John Nance Garner was right

A live St. Patrick's Day report from Savannah (the day after)

DVDs ho!

In the last couple of months, I’ve written up a review or two about some of the classic television DVD box sets that have emerged from Timeless Media Group, like The Texan and M Squad—so if my analysis of these and other shows have whetted your appetite for some good vintage TV collecting, I’ve got sensational news.

Both the M Squad: The Complete Series and the Wagon Train: The Complete Color Season collections are on sale at Amazon.com for the lowest price I’ve seen yet on the Internets: $47.99 apiece. The Texan—seventy episodes of the 1958-60 series—can be had for $27.99. Amazon also has many of Timeless Video’s western releases for $13.99 a pop, which include the Laredo collections, Restless Gun, The Tall Man, The Deputy, Riverboat, Tate and Cimarron City. If you’re just not into oaters, they’ve also got some nice deals on crime dramas: both Checkmate sets, both Arrest and Trial collections and Brenner can be had for $11.99 each.

Despite the fact that the source material for M Squad varies in quality, you are not going to find a better deal on that set—and while I haven’t completely devoured the entirety of Wagon Train’s color season collection from what I have seen (the first disc) the visual quality (the color is incredible) makes it one of Timeless’ very best releases.

Honest to my grandma, I receive no remuneration from EDI or Amazon in plugging these…I just don’t like to see folks miss out on one hell of a deal.

“You're not only wrong…you're wrong at the top of your voice...”

From my homepage at CharredHer.Net comes the sad news of the passing of novelist/screenwriter Millard Kaufman, who’s left us at the age of 92.

Kaufman’s screenplay credits include Raintree County (1957), Never So Few (1959), The War Lord (1965) and Convicts 4 (1962)—an interesting little movie that features Ben Gazzara, Stuart Whitman, Ray Walston, Vincent Price, Rod Steiger, Broderick Crawford, Jack Kruschen, Sammy Davis, Jr., Timothy Carey and Dodie “Pink Shoe Laces” Stevens. Kaufman also directed the film, which isn’t available on DVD but should be just for the cast alone (I taped it off some channel—it might have been TCM—eons ago and the last time I checked it was taking up space in the dusty Thrilling Days of Yesteryear archives).

Kaufman wrote the screenplays for two other films, Take the High Ground! (1953) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), that were nominated for Best Writing Oscars. He also had a hand in the classic noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis, Gun Crazy (1950; a.k.a. Deadly is the Female), acting as a front for blacklisted scribe Dalton Trumbo.

But perhaps his greatest contribution to the screen was writing the script for Ragtime Bear (1949)—which marked the debut of cartoon icon Quincy Magoo.

R.I.P., Mr. Kaufman. You will be missed.

Backasswards Father

I caught an interesting rerun of Bachelor Father on RTN this morning. And when I say interesting, I don’t mean like in content—the 1957-62 sitcom was anything but; mostly a bland, innocuous vehicle for John Forsythe that became popular only because it alternated weekly with The Jack Benny Program for two seasons before getting a weekly time slot of its own. (Not that I’m dissing the show; it’s a painless way to kill a half-hour while I’m digesting a cream cheese-covered bagel or buttered English muffin.)

But in this installment, RTN presented the final third of the episode first, the middle portion…well, in the middle, and the first third last. Threw me for a loop because since the final third came on first and included the closing credits, I thought: “Did I just sleep through part of this and not know it?”

As my pal Rick Brooks would say: “Stay classy, RTN!”

Life lessons #22 (St. Pat's edition)

Missed it by THAT much…

So I’m poking through the new releases listed at DVD Price Search, and I come across an entry for a film entitled The Uninvited. My heart skips a beat, as the late, great Buck Owens used to sing, because this classic 1944 film (with Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey and Gail Russell) is one of the Holy Grails of Films Not Available on DVD. It’s even listed as being released by Paramount and its category is “Horror, Mystery/Suspense.”

So I click on the entry to find out when it’s going to be released. The street date is April 28, 2009…except there’s just one little snag. It’s the 2009 film with the same name, starring Emily Browning, David Strathairn, Elizabeth Banks and Arielle Kebbel.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking…

Oh, well…TVShowsOnDVD.com has an announcement that the fifth series of Last of the Summer Wine will be released on Region 1 DVD June 9th. Things are looking up.

R.I.P., Ron Silver

I read at both “Uncle Sam” Wilson’s Mondo 70: A Wild World of Cinema and my CharredHer homepage of the passing of actor Ron Silver at the age of 62. As Samuel notes, “Silver died too young, as just about everyone does”—and that’s certainly true in Silver’s case, since his cause of death was cancer. Sam further singles out Ron’s performances in the films Enemies: A Love Story (1989) and Blue Steel (1989) as particularly noteworthy.

I saw Enemies and it didn’t make a particularly favorable impression on me; if I can be totally honest, I’d be hard-pressed to think of any film in which I enjoyed Silver’s emoting because I never really warmed up to him. I mean, I’m sure he was a decent guy—I think all the negative buzz about his conversion to neo-conservatism after the events of 9/11 was unwarranted; Silver observed that his refusal to toe the official “Hollywood line” cost him a lot of work and since I’m still nursing a grudge about all the people who were deprived of a livelihood during the years of McCarthyism and the Red Scare I’d be a flaming hypocrite if I didn’t defend his right to his being gainfully employed…regardless of whether I agreed with his politics or not. (Kind of ironic in the light of his playing a Communist screenwriter who flees the country before he can be forced to “name names” in a film of his that—now that I think about it—I do admire, Fellow Traveller [1989].)

