In the small town of Morgan's Creek, Trudy Kockenlocker goes to a farewell party
to a bunch of soldiers. While dancing she hits her head on a disco ball and is
knocked silly. The next morning she wakes up at home feeling like Hell, but
that's just the beginning of it: she's pregnant and doesn't even know who the
father is! Remember this is 1944! All she can remember is she
thinks she married some guy named
"Ratzkiwatzki" or something like that. Devastated by this news she doesn't know
what to do so she devises a plan to quickly marry Norval Jones, who's been in
love with her since he was a fetus, but when she sees how
deeply he's in love she can't trick him like that so...well, I've already told
you too much, but take my word for is this movie is hilarious. The first time I
saw it I literally laughed until I was crying and my sides hurt so bad I thought
I was going to puke.
From a filmmaker's standpoint TMOMC is notable for some great long shots,
especially Trudy and Norval's walk when she tell him she's pregnant. It's nearly
4 minutes long and physically covers a lot of ground, but the audience probably
never notices it because their too busy laughing at Norval's constant screaming.
Also notice how those long scenes are only during the first half of the movie,
later on as the excitement grows the shots become shorter and shorter, not to
mention a lot more people show up until you have some great Sturges crowd scenes
where you have five people talking at once and it's all funny.
I love this movie and cannot say enough things about it. Brilliant script and
direction by a true Hollywood master and the acting! How did Eddie Bracken not
get at least nominated for an Oscar for his role here? He was hilarious. And
lets not forget Sturges normal actors...of his 38 frequent actors 22 were here.
Most notable was William Demarest as Trudy's gruff father, Constable Edmund
Kockenlocker.
I would really like to know if it's even possible for Hollywood to make a movie
like this anymore? Made back in 1944 the story talks nonstop about sex and
marriage, but yet it's completely clean language-wise and without any gross-out
humor. Everything was done so subtly and so full of satire that it somehow got
passed the Hays Office! I
love crude humor as much as the next person, but I would be thrilled beyond
belief if somebody started making clean screwball comedies like this today. Some
of the comedies by Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges, Jack Conway, Frank Capra and
Leo McCarey were so rich that I can watch them countless times and never get
bored. Highly recommended.
Funny story: In a interview with Eddie Bracken he said that he came up with the
idea of Norval walking through the screen door and didn't tell Sturges, he just
did it. Preston was on the camera and started laughing so hard he actually
fell out of his seat!
Showing posts with label Brian Donlevy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Donlevy. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Saturday, September 5, 2009
PIT STOP (1969)
Hot rodder Rick Bowman is one bad mother. While the opening credits roll we see
Bowman getting ready to whip some nerd's ass at street racing. But wouldn't you
know it? The spazz he's racing wrecks his crate into somebody's crib then the
pigs show up and throw Bowman in the slammer. Race promoter Grant Willard (Brian
Donlevy) sees this as his opportunity, so he bails Bowman out and convinces him
to do some Circle 8 Racing with a promise that if he does good maybe there's a
spot for him over at his racing outfit, California Customs.
Just in case you don't know what Circle 8 racing is it's a race track with an intersection in the middle! Director Jack (SPIDER BABY, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS) Hill filmed a lot of exciting real life footage for the racing scenes and it's great! These wrecks are the real deal and it gives PIT STOP a cool historical feel to it.
Even though the racing scenes are fun to watch the other thing that makes this movie so good, even 40 years later, is the story is actually interesting and the actors are good! The biggest surprise is a young Sid Haig who actually shows some range! I've only seen him in the horseshit horror movies he cranked out later in his career, so I figured his entire career consisted of standing around with his mouth wide open, but I was wrong, because in PIT STOP he closes his gaping grin and does some honest acting...and he's good. Damn good in fact!
If you like hot rod flicks then this is a really good one and a lot of fun to watch. Also look out for a young Ellen Burstyn. Highly recommended.
Just in case you don't know what Circle 8 racing is it's a race track with an intersection in the middle! Director Jack (SPIDER BABY, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS) Hill filmed a lot of exciting real life footage for the racing scenes and it's great! These wrecks are the real deal and it gives PIT STOP a cool historical feel to it.
Even though the racing scenes are fun to watch the other thing that makes this movie so good, even 40 years later, is the story is actually interesting and the actors are good! The biggest surprise is a young Sid Haig who actually shows some range! I've only seen him in the horseshit horror movies he cranked out later in his career, so I figured his entire career consisted of standing around with his mouth wide open, but I was wrong, because in PIT STOP he closes his gaping grin and does some honest acting...and he's good. Damn good in fact!
If you like hot rod flicks then this is a really good one and a lot of fun to watch. Also look out for a young Ellen Burstyn. Highly recommended.
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