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July 09, 2007

Comments

Kip W

So that's who Abe Burrows was! I have an "Abe Burrows Song Book" in which he takes aim at different genres.

Bob Hodge

Great article. I have one tiny correction to make: Harry Einstein's pseudonym was "Parkyakarkus" - pronounced like a slang-ified "park your carcus" (which was probably exactly the intention)

Parq

Abe Burrows also wrote the "book" for Guys & Dolls. In the stage direction for the slap that climaxes "I'll Know When My Love Comes Along", he directs that Sarah slap Sky and adds -- remember, this is purely for the consumption of the director and actors - ". . . but really!" Now that's wit.

Parq

. . . and, may I add my favorite bit of dialogue from the above-mentioned "Dick Van Dyke" episode?

Rob (having pitched the idea of an old radio revival show to his colleagues): Okay then! Next week, it'll be the Mad Russian and Edwin Karp the Fishman!

Buddy (skeptical of the whole idea): Yeah, and the week after that, it'll be the Mad Sponsors and Rob Petrie the Unemployed Man.

Michael Powers

I'm so pleased that you posted a flurry of articles since the last time I checked. Before I even begin reading, though, I have to interject that you've just got to change the title of the first one from "A Tale of Two Gordons" to "A Tale of Two Bert Gordons", despite the resultant loss of the Dickens cadence.

Michael Powers

God, that dancing duck sequence was the funniest thing I've ever seen, especially the cutting back and forth from the duck's gyrating buttocks to those of the woman in the white dress. And the enthusiastic quacking made a superb counterpoint to that awful music; had it been included on the record's release the song might've been a hit.

Oddly, I'd never so much as heard of that movie before. Another great find, Kliph.

Michael Powers

Wow, there's nothing quite like seeing Ida Lupino smashing at a giant rat with a cleaver. I'm kind of sorry I watched that clip, Kliph; rats don't usually bother me but that was disturbing. Equally disturbing to me is the fact that for several years Columbia Pictures has been using Ida Lupino's face on their Statue of Liberty logo (it's pretty obvious since the camera pulls right past an extreme close-up of the face at the beginning of each of their movies) but won't acknowledge that it's Lupino, claiming instead that it's a "composite" of several different actresses! That's carrying political correctness too far: nobody looks quite like Lupino except Lupino and that's definitely Lupino holding up that torch (that maybe, on second thought, should've been a blood-drenched cleaver).

Michael Powers

I've mildly wondered for years why Columbia doesn't acknowledge that it's Lupino's face on their current Statue of Liberty logo (her presence there is particularly appropriate since I believe she also directed some films for the studio if I'm not mistaken), then the painfully obvious answer suddenly hit me a moment ago: they simply don't want to pay any residual fees to Lupino's heirs for using her visage at the opening of every single one of their films.

Derek

Kind of a rude article, truth is Gordon's "ineptness" left us with some very fun, campy movies. They are certainly fun to watch. Even Picture Mommy Dead has some great campy moments and is a nice diversion to some of the pretentious stuff Hollywood has produced.

Jimbo

Bert Gordon (the second) was an incredible director. Those films were very much in vouge at the time. They seem campy now, but they were high drama when they were made.

virtual laser keyboard

(it's pretty obvious since the camera pulls right past an extreme close-up of the face at the beginning of each of their movies)
that is true!!!

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