My “dislike” of Silver stems from a character he played on the sitcom Rhoda; he was a frequent boyfriend of Rho’s named Gary Levy who I just felt wasn’t right for her. I know this sounds bizarre, but then again I have never made any claims to normalcy. (Silver also played to boyfriend to Stockard Channing on her self-titled sitcom, and I didn’t like him on that, either. He missed a hat trick on Veronica’s Closet, though; I couldn’t care less about Kirstie Alley, so if they ended up together it was no sweat off my nose.) My mom feels the same way about Eric Bogosian; despite my attempts to get her to see his great performances in Talk Radio (1988), Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll (1991) and A Bright Shining Lie (1998), to her he’s scumbag Travis Dane in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995). (She didn’t like him on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, for that matter.)

You’re probably not going to believe this, but my favorite film featuring Ron Silver is a gloriously goofy Chuck Norris vehicle entitled Silent Rage (1982), in which the Chuckster plays a small town sheriff who must battle a seriously deranged bad guy who’s become an unstoppable killing machine, thanks to a trio of equally sanity-challenged medicos (led by Steven Keats) who experiment with some sort of immortality drug on the maniac for shits and giggles. (Silver does participate in this what-the-hell-were-you-thinking experiment, but later he and his wife [Toni Kalem] do try to stop Nutcase Boy, so he gets points for that.)

And you thought I was going to name Reversal of Fortune (1990). (Hey—Norris’ deputy in Rage is played by Stephen “Flounder” Furst. I’ll watch him rather than a comatose Glenn Close any day of the week.)

If this all sounds a little flippant, I really do apologize—it’s no secret that I frequently question the presence of an afterlife…but if there is one, I hope Ron Silver has gone to his rich reward. He will be missed.

A live St. Patrick's Day report from Savannah

From the Thrilling Days of Yesteryear e-mailbox

I have a few items of interest to my many reader that were passed along to me via some friends and fellow bloggers…which benefits me in that I don’t have to sit down and rack my brains for something substantive (as if most of the content here reaches that lofty threshold) because I’m putting the finishing touches on an outside project. This should not, however, tarnish the worthy contributions of my aforementioned colleagues…so please take my joviality in the spirit in which it was meant.

A bloke what calls himself Steve gave me a pointer to a website that fondly remembers the classic Britcom On the Buses, a program I’ve mentioned on this blog from time to time, and if you’re a fan like I am—or even mildly curious—you should check it out. There’s a celebration of the comedy’s 40th anniversary to be held this year (Saturday, June 27, 2009) but the details are still a bit sketchy so you may want to bookmark the site and make periodic visits in case more info is added (and if I get something, I’ll be sure to pass it along).

Nathaniel at Film Experience gave me a heads-up on a meme entitled: “If these photos could talk…” (He told me about this at the beginning of March, so I apologize profusely for just now getting around to it.) The way it works, you post a candid photo of movie stars who seem to be engaged in casual conversation—a picture that causes you to speculate just what they might be talking about.

I don’t collect a lot of photos, but I do have a couple of snaps featuring old-time radio stars that I would dearly love to have been a fly on the wall when they were taken. For example, this great picture with Fred Allen and the team of Charles Correll and Freeman Gosden (collectively known as Amos ‘n’ Andy):

Here’s another one of my favorites (one I’ve used as a TDOY header in the past), in which Jimmy Durante has been cast in the role of referee between Fred and his nemesis Jack Benny:

And one more with Schnozzola, dining with his then-sidekick Garry Moore and producer Phil Cohan:

Well, you get the idea. Our final item—call it the dessert—on the menu is The Large Association of Movie Blogs’ Box Office Madness, a contest designed in similar fashion to March Madness—that time of the year when office drones and other dedicated co-workers cut their productivity in half by gambling on what college team will emerge victorious in the NCAA tournament by means of a “bracket” system. Allow me to let Dylan Fields, the Illustrious Potentate at LAMB, to describe how the Box Office Madness deal will work:

The idea:

Readers and longtime members of the LAMB will recall that, last year, we had a summer box office prediction game entitled the "Summer of LAMB." It was nothing fancy - just a number of people guessing what the top 10 movies would be, in order. However, with the NCAA tournament right around the corner, and with my joint film and sports appreciation, I got the idea to run a box office game the same way that the tournament is run. 32 films, one box office champion, many shining moments.

So, what you'll do is click on the link provided below, download your bracket, fill it by picking the movie for each matchup that you think will have the higher box office total, and send it to me by April 2.

The rules:

1. For each matchup, select which film will have the higher box office. Continue through the bracket until a champion has been crowned.

2. Scoring per round will be 1-2-4-8-12, for a possible total of 76 points (see table in workbook).

3. For the tie-breaker, enter your predicted top 5 films (box office) from the ones listed. One point for will be rewarded for each correct film, and an additional point for proper placement, for a potential 10 points. In the case of a tie, if one person's tie-breaker portion is not filled out, the other will win.

4. Brackets MUST be turned in (sent to blogcabins@yahoo.com) no later than April 2.

5. Box office data will be counted from April 3 - September 27, 2009.

6. One entry per person.

The prizes:

TBD. I just thought of this and put it together in the last couple days, so the exact prizes are not know at this point. But there will be prizes! Some ideas already in the mix are a custom-made t-shirt, DVDs, and possibly cash. Since the brackets aren't officially due until April 2, and they won't officially end until almost six months later, I think we're okay with this. Hopefully, though, everything will be figured out come April 2.

