African Queen, The [Korean Import]

I can't think of a more esteemed movie that has not yet made it to DVD in the United States. People loved "The African Queen," with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, when John Huston made it in 1951, and, I daresay, people love it just as much today. Yet for complications I do not understand, as of this writing, no U.S. studio has yet issued it on disc. (It was originally a Romulus-Horizon production, which Fox released on VHS tape some years ago, and to which I understand Paramount now owns the U.S. DVD rights.) The version reviewed here is a region-free Korean import from Cine Korea, available on-line from various sources including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

"The African Queen" is an adventure, a romance, and a comedy, yet it tackles none of these genres according to accepted movie custom. The adventure takes place in German-controlled central-east Africa in 1914, at the outset the First World War, with the main characters--a Canadian man and an English woman--trying desperately to escape the Germans. They sail down the Ulonga-Bora River toward a lake in the man's dilapidated, rattrap little steamboat named the "African Queen." Once at the lake, the pair intend to blow up a German gunboat, using the "Queen" as the ramming device for a pair of homemade torpedoes.

The romance and the comedy take place aboard the "Queen" between a middle-aged, drunken sot, Charlie Allnut (Bogart), and a middle-aged lady, prim and straight-laced, Rose Sayer (Hepburn). A more nontraditional adventure story and a more unconventional romantic comedy you couldn't imagine.

Allnut travels up and down the East-African rivers delivering supplies to the colonists and missionaries there, but mostly he drinks. He's unshaven, unkempt, and usually less than sober, hardly one's image of a movie hero. Like many of Bogart's roles, it was a gamble. By 1951 Bogart was one of the biggest stars in the world, enabling him to take a chance in 1948 playing a thorough reprobate in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and getting away with it to public and critical approval; and, yes, he got it away with it again in "The African Queen." Although, to be fair, his character here is nothing like the greedy, dishonest scoundrel he played in "Sierra Madre."

Hepburn, well into her forties by this time and at an age when Hollywood usually abandons such actresses, took a chance, too, playing the prudish, almost Puritanical spinster who eventually falls for the grubby, grizzled, thoroughly egregious Allnut. The two players perform fabulously well against type, each bringing out the best in the other, both as actors and as characters in the story. Before long, it's hard to tell the difference.

This was the fourth of five movies Huston would make with Bogart and his only one with Hepburn. Huston co-wrote the screenplay with James Agee and Peter Viertel from a novel by C.S. Forester, turning the story into a tight, productive motion picture that is remarkably concise and pointed. There isn't a wasted moment, a wasted gesture, or a wasted line. The plot, the characters, and the action move along efficiently, with the odd-couple relationship of Bogart and Hepburn keeping the boat and the movie afloat. For his part, Bogart won an Oscar for Best Actor, and the Academy nominated Hepburn, Huston, and Agee for Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Writing respectively. Look also in the cast for Robert Morley as Miss Sayer's brother, a Christian missionary, and Theodore Bikel (who at this time is still going strong on stage and screen) as the first officer aboard the German ship.

To make the movie more realistic, Huston took his cast and crew to the Congo, Uganda, and Zaire, as well as to England, Turkey, and Southern California for filming. The location shooting became the stuff of legend, and Clint Eastwood chronicled some of it in "White Hunter Black Heart" (1990).

My parents took me to see "The African Queen" when I was a kid, and two things always stuck out in my memory: the fort on the hill (really neat) and the leeches (really icky). Almost a quarter of a century later, Katharine Hepburn would team up with John Wayne in "Rooster Cogburn," a movie that used virtually the same formula but to much duller effect.

Trivia: According to John Eastman in his book "Retakes" (Ballantine, New York, 1989), "Columbia Studios bought the original C.S. Forester novel for Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, then, in 1939, sold it to Warner Bros. for Bette Davis and David Niven. When Davis fell out with the producer, 20th Century-Fox bought the property, and John Huston unearthed it there twelve years later. Plagued by army ants, black wasps, dysentery, and steaming jungle heat, cast and crew suffered miserably in the African location scenes. Only Huston and Bogart escaped sickness (owing, they maintained, to their daily Scotch intake.) The actual 'African Queen,' a retired riverboat, towed four rafts down the Ruiki. On one, a mock-up replica of the boat provided a stage set, while others held equipment and private quarters for Hepburn. Bogart, at first lukewarm about his role and hating any sort of location work, gradually absorbed himself in the character of Charlie Allnut, but he never ceased complaining about the jungle discomforts and Hepburn's incessant, bewildering cheerfulness.... Screenwriter James Agee, whose disabling heart attack put an end to this work on the script, intended the river journey to symbolize the act of love, and he strongly criticized the upbeat finale concocted by Huston and writer Peter Viertel."

