Ask 411 Movies for 12.21.09: The Column Hung By The Chimney With Care!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 12.21.2009

Yogi’s First Christmas, The Tiny Tree, A Man Escaped, Lenny Bruce, Bonkers and Merry Christmas from 1950.

To update, it's been a rough week. My stepfather died during heart surgery on Friday. I had a good part of the column done already for this week, which is below. I want to do my best to make sure I have something for next Monday as well.

Actress Brittany Murphy, 32, died Sunday of cardiac arrest. She appeared in such films as Girl Interrupted, Clueless, 8 Mile, Just Married, Riding in Cars with Boys and Sin City.



Actress Jennifer Jones, 90, died Dec. 17 of natural causes in Malibu. She won the Oscar for best actress in 1944 for Song of Bernadette. Other films included Duel in the Sun, The Towering Inferno, Portrait of Jennie, Madame Bovary, Beat the Devil, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, A Farewell to Arms and Tender is the Night.



Actor Gene Barry, 90, died Dec. 9 in Woodland Hills. He starred on television in "Bat Masterson," "Burke's Law" and "The Name of the Game." His films include War of the Worlds, Soldier of Fortune, Back from Eternity, Forty Guns and Thunder Road.



From YouTube this week, a little Yule tide cheer from around the world in 1950.



Q: Hey Leonard,

Thanks for the suggestion, but after finding clips of La Grande Illusion on Youtube, I realized it wasn't it. The key for me was the movie I was thinking of had no non-diegetic sound. I scoured the google, but including the words "diegetic sounds" in your search, no matter what words you have surrounding them, turns up nothing but university Introduction to Film courses and Yahoo Answers pages.

After a brain-dumbing two hours I switched to a search for escape from prison movies, and found the movie I was looking for!

A Man Escaped (French title: Un condamné à mort s'est échappé), directe by Robert Bresson and starring François Leterrier.

Thanks for your help, and considering it took me that long to find the answer for a question I asked, and thus had more intangible information than you did, gives me a renewed appreciation for the type of work that you do for this column.

Cheers!
-Vince

A: Sorry I couldn't help you, but I guess I at least encouraged you to find your own answer. And yes, I've spent many hours myself cross-referencing everything I could think of to find answers.

A Man Escaped from 1956 stars Francois Leterrier as Fontaine, a French resistance fighter in a Nazi prison. He comes up with an escape plan, but on the day he's scheduled to die he's given a new cellmate. Fontaine must decide to kill him or let him in on his escape plan. This was the first in a loose trilogy of prison movies for director Robert Bresson. The movie is based on a true story and the real prisoner served as an advisor on the film and let the movie use the real hooks and ropes he used in his escape.



Q: I couldn't figure out what I knew lenny bruce from... then I remembered, the end of the world as we know it song!
-AG Awesome

A: One of the first lines to R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is "Lenny Bruce is not afraid." And he wouldn't have been.

Lenny Bruce was a comedian who died at the age of 40 in 1966. He was a native New Yorker who lived with various relatives after his parents were divorced. He served in the Navy during World War II. After the war Bruce broke into show business as a writer, satirist and comedian. He was known for cutting edge, blue material. He was arrested in San Francisco in 1961 for obscenity. During a performance he used the word cocksucker and did some double-entendre with ‘come' and ‘cum.' After that, Bruce was watched closely and had many arrests for foul language and drug possession. He died of an accidental drug overdose. Dustin Hoffman starred in a 1974 biopic entitled Lenny



Q: I do have a question, though. In the Disney cartoon "Bonkers" was there any reason they changed Bonkers partner from Lucky to Miranda? It just seemed to happen without explanation. Is there a behind the scenes story for it, too?
-JLAJRC

A: "Bonkers" ran in first run syndication from 1993 to 1995. The original idea was to create a TV animated series of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but there were too many legal issues, so the series was re-envisioned with new characters. Bonkers was a cartoon Bobcat whose acting career went south and he became a cop. His partner was Lucky, a big fat cop who Bonkers aggravated. Eventually, Lucky won an FBI position in Washington, D.C. and left Los Angeles. Bonkers was then teamed with female Miranda, who tolerated Bonkers better than Lucky did. "New Partners on the Block" was the episode that transitioned from Lucky to Miranda and wrote out other characters such as Lucky's wife and daughter, Fall-Apart-Rabbit, Brodrick and Toots.

According to Wikipedia, the back-story is kind of interesting. The Miranda episodes were actually made first by an overseas animation firm and Disney was not happy with them. The original creative team was tossed for a new one led by Robert Taylor. Taylor created Lucky and changed the focus of the show. However, to recoup some loss on the other animation, 19 episodes from the ones featuring Miranda were saved and used at the end of the original run. If you notice, Bonkers looks different in the Miranda episodes and closer to his appearance in the "Raw Toonage" shorts, which were supposed to be Bonkers shorts made back when he was still an actor.



Q: Since it's the holidays I am hoping you can get me an answer, as I have bveen searching for a Christmas cartoon that I used to watch as a kid...there was a wheelchair bound little girl and a tree that the animals in the forest decorated and put it infront of her window. I thought it was called "The Littlest Chrtimas Tree" or something like that, cause there are specials with that sort of name, but it isnt that. me and my sister remeberthis fondly, except the name, and would do anything to see this again...any help??
-Mike

A: Your television special is "The Tiny Tree" from 1975. Buddy Ebsen voices the narrator, Squire Badger. In the animated special, a little girl is confined to a wheelchair following an accident and the animals of the forest decorate a small tree outside her window to help her Christmas spirit. It was never released on DVD or VHS officially, but you can find bootlegs and it is on YouTube in three parts.




Q: Happy Holidays Leonard!

Timely question for you:

Any memories of Yogi's First Christmas? When I first watched it in the late 70's, they ran it in half-hour segments over one week. Later on, they just showed it all in a two-hour time period. Great show, lots of classic characters (Snagglepuss, Daddy Doggie, etc.), decent storylines. Do you remember this forgotten classic, and is it available anywhere to own?
Thanks as always,
-Gozzz

A: "Yogi's First Christmas" was produced in 1980 and was often shown as a week long series of half hour specials or in one two hour chunk. Yogi, Boo Boo and Cindy are awoken from their usual hibernation by Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Doggie Daddy and Augie Doggie. During the winter months, Jellystone Park operates a ski lodge, which is in danger of being shutdown by Mrs. Throckmorton. Not to mention a nasty hermit that hates Christmas trying to gum up the works too. The special was released on DVD Nov. 17 as part of the Warner Archives Collection.



Merry Christmas!

"God bless us, everyone!"