Obscurity factor: 7
When it comes to silly 1960's sit-coms, this one is notorious, though few people have seen it. Bob Cummings plays Dr. Bob McDonald, a psychologist working with NASA who takes over custody of Rhoda (Julie Newmar) the ultra glamorous robot invented by his friend, when said friend is reassigned to Pakistan. Dr. McDonald is charged with educating Rhoda in how to blend into society. The catch is that no one, not even the higher-ups at NASA know that Rhoda exists. In the episode below Dr. Bob must keep Rhoda from spilling the beans to his boss when he unexpectedly shows up at his apartment. This is complicated by the fact that Rhoda has been malfunctioning because of a dose of the mathematical rhymes in Alice in Wonderland.
The series, which was created by the same team as My Favorite Martian, ran for 26 episodes, but failed to perform as expected and was canceled after one season. The first of two parts of episode #3 is above, uploaded to Daily Motion by wwevideo007. The series is not available on DVD, and is difficult to find online. An interesting bit of trivia - The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang notes that the slang phrase "does not compute" originated with this series.
Obscurity factor: 7 (Known to fans of classic TV, but rarely screened and difficult to find)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Katherine Hepburn in Olly Olly Oxen Free (1978)
This charming film features the great Katherine Hepburn late in her career. She plays Miss Pudd, a junk dealer in a northern California town. Alby and Chris live in the same town. Alby lost his grandfather a year earlier. Alby's grandfather was quite a man in his day. He was a barnstormer, and used to sail a hot air balloon over carnivals and county fairs while performing feats of daring do. The boys have a plan to memorialize Alby's grandfather. On his birthday, they plan to launch his old hot air balloon. In order to do that they patronize Miss Pudd's junk yard. At first she's having none of it and tells them to leave, but when she finds out what they want to do, she's enchanted.
They become a team. Miss Pudd provides the boys with what they need to make the balloon work and the boys include her in their plans. One of the more delightful elements of the movie is the independence of the children. Parents are almost never seen. The film centers on the world of the kids. Below is Kate's monologue after the balloon runs away with them and she wonders if they'll ever get home.
This film is available on DVD (I rented it from Netflix), though very little video of it exists online. The above clip, uploaded by CardboardShoreline was all I could find aside from an interview with the prop master on the film, which is wonderful as well. It was also called The Great Balloon Adventure, as the poster above advertises it. The poster is available from MoviePosterShop.com. I think I was one of the few kids to see this on its first release. It was shown in the midwest briefly in '78, then released in New York in 1981 but pulled rather quickly.
Obscurity factor: 8 (Rarely screened, even on first release, available on DVD, hard to find online)
They become a team. Miss Pudd provides the boys with what they need to make the balloon work and the boys include her in their plans. One of the more delightful elements of the movie is the independence of the children. Parents are almost never seen. The film centers on the world of the kids. Below is Kate's monologue after the balloon runs away with them and she wonders if they'll ever get home.
This film is available on DVD (I rented it from Netflix), though very little video of it exists online. The above clip, uploaded by CardboardShoreline was all I could find aside from an interview with the prop master on the film, which is wonderful as well. It was also called The Great Balloon Adventure, as the poster above advertises it. The poster is available from MoviePosterShop.com. I think I was one of the few kids to see this on its first release. It was shown in the midwest briefly in '78, then released in New York in 1981 but pulled rather quickly.
Obscurity factor: 8 (Rarely screened, even on first release, available on DVD, hard to find online)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Jack Lemmon in Avanti (1972)
In this Billy Wilder comedy we find Wendell Armbruster Jr. (Jack Lemmon) heading to the Amalfi coast to claim the remains of his father who died in an automobile accident. When he arrives he discovers that his father wasn't alone in the car - he was with his British mistress of 10 years and her daughter (Juliet Mills) is also there to claim her remains. Through a series of mishaps and bureaucratic snafus in claiming their relatives, the couple is thrown together for several days and they begin to fall in love. However, Wendell's puritanical personality is a major obstacle they must overcome if anything is to come of it.
Though not one of Wilder's great films, there's a good deal of charm to be had in Avanti! The chemistry between Lemmon and Mills is delightful and the setting is magnificent.
Avanti! is not a well known film in its own right, but its being a Wilder film gives it some notoriety. It's available on DVD and can be watched in its entirety on YouTube. Part one is above, uploaded by vaFFamBuco. The poster above is available at MoviePosterShop.com.