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Untouchables, The: Season 1 Vol. 1

Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North and South America, and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press.

That was how syndicated newspaper columnist Walter Winchell began his Sunday TV news broadcasts, which began in 1952. Presented in an overly dramatic style (think Howard Cosell or Paul Harvey) and combining news with gossip and commentary, the show was an extension of his popular radio broadcasts from the '30s and '40s. And though there isn't a commentary track to tell us one way or another, I'm betting that Winchell's style became the tonal template for this hugely popular one-hour gangster drama.

"The Untouchables," starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness, was the kind of cops and robbers show that kids loved. I was nine years old when the show first aired as a two-hour TV movie, "The Scarface Mob." Considering all the sound and fury over violence and sex on TV now, audiences saw an awful lot back then. Along with what I saw in National Geographic magazines, I caught my first glimpse of female breasts in this show. In the pilot, you saw a stripper from the side, then full frontal. Yes, she was wearing pasties, but they were tiny ones (the pasties) and it certainly was enough to leave an impression on a young boy. Same with all the violence. There wasn't an episode in this one-hour show that aired late Thursday nights in which a woman wasn't getting pushed around or someone wasn't getting cut down by a "chopper," one of the coolest guns ever to grab a TV or movie audience's attention. The Thompson sub-machine gun, or "Tommy" gun, was as much a character on this show as the G-men and Chicago hoods who used them.

Now, of course, you wouldn't see this level of violence. But "The Untouchables" was such an odd duck that nobody seemed bothered by it. For one thing, we were told it was based on Eliot Ness's autobiography, so it had the cachet of historical drama. Newsman Winchell's narration also gave the show an air of authenticity, even if his delivery was so over-the-top that it felt as if he could have been broadcasting "War of the Worlds." Winchell's hamminess, the overacting bad guys, the show's heavy film-noir style, and general staginess made it all seem slightly cartoonish. The villains were as cool as the guns. You had the cigar chomping Al Capone (Neville Brand), Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti (Bruce Gordon), Mad Dog Coll (Clu Gulager), and even Ma Barker (Claire Trevor), who historically wouldn't have been anywhere near Chicago, but what did we know? None of us had read the real-life Ness's book, and so we had no idea that Ness's job in Chicago really ended when he got Capone for tax evasion. It never occurred to us that Desilu Productions might have been playing a little loose with the facts, beginning the series at the point when it should have ended. We just enjoyed the high drama (and it's STILL amazingly dramatic) each week as Ness and his Untouchables tried to get the best of the bad guys.

I didn't know it at the time, but not everyone was impressed by the show's sense of itself as being historically accuracy. It turns out that Al Capone's estate sued the show for using the gangster's name and image for a profit-making venture, and the FBI wasn't thrilled that Ness got credit for finally getting Ma Barker and her boys when it was really the other bureau.

So how does "The Untouchables" hold up almost 50 years later? This first thing you'll be struck by is the heavy noir treatment, and the variety of interesting camera angles. The show won an Emmy for its editing this first season, and editors managed to juxtapose interesting shots while maintaining a credible tension. The staginess will also strike you. "The Untouchables" is unmistakable melodrama, but I'd liken it to good cholesterol versus the bad--which is to say, it works. If you're a "Sopranos" fan you're going to see how theatrical this production is by comparison. Some of the acting is really hammy, but it feels so period that the show can easily become as addictive as those HBO episodes. I found myself getting into them all over again, which, with old shows, is never guaranteed.

"The Scarface Mob" was first televised as a two-part episode of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse in April 1959, and is presented here as a seamless movie. In it, Ness forms the Untouchables and takes down Capone. Fourteen of the first season's 28 episodes are also included here:

1) "The Empty Chair"--Frank Nitti tries to take control of Capone's organization while the boss is in prison, but the pencil proves mightier than the Tommy gun, as Capone's bookkeeper (Nehemiah Persoff) proves.

2) "Ma Barker and Her Boys"--This over-the-top episode has Ness trailing the notorious Ma Barker gang, with flashbacks showing how Ma went from being a churchgoing saint to make the Most Wanted list.

3) "The George 'Bugs' Moran Story"--Ness tries to enlist the help of the local truckers union to keep mob boss Bugs Moran from infiltrating the labor unions.

4) "The Jake Lingle Killing"--When a journalist is murdered, an ex-con decides to play both sides and help Ness find the killer.

5) "Ain't We Got Fun"--How the mob infiltrated entertainment. When a bootlegger takes control of a nightclub, he takes a comic under his wing.