Because confession is good for the soul, I’ll admit that I’ve never had much luck with the March Madness thing because my knowledge of college basketball would fit neatly on a napkin—and even though I’ll stand a better chance with the subject being movies, my predilection for what sells movie tickets probably won’t be much better. (My strategy: pick the movie that I would least likely go to—it can’t miss.) However, please don’t interpret this as some sort of hoity-toity trendy movie blogger thing—Dylan wants as many people as possible to participate:

Finally, what fun would this be if it's just a few people? I want this to be BIG! I've made the banner that you see in the sidebar, and I'd love it if you'd put it on your site as well (if possible). Let's do this right! With any luck, everyone will be doing it next year.

All he needs is a hunchbacked assistant and a laboratory wired for sound and BAM! He’s in the mad scientist bidness. Here’s the banner:

And here’s where you download the entry form. That’s a wrap, everyone!

"Two hundred and fifty guys just walkin' down the road, just like that?"

G-Men Never Forget (1948) – Chapter 3: Code Six Four Five

OUR STORY SO FAR: Evildoer Vic Murkland (Roy Barcroft) has escaped from prison and returned to his lucrative former career as a criminal mastermind, with plans to resurrect an insurance racket that will make him the envy of any investor out to make a quick buck with some lame Ponzi scheme. (Seriously, this guy has a finger in every pie…including lemonade stands and Girl Scout cookies.) His success depends on a little nip-and-tuck performed upon him by the dubious plastic surgeon Robert “Doc” Benson (Stanley Price)—who has given Murkland a celebrity makeover so as to be a dead ringer for Police Commissioner Angus Cameron…Murkland’s even got the voice and mannerisms down to a T! (This is easily explained by the fact that the same actor plays both roles…so pretend you don’t notice.)

Special Agent Ted O’Hara (Clayton Moore) has been assigned to recapture Murkland and though it is known throughout the length and longth of these United States that O’Hara led the fight for law and order in the early West, he’s been completely fooled by Murkland’s deception—as has his assistant, Francis Blake (Ramsay Ames), who’s in this serial for those people who don’t like Clayton Moore. When we last checked in on our hero O’Hara, he had confronted two members of the arson gang responsible for the destruction of numerous buildings in the city and fought them to a standstill. In other words, he’s lying unconscious in the back of an out-of-control truck that’s about to meet head-on with an electrical transformer…

Thanks to some judicious editing by Cliff Bell, Sr. and Sam Starr (they’re the ones responsible for the cheat cliffhangers in this opus) in Chapter 2, the surprise that Ted O’Hara jumped out of the truck just in the nick of time was not spoiled for us in this chapter. It does come as bit of a shock for Murkland, however—in his guise as Commissioner Cameron, he gets an early morning briefing from his pencil-pushing lackey, Det. Hayden (Doug Aylesworth):

HAYDEN: O’Hara called, just a few minutes ago…
MURKLAND: Yes?
HAYDEN: He got to the bottom of that sabotage racket…
MURKLAND: You mean the G.I. housing project?
HAYDEN: That’s right, sir…
MURKLAND (without enthusiasm): Glad to hear that…any details?
HAYDEN: No—but he said he’d report in later…and that he and Sergeant Blake are on their way over to Cook’s to get some data on that truck driver and his helper…
MURKLAND: Very good…
HAYDEN: Oh, by the way…that 645 shipment goes today…
MURKLAND: 645?
HAYDEN: Say…this Murkland business is really getting you down, isn’t it? That’s the Cook payroll shipment, for which you made the arrangements…

Grab him, Hayden! He’s just let his guard down! It’s not Cameron, it’s Vic Murkland! Get to a phone! Get some help! Get…oh, what’s the use…face it, pal…you’re always going to be just another faceless bureaucrat trapped behind a desk…idiot…

MURKLAND: Oh, of course, Hayden…I almost forgot…thanks for reminding me, I’ll take care of it…
HAYDEN: Very well, sir…

As Hayden continues on in his blissful ignorance, Murkland ponders the weight of his words (“645,” he mutters to himself…although those are really numbers rather than words) and then reaches ominously for the phone. Truth be told, I kind of like how the writers of this serial don’t subject us to an unnecessary rehash and instead just have the camera fade out as Murkland makes his call. (Then again, these subsequent chapters are only thirteen minutes long—they gotta trim the fat somewhere.)

Meanwhile, Agent O’Hara is having a chinwag with R.L. Cook (Edmund Cobb), the big bidness tycoon that Murkland and his racketeers have been trying to shake down:

O’HARA: So, obviously, the lumber was treated with pyroxene en route to the building site…
COOK: Amazing…
O’HARA: With extra guards put on the trucks, Mr. Cook, you won’t have any more interference with your G.I. home construction…
COOK: Feels good to know that Murkland will be off my neck for a while…
(The door opens, and Sergeant Francis Blake enters the room…)
BLAKE (handing O’Hara some papers) Here are the personnel cards on those two men…Parker was the driver, and his helper was Brent…
O’HARA: Hmm…only on the job two weeks…
COOK: A little sketchy…
O’HARA: …but it could cut a wedge in the Murkland gang…
COOK: A deep one, I hope…
O’HARA: That depends on what we can find out from these...
COOK: Good luck…
O’HARA (to Francis): It’ll save time if you check on Brent…
FRANCIS: A pleasure…
O’HARA: …and we’ll meet back at my place after I comb through Parker’s apartment…

"In addition to combing my hair." Ted…you hound! I know what you’re up to…soft lights…music…a bottle of wine…some Cheerios…you’ll sweep that gal off her feet before this chapter play is over, I’m betting. But enough of the foreplay—the scene now switches to Benson’s Sanitarium, where kindly old Doc Benson has just finished administering a little drug to force Commissioner Cameron to spill the beans about “645.” Meanwhile, the faux Cameron (Murkland) drops in for some cakes and tea:

