Category Archives: 1982

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
Directed by Carl Reiner
Written by Carl Reiner, George Gipe and Steve Martin
1982/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental

Rigby Reardon: Carlotta was the kind of town where they spell trouble T-R-U-B-I-L, and if you try to correct them, they kill you.

This should have been better than it is.

The film is a spoof of classic film noir.  Steve Martin plays private eye Rigby Reardon.  He has been hired by Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward) find her father’s killer. The story is interspersed with scenes from films noir in which Steve Martin is inserted.  So he meets up with Humphrey Bogart, Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd, etc. etc.  The humor is broad and often dirty.  With Carl Reiner as a butler.

This movie didn’t work for me.  It’s like Reiner got so caught up in his gimmick that he didn’t bother to make the underlying story interesting.  I also didn’t find it particularly funny but that’s always such a subjective thing.  The movie got two “no” votes from Gene and Roger.

Say Amen, Somebody
Directed by George T. Nierenberg
1982/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental

 

Gospel music is the purest thing there is on this earth. – Elvis Presley

This truly excellent look at gospel music is less a documentary and more a joyful experience for the ears and heart.

The film captures fascinating interviews with the Father of Gospel Thomas A. Dorsey and the equally legendary Willie May Ford Smith. The joyful part consists of amazing performances by Smith and three singing acts – Delois Barrett Campbell and the Barrett Sisters, Zella Jackson Price, and the O’Neal Twins, Edgar and Edward, backed by a choir.

These performances are the equal of the greatest performances by the best soul singers ever.  If you have any interest in the history of pop music from honky tonk blues through soul and R&B you will likely love this film.  Highly recommended.

Lousy print but I love this song so much!

Victor/Victoria
Directed by Blake Edwards
Written by Blake Edwards from a screenplay by Reinhold Schunzel
1982/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental

Norma: You two-timing son of a bitch! He’s a woman!

This could have gone badly off the rails.  That it did not is tribute to the director and his cast.

The setting is Depression-era Paris. Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) is a classically trained soprano with a beautiful voice. This is not what Paris nightclubs are looking for and she is down to her last sou. As she is preparing to run out on a dinner tab, she meets Carole “Toddy” Todd (Robert Preston). He is also flat broke after he started a riot while performing at a gay club. The two immediately like each other. He gets a brilliant idea after Victoria has to dress in a male lover’s clothes when hers shrink.

Toddy decides for some mysterious reason that Victoria will be convincing as a female impersonator and he is right. She becomes the toast of the town. But her cover may be blown with the arrival of gangster King Marchand (James Garner). King is so attracted to the “gay man” that he becomes obsessed with proving he is a she.

First you have to get past the major sticking point that Andrews is far too feminine for this to work. And yet it does. It’s not a musical but Andrews and Preston do several numbers on stage as part of the story. Preston is a total delight in this film – very lovable and very arch. His relationship with Andrews is central to the film and it is sincere and even touching. James Garner plays himself but what a self. I always like him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wejgyx3e4rY8

Missing theme song about another Victoria

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Directed by Terry Hughes and Ian MacNaughton
Written by the members of the Monty Python troupe
1982/UK/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube (free)

Argument Customer: Yes it is! An argument is an intellectual process! It isn’t just contradiction!
Mr.Barnard: Look, if I’m to argue with you, I have to take up a contradictory position!
Argument Customer: Yes, but it’s not just saying “No it isn’t!”
Mr.Barnard: Yes, it is!
Argument Customer: No, it isn’t!

Fans of Monty Python will not want to miss this live performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

The show is comprised of super-classic sketches, including songs and pieces such as “The Last Supper”, “Sit on My Face”, the “Silly Olympics”, the “International Philosophy Show”, the “Four Yorkshiremen sketch”, “How Sweet to Be an Idiot”, and, “The Lumberjack Song”.

The troupe seems to have had a very good time and the audience concurred.  I laughed out loud with frequency.  The humor is perhaps even more irreverent than it was on TV.

The Atomic Cafe
Directed by Jane Loader, Pierce Rafferty and Kevin Rafferty
1982/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube (free)

Civil defense film: Be sure to include tranquilizers to ease the strain and monotony of life in a fallout shelter. A bottle of 100 should be sufficient for a family of four. Tranquilizers are not a narcotic, and are not habit-forming.

This excellent documentary contrasts the reality of nuclear explosions with the propaganda surrounding the subject in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

The film contains no narration.  It begins with the Trinity atomic bomb test and continues to the devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the pop culture embrace of the bomb immediately thereafter in the heady days of victory.  We proceed deep into the Cold War of the McCarthy era and government reassurances about the survivability of the bomb.

This film is surreal in a way that could be appreciated by Salvador Dali.  The insanity around the subject is simply mind-boggling.  We are constantly reminded of the reality of the human cost of the entire enterprise.  It is just amazing what lies people will believe, especially when told to them by the Government.  I’m old enough to remember our teacher telling us that nuclear war could break out the next day during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I thought this was thoroughly fascinating.