6) "Vincent 'Mad Dog' Coll"--A truly mad gangster kidnaps Dutch Shultz's right-hand man and, if that's not bad enough, the horse Schultz was betting on to win the Kentucky Derby.

7) "Mexican Stake-Out"--Ness goes south to bring back a witness; unfortunately, it turns out to be a trap.

8) "The Artichoke King"--The produce market in New York is up for grabs after gang warfare breaks out.

9) "The Tri-State Gang"--Ness relies on an informant again to help him bring down a gang of truck hijackers.

10) "The Dutch Schultz Story"--Bad guys can be tricky, as Ness finds out when Schultz sways an entire jury with his uncharacteristically good behavior.

11) "You Can't Pick the Number"--This time it's the numbers racket, with Agent Flaherty (Jerry Paris) getting the challenge.

12) "The Underground Railway"--A con who's had plastic surgery to do a job for the mob finds life complicated when he falls for the woman who was hired to play his wife.

13) "Syndicate Sanctuary"--Narcotics, this time, as the daughter of a murdered candidate for mayor hopes Ness will help her drive the mob out of her small town.

14) "The Noise of Death"--Ness becomes involved with the Mafia when he develops a relationship with a mob boss who refuses to retire.

Though Ness was surrounded by a number of agents, it was Nicholas Georgiade as Agent Enrico Rossi who became the fan favorite, partly because of his sculpted good looks, but mostly because we saw just how this barber became a member of the Untouchables in an early episode. This season, look for familiar TV faces like Jack Lord, Jack Warden, Martin Landau, Jack Elam, Marion Ross, Alan Hale Jr., and Gavin McLeod.

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A Treasure in My Garden [English version]

This collection of animated music videos, which is pitched at children ages 2-6, features the songs of Quebecois singer-poet Gilles Vigneault, with artwork and animation from the Montreal animation house Tooncan, which gave us the Academy Award-winning feature "The Triplets of Belleville."

The Secret Mountain recently produced an English version for North American distribution, and I'm happy to report that it's quite good. The colors are bright and vibrant, the animation is varied enough to hold children's interest, and the songs range from hoedowns to lullabies.
Other titles in The Secret Mountain catalog have received awards from Parents' Choice and other organizations, and it wouldn't surprise me if this one also earned their seal of approval.
The music is performed by Connie Kaldor ("A Poodle in Paris," "A Duck in New York City") and other musicians from the roots music group Hart-Rouge. Linking the songs are brief and occasional animated segues in which a personified treasure chest engages in all sorts of odd, imaginative activities.

"The Pot" is a rap-tap style song with fast-talking lyrics half-spoken, half-sung, while a mouth organ (a.k.a. in pre-politically correct days, as a Jew's Harp) and other rhythm-oriented instruments lay out a beat while a cook makes a stew and piggies feast, then all get sick. As with the Music Together program, the emphasis is on the rhythm of the music, and an automatic "again, again" built in plays the song all over again, to further help children "feel" the rhythm. It's a cute song with the kind of whimsical animation that's just odd enough to feel unique, rather than twisted.

"The Man From Leeds" has more melody with a traditional chorus about "sailing away," with very interesting claymation-style animation and large, rounded shapes that will appeal especially to children in the early stages of childhood development.

"Apple Song" has some fun with fruit, with berries and cherries and various round edibles both the subject of the music and also the twist that gives the animation on this video its unique style. Fruit, for example, become the notes on a musical score, while a child dreaming has a dream bubble over his head fill with popcorn! Musically, it's an upbeat variation of a lullaby.

"Sleepy Sheep Hoedown for the Kid Who Won't Lie Down" is perhaps the most whimsical animated song of the bunch, and I'm guessing it may also become a favorite of the pre-schoolers. As the title implies, a fiddler sings like a square-dance caller as he helps children count (yep, sheep) and learn the days of the week, with both progressions giving structure to the song. And by golly, it's a catchy tune, too.

"The Lamppost" is a poignant story without much in the way of music that has bright colors, pulsing animation, and paper-collage style artwork. In it, we hear about a girl who had a secret garden that she loved as a child. In it, she planted all sorts of wonderful (and ungardenlike) things. But when she returns as an adult, all she finds is development: concrete, houses, signs, and only a small park where her gigantic garden used to be. But she takes solace in finding one familiar tree that, as she did, grew up, and grew tall. This tree may be all that remains of her garden, but it's all the more meaningful to her because of that.