MURKLAND: How is he, okay?
BENSON: Sure…
MURKLAND (after an awkward pause): Well, let’s have it!
GRAHAM: The Doc sure made him talk…
MURKLAND What’s this 645?
BENSON: The night payroll of the Cook shipyards…
GRAHAM: Big stuff…that 645 is code for the time the payroll leaves Cook’s office…
MURKLAND: Hunh…and the Commissioner’s office selects the guard…
GRAHAM: Better yet…the job is handled by just a single plainclothes man…so that he won’t attract any attention…
MURKLAND: Good deal…that ought to make it a cinch for you to knock over by yourself…

Um…I don’t like to mention this, seeing that Graham (Drew Allen) is up for a pay raise with his performance review and all, but his recent work of late hasn’t quite measured up to what we generally expect of henchmen at Murkland Enterprises…

MURKLAND: You send those guys over to Parker’s apartment?
GRAHAM: Yeah…O’Hara won’t find a thing when he gets there…

We are then taken to a shabby apartment, where two thugs (David Sharpe, George Magrill) are rifling through Mr. Parker’s personal effects—unaware that our man O’Hara has arrived on the scene. When Ted pulls a gun on one of them (he’s starting a nice little blaze in the wastebasket), he’s jumped from behind and the balsa wood smashing melee begins. (And since ace stuntman Sharpe is in on it, you can bet it’ll be dan-dan-dandy—particularly when he smashes a bit of crockery over Moore’s cranium and the daring and resourceful Masked Rider of the Plains falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes.)

TRENT: Say, you know who this guy is?
STALEY (rubbing his jaw): If he was a little heavier, he could be Joe Louis…
TRENT: It’s O’Hara…special agent…
STALEY: Ooooh…the big guy…

The two men truss O’Hara up like a roped calf with the cord from the window shades and Trent decides to contact Murkland personally to let him know they’ve captured “the big guy.” He leaves Staley in charge and exits the apartment while O’Hara furiously attempts to free himself from his bonds. To add insult to injury, Staley goes to the kitchen and makes himself a big honkin’ salami sandwich…and doesn’t even offer his guest a thing. (Miss Manners will be hearing of this in the morning, I assure you.)

Hours later, Cook is carefully counting out the payroll in his office as his secretary watches, and when that task is completed he instructs her to have the messenger sign the receipt. A dissolve then shows the messenger leaving the building, where he is hit from behind by Duke Graham, claiming the bag of cash for Murkland and the evil for which he stands. A car pulls up and Duke gets inside (the messenger, who’s finally gotten to his feet, fires a gun in the direction of the departing vehicle but to no avail), bestowing upon yours truly a generous helping of egg on my face (I honestly thought he’d end up screwing the pooch on this one).

Back at the apartment, O’Hara has finally managed to free himself—and he rolls across the floor to where Staley is seated, who’s just lit up another Lucky Strike (it’s light-up time) and is now going to have to snuff it for the duration of another scuffle. (And it’s really not much of a scuffle at that; O’Hara decks him with one punch.) O’Hara makes tracks…but not before making certain he’s got his hat. (It’s important to accessorize.)

Another dissolve shows O’Hara speeding along in the direction of a used car lot run by a lowlife (Eddie Acuff) named “Fiddler,” whose name was dropped by Staley in the conversation between he and Trent when deciding what should be done about O’Hara. Fortunately, Francis has gotten a jump on her partner, as she interrogates the salesman about his association with Brent:

FIDDLER: Brent?
BLAKE: His landlady says he used to work here…
FIDDLER (thinking): Brent…ah, that no-good character…yeah, he used to work here…about two months ago, he walked off the job…and you know what…?
BLAKE: Never mind the details…do you know where he went? Or anything else about him?
FIDDLER: Well, I’ll tell ya… (A car can be heard pulling up) Wait a minute…here comes a guy who knows the dope on him…
(The car comes to a stop, and a passenger gets out. When the car speeds off, the passenger is revealed to be Duke Graham…)
BLAKE (walking over to Duke with her gun drawn): This is a pleasant surprise…
(It’s a surprise, all right…but not too pleasant for Francis—she’s hit from behind by Fiddler…)
FIDDLER: I’m glad you showed up in time…this copper was asking a lot of questions about Brent…
GRAHAM: Anything else?
FIDDLER: No…
GRAHAM: Good…
FIDDLER: What’re we gonna do with her?
GRAHAM (thinking for a moment): Help me get her into that truck…
FIDDLER: Right!

The two men drag Francis’ lovely carcass into the back of the truck but in the distance, our main man O’Hara is speeding towards the car lot. He arrives just as the truck is driving off and, spotting Graham at the wheel begins pursuit. In the ensuing chase, both men fire back-and-forth at one another and the noise brings Frances to…but when O’Hara hits one of the truck’s tires, Duke decides it’s time to bail out—and Frances, unable to open the back doors, appears to have headed off a cliff to her doom…

Next Saturday, Chapter Four: Shipyard Saboteurs!

The Power of Christ compels you...to have a Tic-Tac

Absolutely fabulous

Good news everyone! I’ve been given the prestigious award to the left by my good friend Bill Crider, and all I have to do is pass it along to five equally fabulous blogs—who will, in turn, pass it along to others…then again, perhaps not.

As always, there is red tape, paperwork, and rules:

You must include the person that gave you the award, and link it back to them.

You must list 5 of your Fabulous Addictions in the post. You must copy and paste these rules in the post. Right click the award icon & save to your computer then post with your own awards. To my way of thinking, this is not only a nice tribute, it widens the reading audience.

