Tag Archives: Gene Wilder

Young Frankenstein or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

17 Saturday Jun 2017

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Salutations™!!

a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, Young Frankenstein (1974), starring Gene Wilder, Terri Garr, Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman and Marty Feldman.

Young_Frankenstein_movie_poster

©20th Century Fox

 

Per IMDb: “An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that he is not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.”

Dr. Frederick Frahnk-in-steen (Wilder), trying to shake his grandfather’s ill-fated legacy, is a professor of medicine at an American university. He denounces the ability to revive dead cells and says his grandfather was a demented and sick man. A man shows up with the will of his great-grandfather that grants Freddy his entire Transylvanian estate, castle and all. He has to leave his annoying socialite fiance named Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) who can’t kiss him, shake his hand or anything else goodbye, as she’s going to some uppity yuppy party after he gets on the train. Then oddly enough, he gets on a train to New York and when he changes trains he’s on a train to Transylvania.

He’s met by Marty Feldman’s Igor – pronounced Eye-gore – at the station who has a remarkable hump on his back that he seems to not notice. He takes him to a hay cart to drive Freddy to the castle. He meets Inga (Garr), his hired lab assistant. Arriving at the castle they meet the very scary Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman) who, at the mere mention of her name sends the horses into a frenzy. Freddy wants to know where the secret library is and Frau Blücher says she knows nothing about that. He and Inga stumble into it a little later and that sets Freddy into a mode to improve his great-grandfather’s work.

They find a large man who was freshly hung. And Freddy sends Igor to get the brain of a genius. Well, something happens and Igor has to, instead, get an abnormal brain. That makes the creation a bit erratic and mostly uncontrollable. Do they get the monster under control? Does he wreak havoc on the town? You’ll have to watch to find out.

To me, this is the second funniest of the Mel Brooks films (after Blazing Saddles). It was co-written by both Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder has a strange and “wilder” look the entire film like he’s about to lose it at any time. The fact that the film is shot in black and white creates a darker, drearier feel and adds to the ambiance. It’s a wild parody of classic horror films with Brooks’ good friends chipping in. Cloris Leachman is a hilarious witchy woman with a chip on her shoulder the entire time. Peter Boyle who plays the monster breaks the fourth wall a few times and it’s always very funny. Gene Hackman plays the old blind man who the monster encounters in the night. Mel Brooks, oddly enough only appears in makeup and as off-screen voices. He’s usually in the films more prominently.

Peter Boyle who plays the monster breaks the fourth wall a few times and it’s always very funny. Gene Hackman plays the old blind man who the monster encounters in the night. Mel Brooks, oddly enough only appears in makeup and as off-screen voices. He’s usually in the films more prominently. Turns out that most of the jokes were improvised, including Leachman’s “varm milk” and Ovaltine bit, as well as Feldman’s “hump.”

Rotten Tomatoes has it rated 93% Fresh with an Audience Score of 92%. Well deserved. IMDb has it at 8 stars out of 10. We watched it as part of the Mel Brooks collection that I have and 3B laughed throughout most of it. It is available on Netflix, however, so if you’ve not seen it, see it there. I rate it 4.5 stars out of 5. Have you seen it? What did you think? What would you like to read/hear me review?

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…”
Scorp out!

—
“For what we are about to see next, we must enter quietly into the realm of genius.” – Dr. Frederick Frankenstein

In Memoriam or: So Long, 2016

02 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by in Life as We Know It

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Salutations™!!

2016 was a rough year for losses of notable names in the sports, music, movies, pop culture, all around. We are probably at that time in our lives when those we admired, looked up to, watched, listened to and wanted to be like are passing on. Many of these people became popular at a time when celebrity and notoriety were new phenomena, becoming more and more in the public eye with cable channels and more visible availability to the general public. Some were behind the scenes and some in our faces and in our ears. While 2017 may or may not offer any reprieve from the onslaught of these deaths, let’s hope the list is at least smaller.

This is not, by any means, a full, comprehensive list of those we lost but I hope it’s a good tribute.

January –
1.Vilmos Zsigmond, 85, American Hungarian cinematographer (McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Deliverance, Close Encounters of the Third Kind).
10. David Bowie, 69, musician.

