Ask 411 Movies for 02.08.10: Lookin’ Like a Fool With Your Pants on the Ground!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 02.08.2010

The peculiarities of early sound films, Razor’s Edge, Catcher in the Rye movie, Keith David, TV crossovers, Down to Earth and movies that should never be remade

From YouTube this week, the phenomenon that is "Pants on the Ground." Some friends recently turned me onto it and I am a better man for it.



Q: I've just finished watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.. which was a superb film. However something bothered me the entire time I watched it: What's up with the way people talked in the 40's on film? I've just recently noticed it when watching older films, it just seems like everyone has the same accent and talks very loud and over accentuates everything.

Maybe it's just me, but it did distract me a little bit at first. Was it just the way people spoke back then, or was it that the production companies only wanted to aim for a specific group of people?

Thanks
-Santa Claus

A: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is actually from 1939. I'd hate to quibble over a year, but the audio elements you mention were more common in the thirties for two main reasons. First, with the invention of sound for film, microphones weren't the best and post-dubbing hadn't been figured out yet. So, sound was recorded live with microphones hidden on actors or in props and they had to speak up to be heard. Second, many silent actors didn't have voices for film so they were replaced by stage actors. Used to working on the stage, actors would project loudly and speak distinctly, because that's what they were used to. As far as dialogue goes, writers would write speech that was more literate and with a certain rhythm different from real life, because that was just the style then. And yes, there was also a drive by studios to have accents uniform so that films and stars would play to the widest group possible. It was thought that certain accents, like a Southern accent in a non-southern centered film, wouldn't play well.

Q: Wasn't there a movie called Razor's Edge with Bill Murray as a WW1 ambulance driver. I only saw it once but recall that it was supposed to be his first dramatic role and did pretty well in it.
-James

A: The Razor's Edge from 1984 is based on the Somerset Maugham novel and is a remake of a 1946 film with Bill Murray replacing Tyrone Power in the lead. Larry Darrell (Murray) returns to the U.S. from serving in World War I and seems lost in life. He gets his fiancée (Catherine Hicks) to hold off on their marriage as he travels first to Paris and then India and Nepal to find enlightenment. Upon his return to Paris he finds that he is not the only one to have sought and receive change. Director John Byrum was considering doing the remake when he gave his friend Murray a copy of the book to read. Murray insisted on starring, but they couldn't get anyone to back the movie. Dan Aykroyd then gave Murray the idea to broker a deal with Columbia that they would produce the movie for Murray appearing in Ghostbusters.



Q: With the passing of the great J.D. Salinger, do you think we will see his work make it on screen in Hollywood?
-J.D. Salinger

A: Very few of Salinger's works have made it to the big screen so far. The 1949 film My Foolish Heart starring Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward was based on the short story "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut." Reportedly Salinger was not pleased with how much the film was changed from his original story and that the movie got negative reviews. It's thought that because of this Salinger was always stingy with letting his works become movies.

The short story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" was made into a movie by Cuba. The novel "Fragmento" was made into a movie in 1984 in Mexico. Pari was an Iranian unauthorized adaptation of "Franny and Zoey." Salinger had his lawyers block a showing of the film at the Lincoln Center in 1998.

Salinger's best known work and probably the one that a studio would want to pursue for adaptation is Catcher in the Rye. Apparently MGM was interested in adapting the book after it was first published and that Salinger himself in the early fifties was pursuing a play version with himself in the lead opposite Margaret O'Brien. It never came about. Salinger refused Elia Kazan the rights to do a play version and also said no to proposed movie adaptations by Harvey Weinstein, Terrence Malick and Stephen Spielberg. However, according to a letter that Salinger wrote in 1957 he was not opposed to Rye or any of his works being turned into movies, but he didn't want to see them. He wanted to leave the rights to his works to his wife and daughter as a sort of "insurance policy." So, why the iron is hot as it were, I wouldn't be surprised to see a big time adaptation of the novel within the next five years. Salinger has name value, so producers will bite. It's just up to the family.
Q: David Keith and Keith David need to be in a buddy comedy.
-The Great Capt. Smooth

A: They can fight aliens disguised as humans that can start fires with their minds.

