Ask 411 Movies for 01.23.12: The Sound of One Hand Clapping!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 01.23.2012

Why do most cartoons have only four fingers instead of five? Would Chuck Norris return as the lead role in a Delta Force remake? What's the best episode of The Outer Limits? All this and more covered this week in Ask 411 Movies!

YouTube Clip of the Week
Betty White turned 90 last week and NBC had a big television special for her. Her career resurgence the past few years has been amazing. As the below video shows, she's white hot. Enjoy Betty with Luciana doing "I'm Still Hot."



Leonard's Favorite Episode of The Outer Limits
Ever week I highlight my favorite episode of a popular series. This week from the original run of The Outer Limits I go with "Demon with a Glass Hand." Trent (Robert Culp) has no memory of his life beyond 10 days ago. His left hand has been replaced with a glass one missing three fingers that seems to be a sentient computer. Trent is tracked to a rundown office building by humanoid aliens. Trent discovers the aliens are from the future where they have killed all humans. However, Trent is really a robot who is carrying around the remains of the human civilization on golden wire in his abdomen until the events of the future become the past and humans can thrive again. Like my favorite Star Trek episode, it also comes from a script by Harlan Ellison.



Mystery Actor/Actress of the Week
Every week I'll give clues to a mystery actor or actress. If you think you know who it is, post in the comments. You win nothing but a tip of the top hat from me, but isn't that enough?

Last week: Last week's mystery actor, Fred Dryer, made his first movie appearance, uncredited, in my last movie, although I did do some television guest spots before my questionable and controversial death. A movie and ‘noise opera' have been made about my life. The actor who played me in the movie wore my famous jacket in the film on loan from my son. Before the jacket found its way to my TV show, it was worn in another movie by a famous singer. No stranger to music myself, I was a radio DJ and drummer who played in several amateur jazz bands. Who am I?

The answer is Bob Crane. Crane made his last movie appearance in Gus about a field goal kicking mule, in which Dryer was an uncredited teammate. As profiled recently in the column, Crane is the subject in one of the most famous unsolved murders in Hollywood. While it's believed that John Henry Carpenter bludgeoned Crane to death, he was never convicted for the crime. Greg Kinnear played Crane in Auto Focus. Robert David Crane, who has a cameo in the movie, gave Kinnear his father's jacket from Hogan's Heroes to wear in the film. The jacket had previously been worn by Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan's Express. Facetious released the noise opera "Raw Biscuits: The Bob Crane Story" in 2002. Information from IMDB.


This week: I played the wife of last week's mystery actor, Bob Crane, in a movie that also featured Ask 411 Movies' first ever mystery actor. To tie in with this week's favorite episode of a television show, I'm also one of five actors to appear in the original and revival series of The Outer Limits. Another one of those actors appeared in the pilot episode of a series featuring my first husband, who was replaced in a second pilot. Another one of those actors was a guest villain on another popular 1960s program, which I was a villain on as well. My daughter with my second husband is a journalist for Fox News, which might classify her as playing a villain to some too. Who am I?

Thanks to Coby in the comments last week for pointing out that I erroneously called the John Cena movie 12 Rounds 10 Rounds. Although, I'm sure most would have preferred it to be a few rounds shorter. In talking about wrestlers with significant movie careers or movie appearances I was remiss for not mentioning such masked Mexican stars as El Santo and Blue Demon, as The Roach pointed out. However, I stand by my general comment that The Rock has "probably had the most successful movie career" when you factor in modern box office figures and international exposure. It's true that the likes of El Santo and Blue Demon were major film stars in their native Mexico, but were only cult figures in other nations, such as the United States where their movies did gain a certain following.



Mario chided me for not listing Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn in my list of films that have dawn in the title last week. These filler lists are not definitive, meaning they don't include every single movie with the chosen word in the title. I try to keep them to about ten interesting or notable ones. I honestly considered Evil Dead 2, but cut it for space because dawn was part of the subtitle. My column, my rules.