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Alan Rickman 1946-2016

14. Alan Rickman, 69, actor (Die Hard, Bottle Shock, Harry Potter series). René Angélil, 73, music producer and husband of singer Celine Dion.
18. Glen Frey, 67, musician.
23. Jimmy Bain, 68, musician (Rainbow, Dio, Phil Lynott).
26. Abe Vigoda, 94, actor (Godfather, Barney Miller)
28. Paul Kantner, 74, musician (Jefferson Airplane).Signe Toly Anderson, 74, musician (Jefferson Airplane).
30. Frank Finlay, 89, actor (Othello).

February –
3. Joe Alaskey, 63, voice actor (one of Mel Blanc’s successors for Bugs Bunny, Yosemite

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George Kennedy 1925-2016

Sam, etc.). Maurice White, 74, musician (Earth Wind & Fire).
4. Edgar Mitchell, 85, astronaut.
13. Antonin Scalia, 79, American Supreme Court Justice.
15. George Gaynes, 98, actor (Police Academy, Punky Brewster).
19. Harper Lee, 89, writer (To Kill a Mockingbird).
22. Douglas Slocombe, 103, British cinematographer (Indiana Jones series).
23. Donald E. Williams, 74, astronaut.
25. Tony Burton, 78, actor (Rocky series, one of only four characters to be in each film).
28. George Kennedy, 91, actor (Cool Hand Luke, Naked Gun).

March –
5. Ray Tomlinson, 71, American computer programmer (invented the modern day email system).
6. Nancy Reagan, 94, American First Lady and actress.
8. Sir George Martin, 90, British record producer, composer, conductor (The Beatles). Claus Ogerman, 85, German composer, arranger, conductor (Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Diana Krall).
10. Keith Emerson, 71, British musician (Emerson Lake & Palmer/Powell)
17. Larry Drake, 67, actor (Darkman).

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George Martin 1926-2016

22. Rob Ford, 46, Canadian politician.
23. Ken Howard, 71, actor (1776, J. Edgar).24. Garry Shandling, 66, actor and comedian.
29. Patty Duke, 69, singer and actress (The Miracle Worker, Valley of the Dolls, The Patty Duke Show).

April –
2. Amber Rayne, 31, porn actress.
6. Merle Haggard, 79, musician.
12. Balls Mahoney, 44, professional wrestler.
17. Doris Roberts, 90, actress (Everybody Loves Raymond, Remington Steele).
20. Guy Hamilton, 93, British film director (Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun). Chyna, 46, professional wrestler.

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Prince 1958-2016

21. Prince, 57, musician.
24. Billy Paul, 81, musician.

May –
2. Afeni Shakur, 69, activist and Tupac Shakur’s mother.
4. Bob Bennett, 82, American politician (R – Utah).
8. William Schallert, 93, actor (The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Teachers).17. Guy Clark, 74, songwriter, singer (“New Cut Road,” “The Carpenter”).
19. Alan Young, 96, actor (Mr. Ed).
21. Nick Menza, 51, musician (Megadeth, drummer).

June –
3. Muhammad Ali, 74, boxer.
6. Kimbo Slice, 42, mixed martial artist. Peter Shaffer, 90, British playwright (Equus, Amadeus).
10. Gordie Howe, 88, Canadian ice hockey player. Christina Grimmie, 22, singer (winner of NBC’s The Voice).

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Muhammad Ali 1942-2016

12. George Voinovich, 79, American politician (R – Ohio).
19. Anton Yelchin, 27, actor (Star Trek films).
23. Michael Herr, 76, American writer (screenplay co-writer: Full Metal Jacket). Ralph Stanley, 89, musician.
28. Scotty Moore, 84, musician (Elvis Presley). Pat Summitt, 64, college basketball coach.

July –
2. Michael Cimino, 77, film director, screenwriter, producer and author (The Deer Hunter).
16. Nate Thurmond, 74, NBA player.
19. Garry Marshall, 81, actor, director, producer, writer, voice artist, and comedian (Happy Days, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride).
24. Marni Nixon, 86, American soprano (West Side Story, My Fair Lady).
25. Dwight Jones, 64, NBA player. Tim LaHaye, 90, evangelist and author (Left Behind).
30. Gloria DeHaven, 91, actress (Modern Times, Best Foot Forward).