Naturally, it’s quite difficult for me to choose just five from the voluminous TDOY blogroll because I consider each and everyone a bad mutha in their own right. Therefore, I narrowed it down to the five blogs which had the most profound influence on me when I took my first baby steps in the blogosphere:

Blog D’Elisson

If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Lot of Dead Copycats

The Real Sam Johnson Show

Something Old, Nothing New

World O’Crap

As to my five addictions:

1) Classic movies

2) Classic television

3) Old-time Radio

4) Kentucky Fried Chicken

5) Reese’s Pieces

“There is no sweeter sound to any person’s ear than the sound of their own name…” – Dale Carnegie

Apologies if I didn’t get the Carnegie quote 100% right…it’s been a while since I poked through his book, a copy of which was (and continues to be) owned by my father, who has definitely won a lot of friends (it’s the “influencing people” bit he’s running behind on) since taking Carnegie’s famous courses. It’s just that every so often when I check my StatCounter stats to see what kind of linkage I’m getting here at TDOY, I often find that some poor soul—clearly bored out of his or her skull—has entered my name into the Google to see what results. So I decided to follow the trail…

The Chicago Sun-Times posted a link to my rather lengthy obit of actor-singer Jimmy Boyd and country music legend Hank Locklin—and I must confess I’m a bit prouder of this effort because the last time they did this (with the passing of Molly Bee) it looked as if I actually wrote Bee’s obituary when I clearly did not—I “liberated” it from the AP. (Still, I am feeling a twinge of guilt about this recognition, since Bill Crider reported the Boyd/Locklin deaths first.)

But here’s a mention that really made me giggle: a list of pledge drive “thank you” items from WMKV 89.3 FM (which is in Cincinnati, I believe). WMKV, according to their website, embraces old-time radio and some of the newest Radio Spirits releases (including many of the ones I wrote the liner notes for) are available as rewards for people pledging money to the station. It’s almost like I was back at WMUL-TV again—I wonder if I could get a tote bag out of this?

Laura at Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings (a blog which is pretty much an everyday read for me) has an interesting blurb up about how Fox Home Entertainment has decided that in order to encourage DVD sales (which are being outpaced by DVD rentals) they will surgically remove the bonuses and extras from the copies purchased by rental outlets (Laura’s post is about how an idiotic idea like this will affect classic films on disc). (There’s also been speculation that studios are going to start doing away with “chapter stops,” proving that the plane has already crashed into the mountain.) As I mentioned in her comments space, I think extras are nice to have but if a disc I’ve purchased doesn’t contain them I don’t get too upset about it. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that many of the individuals who worked on these films are, sad to say, no longer with us—I mean, sure, it would be great to have Bogart and Bergman do audio commentary for a release of Casablanca but that’s not going to happen anytime soon (although it might be a shot in the arm for the troubled impressionists industry). But “segregating” bonuses into have and have-not discs is pretty dumb; as commenter mel observes: “But surely the cost of mastering two separate discs for two different markets defeats the purpose?” Others who participated with comments include Raquelle from Out of the Past: A Classic Film Blog (I wanted to participate in her recent showcase of photos demonstrating how I store my DVDs but the ‘rents are holding the digital camera hostage) and my favorite shyster attorney J.C. Loophole from The Shelf (who’s passed along an interesting blog post entitled “A Tribute to Discontinued Cereals” that’s well worth the time of anyone who got stoked on Saturday morning eating sugary-sweet cereals). Go over and have a look, and if you have something germane to add to the conversation, don’t be shy.

DVR-TiVo-Or whatever recording device strikes your fancy-Alert!

TCM will showcase a not-too-shabby lineup of primo films noir this evening beginning at 8pm with Double Indemnity (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945) following at 10 and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) at midnight. If you’ve never seen any of these movies—get some Jiffy-Pop on the stove and settle in for six hours of cinematic bliss. (And if you have seen them, watch ‘em again—it won’t kill ya, as my friend Elisson is wont to observe.)

But the gem you’re gonna want to power up the recording device for comes on at 2:00am—the 1955 trash classic Shack Out on 101, which I wrote about here and which I cannot stress the importance of seeing at least once. You get Nightbeat’s Frank Lovejoy as a professor who discusses the U.S. Constitution while making out with hash slinger Terry Moore, and TDOY fave Lee Marvin as Slob…a fry cook who’s really a Commie spy! Add to this appearances by Keenan Wynn, Whit Bissell, Frank “F Troop” DeKova and Len Lesser (“Uncle Leo!”) and you have a real time capsule of Cold War paranoia that is a must-see movie—Vince Keenan also recommends you have a watch, and if you can’t believe VK…well, I don’t know what the world is coming to.

“The apes have taken over…while we were busy watching television and filling our freezers, they’ve come out of the jungle and moved in!” Words of caution or just gloriously goofy dialogue from a man who also scripted The Falcon Strikes Back (1943) and Boston Blackie’s Rendezvous (1945)? You be the judge.

I don't know why I always think of Bill Crider when I hear that phrase...

Where’s the Rest of Me: Ronald Reagan’s “Brass Bancroft” Films or, Kiss My Brass!