Q: Is there any real clear cut reason why most animators create their cartoons with 4 fingers? Off the top of my head I can only think of King of the Hill as a cartoon with 5 fingered characters
-Sanford

A: The simplest explanation is that it saves money, time and effort. A pinky finger might seem insignificant, but when you consider the extra time to draw it and then animate it from scene to scene you're tacking on drawing and animation time and cost that some productions don't have the budget or deadline for. While this probably started in comics and animation before, Mickey Mouse is probably the most notable early character to have four fingers (or a thumb and three fingers if you're a stickler). Walt Disney was trying to keep his animation simple as he perfected the movement and synching up the sound. You'll notice that later Disney cartoons, particularly the early features like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves are more detailed in character and backgrounds.

When animated theatrical shorts died out in the 1960s and television cartoons replaced them, such as from Hanna-Barbera, you'll notice simpler character designs and cruder backgrounds, with many being reused from scene to scene and cartoon to cartoon. This needed to be done so they could keep up with the schedule and budget of making weekly cartoons for TV. It can also be a stylistic choice. Animation with more realistic characters usually has five digits, while more ‘cartoony' fare has the four fingers. Even modern cartoons like The Simpsons and South Park are still under deadline crunches, even though they probably have good budgets. Also, with them the ‘crude' animation is part of the charm and overall look they're going for.



Q: I'm surprised they haven't done it yet, but say you are tasked with casting for a remake of The Delta Force...do you still cast Chuck Norris in the lead role or do you go with someone younger? Would you make it a movie like the Act of Valor coming out with real trained special Forces? What Nationality would you cast as the villians (North Koreans would be interesting). I like reading your fantasy casting posts so this should be interesting.
-Mario

A: Instead of doing a remake, I would do a sequel where Chuck Norris assumes the grizzled Lee Marvin role. While there are two sequels to the original 1986 film, with Norris being in the second film but not the third, I would possibly ignore those. I hope I don't disappoint with my idea.

Major Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) retires after being the longest serving Delta Force member in U.S. history. He repeatedly refused a promotion or switch to a desk job to remain in the field. Upon his retirement he is allowed to name the successor to his unit. He chooses calm strategist Mick Carmine (Jeffrey Donovan) over hotheaded Duncan Lethbridge (Jason Statham), even though Lethbridge transferred from English special forces to train under McCoy. Shortly after retirement, Lethbridge and several men are killed in an attack on a compound belonging to known international terrorist for hire, Judas Jones (Jeffrey Wright). It appears that Carmine sent the men in knowing of the booby traps and wanted them dead because they disagreed with him as leader. Carmine is thrown in jail and McCoy is devastated.

Five years later a plane is taken hostage, much like in the first movie. Jones is behind it and says he'll only deal with McCoy. McCoy comes out of retirement to act as negotiator. A female air marshal (Cote de Pablo) on the plane gets information to McCoy from a hidden cell phone. Listening in on a conversation he discovers that Lethbridge and the supposedly dead men are on the plane with Jones. They intend to kill everyone on the plane and disgrace McCoy further as Lethbridge can't let his grudge grow. McCoy gets Carmine sprung from jail and, under special orders from the President of the United States, gives Carmine permission to lead a unit of elite fighters in a rescue effort.


Ok, we're light on questions again, so I need a quick column filler. Eh, let's just go with that. Ten movies with quick in the title.

My Gun is Quick (1957): This was Mickey Spillane's second novel featuring detective Mike Hammer and the third turned into a film. Hammer (Robert Bray) saves a prostitute from getting beat up and notices she's wearing a unique ring. She's later found dead with the ring gone. Hammer discovers it was part of a secret cache of jewelry stolen by the Nazis during World War II and smuggled into the United States by an army colonel (Donald Randolph). Hammer is hired by the colonel to track down the rest of the loot.



Kiss Me Quick! (1964): This sexploitation flick involves Sterilox the alien coming to earth to find the right woman to populate his planet with. He finds mad scientist Dr. Breedlove who gives him a choice of sexy earth women. The title was originally Dr. Breedlove or How I Stopped Worrying and Love off of Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. However, it was changed to capitalize on the more current Billy Wilder hit Kiss Me, Stupid. Here's the link to the YouTube video. There's no real nudity, I just felt kind of scummy embedding it. If you're into vintage strip teasing, you'll like this.