August –
2. David Huddleston, 85, actor (Blazing Saddles, The Big Lebowski). Terence Bayler, 86, actor (Time Bandits,  Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Brazil).
13. Kenny Baker, 81, actor (Star Wars (R2-D2)).

gene-wilder

Gene Wilder 1933-2016

14. Fyvush Finkel, 93, actor (Picket Fences, Boston Public).
15. Bobby Hutcherson, 75, musician.
17. Arthur Hiller, 92, director (Silver Streak, Outrageous Fortune).
19. Lou Pearlman, 62, producer and fraudster (Backstreet Boys, ponzi schemes).
23. Steven Hill, 94, actor (Mission:Impossible, Law & Order).
25. Rudy van Gelder, 91, sound engineer (John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk).
28. Mr. Fuji, 81, professional wrestler/manager.
29. Gene Wilder, 83, actor (Blazing Saddles, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein).

September –

arnoldpalmer

Arnold Palmer 1929-2016

1. Jon Polito, 65, actor (The Big Lebowski, Homicide: Life on the Street).
5. Hugh O’Brian, 91, actor (The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Shootist). Phillis Schlafly, 92, American writer and political activist.
11. Alexis Arquette, 47, actor/activist (The Wedding Singer, Pulp Fiction).
16. Edward Albee, 88, writer (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?).
17. Charmian Carr, 73, actress (The Sound of Music).
20. Curtis Hanson, 71, director (LA Confidential, 8 Mile).
24. Bill Nunn, 62, actor (Do the Right Thing, Spider-Man).
25. Arnold Palmer, 87, golfer.
26. Herschell Gordon Lewis, 90, splatter horror film director.

October –

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Pete Burns 1959-2016

20. Michael Massee, 64, actor (The Crow, Spider-Man).
23. Pete Burns, 57, British singer (Dead or Alive).
24. Bobby Vee, 73, singer.

November –
7. Leonard Cohen, 82, singer. Janet Reno, 78, first woman attorney general of the United States.
11. Robert Vaughn, 83, actor (The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Bullitt, Magnificent Seven).
13. Leon Russell, 74, musician (“Lady Blue, “Tight Rope”).
14. Gardnar Mulloy, 102, tennis player.
15. Mose Allison, 89, musician.
16. Melvin Lair, 94, politician (R – Wisconsin).
18. Denton Cooley, 96, surgeon (implanted first artificial heart).
23. Andrew Sachs, 86, actor (Fawlty Towers).
24. Florence Henderson, 82, actress (Brady Bunch). Pauline Oliveros, 84, electronic art composer.

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Leonard Cohen 1934-2016

25. Fidel Castro, 90, Cuban President. Ron Glass, 71, actor (Barney Miller, Firefly, Serenity).

December –
1. Sammy Lee, 96, physician and Olympic diver.
6. Peter Vaughn, 93, actor (Remains of the Day, Game of Thrones).
7. Greg Lake, 69, musician (Emerson Lake & Palmer/Powell).
8. John Glenn, 95, astronaut. Joseph Mascolo, 87, actor (Days of Our Lives).
13. Alan Thicke, 69, actor, songwriter (Growing Pains, Diff’rent Strokes theme, Facts of Life theme).
14. Bernard Fox, 89, actor (Bewitched, Hogan’s Heroes, Titanic).
17. Henry Heimlich, 93, surgeon and medical researcher (Heimlich maneuver).
18. Zsa Zsa Gabor, 99, actress.
24. Richard Adams, 96, author (Watership Down). Rick Parfitt, 68, musician (Status Quo). Liz Smith, 95, actress (The Royale Family, The Vicar of Dibley).

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Carrie Fisher 1956-2016

25. George Michael, 53, musician.
27. Carrie Fisher, 60, actress (Star Wars, Blues Brothers).
28. Debbie Reynolds, 84, actress (Singin’ in the Rain, mother of Carrie Fisher).
31. William Christopher, 84, actor (M*A*S*H).

That’s 114 notable names (if I counted them correctly) that we lost this year. Some of them I didn’t even know we lost until compiling this list. Ron Glass, Robert Vaughn, David Huddleston and William Christopher were a few I didn’t know about. Again, while 2017 may not be gentle on us either, we can hope. I think part of it is we’re used to only about one or two A-list celebs departing a year with more B- and C-listers, but this year, we had many A-listers. Many of them older than I thought. Hope you all have a great 2017!