“The Errol Flynn of B-Pictures” is how actor and future U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan used to describe his motion picture career, which began when Warner Bros. signed the former WHO radio announcer to a contract in 1937. Although Reagan would get the opportunity to appear in the studio’s A-product from time to time, he was prominently featured in programmers in his Warner days, and an excellent example of these was a short-lived series of features that cast him as Secret Service agent “Brass” Bancroft. The Bancroft films—many of which barely ran an hour—were fast-paced, cheaply-made actioners not unlike serials, and were produced by Bryan Foy, Warner’s self-proclaimed “The Keeper of the B’s.” Bryan’s bro, Eddie Jr., also appeared alongside Reagan in all four Bancroft films as Brass’ comedy relief sidekick Gabby Watters. (Both brothers were the progeny of legendary entertainer Eddie Foy, and appeared with their father in vaudeville as “The Seven Little Foys.”)

Secret Service of the Air (1939) was the debut entry in the Brass Bancroft series, and as such I’ll examine it in a bit more depth. As the picture opens, we find a pilot named Joe LeRoy (John Ridgely) giving a set of instructions to a group of foreigners as they prepare to take off for a trip across the U.S./Mexico border. These men are aliens about to be smuggled into the States, and in mid-flight a man named Durell (John Harron) confronts LeRoy in the cockpit to announce that he’s a federal agent and that LeRoy is under arrest. The quick-thinking LeRoy puts the plane into a steep climb, sending Durell spinning into the back of the plane—and then the pilot pulls a lever that ends up dumping the “cargo,” sending the passengers to their doom from 10,000 feet up. (Proving, of course, that you should heed the old adage about it only costing a few extra bucks to go first class.) After arriving at the headquarters of Jim Cameron (James Stephenson), the boss of the alien smuggling operation, LeRoy gets a real dressing down and the organization decides to lay low for a while.

The scene shifts to an official-looking building in Washington, DC…where behind a door labeled “Secret Service Bureau” (I know, I think they’d want to keep that location a secret, too) Tom Saxby (John Litel) discusses with his superior (Pierre Watkin) the events surrounding Durell’s death. It seems that Durell stumbled onto the alien smuggling ring purely by accident; he was actually investigating a stolen bond racket and, in the words of Saxby, “got a bonus.” When the Chief stresses the need for further investigation, Saxby recommends his pal, ex-Navy flier Lt. “Brass” Bancroft (Ronald Reagan), for the gig—Brass has been itching to get into the Secret Service for sometime now. The next scene introduces our hero; he’s at the controls of a plane nicknamed “The Oriental Express,” which he flies for Admiral A.C. Schuyler (Herbert Rawlinson). With him are his navigator Gabby Watters (Eddie Foy, Jr.) and co-pilot Dick Wayne (Larry Williams); Dick is a rather nondescript fellow whose only claim to being in this picture is that he’s a rival with Brass (no snickering, please) for the attentions of Schuyler’s daughter Pam (Ila Rhodes). Gabby, on the other hand, is a virtual one-man comedy attack: when his attempts to contact the radio tower start to get on Bancroft’s nerves, Brass suggests he set it to music—and Gabby starts singing their position over the airwaves! What a corker!

After landing the plane, Brass is racing to get dressed and beat Dick over to Pam’s house—until his pal Saxby greets him in the locker room:

SAXBY: Well, young fellow—your chance has come at last…there’s an opening for you in the service…
BRASS: Oh, that’s swell, Tom…I know how hard you’ve been working to get me in and I appreciate it…have you got something on the fire?
SAXBY: Yes, and it’s a very tough case…it requires immediate action…
BRASS: Good! I’ll go tell A.C. I’m quittin’…
SAXBY: Oh, no…unfortunately, it can’t be done that way…now it’s going to be your job to get in with a smuggling gang…and win their confidence…and you couldn’t do that without a criminal record…so we’re going to give you one…

I’d say Reagan’s policies toward Central and Latin America would more than qualify, but that would be mean.

BRASS: All right…when do I go to work?
SAXBY: Be prepared for a summons any time now…day or night…and remember you’re to take no one into your confidence…not even Miss Schuyler…
BRASS: You certainly make things tough for a fella…
SAXBY: You asked for it…goodbye…and good luck…

Brass is able to beat Dick in the “getting-there-first-to-make-time-with-Pam” competition thanks to loyal Gabby, who arranges for Dick’s roadster to have four flat tires (Look out! He’s a maniac, I tell ya!). But his presentation of an engagement ring for his beloved is stopped short when a couple of agents crash the party, accusing Bancroft of distributing counterfeit money. The quickly-wearing-out-his-welcome Gabby steps in to help his pal, but he ends up in the Greybar Hotel as well.

Through a montage of sensationalistic newspaper headlines, Brass is put on trial and found guilty…and is sent to the pen for a five-year-stretch. Of course, this is all a setup to allow Bancroft close proximity to Earl “Ace” Hemrich (Bernard Nedell), an ex-smuggler who once worked for Cameron’s gang. The two men become quick pals (it’s like that in prison) and Ace works out a foolproof escape plan: while he and Brass are working on the chain…gaaaaang…Ace’s moll will drive up in a car and seduce one of the guards (and she does; you won’t believe how lax the security is in that place), allowing he and Brass to swipe the ride and take it on the lam. This results in your typical car-chase sequence (although there is a nifty stunt involving a motorcycle cop) and ends when the two escapees attempt to outrun a speeding locomotive. They fail miserably, and are picked up by the authorities—Ace is sentenced to the “hole” (hence the expression, “Ace in the hole”) and Brass “goes to Alcatraz.”

BRASS: You ought to try getting mixed up in a prison break sometime…why didn’t you tell me what you were letting me in for?
SAXBY: Why didn’t I? Because you and your thug friends were the only ones who knew…till you tipped off the warden…
BRASS: I hope they keep those boys locked up…I’d hate to run into one of them on the street…
SAXBY: How did you make out with Hemrich?

