Beach Blanket Bingo, Caged, Extinction & More

EXTINCTION — A sci fi drama with social justice messages — “We’re evolving and not that different from each other and if we can see that we’ll have a future after all.”  I watched this on Netflix shortly after the first Zoom UMN OLLI class on science fiction and it relates precisely to that lecture about a caring society and how ethics is fundamental to a functioning democracy. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3201640/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3

HAIL CEASAR — A big wet kiss from the Coen Brothers to Hollywood’s Golden Era with a loose plot involving disgruntled screen writers and the kidnapping of a drunken has been actor (George Clooney.)  The Channing Tatum scene with the waltzing sailors is borrowed from the 1936 Fred and Ginger musical, “Follow the Fleet.”  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475290/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_4

LIL ABNER (1958) — Filmed in a Hollywood sound stage, the movie looks low budget and is based on characters created by cartoonist Al Capp who tilted to the far right politically.  Memories are stirred of my senior year at Lewis & Clark when our class staged a Lil Abner production with John Campbell as Abner and Bonnie ? as Daisy Mae.  (I was the publicity guy, which meant I made signs advertising the performance.) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053001/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO & DOUBLE DYNAMITE  — Sources of our discontent are the underlying themes making these 40s films worth viewing.  Guardians of the wealth don’t bother with eye contact when hearing complaints from underserving laborers. In “Dynamite” the bank manager fiddles with a pipe when the bank clerk played by Frank Sinatra states his case for a raise in pay. That he is surrounded by great amounts of cash is little comfort to Sinatra getting paid $42 but mobsters help him realize his dreams.   Civilians show cold indifference and open hostility to veterans returning from WW2 to hyper competitive capitalism and lousy jobs in William Wyler’s award-winning Best Years.  Mob hysteria prevails when a discharged ex-marine who never fought in the war is worshiped by town folks who demonstrate in the streets and then elect him mayor in Preston Sturges’ comedy Hail the Conquering Hero. https://www.filmsite.org/besty.html

BEACH BLANKET BINGO (1965 AIP) — The gospel according to Frankie & Annette: It may be -20 here but beautiful bodies are at Malibu now and Frankie is paying too much attention to blonde bombshell Linda Evans so Annette is making goo goo eyes at handsome John Ashley.  Jealousy!  (Hopefully all will be resolved before the closing credits.)  Don Rickles makes snide comments about Frankie being so short and silent era comic Buster Keaton is doing a fishing shtick in deep water.  Muscular Bonehed (Jody McCrea) has fallen for the mermaid (Marta Kristen.)  We’re swooning now as Frankie masters a smooth ballad with the Hondells Band doing backup.  Famed New York columnist Earl Wilson who chronicled Broadway’s golden era has a recurring bit part in Bingo.  Why?  Writer-director William Asher must have worshiped MGM musicals and adored celebrities.  Also featured is Timothy Carey who acted in the 1953 film noir “Crime Wave.”  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058953/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

CAGED (US) — Hope Emerson plays a quite unpleasant prison matron in this unsettling film noir where newbie inmate played by Eleanor Parker goes from relative innocence to hardened criminal.  So much for prisons as correctional facilities.  Agnes Moorhead is the crusading warden battling corrupt political cronies on the prison board.  Betty Grable is somewhere in  the mix of prisoners but I never found here.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042296/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2