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Saturday, May 31, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:01 PM
The twist in Young Frankenstein is Marty Feldman says "Walk this way". After walking, he then hands Gene Wilder his cane and pantomimes how to walk like him. In this case, the joke is that the person saying "walk this way" meant it in the literal sense rather than the person he's saying it to interpreting it in the literal sense. Well, I thought it was interesting. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:51 PM
The review accuses the show of stealing the "walk this way" joke from Young Frankenstein. That statement is not only ignorant of the fact that, as Max Power says, "that joke is older than Mel Brooks" (I'll go one better; it's as old as the expression itself) but the fact that that joke was used six years earlier in the original Producers movie! And it's used in practically all his movies since. He even says in the director's commentary of Young Frankenstein "I use that dopey joke in all my movies." # | | Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:24 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:28 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:27 AM
In addition to the lessons of "appreciate your blessings" and "donate blood", there's a slight Sullivan Travels theme where one of the blessings/gifts Carrey should apreciate is his ability to make people laugh. He is told this once by Jennifer Aniston and once by Morgan Freeman that he can make people laugh; the audience is tempted to add "Not in this movie, necessarily..." When the bloopers played during the credits aren't funny, that has to prove something. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:20 AM
I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type.No report yet on whether Hope considers this "wild" or "something else." # | | Sunday, May 25, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:56 PM
Albert Brooks is funny with what little material he is given. Michael Douglas hopefully has a good T-Mobile plan what with having phoned in his role. The movie ends with a prison rape joke. Contrary to my expectation, Albert Brooks does not ask not to be shot due to his podiatry career. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:34 PM
If this film had been made today, most of that unit would be dead. At minimum, the returning boy would have been killed. William Holden's Army doctor character would be treating wounded children and he and John Wayne would make war-is-hell speechs. Instead John Wayne seeing that the attacking unit is filled with kids orders a retreat and slaps away the rifle of a soldier who was going to shoot at the reverand ("At least, that reverand ain't a kid."). The I-thought-destined-to-be-dead lad is captured. SOLDIER: What should we do with this prisoner, sir?I am not saying one is better than the other. Just different. And the film did have war-is-hell scenes. It's just interesting that the kiddy cannon fodder were spared. # | | Friday, May 23, 2003
Sunday, May 18, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:54 PM
# | | Friday, May 16, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:40 AM
Costas asks Seinfeld if he thinks his show would have been given time to succeed if it was to premiere today instead of in 1990. # | | Thursday, May 15, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:01 PM
For instance, the Constitution says that the House may conduct official business only when a quorum is present—currently at least 218 of the 435 members. Since the Civil War, however, the House parliamentarian has interpreted a quorum as a majority of members "elected, sworn, and living," in Ornstein's words. Ornstein finds this interpretation not only constitutionally dubious but also, in practical terms, absurd. "You could end up with, say, eight members being alive—five of them constituting a quorum," he says. Imagine a three-person quorum consisting of the ultraconservatives Tom DeLay, Ernest Istook, and Dan Burton—or of the leftists Maxine Waters, Charles Rangel, and Nancy Pelosi.Now, we all know that after Speaker of the House and Senate president pro tempore, the line of succession goes down the cabinet. But did you know this: "You have a provision in this law," Ornstein says, "which is just mind-boggling---that if you go down to the Cabinet level to fill the presidency, the speaker can at any subsequent point bump that person and assume the office." In other words, if a catastrophe made Secretary of State Colin Powell acting President, a quorum of Burton, Istook, and DeLay could elect DeLay the new speaker, and he could elbow President Powell right out of office.Read, as the kids say, the whole thing. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:55 PM
# | | Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:22 AM
# | | Monday, May 12, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:09 PM
Special thanks to all the wonderful folk who linked to me and spread the good word. If you've enjoyed reading this blog half as much as I've enjoyed writing it, then I enjoyed it twice as much as you did. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:07 PM
GRODIN: Are you crazy?!?!?And it just goes on like that for 90 minutes. I plan this as a franchise series of films; potential sequels are What's Happening to Me? and I Don't Believe This! # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
5:55 PM
I don't know whether the new In-Laws will be any good (Well, I can guess). The original, however, is very funny. # | | Friday, May 09, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:11 AM
Indeed, Adamson does not allude to a British vs American version; however he does discuss a Harpo sequence removed from the print by "the television people". Could I possibly have been deprived of a piece of Harpo shtick all my life? I watched the video tape and, indeed, the described sequence is missing. It occurs during the parody of a bedroom scene (Knock, knock, knock. "Quick, hide!") Here is how Adamson described it: Harpo's adventures with Connie are no less a sideshow: he does headstands in Connie's lap and makes faces at her and hides behind her on the couch; Groucho asks directions of her and watches assorted arms point in three directions at once (he comes looking for sex and gets a brahma); the rubbers[galoshes that Groucho keeps taking off and putting on] find their way to Harpo's feet (they never get there, they're just there) and when Groucho can't locate his own feet he replaces the rubbers on Connie's feet again (he thinks Harpo's feet are Connie's feet)).Horse Feathers is historically interesting as it is the only Marx Brothers movie to feature Groucho playing the guitar. Adamson suggests that this was done to show Chico and Harpo how silly the piano and harp solos looked. The best proof for this hypothesis is that the next movie Duck Soup features neither piano nor harp. UPDATE: Joe Adamson writes to Mark Evanier here promising a new version of the book with descriptions of additional missing footage from Night at the Opera and Animal Crackers. # | | Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
11:42 PM
# | | Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
7:43 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
7:34 PM
# | | Saturday, May 03, 2003
Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:51 PM
NETWORK EXECUTIVE: Now Star Trek, that was the show where every episode, the woman would take off her bandages and she'd be revealed to be beautiful.Leaving aside whether a big time TV executive should have heard of Star Trek, the funny part is the idea that the bandage twist happens every episode. "Gee, I wonder what'll happen when she takes off the bandages this time." # | |
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