Obscurity factor: 4 (known to Wilder fans, available on DVD)
Though not one of Wilder's great films, there's a good deal of charm to be had in Avanti! The chemistry between Lemmon and Mills is delightful and the setting is magnificent.
Avanti! is not a well known film in its own right, but its being a Wilder film gives it some notoriety. It's available on DVD and can be watched in its entirety on YouTube. Part one is above, uploaded by vaFFamBuco. The poster above is available at MoviePosterShop.com.
Obscurity factor: 4 (known to Wilder fans, available on DVD)
Monday, April 11, 2011
Joan Crawford in The Damned Don't Cry (1950)
Obscurity factor: 2
In some ways this is the ultimate composite Joan Crawford film. In it she gets to go through the full range of styles and emotions from the films of her Warner Bros. pictures - grief, hard-as-nails determination, shame, sophistication, passion... Ethel Whitehead lives a bleak existence amongst oil derricks and poverty. She and her husband and son share a home with her doting mother and heartless father. When she decides to buy her son a bike it touches off a familiar argument with her husband, who is sensitive of not being able to provide more than the basic essentials for his family. When the son is killed it effectively breaks the bond between husband and wife and Ethel leaves to make her own way. She starts out as a model at a dress company, but, using men as her stepping stones, is able to scheme her way into the heart of an organized crime syndicate - and a glamorous life. She becomes Lorna Hansen Forbes, a fabulously wealthy oil heiress and lives a beautiful life. That is, until the syndicate boss decides to use her in his play to get the western territory back from a rebellious associate.
This film has a Mildred Pierce on steroids quality to it - the death of a child, the struggle to achieve, the realization that the top isn't all its cracked up to be... It's fun to see Joan play the scenes to the hilt, as usual and to see her go from know-nothing fit model to confident society woman.
This film has a big cult following among Crawford fans. It's available on DVD. The trailer is posted above, courtesy of felixxxx999 on YouTube. The poster above is available from MoviePosterShop.com.
Obscurity factor: 2 (well known to Crawford fans, otherwise obscure, available on DVD)
In some ways this is the ultimate composite Joan Crawford film. In it she gets to go through the full range of styles and emotions from the films of her Warner Bros. pictures - grief, hard-as-nails determination, shame, sophistication, passion... Ethel Whitehead lives a bleak existence amongst oil derricks and poverty. She and her husband and son share a home with her doting mother and heartless father. When she decides to buy her son a bike it touches off a familiar argument with her husband, who is sensitive of not being able to provide more than the basic essentials for his family. When the son is killed it effectively breaks the bond between husband and wife and Ethel leaves to make her own way. She starts out as a model at a dress company, but, using men as her stepping stones, is able to scheme her way into the heart of an organized crime syndicate - and a glamorous life. She becomes Lorna Hansen Forbes, a fabulously wealthy oil heiress and lives a beautiful life. That is, until the syndicate boss decides to use her in his play to get the western territory back from a rebellious associate.
This film has a Mildred Pierce on steroids quality to it - the death of a child, the struggle to achieve, the realization that the top isn't all its cracked up to be... It's fun to see Joan play the scenes to the hilt, as usual and to see her go from know-nothing fit model to confident society woman.
This film has a big cult following among Crawford fans. It's available on DVD. The trailer is posted above, courtesy of felixxxx999 on YouTube. The poster above is available from MoviePosterShop.com.
Obscurity factor: 2 (well known to Crawford fans, otherwise obscure, available on DVD)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
John Ritter & Harvey Korman in Americathon (1979)
Obscurity factor: 8
With the recent threat of a government shutdown, I thought this would be the perfect film to profile. It's about what was, at the time of this film's release, 19 years in the future -1998 and the USA is in trouble. The country is broke and has borrowed 4 billion dollars from its richest citizen, Sam Birdwater - a native American who is about to call in the debt. President Roosevelt (John Ritter), who is into EST and Scientology has decided that the best way to finance the debt repayment is to hold a 30 day telethon. Preparations for it begin with hiring the host - a former film star (Korman) who now has a successful television series called Mother & Father where he plays a gay father who works as a female impersonator. Undermining the effort is the president's assistant (Fred Willard) who is working with a united Arab-Jewish state Hebarab to make a grab for the country by buying it from San Birdwater when he repossess it.
