The Projectors

Our theme this month is called AWKWARD LAUGHTER 2: THE FLOP but not every comedy this month flopped. As a vintage palette cleanser we will be examining three films by Jerry Lewis that actually did pretty well compared to our other discussions for the month. We start off our Jerry Lewis trio with the 1957 Don McGuire directed “THE DELICATE DELINQUENT” which was Jerry Lewis’s first major feature that was absent his previous on screen partner, Dean Martin, marking the official ending of the Martin & Lewis era. Jerry plays Sidney Pythias, a 21 year old janitor’s apprentice who accidentally falls into a wrong crowd scenario and is being rehabilitated by a Cop despite being naturally insane and possibly brain damaged. We examine the nature of Jerry Lewis’s comedy stylings, its legacy today and the current status of his long lost tone-deaf masterpiece “The Day the Clown Cried”. Comedy is subjective and changes considerably over time in what’s popular but Jerry Lewis is absolutely one of the biggest comedic stars we will be discussing all month long. Maybe some of his antics seem kinda “cringe” but a lot of you TikTokkers are deep in his shadow whether you know it or not. Oh! Here’s the movie: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x3unyy
 
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We’re ending the first week of our April theme known as “AWKWARD LAUGHTER 2: THE FLOP” with a selection that is a fond memory from our youth. Apparently, not enough people can say that they watched “KIDS IN THE HALL: BRAIN CANDY” in the theaters when it came out in 1996 but our two hosts actually did pay to see this movie. Or they at least borrowed money from their parents to go see it. The Canadien skit comedy troupe garnered a loyal audience in North America after spending years on basic cable and are absolutely influential to modern comedy. (The good stuff, anyway) It seemed exciting when Paramount opted to release a Kids in the Hall movie but, unfortunately, not much more than the hardcore Kids in the Hall fans went to see it. We were huge fans but were also children who were, admittedly, watching something more adult than our parents intended. It’s amazing what they didn’t pay attention to right under their noses. Decades later we reevaluate a personal cult favorite. A film project that brings about mixed feelings upon reflection for the talented players involved those being the director Kelly Makin and the cast. Shit, we might as well list them: Scott Thompson, Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald & Mark McKinney. There you go. Does this smart character-driven satire of corporations and cynical marketing still hold up? Does it deserve more? How would this movie fare amongst people who didn’t know anything about The Kids in the Hall? Hear us out and watch the movie at this link (that worked as of this posting) right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc4ND4Javf4 Pretty sure direct media for this has been out of print for a while so click away.
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We’re back into one of our earliest themes to discuss a month full of comedies that didn’t quite hit at the box office in their time. We reflect decades later to determine if these panned films deserve more praise. We’re calling our theme: AWKWARD LAUGHTER 2: THE FLOP. Some of these movies have gone on to enjoy genuine cult status and a few have actually become quite influential. The thing about influence is that it doesn’t always mean success. Sometimes it’s what you influence that gets the success you were going for. Chris Elliot and Adam Resnick have high comedy nerd clout to this very day, but when they wrote a script for a possible Tim Burton film they maybe weren’t very prepared to pick up the reigns after Burton backed out of directing. Resnick and Elliot’s first feature film flopped at the box office. They might have written something completely different if they knew Tim Burton would back out. The shadow of their notorious 1994 fantasy comedy CABIN BOY looms over their career but love it or hate it, it was a part of the building blocks of a certain style of modern comedy. How does “Cabin Boy” fare in our eyes? Does it clean our pipes? Would you like to buy a monkey?
Cabin Boy 25th anniversary discussion panel hosted by Tom Scharpling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyYexZFb58w
 
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New Month new theme. Last April our little movie review show was finding its footing when we discussed a few spoof comedies in an early event we called “Awkward Laughter”. One year later we return to the theme, our first returning theme for the show, and we’re discussing some comedies from over the last few decades that didn’t really blow up at the box office but may deserve some reevaluation and perhaps some more cult recognition. We’re calling April’s theme “AWKWARD LAUGHTER 2: THE FLOP” and we’re starting off legendary with a movie whose production woes overshadowed what could have been a more objective audience response. It was an expensive movie whose initial box office didn’t even make back the marketing cost which may have been a bit of a shock seeing as Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman were huge stars at the time. Critics were all over the map in reviews of this one, with Siskel & Ebert calling it the worst movie of that year. Perfection is rare but this film being a tentpole for “worst” seems rather baffling. The experience drew director Elaine May out from behind the camera after just four movies. Three of her films found critical acclaim. Is the fourth really as bad as they say? We reevaluate Elaine May’s notorious 1987 flop “ISHTAR” in which Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty play two idiots, who sincerely want to make it as songwriters, finding themselves wedged between political turmoil in a fictional North African country. Gene Siskel maybe wasn’t laughing but we sure were. How does this attempt at throwback comedy seem to accidentally feel ahead of its time? Here’s a movie link we found but it may not last long: https://archive.org/details/ishtar.-1987.720p.-blu-ray.x-264.-aac-yts.-mx
 
