Sometimes I look around and realize that I am inundated with Blu-Rays and books and CDs. I don’t do this on purpose….it just happens. There are just so many good things! And I have zero sales resistance.
So this weekend, I threw my own little one-person film festival. The program consisted of three movies, two of which I had never seen. I will tell you about each of them and offer my opinions.
Bedtime For Bonzo, 1951
Future President Ronald Reagan (who found himself the subject of “Bonzo” jokes for decades) stars as Peter Boyd, a college professor who hopes to prove the age-old “nature-nurture” argument with a chimpanzee. Peter hires a nanny named Jane (Diana Lynn) to play the “Mommy” role to Peter’s “Daddy”. They attempt to raise the chimp, and shenanigans ensue.
The movie is filled with monkeyshines (sorry) as a variety of complications unfold…but all ends well. Since I saw this movie on PBS back when Ronald Reagan was President, I watched the blu-ray with audio commentary from Film Historian Eddy Von Mueller. A great deal of the commentary is spent discussing the frequently disturbing use of animals in film and television. Von Mueller discusses not the just the very real incidents of animal actors being physically abused to get the desired behavior, but also the emotional abuse these animals suffered…being taken out of their natural environment, seperated from their mother, and so on.
The commentary also discusses fly-by-night owners of so-called animal preserves, which sold wild animals (apes, lions, tigers, etc.) to Hollywood studios for use in films. Peggy, the female chimp who played Bonzo in this film, was one of a large number of animals who died in a fire at Thousand Oaks Zoo, one such animal preserve. It’s a very sobering subject…and fortunately a virtual non-concern these days, as animals can be digitally created. Which, honestly, is better for everybody. A pixel, for example, can’t choke you. From “Mental Floss” magazine:
One day on the set, Peggy’s natural inquisitiveness got the better of her. Spying Reagan’s necktie, she grabbed it with both hands and began to pull. Startled, the actor tried to back away, but the harder he resisted, the harder she pulled, nearly suffocating our fortieth president in the process. Eventually, Reagan was able to break free of her grasp—but by then, he later recalled, the knot in his tie was “as small as my fingernail.” Far too tight to be untied by hand, the garment had to be cut off Reagan’s neck by a nearby crewmember.
One more comment on “Bedtime For Bonzo”: it was directed by none other than Fred deCordova, who is best known as producer and later executive producer of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” While promoting his autobiography “Johnny Came Lately” (get it?) de Cordova talked about the notorious film:
Johnny Cool, 1963
This film is like a Rat Pack movie meets “Waiting For Godot.” Because virtually every ingredient in a Rat Pack movie is present, except Francis Albert Sinatra. Peter Lawford? Check. (He’s the producer.) Sammy Davis Jr.? Check. Joey Bishop? Yep. Song written for the film by Sammy Cahn? Yep. It’s got “Rat Pack” vibes all over it! But no Frank. The title role is played by the great Henry Silva (who, incidentally, was in the original “Ocean’s Eleven” with Frank, Sammy, etc.). Before we get into the plot, here’s my favorite Henry Silva perfomance:
Okay, where was I? “Johnny Cool” is being sent to the USA by a gangster to kill, well…damn near everybody. Along the way he meets Darien, a foxy lady who becomes his gal Friday. And my, my, my does Johnny Cool love his work. He shoots a coupla guys here, stabs a guy there, blows up a guy’s swimming pool, and…dear sweet fancy Moses, he kills Jim Backus! At the aiport!
I mentioned some of the very impressive cast earlier…there’s also Telly Savalas, Mort Sahl, John McGiver and….hold on my heart….Elizabeth Montgomery as Johnny Cool’s gal.
As a yout’, I had quite the crush on Elizabeth Montgomery. After watching this movie, I realize that I still have a crush on Elizabeth Montgomery. She does not, incidentally, twitch her nose in this film.
I said earlier that “Johnny Cool” is like a Rat Pack movie without the key ingredient…but honestly, this is much darker stuff than “Robin And The Seven Hoods”. It’s easily the most violent thing I’ve ever seen Jim Backus in, I’ll tell you that! And now, feature film freaks, our final selection:
Pete Kelly’s Blues, 1955
I am a huge fan of Jack Webb. I watch reruns of “Dragnet” and “Adam-12” on MeTV every weekday. I have several volumes of the “Dragnet” radio series, which is, I think, as good as radio theater gets. “Pete Kelly’s Blues” the movie is in fact based on a short-lived “Pete Kelly’s Blues” radio series.
“Pete Kelly’s Blues” is set in prohibition-era 1920’s Kansas. Pete’s band has a good gig, but a crime boss attempts to muscle in on their racket. (That’s how they talk in the ’20s, don’t you know.) The band’s drunk drummer, played by a pre-“Adam-12” Martin Milner, turns the boss down. The band nearly gets run off the road on their way home from a gig, and the drummer is killed by a team of thugs.
All of the area’s performing musicians gather up to decide how to handle the pressure being placed on them by the crime bosses…but Pete reluctantly goes along with the bad guys, and in the process gets a singer for his band–an alcoholic siren played by Peggy Lee, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. More star power comes from Ella Fitzgerald. The movie is about as close to a musical as you can get. But it’s not a “people bust out with singing at random moments” musical.
Pete Kelly has a final showdown with the ne’er-do-wells, and things all work out in the end. In addition to the singing stars the cast includes Janet Leigh (as Pete’s love interest or lack thereof), Edmund O’Brien, Lee Marvin, Andy Devine and an early appearance by Jayne Mansfield. The 1920’s is a fun era to set a movie in, and the music is pretty spectacular.
One more thing about Jack Webb:
I am a writer. I write this blog. I write radio plays for fun. I write commercials for work. And sometimes I feel guilty for reusing certain lines. Kalin Krohe called me out the other day because I had used the phrase “inside of a goat’s stomach” one time too often. But you know what? Writers repeat themselves! Jack Webb reused characters, phrases and the like over his long run of television productions. For example. in “Pete Kelly’s Blues” Pete says, “I didn’t come here to listen to a banjo player who ate a big brekafast.”
Twelve years later, in an episode of “Dragnet”:
Even good writers repeat themselves. Not that I put myself in the “good” category.
Well, there you go…three very interesting movies. I’d say “Pete Kelly’s Blues” is my favorite but “Johnny Cool” is pretty close…if only they hadn’t killed off Jim Backus…