Shake Hands With Danger

For lack of anything to write about I'm going to post my all-time favorite safety film, Shake Hands With Danger. Shake Hands... is a real hoot with its downhome folksy narrator and unforgettable theme song; the film also contains death, limbs being chopped off, a man set ablaze and many other sorts of mayhem. All-in-all I find it impossible to not enjoy Shake Hands With Danger and its catchy theme song.

The Walker Brothers - Nite Flights

Nite Flights by the Walker Brothers featuring the great Scott Walker.
This wonderful song, from their final album also titled Nite Flights, is said to have inspired the Berlin Trilogy by David Bowie and Eno.

Adventures of Superman, season 1

Consensus is the first season of The Adventures of Superman is the best of the six. Although I enjoy the entire series I agree with that sentiment. Season one offers a darker, film noirish tone, while still remaining light hearted and fun when needed, the other seasons lack. The best and most memorable episodes of the series are found in this season and here is my personal top-five favorite episodes of season one.



#5 "No Holds Barred" original airdate: 11/28/1952
Although not one the best episodes of the seasons "No Holds Barred" is a favorite of mine because the plot deals with wrestling and it's a ball for me to see Superman delve into the wrestling world. In this episode, Superman helps a young wrestler expose a crooked promoter. Pro-Wrestling in the film noir world wasn't a new idea as it had been previously done in Jules Dassin's classic Night And the City (1950).


#4 "The Human Bomb" original airdate: 2/6/1953
"Bet-A-Million" Butler chains himself to Lois Lane while carrying a bomb in a scheme to keep Superman away from a real crime at the Metropolis Museum. "The Human Bomb" is a truly fun episode which highlights both the best TV Lois Lane Phyllis Coates and the astonished crowd during the series opening credits.


#3 "The Haunted Lighthouse" original airdate: 9/26/52
Jimmy Olsen calls on Clark Kent to help solve a mystery while on vacation visiting a distant aunt. The great Jack Larson is the star of this episode and he totally makes the most of it. Larson is hands down is the best Jimmy Olsen as he has the best mix of awkward geekiness and spot-on comic timing. "The Haunted Lighthouse" also shows the series' great mixture of light comedy and film noirish mystery.


#2 "The Evil Three” original airdate: 1/23/1953
Jimmy and Perry stop at a hotel whose other inhabitants include a crazy old woman and two murderous men. "The Evil Three" is another great Jimmy Olsen episode and also is a great spotlight for John Hamilton's Perry White. The two together have great chemistry and I personally would have loved to see a show starring these two with Superman as a supporting character saving them at the episode's end.


#1 "The Stolen Costume" original airdate: 12/12/1952
Superman's costume is stolen! I always loved the idea that Clark just put his Superman costume in the closet when it wasn't in use. "The Stolen Costume" has the best ending of any episode in the series with Superman leaving the costume-stealing crooks at the top of a mountain alone to die, which they do by falling.

Superman

Here's a collection of great Superman covers from 1930s and 1940s.

Husker Du Live TV Performance

One of my all-time favorite bands, Husker Du, performing on the Late Show with Joan Rivers. The performance, from April 1987, features two songs (Could You Be the One and She's A Woman [And Now He is a Man]) from their classic double album, Warehouse: Songs and Stories. The clip also features the band being interviewed by Joan, very strange.

The Immoral Mr. Teas

As a long time fan and admirer of the films of Russ Meyer I tried to seek out as many films of his I could find. All of his film interested me greatly with the exception of his early nudie-cutie films. The idea of watching women cavorting around nude for an hour with no plot seemed tiresome and thus I avoided them like the plague. Recently, however I decided to go back and see if I was missing something special. So, I watched the first nudie-cutie film, The Immoral Mr. Teas. Released in 1959 Mr. Teas was the first American made mainstream film to show female nudity since the pre-code era. The film was a gigantic success and created the nudie-cutie genre and launched the career of Russ Meyer. The film lacks dialogue and ambient sounds but contains witty, ironic narration and a lively, bouncy score.

The film follows the title character Mr. Teas (Bill Teas), a dental delivery man, over the course of four days. On the first day we see Mr. Teas at work where he encounters a shapely, sexy nurse, a curvy waitress at a café and a sultry secretary. Day two shows Mr. Teas at rest visiting a beach. The beach seems to be completely vacant with the exception of a beach bunny in a red bikini and her rarely seen male companion. It is here on the beach that we get the first glimpse of a bare breast, although it’s only a side view with no visible nipple. Continuing on day two Mr. Teas leaves the beach and heads to a lake to fish. While fishing the beach bunny shows up on a row boat and decides to sunbathe next to Teas. This causes him to run away in fright. Day three he returns to work and encounters the three earlier women again; however this time he imagines them completely nude. This causes him to visit a psychiatrist on day four. After his visit with the voluptuous female shrink he heads back to the lake to fish. While there he daydreams about his three working beauties running nude around the lake. They bathe, swing and rest on a hammock all the while Mr. Teas observes like a peeping tom. Upon awaking Mr. Teas heads to another spot to fish where he misses a real, not imagined, nude girl. This brings him back to the psychiatrist whom he imagines nude and happily comes to grips with his affliction.

Throughout the film we were given occasions to which the viewer was possibly meant to identify with Mr. Teas, most notably him cowering in fear of the sun-bathing beach bunny. Mr. Teas seems to be more comfortable watching women from afar and in the shadows rather than up close and personal, hiding behind umbrellas at the beach or behind curtains at a strip club. Even in his fantasies Mr. Teas prefers to hide from the women as seen in the lake dream sequence when he hides behind bushes and climbs trees to cover himself from the three beauties. One can only assume that most men seeking out films like The Immoral Mr. Teas in the 1959 felt more at home as a peeping tom always at arms length from a woman rather than getting more intament with her. I’m not sure what this says about Russ Meyer or his opinions on men interested in the nude female form but I believe he saw himself as a Mr. Teas type hiding behind his camera to catch a glimpse or two of a nude woman. He even goes so far as to cast himself as a cheering spectator at a strip club in the film.



Even with bountiful female nudity The Immoral Mr. Teas lacks several others of Russ Meyer’s trademarks, notably his rapid-fire editing and cinematography. Despite the fast paced pre-credit sequence and an assortment of other moments, particularly the dream sequences, The Immoral Mr. Teas looks and feels like most exploitation films of the period and not a Russ Meyer original. However, the film is still a good time. With its deadpan, ironic narration, numerous sight gags and plethora of nudity the film is enjoyable and funny. Because it lacks the sting of his later classics due to its routine plot and the derivative nature of nudie-cutie films The Immoral Mr. Teas never reaches above an amusing hour long diversion. End

...Meet Batman

Hey, don't forget to check out my podcast, Steve and Andy Meet Batman!

http://steveandandy.blogspot.com/

Favorite Trailer

The first in a series of my favorites trailers is John Carpenter's The Thing. The trailer is incredibly effective evoking a terrifying atmosphere. It also does a great job displaying the state of the art effects and the Artic setting.