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.” – Alan Rickman

Blazing Saddles or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

03 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by in Movie Review

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Salutations™!!

a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, Blazing Saddles (1974), starring Clevon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman.

Per IMDb: “To ruin a western town, a corrupt political boss appoints a black sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.”

I rearranged my viewing schedule to get this one in since it is one of my three favorite Gene Wilder films and I had just been saying I wanted to watch it again. Rest well, Waco Kid, rest well.

Quicksand threatens the construction path of the new railroad in the wild west. Oppressive rail bosses toward the black workers gets worse as time goes on. One, Bart (Little), goes so far as to whack the foreman, Taggart (Slim Pickens), in the head with a shovel. He talks the corrupt State Attorney

Blazing_saddles_movie_poster

©Warner Bros. Pictures

General, Hedley Lamarr (Korman) into hanging Bart, but a scheduling conflict keeps that from happening until a few days later. Because the railroad will have to reroute to avoid the quicksand, they have to convince the citizens of the small town of Rock Ridge to leave, as to gain that land for the rerouting.

Lamarr sends Taggart and other thugs into town to shoot the Sheriff and scare the townspeople away. That doesn’t work, as the townsfolk petition Governor William J. Le Petomane (Mel Brooks) send a new sheriff. Lamarr talks the governor into appointing Bart, thinking that a black sheriff will send the town into a tizzy and open the door for him to take over. He was right about one thing, the townspeople didn’t like that Bart was black.

With the assistance of washed-up and recovering alcoholic gunslinger Jim, the Waco Kid (Wilder), Bart works his arse off to overcome the townspeople’s hostile reception, most of which are named Johnson. Taggart and compay send Mongo (Alex Karras), a brutish, dim, but philosophical henchman, to kill Bart but he outsmarts the big oaf. Bart then out seduces German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn). At wits end, Lamarr schemes a larger plan involving a recruited army of ruffians, including run-of-the-mill criminals, the Klan, and Nazi soldiers, which I’m mostly sure the latter two didn’t really exist at the time. Did Lamarr get the town to move? Did Bart and Jim outsmart the gangs? You’ll have to watch to find out.

In what could, at first glance, be one of the most blatantly racist films ever made, Mel Brooks, who is Jewish, holds back nothing to make fun of everyone: black folks, Jewish folks and especially white folks. You realize that’s what’s actually happening later in the film. In the beginning, the first time I saw it, anyway, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Once you understand they’re making fun, it’s a lot easier to enjoy.

I’m starting to wonder if we’re not seeing some of this seemingly outlandish behavior from people today reappear with the advent of social media and the erasing of boundaries and couth? It’s one thing to feel a certain way and it’s also another certain way to have the First Amendment to express that certain way, but there seems to be an unleashing of bigotry and hate where every day idiots who used to be hidden in their own circle of friends are coming out of the woodwork with no repercussions in sight. Spout your hate, you’ve that right, but know that you’ll be made fun of. At least that part is fun. Okay, soapbox back under the proverbial bed. but, the film, I think gives great social commentary.

It’s one visual, fart and corny joke after another and it shows Brooks’ genius and how good  actors Little, Wilder and Korman, as well as the all-star supporting cast, really was. You may ask why I picked this one over Young Frankenstein or Willy Wonka, especially since Gene Wilder was more a supporting actor and not the lead role? Well, there’s only one answer: I wanted to watch this one. That’s not to say that the other two I mentioned won’t make it in the next few weeks. Doesn’t mean they will, just where the notion hits me. It’s not available for streaming on Netflix but is available via DVD.com. Also, it is available for rent on Amazon Prime.

Rotten Tomatoes has it at 90% Fresh with an Audience Score of 91%. IMDb rates it 7.8 stars out of 10. It was nominated for both the 1998 and 2007 versions of the AFI‘s 100 Years… 100 Movies lists. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Song; winning none. The film has a special place in my heart because it was the very first DVD I ever owned. I bought the DVD player and that film at the same time. I was amazed by the fact you could watch the film and hear the commentary. That was revolutionary stuff. I highly recommend this film and rate it 5 stars out of 5. Have you seen it? Do you agree? What would you like to see or hear me rate in the future?

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“Excuse me while I whip this out. “ – Bart