Oh, in the usual prison fashion—rimshot! All seriousness aside, Bancroft shows Saxby a brochure for the Los Angeles Air Taxi Company, an outfit run by Edward Powell (Morgan Conway) that Brass believes operates as a front for Hemrich’s—and subsequently Cameron’s—activities. Brass is champing at the bit to get on the inside, but Saxby offers a word of caution:

SAXBY: Don’t forget, my boy—you’re supposed to be in Alcatraz…where would you be if this fellow Powell wrote Hemrich to check up on you?
BRASS: That’s one of the chances I have to take, isn’t it?
SAXBY: You can’t do that, Brass…now, you’ve been doing fine so far, but don’t be hasty…remember that patience is the creed of the Secret Service…it’s like boxing…don’t lead—make the other fellow come to you…

Using the Republican philosophy of “pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps,” Bancroft attempts to get a job at Powell’s company…but finds himself needing a little assistance from Saxby, who arranges to conveniently have pilot LeRoy slightly jailed. When Powell is told this news by his gal Friday, Zelma Warren (Rosella Towne), Brass just happens to be loitering around the office during this announcement, and Powell hires him on the spot. Powell’s partner, “Doc” Burke (Frank M. Thomas), suggests that Powell hire Bancroft to take over LeRoy’s other assignments (alienway ugglingsmay) but Powell is concerned about what Cameron will say (“He’s superstitious about switching jockeys”) about that arrangement. Doc reassures Powell that he’ll discuss the matter with Brass, doing so in another montage of Bancroft executing numerous flights.

BRASS: I’m going to get a proposition to fly that murder plane any day now…that fellow Doc asked me to smuggle some silk across the border for him…
SAXBY: Trying you out on some small stuff first, huh? Whaddya tell him?
BRASS: Well, I keep telling him I’m afraid to take a chance…but he keeps right after me, so I think the next trip he’ll ask me to fly some aliens…
SAXBY: Well, if he asks you, you do it…we’ve got to start rounding them up…now, remember—our big job is to get the head of the outfit across the border with the evidence to convict him…

Bancroft and Saxby’s conversation is interrupted by a phone call from Gabby to remind the audience that he’s still in the picture and he’s not going away anytime soon. He meets up with Brass at a Mexican cantina where Doc and Cameron are also having a chinwag…and Cameron arranges to test Bancroft’s mettle by bringing in a few of his goons to provoke Brass into a common barroom donnybrook. (By the way, it is true about Reagan doing his own fistfights in this picture—it’s clearly him in the long shots, and he’s not too shabby a brawler, either.) After the melee—which results in an unconscious Gabby—Doc advises Brass to lam it out of there and take his third banana stooge to Cameron’s headquarters. There, one of Cameron’s thugs places a phone call to the boss…who informs Brass that one of the men he punched out in the cantina is dead in an attempt to force Bancroft into making an alien smuggling flight. In the air, Brass finds himself followed by a pair of U.S. Patrol airplanes who advise him to set down so “we can check you over.” Ever the maverick, Brass executes a series of fancy flying stunts and loses the Patrol in a thick fog of sea poup.

Cameron is satisfied with Bancroft’s abilities…but there’s trouble ahead. Hemrich has escaped from prison (again) and winds up at Cameron’s hideout. He’s telling the gang about the breakout that went sour with Bancroft…and suddenly realizes that Brass is responsible for putting the kibosh on his escape:

CAMERON: I want you to meet an old friend…
BRASS: You call him an old friend? Say, listen—he’s America’s No. 1 stool pigeon!
ACE: What’re you getting at?
BRASS: You know what I’m gettin’ at…framin’ me into a prison break so I get sent to Alcatraz…well, I fooled ya…
ACE: No you didn’t…how’d you get out of Alcatraz so soon?
BRASS: Wouldn’t you like to know!
CAMERON: Answer his question, Brass…
BRASS: Well, I’ll answer you, Jim…I had a smart lawyer who made a deal with Uncle Sam…turned over some counterfeit plates they wanted and got my sentence commuted to time served…
ACE: Yeah? Do you expect me to swallow that baloney? You went to work on me just now, didn’t ya? Thinkin’ you could cover yourself up…well, you’re not doin’ it…you’re fixin’ to hang a rap on my friends and you’re not gonna get away with it!

This particular invective doesn’t sit too well with our hero, and Bancroft quickly challenges Hemrich to fisticuffs—Marquis of Queensbury rules be darned. The others look on, watching the two men mix it up until Cameron breaks up the fight.

Keeping an eye on his number-one boy, Saxby arrives at the cantina and asks Pedro the bartender (Alberto Morin)—an old pal of his from DC—if he’s seen Bancroft lately. As if on cue, Brass enters the joint and the two men sit down at a table, where they exchange information. Bancroft clues in Saxby that Cameron is running the smuggling ring and that the individual who killed Agent Durell is the individual they’ve had on ice for sometime now, LeRoy. The two agents then depart in opposite directions…but unbeknownst to them, Hemrich has been watching the whole time and pumps Pedro full of questions about what their meeting was about. Ace is able to piece together enough of the story to pass it along to Cameron, who refuses to believe Ace’s story. So Ace arranges for Saxby’s hotel room to be bugged—unaware that Saxby is wise to the operation—and both Brass and Saxby set a trap for Cameron by talking about some “additional” counterfeit plates Bancroft is supposedly hiding. If all goes according to plan, Cameron will accompany Bancroft back across the border to get to the location of the plates…allowing Saxby and the Feds to arrest Cameron and put him away…in THE BIG HOUSE.