So now I have a cheap chance to preview Keith David, 53. He was born Keith David Williams in New York. He got hooked on acting after playing the Cowardly Lion in a school play of "The Wizard of Oz." He then attended the Manhattan School of the Performing Arts and performed with John Houseman's traveling The Acting Company. Among early credits was as Keith the Southwood Carpenter in the Land of Make Believe on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." His movies include The Live, The Thing, Platoon, Road House, Men at Work, Always, Marked for Death, Clockers, Dead Presidents, The Quick and the Dead, Volcano, Armageddon, There's Something About Mary, Pitch Black, Requiem for a Dream, Barbershop, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, All About Steve and this year's Lottery Ticket. He's also done tons of voice over work for documentaries and cartoons such as "Gargoyles" and "Spawn."



Q: Trying to remember the name of a show from probably the late eighties about an angel from the twenties that comes back to earth in the present day to work as a maid for a family.
-Kevin

A: "Down to Earth" was the first original series by TBS and ran from 1984 to 1987. Ethel MacDoogan (Carol Mansell) was a flapper in the 1920's who died when hit by a trolley car. In order to earn her wings as a guardian angel, she was sent to earth in the eighties to serve as a maid and monitor for the Preston family. Father Richard (Dick Sargemt of "Bewitched", who replaced Stephen Johnson early on) was recently widowed and had three children; Duane (David Kaufman), Lissy (Kyle Richards) and JJ (Randy Josselyn), who knew Ethel's secret. Often, boss angels would drop in to check on Ethel, including Rip Taylor in the last couple seasons. Intro video

Q: Hey Mr. H,
So, right to the point. Not happy w/ a reboot of Spider-man in under 10 years from the last incarnation. Now, which movie from your childhood would you go nuts if Hollywood remade it ever? For me, Back to the Future. If Spielberg did not put a stop to that I would take it upon myself to do so.
-Paul

A: Before I read your last sentence, the first thing that came to mind was Back to the Future. That's a film that is such of its time and place and cast that a remake would either be such a slap in the face to the original and its fans or so different you might as well call it a different movie. For years, there had been talk of doing another series of films with Doc's kids as the leads and I remember an interview with Michael J. Fox where he said he would like to play Marty as a Doc type character in a spin-off, both are ok ideas by me.



Since I agreed with you, I'll give another choice. How about The Princess Bride? Again, you have the perfect cast and it was made and released at such a certain time period. That movie is lightening in a bottle and there is no way you could recapture that a second time.



In the comments last week, people mentioned some TV crossover ideas, such as "House" and "Psych." I think it would be cool to cross most of the current USA Network shows because they all have a certain feel and style to them. Anyway, lets look at some famous or odd past TV crossovers.

"St. Elsewhere" and "Cheers." Both shows are set in Boston and were on NBC. In an episode of "St. Elsewhere" Doctor Westphall, Auschlander and Craig stop by Cheers for a drink. It's revealed that Carla had one of her children at St. Eligius and that Norm was once Auschlander's accountant. "St. Elsewhere" was the king of odd crossovers. One Christmas Dr. Craig tells his wife about serving in the Korean War with BJ Honeycutt of "MASH." One of the orderlies on the show was Byron Stewart as Warren Coolidge, the exact same character he played on "The White Shadow." Later, Alfre Woodward reprised her role of Dr. Roxanne Turner on "Homicide: Life on the Streets."

Infamously, "St. Elsewhere" ended with the whole series revealed to be in the mind of an autistic child. So, by connection that would mean that any series that can be connected to "St. Elsewhere" also occurred in his mind. It will drive you mad if you think about it too hard.

"The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Alice" Definitely, a weird one. Boss Hogg and Enos showed up on "Alice" in an attempt to buy Mel's Diner. Why Hogg would want to buy a diner so far away from Hazzard is beyond me. The episode ended with Hoggs' car filled with cement and him going back to Hazzard.

"Diagnosis Murder" starring Dick Van Dyke had a crossover with a series that had long been off the air when Mike Connors reprised his role as private investigator Joe Mannix. The episode used clips from an old Mannix episode to lay out the plot of Mannix trying to find the killer of the father of a TV newscaster. Mannix is shot during his investigation and that's how Van Dyke's Dr. Mark Sloan gets involved. The series also crossed over with "Matlock" and "Mission Impossible" when Barbara Bain reprised her role as Cinnamon Carter.

A crossover that didn't happen, but was intended was "Magnum, PI" and "Quantum Leap." Both series share the same creator in Donald P. Bellisario. As Bellisario described in an interview, the idea would be to play the traditional "Magnum" opening and at the part where Tom Selleck turns and looks at the camera, giving a wiggle of his eyebrows, Sam would leap into him. I'm also thinking a connection was that Al and Magnum knew each other from their Navy days.

Don't die.

"I never lend books to coal miners."