What's remarkable about this film is not the plot or acting, both of which are passable, but the amazingly prescient predictions about future life. Among them are China embracing capitalism and becoming a world power, peak oil, native American wealth, the casualization of American fashion, the ascendancy of reality television, the acceptance of alternative lifestyles in popular culture and the rise of gold being touted on television as an alternative way to secure wealth. Inevitably they get a few things wrong as well, including predicting North Dakota as the first all gay state. Look for Richard Shcaal, veteran of MTM sitcoms and Valerie Harper's former husband as the vice president and cameos by Elvis Costello, Meatloaf, Tommy LaSorta, Howard Hessaman, Jay Leno and the Del Rubio Triplets.
This film, by Neal Israel, the director of Bachelor Party was just released on DVD in January of this year. It can also be see on Veho. Above is the trailer, uploaded to YouTube by wholmes. The poster above can be found at MoviePosterShop.com.
Obscurity factor: 8 (Never screened, just available on DVD, largely forgotten)
With the recent threat of a government shutdown, I thought this would be the perfect film to profile. It's about what was, at the time of this film's release, 19 years in the future -1998 and the USA is in trouble. The country is broke and has borrowed 4 billion dollars from its richest citizen, Sam Birdwater - a native American who is about to call in the debt. President Roosevelt (John Ritter), who is into EST and Scientology has decided that the best way to finance the debt repayment is to hold a 30 day telethon. Preparations for it begin with hiring the host - a former film star (Korman) who now has a successful television series called Mother & Father where he plays a gay father who works as a female impersonator. Undermining the effort is the president's assistant (Fred Willard) who is working with a united Arab-Jewish state Hebarab to make a grab for the country by buying it from San Birdwater when he repossess it.
What's remarkable about this film is not the plot or acting, both of which are passable, but the amazingly prescient predictions about future life. Among them are China embracing capitalism and becoming a world power, peak oil, native American wealth, the casualization of American fashion, the ascendancy of reality television, the acceptance of alternative lifestyles in popular culture and the rise of gold being touted on television as an alternative way to secure wealth. Inevitably they get a few things wrong as well, including predicting North Dakota as the first all gay state. Look for Richard Shcaal, veteran of MTM sitcoms and Valerie Harper's former husband as the vice president and cameos by Elvis Costello, Meatloaf, Tommy LaSorta, Howard Hessaman, Jay Leno and the Del Rubio Triplets.
This film, by Neal Israel, the director of Bachelor Party was just released on DVD in January of this year. It can also be see on Veho. Above is the trailer, uploaded to YouTube by wholmes. The poster above can be found at MoviePosterShop.com.
Obscurity factor: 8 (Never screened, just available on DVD, largely forgotten)
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Dudley Moore & Ralph Richardson in The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
Obscurity factor: 7
This film is where theater of the absurd and the cold war threat of nuclear holocaust meet. It concerns the remaining citizens of London, who wander the ruins of the city after the Third World War (which lasted 2 minutes and 28 seconds, including the signing of the peace treaty). The effects of radiation on the few survivors have led to strange mutations. We meet the doctor, of sorts (Michael Hordern), who is treating a lord (Ralph Richardson) who is convinced he will become a bed sitting room. He eventually does. We also meet a family, living on a tube train. They leave to wander the ruins with the rest of the meager population. The mother (Mona Washbourne) turns into a cupboard, and the father, a parrot, who is eventually eaten by the other family members because of the food shortage. There is no shortage of irreverence and humor in this portrayal of a truly bleak subject. The point being that even after nuclear holocaust people will cling to the meaningless customs and habits of society. The brilliant visual and circumstantial gags that so artfully make that point include a wandering reporter (Frank Thornton) for the BBC who positions himself inside your hollowed out television set and proceeds to give the news, and policemen (Dudley Moore and Peter Cook) who attempt to keep everyone moving to avoid being targets in an unlikely followup attack.
There is no shortage of available information on this film, which has become the darling of film bloggers everywhere (count me among the guilty!). It's such a brilliant example of the off kilter British humor that became a hallmark of shows like Monte Python. It has certainly attained cult status. It is, however, still quite obscure in mainstream circles. The settings include recognizable landmarks of London as if they had been decimated and bleak expanses of rubble and sand meant to represent the center of the city. The conventions of the city, like the tube are used to great effect both for mood and comedy. Look for Rita Tushingham and a very beautiful, young Richard Warwick as the young couple and Marty Feldman as a male nurse.
This is hard to find on DVD, though it has been released in Great Britain by the BFI on both DVD and BlueRay. Above is the trailer, which was been uploaded to YouTube by BritHumor2. You can also see the full film on YouTube in the playlist linked to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX3ltFkrngY&playnext=1&list=PLDD7471C7CCBC03A2.