The Quick Gun (1964): Clint Cooper (Audie Murphy) is returning home after being driven off a few years before after killing a couple of the Morrison brothers. On the way, he runs afoul of the Spangler gang, who plan to attack and rob the town. Cooper gets loose, but he must deal with the other Morrison brothers and a sheriff (James Best) who doesn't heed Cooper's warnings and would rather throw him in jail. The movie also features longtime western character actor Gregg Palmer, who will be a guest at this summer's Monster Bash that I work staff at. I couldn't find a video on YouTube, so instead listen to the "Ballad of Audie Murphy" about the movie's star who was the most decorated soldier in World War II before becoming a B-movie lead in westerns and war films.



The Quick and the Dead (1987): Duncan (Tom Conti) and his wife Susanna (Kate Capshaw) are seeking a new life in the west. However, they accidentally run afoul of Doc Shabbitt (Matt Clark) and his gang in a small town. A mysterious stranger (Sam Elliott, who's good at that kind of part) appears to help defend the couple and their young son. From a novel by Louis L'Amour. No video, so enjoy this video of Elliott talking about The Big Lebowski.




Quick Change (1990): Plenty of movies are about botched bank robberies. This is pretty much the opposite. The heist goes without a hitch, but the escape is the problem. Grimm (Bill Murray) robs a bank dressed as a clown and slips away during a played up hostage situation. He, his girlfriend (Geena Davis) and friend Loomis (Randy Quaid) find every way to the airport blocked as a grizzled detective (Jason Robards) doggedly pursues them. I oddly couldn't find a trailer, but the below mishmash trailer is pretty cool.



The Quick and the Dead (1995): Here's the movie this week for you Sam Raimi fans as he helmed this stylistic, modern western. Herod (Gene Hackman) rules a small town with an iron fist. He sets up a gunfighter tournament featuring himself, a former member of his gang turned preacher (Russell Crowe), Herod's possible illegitimate son, The Kid (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a mysterious female (Sharon Stone), seeking revenge on Herod for the death of her father. Stone was very adamant about having the then unproven Crowe and DiCaprio in the movie and reportedly paid DiCaprio's salary personally. Raimi's old friend Bruce Campbell is listed in the credits, but his scenes wound up on the cutting room floor. According to Campbell, his scenes were never intended to be in the movie and were done only to help give Pat Hingle, official of the contest, more to do.



Donovan Quick (2000): Colin Firth stars as the title character in this modern takeoff of Don Quixote. Katy Murphy plays the object of his desire, who takes care of her senile grandmother and mentally challenged brother while dealing with an abusive boyfriend. Quick seeks to improve all their lots by fixing up an old bus and running it opposite of the local large bus company, Windmill Transport. If you're familiar with the source material, you'll get that reference.



The Quick and the Undead (2005): Clint Glenn plays a character based on Clint Eastwood's famous Man with No Name character in this zombie western. About three-quarters of the world's population was turned into zombies about 82 years ago and bounty hunters on motorcycles are mankind's only hope of continuing on.



Quick Pick (2006): Eddie (John Bryant) is a sad sack loser who strikes out with girls as big as he strikes out with gambling. He's in danger of losing his job, his apartment and his life to a bookie if he doesn't win his bet on the World Series. His luck looks to have turned around when he hits a quick pick lotto ticket for $135 million, but he can't find the ticket.



Quick Gun Murugun (2009): This western spoof from India is about a vegetarian cowboy (Rajendra Prasad) who is charged to protect the cattle at all costs. An evil burger chain kills Murugun, but he's sent back from heaven to prevent Rice Plate Reddy (Nasser) from taking over the world with his bad beef. Basically I included this for the awesome trailer I found below.



Don't die.

"I'm so damned fast I can wake up at the crack of dawn, rob two banks, a train and a stage coach, shoot the tail feathers off a duck's ass at 300 feet, and still be back in bed before you wake up next to me."