"Boxes" is built upon repetition, like the old Burl Ives song about "little boxes made of ticky tacky." Here, though, as with "The Lamppost" the underlying theme is quite serious. It's also about aging and the stages of life that people go through, until it ends with death-which is interestingly portrayed in a "Lion King" sort of way, as someone who just turns into a wisp of cosmic energy in the sky. In an interesting sequence a kid in a box rides here and there, eventually being turned by a tornado so that we see the boy physically age with each turn. It's all pretty subtle and pretty New Age.

"For You, I've a Lake" is a sweet song sung by a mother (who, in this animation, is a very pregnant queen on a very small island) who sings to her unborn baby about what she would do for her unborn child. It's very much like that famous children's book, "The Runaway Bunny," insomuch as it's a progression that illustrates how much a mother loves her child. Small children will find it both reassuring and, for all those little princesses in waiting, a perfect introduction to the wide array of princess-oriented products that they'll soon be requesting.

"Teddy" turns the spotlight on Dad. In this bluegrass-influenced song, the little girl in the story asks her father to build a house for her teddy bear, because it's only right, and he needs a home of his own.

"My Treasure" is a pretty song which is odd, considering that it's not an adult and not a small child, but an adolescent boy who pines over a picture of a girl friend who moved away. But as with the other serious-topic songs in this collection, the tone is sweet and nostalgic, not pained in any way, and certainly not even close to the pouting that you'd normally get in a situation like this. As befits the topic, the animation is rendered a bit more realistically, and the colors are not as bright.

"Scuttlebutt, What a Nut" is sung using a child's voice, sweet and melodic, with loosely drawn and animated figures of considerable whimsy and a theme about what makes the world go 'round.

"On the Tip of My Tongue" is another fiddle song with a kid's chorus and fast-sung lyrics about a ring that was dropped in water, eaten by a fish, the fish taken by a bird, the bird . . . you get the point. In terms of animation style, it's a companion to the song about the queen, this time with a man on one small island and a woman on another.

"Love and Work" and "Julie's Lullaby" are two lullabies that round out the series. Collectively, it's a pleasing collection that probably has more sweet and melodic songs than up-tempo ones. Because the lyrics are more sweet than edgy, it pretty much reinforces that the target audience is pre-schoolers and perhaps kindergarteners.

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Mork & Mindy: Season Two

Mork first visited Earth from the Planet Ork on an episode of "Happy Days," but Robin Williams was such a sensation in the role that Gary Marshall gave the Orkan his own show. That first season, Mork tied "Happy Days" for third place in the Nielsen's, while another "Happy Days" spin-off, "Laverne & Shirley," finished number one.

But it didn't take Marshall long to go way out with this sitcom about an affable alien who lands in Boulder, Colorado and is taken in by a warm-hearted woman. The very first episode of the second season of "Mork & Mindy" has Mindy (Pam Dawber) giving Mork cold medicine to shrink his nasal membranes. But Shozbott, Orkans are ALL membrane, and so his whole body shrinks. Okay, nothing wrong with a little "Mork in Wonderland," as the one-hour episode is titled. But then Marshall and his crew get a little carried away, and we're given some silly-yet-serious nonsense about Mork ending up in a world the size of an atom where he meets doubles of everyone he knows on Earth. This planet is called Mirth, and humor there has been banished. Well, it's all pretty dumb, and surprising, given that the show's primary audience was families--and it's awfully traumatic having Mindy's double blown up and Mork crying at the end about wanting to die before Mindy because he just couldn't take it. Well, neither could the viewers. And the shift to this type of episode was hard to fathom, since the show succeeded its first season by following a simple formula.

With Williams' improvisational skills, it's hard to believe that the writers couldn't milk the fish-out-of-water, stranger-in-a-strange-land humor for at least another season before they had to resort to out-of-this-world gimmicks. Then again, maybe Marshall and his writers were giving fans what they thought viewers wanted. That's why, presumably, that sackcloth-and-ashes street prophet Exidor (Robert Donner) gets mega-air time this season, and why Mr. Bickley (Tom Poston), the crotchety neighbor in their old Victorian apartment house, was included in the credits this season. But viewers this season never knew what to expect from week to week: a sweet improvisational comedy along the lines of Season One, wild episodes like "Mork vs. the Necrotrons" (in which Raquel Welch is an agent sent to Earth to scout for an invasion), or socially relevant episodes like "Mork Learns to See" (in which Tom Sullivan stars as a visually-impaired singer). Maybe that's why "Mork & Mindy" slipped 24 places in the Nielsen's.

