Flotsam and jetsam today; big work night and even more to come tomorrow. I’d feel guilty about this if I was running a pay site, AND there wasn’t an enormous update over in Black and White World that features some of the wildest, most striking sets in any movie, ever – let alone a small B-picture. But patience.
Speaking of paysites – new piece on the pleasures of small-town boneyards up at theqor.com – but more on that as the week goes on.
Link: Rather old site – at least I hope so – but has some heartbreaking postwar California postcards. Lots of architecture that will appeal to Mad Men fans, even though MM’s period was the start of the age of diseased, confused modernism. (One of the many things the show gets right is the cluttered, fussy domestic interiors; all you have to do is look at the faux-rococo Frenchy infestations in the early 60s hotel brochures, and you know it’s spot-on. For some reason lamps were particularly hit hard. The period between 1962 and 19 . . .oh, I don’t know, 1988? was a nadir of lamp style. Big ceramic monsters with puffy shades, crappy plastic inverted bowls – ugh. It took the rise of the drafting-table lamp, with its utilitarian industrial design, to bring some clarity back to the Lamp Genre. But I don’t know what I’m talking about. I just know I bought a lamp in 1989, and I’d buy it again today, and build an entire room around it – if I went modern, which I won’t.)
Driving to work this morning I heard “Crazy on You” by Heart for the 493,934th time, but this time I listened to it, having previously just thought “Oh, right, change the station.” Wasn’t like I had my hands full; there’s a button on the steering wheel for jumping off to the next well-chewed piece of pop cud. Perhaps because I came in on something other than the chorus, which is the most pedestrian part of the song. The rest is rather good. The chord progressions have the knack of sounding new and inevitable, which is no small trick, and it has the sheen and canny mix 70s songs often did quite well.
That always reminds me of a guy I worked with in a Pizza Hut, who loved “Smoke From a Distant Fire” for its production, not its actual musical quality. I hated that song – eyes have a mist! From a smoke from a dist! Yes your eyes have a mist! From a smoke from a dist! But listen to how the instruments are seperated, he’d say. Stuff like this was invariably described as “tasty,” and invariably played by thin California studio musicians with close-cropped beards, aviator glasses – smoked, of course, perhaps by a fire in closer proximity – and stupid Chuck Mangione hats. Oh, the twaddle that filled the jukeboxes then. The banality of the radio. It was lamp-bad.
Don’t get me started on TV of the era. But do get me started on TV today: I forgot to record “V” the other night, and if I’d had a TiVo it might have realized I wanted to see it. My new DVR couldn’t care less what I want. I don’t ask it to record, it doesn’t. Hey, I just work here, don’t ask me. I found myself looking for it on iTunes – nope – or Hulu – not yet – and this almost brought back the era of childhood TV, where you got one shot, and there wasn’t any pausing it for a phone call or a bathroom break or to get another shot of salt for the popcorn. Records you could play over right away; a movie you could see if you sat in your chair and waited for the next showing. TV happened in real time. No cliffhangers, either; no “story arcs.” Each ep was a self-contained tale to which few other episodes would ever refer. Exceptions: Star Trek, which may explain why it was so popular and seemed so different. Characters didn’t return, except for Harcourt Fenton Etcetera, but entire species did, bringing with them backstories and characteristics around which the fanboy could build all sorts of giddy nerdy speculation. Some of the shows had recurring villains – Dr. Loveless, on the great “Wild Wild West,” and the best heavy of them all, Wo Fat, in “Hawaii 5-0.” Courtly, merciless, worldly: perfect ChiCom foil. By then the Russian agents were either Commubots without emotion, or a fanciful projection of our own hopes: they were Russians in the classic Romantic, soulful sense, in Europe but not of it. They always loved to quote poetry. Take away the liquor and the lit, and the longing to be regarded as the inheritors of the Enlightment, and you had the Chinese Communists – the real Red Menace, because those dudes were cold.
I’d love to see a study of the way Russian Communists were portrayed after, oh, 1963, 64. At the height of the Peril they were hard, hard mofos – listen to some old radio shows like “I Was a Communist for the FBI,” and you’ll hear what I mean. It’s not quite Borees and Natasha territory, but close; anyone allied with the cause was a heartless SOB, ruled by fear and cruelty. The shows seem quaint now, but of course we’re not living an era where half of Europe is occupied by an illiberal claque of oligarchical collectivists. Anyway: somewhere in the 60s we invented the concept of the Cuddly Commie, someone who was either amusingly harmless, a blowhard with a bagful of reheated cliches, or the world-weary literate fellow who was really just as free as us, in a way, and thus an argument for the fatuity of a bipolar world. This idea took a long time to expire, and was last seen in a Star Trek: Next Gen episode, where Picard says “can you believe that people once went to war for different economic systems.” As if that was the small sticking point.
