky this is going to make me sound.
In the mid-70s, there was a variety show featuring The Captain and Tenille. I remember watching (my parents made me, dammit) and they had a short every couple of weeks or so called The Bionic Watermelon. It involved a watermelon falling off the back of a truck and being put back together, a la The Bionic Man. Each week, the watermelon would be featured foiling some madcap crime in some boffo manner.
TV time - a five minute short, not a full length movie. They ran it ahead of the main feature in a campus theatre in the 70’s.
Watermelon Man - Oh, yes, you were. You looked just like Godfrey Cambridge. (pretty good movie, actually).
Tommy the Cat - I wonder if Captain & Tenille’s writers saw the damned short feature. This was some screwy “art film” short, I’m sure, and C&T would never have done the bit with “gutting” the watermelon - it was gross enough to make many of the people in the theatre go “ewwww”. Still, the short might have “inspired” their standard bit.
12 years later, I see your query. Watermelon, watermelon. I know exactly the piece you’re referring to. It was wonderful. Did you ever find out how to view it again? I saw it in '67, as part of a Janus after-hours show in DC. I still smile when I recall it and wish I could see it again and show my children
Holy Fuck, someone was on acid. What the Fuck??? Pardon my language, but what the holy flying fuck???
Not happy, peace tripping either. Some kind of racist bad watermelon trip. Holy fucking shit!
