RICH AND STRANGE
The Pre-Show Entertainment was the underground Orson Welles audio tape, and the "Pinky & The Brain" episode "Yes, Always". For those unfamiliar: in the '80s a tape called THE TUBE BAR TAPE floated around an underground network. Among the contents were "Red" and "Orson Welles".
Red was a guy who worked at The Tube Bar, a watering hole on the Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel (hence its name). Red was like an old salty sailor, and very gullible....and perhaps stupid. So, this guy would call him and make him page people in the bar like Pepe Roni. Well, you get the idea. So did Red. After awhile, he'd curse the caller out, who would in turn just antagonize Red even more. In any case, a few years later, Red was made famous on many episodes of "The Simpsons". Then the Jerky Boys came and ruined everything.
Orson Welles was bitter when he got older. He was making his living mostly by doing radio and TV spots. Well, one day, the engineer of a wine radio commercial let the tape roll as Orson threw some fits. It's classic. So, "Pinky and the Brain" took that tape and made a cartoon called "Yes, Always". It's word for word from the Orson tape (it's no secret that the voice of The Brain is modeled after Orson Welles). The episode is so on the nose, it's really not a funny ha-ha piece. In fact, it's not that funny at all. It is, however, truly amazing, and very clever. It's so inside, I'm sure it's lost on most, as you must be aware of the tape to understand the parody. Doing these two pieces back to back gave me a creepy feeling.
September's movie was RICH AND STRANGE. This is a 1932 Hitchcock comedy which, although I have never seen THE PHANTOM MENACE, has perhaps the most annoying character in film history. Yet- done in such a wonderful way that you loved to see her, so you can groan, "I do not want to see her".
Seems to me that Hitch could have been a wonderful comedic director. He had all the tools, but just used them to build houses of suspense instead. There were some wonderful moments, a great opening, and, as in many of his silents and early talkies; the promise of what he would become.
I prepared a dish I had once in Atlanta. It's thinly sliced pieces of potatoes (a little thicker than a potato chip), deep fried, smothered in bleu cheese dressing, with chunks of bleu cheese as well. It's a tricky preparation, as you have to know exactly when to de-grease them. You also have to eat them immediately, or, as the French say....they fucking suck. Well, I lucked out. They turned out great. We'll have to do that again. I'll sell them when I open my burger stand and call them Cubby's Spectacular Bleu Cheese Delite and a Half.
Tags: random movie club, rich and strange, hitchcock, pinky and the brain, the tube bar tape