They never quite explain how Roddenberry’s vision of a future without money or religion evolved, or worked, or managed to fill the needs in the human spirit that find manifestation in, oh, things like money, or religion. Trek characters were allowed religion if was based on a non-divine dead guy, be he Surak or Ka’less, but eventually they got old-time religion X 10 with the Bajorans – who started out as sorta-kinda Palestinian stand-ins, but turned into your basic New-Age guys with a priest class and a doctrine built around omniscient, distant god-types who lived in a wormhole and could make anything happen, except granting Avery Brooks the power of personal warmth. And I say that as someone who loved, loved “Deep Space Nine,” and consider it the best of the post original-series shows. Better characters, better plots, better battles. Ronald D. Moore FTW, as the kids say.
So anyway. That’s it. Now: Black and White World. Enjoy!
I don’t know whether Ilya Kuryakin was the start of the cuddlization* of Russian communists, but he is surely a major player in the trend. Speaking of quaint, the idea that the UN would (or even could) be a major force for good in the world has been, shall we say, overtaken by history.
* Of course it’s a word, what else could it be?
Maybe some day I’ll run across another person who agrees with me that Enterprise was the best post-TOS Trek series.
There are some earlier contributions to the “cuddly commie” trend: from the line of thought that “they’re the same as us, but just don’t know it”, I give you “Ninotchka” (& its musical version “Silk Stockings”…Cyd Charisse–rrRRRRROOOOWwwwww!), for one. Ian Fleming(and his literary children) have a fair bit of responsibility, as well. Fleming(who knew that world well in the ’40s & early ’50s–well enough that he was consulted by Donovan about converting from the wartime OSS to the peacetime CIA) took great pains in his novels to show the “after all, it’s a game” attitude of many espionage professionals on both sides. The next step is the general disillusionment of all involved, a la “The Ipcress File” or “The Quiller Memorandum”. It’s not that far to go from considering an enemy an honorable, cultured &/or enjoyable adversary to what you’re describing.
Completely OT, but still in a B&W world, I’ve been watching the occasional episode of “Peter Gunn” that a local “Retro TV” channel(actually an extra channel of one of our local network affiliates, only practical, I suppose, now that they’ve gone digital) airs. What was the designer/art director of the titles smoking? It’s a taut, serious p.i. show, but the opening & closing credits and the station break animation are exactly what you’d get from something like “One Step Beyond”/”The Twilight Zone”, or the cover of an early Ray Bradbury book. I don’t get it.
Good luck in your quest.
I guess Lileks doesn’t use Amazon Unbox. Thay have “V”, and the premiere episode is free. (Whoops – doesn’t work on Mac – sorry)
I am waiting to hear how obnoxious the political overtones are. The original V series ended very, very badly in that respect (as a love song to the FLMN).
The movie certainly looks interesting. I see the cinematographer went on to work on “Cat People”, “Curse of the Cat People”, “The Seventh Victim”, “Out of the Past” and “Blood on the Moon.”
Copyright renewed, but NOT available on DVD (where does Lileks get these things?)
There were series that brought back villains in the 1960’s some of them quite interesting.
The Untouchables brought back Frank Nitti quite often and even Big Al made more than a couple of appearances.
And if you’re talking about a series that brought back villains, you’d be hard pressed to find a better show than Batman. Watch Burgess Meredith with his FDR cigarette holder , Cesar Romero do the definitive cackle, Frank Gorshin lay some Richard Widmark on you , Victor Buono deliberately mugging to the camera or Julie Newmar just be Julie Newmar (purrrrrfect)- I defy you to show me a better cast of roving bad-guys, then or now.
GAA, @ B&W world! As though combining Justice with the Spectre of Death wasn’t nightmarish enough, they had to slap on a batch of lurid clown makeup. That’s a hell of a thing to spring on an insomniac at dawn.
“But it’s just a dream, and eventually Peter Lorre blows it by trying to kill the girlfriend of the reporter. I don’t know why she suspects him at all.” Judging from the subsequent picture of Lorre, he had to kill her to stop his transmogrification into Alistair Sim.