The strongest episodes are ones that return to the successful formula of the first season. In "A Mommy for Mindy," for example, her father (Conrad Janis) returns from a stint with a symphony orchestra with a new wife (Shelley Fabares). Mork, with his unflappable childlike exuberance, is ready to celebrate, but of course Mindy feels a little weirded-out--especially since her new step-mom is pretty darned close to her own age. It's Mork who embraces the idea of having a "mommy," and there are some pretty funny Williams' improv moments here. Same with "Clerical Error," when Mork wants to avoid being a "hickey on the neck of life" and contribute to society in a significant way. So he decides to be a priest, and you can imagine the routines that come out of his "counseling" sessions with unsuspecting parishioners. Had Marshall and his team created more episodes like this, it would have been another solid season. As it is, you'd think it was a flop the first season, the way they were tinkering with it. Jay Thomas and Gina Hecht were even added as a couple for Mork and Mindy to play off of.

Here's a rundown on the 24 episodes, which are contained on four single-sided discs and housed in a newly-designed clear plastic keep-case that's the same size as a regular DVD case, but which has a center "page" that holds two of the discs:

1) "Mork in Wonderland"-The one-hour season premier has Mork shrinking to the size of an atom and ending up in a topsy-turvy world called Mirth.

2) "Stark Raving Mork"-One of the episodes in the spirit of the first season has Mork thinking that fighting and making up is the best way to sustain a relationship-much to Mindy's dismay.

3) "Mork's Baby Blues"-In this okay episode a golddigger thinks Mork is a rich eccentric and tries to trick him into thinking she's having his baby.

4) "Dr. Morkenstein"-Roddy Mcdowall guests as Chuck, a sick robot that Mork tends to and then pals around with.

5) "Mork vs. Mindy"-Mork and Mindy vie for the same job with Mindy's cousin Nelson Flavor (Jim Stahl), who's running for city council.

6) "Mork Gets Mindy-itis"-The cure is worse than the disease in this episode about Mork's sudden allergy to his apartment-mate.

7) "A Morkville Horror"-It's hard to get a Halloween episode wrong when you have a sitcom featuring an alien, and this one hits the mark, with ghosts from Mindy's past on the loose.

8) "Mork's Health Hints"-This weaker episode finds Mork in a panic after he mistakently thinks Mindy is having brain surgery.

9) "Dial N for Nelson"-This pretty funny episode has Mork going undercover at the Bare Facts Club to find out who's trying to smear Nelson.

10) "Mork vs. The Necrotrons"-Okay, Trekkies and people who like their Mork far-out will like this one, but I thought it was stupid.

11) "Hold That Mork!"-Mork becomes the first male cheerleader for the Broncos in this dumb, exploitive beer-commercial of an episode.

12) "The Exidor Affair"-Georgia Engels guests as Exidor's love-interest, with Mork doing the coaxing and coaching.

13) "The Mork Syndrome"-Mork ends up joining the Air Force by mistake, which leads to him taking Mindy on a mission that's as far-fetched as anything this season. A stinker.

14) "Exidor's Wedding"-There are some funny moments in this show, in which Exidor's mother tries to keep him from getting married.

15) "A Mommy for Mindy"-Shelley Fabares guests as Mindy's new step-mom, who's pretty much adopted by Mork.

16) "The Night They Raided Mind-ski's"-Mork gets involved with an anti-eco group that's really targeting Mindy. A few funny moments, but a dumb episode overall.

17) "Mork Learns to See"-A touching episode, albeit a preachy and obvious one, about a different kind of seeing.

18) "Mork's Vacation"-Mork leaves on vacation to a few swinging planets, but the body he leaves behind ends up being big-time baggage for Mindy after it's inhabited by felines from one planet and smarmy swingers from another. Dumb-ass episode. What were these writers smoking?

19) "Jeanie Loves Mork"-When Mindy takes on the anonymous role of a newspaper lonely hearts columnist, she inadvertently advises her friend to seek Mr. Right in the wrong Orkan place. Okay episode.

20) "Little Orphan Morkie"-Mork is going to be deported unless he marries an American citizen or finds someone to adopt him. Another okay one.

21) "Looney Tunes and Morkie Melodies"-It's telethon time, cosmic style, as Mork tries to save Nelson Flavor from embarrassing himself on TV. Some funny moments.

22) "Clerical Error"-One of the funnier episodes has Mork dispensing advice as a priest.

23) "Invasion of the Mork Snatchers"-In a satire on TV commercials, Mork becomes possessed by the consumer impulse to buy, buy, buy. Again, some funny moments.

24) "The Way Mork Were"-The writers began the season in a clichéd, unimaginative way, so why wouldn't they end it that way with a reminiscing clip show? Or maybe they just knew that they needed to find a highlight reel, after taking so many missteps this season.

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