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We just wrapped up a month chock full of post-war noir movies but let’s hang on to the genre for just a little bit longer because this is a year we’re calling THE YEAR OF VON TRIER because it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a shit year so why not increase our existential dread? We’re wrapping up Lars von Trier’s Europa trilogy with his hypnotic post-war train noir from 1991 called “EUROPA” ( or “ZENTROPA” if you’re nasty ) starring Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa and more. An AWOL American steps onto German soil just after the Second World War ends and is granted a job on a train by his cantankerous Uncle. The horrors of Germany linger in the new era as Nationalists seek to conspire against the international occupiers and guilt hangs over the perpetrators who are protected by mutual international interests. Leopold Kessler, the American, seems like the perfect blank slate in a political struggle amidst broken Germany but will love save him or will it destroy him? Are we being hypnotized? Will we ever be free of Europa?
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With this episode we bid farewell to March’s noir theme we’ve dubbed THE LEFT HAND ENDEAVOR. We’ve discussed 21 classic film noir and a few more if you include episodes from months back. We love some crime movies and our final film discussion is a feature that feels like a culmination of a veteran leading man that has devoted so much of his career to playing dangerous men. We’re talking about Raoul Walsh’s 1949 classic “WHITE HEAT” starring the great James Cagney as Cody Jarrett, the ultimate criminal psychopath. It also stars Virginia Mayo, Edmond O’Brien & Margaret Wycherly. Probably our most brutal and violent film all month and its influences on modern gangster films is very apparent. It’s also one of those oft quoted movies in which the quote is somewhat mis-quoted kinda like “Sunset Blvd.”. Our last classic noir discussion its worth your time and we found a quality version of it at this link: https://archive.org/details/white-heat-1949_202311 We’re saying goodbye to noir, for now, and next week we return to an early topic to reevaluate some comedies that didn’t blow up the box office but how do they fair critically after all these years?
 
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We’re heading into the finish line for March’s classic noir month that we’ve been calling THE LEFT HAND ENDEAVOR. One last non-english speaking noir before we go and it’s prime post war Japanese filmmaking and our first Akira Kurosawa discussion for the show. Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune) is a young Yakuza drunk who can’t seem to shake a sick feeling. Doctor Sanada (Takashi Shimura), who can drink him under the table, tells the young hood that he has tuberculosis. If only the Yakuza lifestyle lent itself to proper tuberculosis treatment. If anyone can teach him respect in this literal shithole then it might be the alcoholic doctor who throws things in fits of anger over how stupid his patients are. Then an old gangster returns and he’s kind of good at guitar. Perhaps our most busted setting yet here in post-war Japan in Akira Kurosawa’s 1948 Yakuza noir “DRUNKEN ANGEL” and of course we found a link. Here you go: https://archive.org/details/drunken-angel
 
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We’re nearing the end of our Classic Noir themed month we’re calling THE LEFT HAND ENDEAVOR and it’s just banger after banger each week and our last week is no different. Today’s classic noir is one that might show up on several “Best Movie” top 20 lists. One of the few classic noir that seem to shine beyond it’s genre. Chock full of stunning, shadowy, shots seared into the annals of film history and appreciation. A western writer by the name of “Holly” strolls into Vienna not long past the end of WWII to meet an old friend who he discovers is dead. The case seems to be officially closed but Holly finds conflicting information outside of the official narrative of Harry Lime’s death. Meanwhile, Lime’s girlfriend is fraught with her own issues but is bonding with Holly over their mutual connection with Harry. The interaction has Holly smitten with his dead friend’s gal but is she down? Of course, we’re talking about Carol Reed’s 1949 classic “THE THIRD MAN” starring Joseph Cotton, Valli, Trevor Howard and Orson Welles as the ultimate irredeemable charmer that appears in the movie for, maybe, 7 minutes. Half of that because he didn’t want to do the sewer scenes. You better believe we got a link for it. Hope it still works: https://archive.org/details/the-third-man-1949
 
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We’re in the final stretch of our noir month, which we’ve dubbed THE LEFT HAND ENDEAVOR (because it sounds cool). To say that we’ve hit up some classic heavy hitters is putting it mildly and it won’t be any different in this final week as we hit up our second Nicholas Ray directed feature this month as well as our second Humphrey Bogart feature. Dix Steel (yes, that’s his name) is a curmudgeon Hollywood writer who gets investigated for a murder and he ain’t doing himself any favors being so flippant about it. His new girlfriend and alibi (played by Gloria Grahame) loves him dearly but when Dix’s quick anger and violent tendencies come to the surface, she realizes it might not be just his cold charm. Maybe he fucking killed somebody! What darkness lurks under the surface in Nicholas Ray’s 1950 classic, ‘IN A LONELY PLACE”. Dix sure doesn’t know how to chill.  He seems to openly fetishize violence in front of people that are literally investigating him. Is this guy just an intense genre screenwriter or a stone cold killer? Can this relationship survive either way? Nicholas Ray’s marriage to Gloria Grahame during this time sure didn’t. Of course you can find this online and I hope this link works because it’s one definitely worth checking out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybheWgXr6Po
 
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We’re into the last stretch of THE LEFT HAND ENDEAVOR and we have five more classic noir to go and today we bid farewell to Chandler’s iconic detective in our last MARLOWE MONDAY feature. Robert Montgomery definitely isn’t our favorite Marlowe this month. Probably the worst one, actually, but this 1947 adaptation of “The Lady in the Lake” that he directed is pretty damn experimental. A first of its kind as far as we know. You see, Robert Montgomery is Philip Marlowe but also YOU are Philip Marlowe….kinda. This movie is shot from a first person perspective. Marlowe’s perspective to be exact. There’s no cutting within scenes. Just characters looking right at the camera all throughout the movie. Some parts look cool but the concept pigeonholes the execution. That said, Audrey Totter deserves credit for all the heavy lifting. It’s probably more her movie than anybody else’s, truly. It’s the gimmicky “LADY IN THE LAKE” and we will leave you a link right here: https://archive.org/details/lady-in-the-lake-robert-montgomery-audrey-totter-leon-ames-tom-tully-lloyd-nolan-1947 , So long Marlowe. See you soon.
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