“Smoke…from a distant fire…” Thank you for putting that long-lost earworm in my head.
“Crazy on You” I recently heard that out of its current natural environment (AOR stations–I mean you, KQRS), and it’s actually a pretty decent song when you actually hear it from beginning to end, and it isn’t sandwiched between the usual Thin Lizzie and Lynyrd Skynyrd. It also helps that I haven’t listened to AOR (which even since the 80s has actually been an “oldies” station) in 20+ years. The absence of AOR has even increased my appreciation for Tom Petty. What did you say–he made several albums after “Damn the Torpedoes” Whaaaat?
The lighting in “Stranger on the Third Floor” certainly is “tasty”- they obviously didn’t use any of those lousy ’60’s lamps.
“Kam Fong as Chin Ho” – best credit in ’60’s television…
“Don’t get me started on TV of the era”….. I won’t, but I came across episodes of some forgotten mid 1970’s TV shows on YouTube – ‘CPO Sharkey’, ‘Carter Country’, ‘Blansky’s Beauties’, ‘Roller Girls’, ‘Flo’, etc. – watched them and realized just how AWFUL this stuff was. Stupid predictable plots, terrible, terrible acting, damn near unwatchable. Thank God Cable raised the bar and forced the current age of quality television. No wonder most TV shows from the 70’s are forgotten – quality it ain’t.
Boris and Natasha weren’t heartless; indeed, they really seemed to enjoy their jobs (except for part where moose and squirrel win– hoo-boy!).
Regarding religion and Trek: I was never a big fan, but I dimly recall an episode from the original series where they beam down onto a planet where Rome never fell. Gladiator fights staged in a television studio, that sort of thing. Anyway, the oppressed minority were sun worshippers, which Spock declares fascinating, since sun worship is so primitive. Then Uhuru makes the connection between worshipping the sun and worshipping the Son. Yeah, deep.
Wasn’t Chekov an early cuddly Commie? Or at least cuddly Rooskie?
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or of the one.” Yeah, these guys were all Commie-lite, at least.
The movie certainly looks interesting. I see the cinematographer went on to work on “Cat People”, “Curse of the Cat People”, “The Seventh Victim”, “Out of the Past” and “Blood on the Moon.”
Nicholas Musuraca, one of the best. Love RKO noirs from this period–and the Lewtons.
This seems to be the movie that pretty well sealed Lorre’s image that I came to know through cartoons and Spike Jones.
>>Copyright renewed, but NOT available on DVD (where does Lileks get these things?)
I got it on Netflix not too long ago
Sir, you have not heard “Crazy on You” until you’ve heard it covered by The Decemberists live. Smoldering.
@Dave in MA: I won’t say ENT was the best post-TOS Trek series, but it DID have some of the best characters. Trip and Malcolm as a friendship stand up to any other post-TOS pairing you can name. Shran made Andorians as fascinating (you’ll pardon the expression) as the Vulcans. Soval’s grouchy vulnerability made him a much more interesting elder statesman/diplomat than the endlessly serene Sarek.
It’s unfortunate that the two guys who came up with the great characters didn’t understand how to execute the show’s concept in an equally brilliant manner. That took Manny Coto, who didn’t come on until S4, and by that time we were just running out the clock getting to syndication.
>>we’re not living an era where half of Europe is occupied by an illiberal claque of oligarchical collectivists
We’re not?
I came here to say that Wo Fat == Khigh Dhiegh, and he was at his scariest in The Manchurian Candidate. Born in NJ!
It’s interesting to wonder about the degree to which the “cuddly commie” was the result of direct KGB activity. Google up “Boris Morros” some time and read his story. He was contacted by the KGB and told, basically, “work with us or we kill all of your relatives still living in the USSR.” He agreed to work with them, then went straight to the FBI and spilled his guts. They encouraged him to spy for them and he spent 10 years as a “counter spy.”
The interesting thing about the story isn’t the spying, it’s what they wanted him to do: start a television production company. He had the connections to do it, but not the money and Moscow was never willing to pony up the cash he said he would need. Instead, he spent his time looking for well-placed people the KGB could subvert. Boris Morros, Matt Cvetic, Herbert Philbrick, etc: we had lots of people spying on Communist activities in this country. The plain fact is that they had hundreds of spies in the US.