Unfortunately, Brass and Saxby haven’t counted on Gabby gumming up the works. Gabby has overheard Cameron and Doc discussing Bancroft and the counterfeit plates deal and though he is stunned to learn that his bosom pal is a common counterfeiter, he reasons that he can clear Bancroft by placing a call to the Border Patrol, informing them of the flight (Cameron has decided to smuggle in some aliens and kill two birds with one stone). Just as Brass is getting ready to take off, he discovers that Gabby has snuck aboard the plane and Gabby spills the beans about what he’s done, prompting Brass to silence him with a haymaker (if only he had thought about that before the picture started) and locking him up in a closet in the cockpit. With Cameron riding shotgun, Brass takes off with a load of “passengers”—and just in the nick of time, for Cameron’s operation is the target of a raid by the Border Patrol, led by Captain Cortez (George Sorel) of the Mexican Police. Doc tries to escape being arrested but fails—however, he does manage to contact Cameron on board via radio to let him know that Hemrich was right about Bancroft—he’s a Fed!

CAMERON (Pointing a gun at Bancroft): Turn around and head back across the border or I’ll blow your head off…you’ve played your hand out, Mr. Secret Service Man…

Wasn’t that a hit record by Johnny Rivers?

BRASS: You can’t win, Cameron…14,000 feet’s a long drop…
CAMERON: I said turn around…
BRASS: All right…if that’s the way you want it…

Brass ends up wrestling Cameron for the gun, causing the plane to momentarily spin out of control. But Gabby has managed to free himself from the closet and grabs the controls in order that this picture doesn’t end with a fiery crash—he even manages to subdue Cameron by hitting him upside the head with a monkey wrench. Brass contacts the airport to let them know they’re coming in for a landing…right into the waiting arms of the Feds.

Having wrapped things up, Brass is surprised to find Pam waiting for him on the ground—she was clued in to what went down courtesy of Saxby, of course. After the requisite smooching, Brass whispers into Pam’s ear and nodding her head, the two of them get back in the plane:

SAXBY: Hey, boss—where are you going?
BRASS: Yuma!
SAXBY: That plane has no license!
BRASS: Neither have we!
GABBY (to Saxby): I’ll bet they’re gonna be married…
SAXBY: I’m afraid you’re right…
GABBY: Well…that finishes him as a Secret Service man…
SAXBY: Why?
GABBY: Well…he won’t be able to keep a secret now…

Oh, Gabby…you’re incorrigible. Secret Service of the Air is a pleasant if unremarkable programmer, and because it was so economical to make a second picture, Code of the Secret Service (1939), started production almost soon afterward. Apparently things didn’t work out on the way to Yuma, because in the sequel Bancroft is still a bachelor—and back in Mexico, trying to track down more counterfeit plates. Eddie Foy, Jr. returned as the irrepressible Gabby, and Rosella Towne—who played Zelda in the first Bancroft opus—was also back, only this time as Brass’ love interest. John Litel didn’t make it back, either (he was probably busy being Bonita Granville’s father in Warner’s Nancy Drew series); he wouldn’t return to the Saxby role until the final Bancroft film, Murder in the Air (1940). (As a result, Joe King would play the part in both Code and its follow-up, Smashing the Money Ring [1939].)

Legend has it that actor Reagan thought Code was so terrible—and a threat to his career—that he begged the studio not to release the film; Warner Bros. sympathized with the star but there was money to be made and they insisted it would be released…but agreed not to show it in the Los Angeles area. As the story goes, Reagan was walking down an L.A. street when he saw the picture’s title on a theatre marquee…and when he looked at the individual working the box office, that person stared back at Reagan and muttered: “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” This sounds like one of those apocryphal stories “Dutch” liked to make up from time to time; the film’s not really all that bad…but it’s definitely the weakest of the four. (Apparently the studio had producer Foy “fix” this one—I’d be curious to see how bad it was before Foy worked his magic.)

Many consider the final feature in the Bancroft lineup, Murder in the Air, to be the best in the short-lived series—but for my money, I think Smashing the Money Ring is far superior. In Money Ring (a remake of a 1936 B-quickie entitled Jailbreak), Bancroft must go undercover once again in prison to learn the origin of a lucrative counterfeit money operation—which ingeniously relies on the big house’s printing press (on which the prison’s newspaper is printed) to generate the phony dough. It’s fast-moving fun at fifty-seven minutes, and features Margot Stevenson (a one-time Margo Lane on radio’s The Shadow) as the love interest…for Gabby! (That’s right, Gabby gets to score in this picture…just about the time the rug is pulled out from under him at the end.) In later years, Reagan often credited Foy, Jr. as being the integral ingredient to the success of the series…but personally, I think Ronnie was already starting to lose it. Foy, though certainly no slouch as an entertainer (his finest onscreen moments are his portrayal as his father alongside James Cagney’s George M. Cohan in 1942’s Yankee Doodle Dandy and his appearance in 1957’s The Pajama Game, where he performs that sublime duet with Reta Shaw, I’ll Never Be Jealous Again), regularly brings many of the Bancroft outings to a screeching halt with his painfully unfunny antics.

Murder in the Air gained a bit notoriety around the time of Reagan’s presidency because some of his critics (whom I guess were classic film buffs as well) couldn’t help but notice a similarity between the movie’s “Inertia Projector” and The Great Communicator’s grandiose SDI (“Star Wars”) project. In fact, 60 Minutes once did a segment (“Ronald Reagan: The Movie”) that provided evidence demonstrating Reagan often had difficulty telling the difference between real life and cinema. Ironically, this report would end up as one of the veteran news program’s most unpopular segments—I guess people are just naturally uncomfortable with the concept of contradicting…Brass Bancroft!

Life lessons #21