Obscurity factor: 7 (on DVD, has cult following, otherwise virtually unknown)
This film is where theater of the absurd and the cold war threat of nuclear holocaust meet. It concerns the remaining citizens of London, who wander the ruins of the city after the Third World War (which lasted 2 minutes and 28 seconds, including the signing of the peace treaty). The effects of radiation on the few survivors have led to strange mutations. We meet the doctor, of sorts (Michael Hordern), who is treating a lord (Ralph Richardson) who is convinced he will become a bed sitting room. He eventually does. We also meet a family, living on a tube train. They leave to wander the ruins with the rest of the meager population. The mother (Mona Washbourne) turns into a cupboard, and the father, a parrot, who is eventually eaten by the other family members because of the food shortage. There is no shortage of irreverence and humor in this portrayal of a truly bleak subject. The point being that even after nuclear holocaust people will cling to the meaningless customs and habits of society. The brilliant visual and circumstantial gags that so artfully make that point include a wandering reporter (Frank Thornton) for the BBC who positions himself inside your hollowed out television set and proceeds to give the news, and policemen (Dudley Moore and Peter Cook) who attempt to keep everyone moving to avoid being targets in an unlikely followup attack.
There is no shortage of available information on this film, which has become the darling of film bloggers everywhere (count me among the guilty!). It's such a brilliant example of the off kilter British humor that became a hallmark of shows like Monte Python. It has certainly attained cult status. It is, however, still quite obscure in mainstream circles. The settings include recognizable landmarks of London as if they had been decimated and bleak expanses of rubble and sand meant to represent the center of the city. The conventions of the city, like the tube are used to great effect both for mood and comedy. Look for Rita Tushingham and a very beautiful, young Richard Warwick as the young couple and Marty Feldman as a male nurse.
This is hard to find on DVD, though it has been released in Great Britain by the BFI on both DVD and BlueRay. Above is the trailer, which was been uploaded to YouTube by BritHumor2. You can also see the full film on YouTube in the playlist linked to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX3ltFkrngY&playnext=1&list=PLDD7471C7CCBC03A2.
Obscurity factor: 7 (on DVD, has cult following, otherwise virtually unknown)
Friday, April 8, 2011
Spotlight on Julian Eltinge
Most people don't know the name Julian Eltinge, even though there's a Broadway theater named after him. He's not, after all, Helen Hays. He was, however, a huge star in his day, and he became a star by impersonating women.
His career reportedly started with a cadet show in 1900. His break came when E.E. Rice took him under his wing and bought the rights to a British play (Mr. Wix of Wickham) for him. His reviews were particularly good and led to a vaudeville career. By 1910 he had become a top tier headliner and took to the boards in legitimate Broadway shows. His popularity brought about a Hollywood career as well. 1917 found him working with producer Jesse Lasky on such titles as The Countess Charming and Clever Mrs. Carfax. His success allowed him to build a palatial home in Hollywood called Villa Capistrano for himself and his mother. His success lasted through the end of the silent era and though he tried to make his way in a changing Hollywood, he never really found footing in the sound era. There are two known sound films that feature his talents - Maid to Order (1931) and he has a small part playing himself in If I Had My Way - a Bing Crosby vehicle. He died in 1941 at the age of 59.
You can find lots of pictures of Julian Eltinge online. He was an extremely prolific model in service to the promotion of his career, but I've only been able to find one film of his. Above is The Isle of Love, uploaded to YouTube by The Huntly Film Archives. It's a 1922 feature starring Eltinge and Rudolph Valentino (with whom Julian Eltinge was rumored to have had an affair - though frankly, who wasn't?). It was originally filmed in 1918 and was conceived as a WWI spy picture, however before they could release it the armistice occurred, so it was shelved, re-cut and released as a Valentino vehicle after his success in The Sheik.
I first became fascinated by Julian Eltinge when I stumbled across The Julian Eltinge Project. Mark Berger has assembled a delightful trove of information on Eltinge. I highly recommend you take a look at the site. It's where most of my information for the profile has come from. My second encounter with Julian Eltinge came shortly after I discovered who he was. I ran across a postcard with a picture of his home. I was charmed by the coincidence and still have the postcard.
I first became fascinated by Julian Eltinge when I stumbled across The Julian Eltinge Project. Mark Berger has assembled a delightful trove of information on Eltinge. I highly recommend you take a look at the site. It's where most of my information for the profile has come from. My second encounter with Julian Eltinge came shortly after I discovered who he was. I ran across a postcard with a picture of his home. I was charmed by the coincidence and still have the postcard.
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