These spies mostly weren’t trying to steal atomic bomb secrets, they were working on “demoralization” projects. They worked to subvert minor politicians, writers, university profs and leading businessmen. They didn’t try to make them into stalwart commies, they made them into “useful idiots” who would repeat “cuddly commie” blather, moral relativism and “you have to see it from their point of view” rhetoric. Google up “Yuri Bezmenov”, a Soviet defector who told the story of his work, and see how he lays it out (he participated in operation that filled an entire issue of Look magazine with the Communist party line).
I doubt we’ll ever have proof one way or another, but it certainly looks like they were pretty damned successful – we’re still hip-deep in useful idiots.
@Dave (in MA)
I agree. But I have to admit it’s mostly because of Jolene Blalock. On the other hand, they did a good job of tying up loose ends and contradictions from other incarnations.
So I’m sitting here wondering if there’s a difference between flotsam and jetsam. I mean, if you were wandering along a beach and saw a bunch of stuff in the water, could you reliably separate the flotsam from the jetsam? Turns out, no. According to The Free Online Dictionary by Farlex: “In maritime law, flotsam applies to wreckage or cargo left floating on the sea after a shipwreck. Jetsam applies to cargo or equipment thrown overboard from a ship in distress and either sunk or washed ashore.” Am I the only one who didn’t know that? The internet is a wonderful thing.
It’s not there now (doesn’t come up in search, either by title or under Peter Lorre, or Elisha Cook Jr). Also, the TCM site lists it as not available on DVD.
I’m guessing the only way it is available is as a digital copy from an old VHS tape.
When I saw the title “I Was A Communist for the FBI”, the
phrase “Think, Philbrick, think!” came to mind. A little
websearching got me on the right track. That phrase came
from “I Led Three Lives” TV series, which was a kind of
spinoff of the “I Was A Communist for the FBI” radio show.
“I Led Three Lives” was based on the story of Herbert
Philbrick who actually infiltrated the Communist Party for
the FBI. According to Wikipedia, it had the backing of
the FBI. Ironically, “I Was…” did not.
Gene Roddenberry is listed as a writer for “I Led..”. The
star was Albert Lea, MN native Richard Carlson. Whenever
I saw Carlson in anything else, even Westerns, I couldn’t
help but think of the “Think, Philbrick, think!” catch-
phrase.
From IMDB: Khigh Dhiegh was born Kenneth Dickerson. Although he portrayed innumerable Asians in the course of his career, he was actually of Anglo-Egyptian-Sudanese ancestry. He was also a Taoist (not a communist…)
Looking at those Hollywood postcards I realized that was about the era that Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel headed out and lived in that hotel, from which Lucy and Ethel terrorized the likes of William Holden, Fernando Lamas, Richard Widmark, and Howard Duff and Ida Lupino. As a kid living in Georgia then it was a fantasy land, but the photos make it look a whole lot like the Augusta, Ga., I lived in.
I think it comes a close second to: “Zulu as Kono”
Enterprise is my second-favorite Trek series. Incidentally, I find TNG to be remarkably unwatchable nowadays. It actually seems more dated than the original show now.
You can see V for free (and many other ABC shows) at ABC.com, the day after they air.
Was the Star Trek tie-in to “Third Floor” too obvious to mention, or did I just miss it?
Surely we recognize good ol’ hold-em-in-our-hands book-lovin’ attorney Sam Cogley!
How about the movie “Chief Zabu” (1989) with Manu Tupou as Zabu?
Uhh.. “Topou”.
Maybe I’m out of it, but according to abc.com, “V” doesn’t show its first episode until this Saturday, November 7.
But I don’t even pretend to keep up with such things.
I tend to agree with Action Kate on Enterprise (and Voyager, for that matter). They had interesting characters, and heaps of potential, but the execution was lacking. Enterprise also suffered from an executive decision that they didn’t want to make the show for the diehard trekkies, and kept trying to make it Star Trek Lite, to appeal to a broader audience. It wasn’t until S4 that they figured out that it was only the diehard trekkies (like me) who were watching it, and began to cater to the fans. That’s when it really came into its own. Their Mirror universe episodes stand as some of the most fun Trek in the whole canon.
And, of course, those of us who remember (or think we remember) The Rolling Stones know that if you find flotsam, it is yours, but jetsam remains the property of the shipowners who (temporarily, in theory) set it adrift in time of distress for later recovery. Real-time differentiation is a problem left as an exercise for the interested student.
DS9 was the only ST series where religion and money were involved. There’s no need for money on a warp-busting ship, where Guinan whips up your favorite drink (while you’re off-duty, of course) without you asking. DS9 featured greedy Ferengis (yes, it’s redundant) and their pursuit of pressed latnum(sp?). While we may have identified more with Federation officers and having to deal with Ferengi-like characters in our real lives, most of us are Ferengi at heart.
I wonder if the “cuddlization” of commies was a reaction by Hollywood to the McCarthy trials of the 50’s?
It’s too bad, James, that you missed the premiere of “V”, but if GardenState is correct, you’ll have another chance.
I shouldn’t have watched such a huge chunk of the original “V” marathon leading up to the premiere, because it kind of spoiled the effect of the remake for me. I had forgotten how truly cheesy the original was, full of bad acting, blatant vamping, and 80s Big Hair. The remake is a definite improvement on that, especially in the villains. They’re a lot colder, you might say, reptilian in fact, despite the serene demeanor and permanent Mona Lisa smiles. And of course, there’s slick CGI.
As for the politics, well, they were right when they said it was a slap at Obamamania, but I don’t think it’s meant as a slam on Obama so much as on the cult of personality itself, the bad habit of too many human beings seeing only what they want to see, and the acquiescence of the glory-hungry media. All of this was present in the original as well, but we didn’t have the government then that we have today, so it was less controversial then. Anyway, it’s refreshing that they haven’t equated the Visitors with Nazis.
They crammed a lot into the premiere, but it’s worth giving the next episode a watch, IMO.
Consider that person found. I love Enterprise, from the theme right on through. Thought Bakula made a great captain, thought they had great characters – can’t figure out why folks disliked it so much
Flotsam and jetsam — one of the unusual things that was covered in a beginning insurance course I took years ago. Flotsam, caused by a shipwreck, is covered in a claim, jetsam is not.
I like it too- especially the way they incorporated references to the earlier shows, but somehow managed to not make it predictable. All of the Star Trek shows post “Next Generation” seemed to reflect the times in which they were made, putting current events in a science fiction context. Mr.Lileks mentioned the Bajorans as Palestinians, and for Enterprise it was the Xindi attack on Earth representing 9/11…
I think a lot of the blame/credit for comical Russian communists has to be laid at Khrushchev’s feet. Sure, he could do some scary things like start Berlin crises and send missiles to Cuba, but he was tubby, goofy, banged his shoe, etc. After the Cuban missile crisis maybe it just made sense to Americans to laugh at them. Plus, by that point we had astronauts, etc. so they didn’t seem so scary. When did the comedy “The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!” come out, ‘64? By that point the Chinese and Russians had had their break and everyone knew the Chinese were the hardcore Commie bastards to watch/fear.
My $.02.
The cutest cuddliest commie I remember was Horst Buchholz, the East German in “One-Two-Three” – engaged to Cagney’s daughter. They were ultimately able to convert him (love conquers all). The bad commies were just plain silly, and easily corrupted by booze and sexy ladies.
But the most loveable commies ever were the submarine crew in “The Russians are Coming …” – I SO had a crush on Alan Arkin. I think I still do
A number of years ago I had the chance to attend a seminar where a retired(?), or so he said, KGB brigadier spoke to a very mixed bag of us security types. Boy was he smooth. He had spent time in the US in the 70’s at the emabssy in NYC and spoke near accentless American. During the break he went around chatting people up and working the room hard. Watching him shaking hands, I got the feeling he could unobtrusively get the gold fillings out of your teeth by osmosis while he was collecting intel.
How far is Wayzata from Jasperwood?
http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/2009/11/strumpdate-1.html#comments
re: One-Two-Three — Horst was engaged to Cagney’s boss’ daughter. Which made it worse from Herr MacNamara’s POV.
another for Enterprise.
@RebeccaH
I watched it last night (TIVO) and I was looking for BHO worship jabs, did not seem too much except for that song:
Mm, mmm, mm!
Anna the Visitor
She said they could lend a hand
To make this planet strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Anna the Visitor . . .
p.s. If Anna does not eat a live rat whole I am going to be deeply disappointed.
There is nothing wrong with the Thin Lizzies. Or the Lynyrd Skynyrds.
It ain’t just half and it ain’t just Europe anymore.
Both of which appeared in the Best Opening Titles Sequence Ever–which was also the Best Tourism Commercial Ever.
According to somebody on the radio, only 4 episodes of “V” will be shown and then there will be a very long hiatus because of the Winter Olympics. Might watch it when it comes back around.