Ask 411 Movies 12.01.08: The Column that Stooges to Conga!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 12.01.2008

Three Stooges, Santa’s Slay, Oz, Svengoolie, Reaper, royalties, Ward Bond and getting your porn stars straight

From YouTube this week we have another fake grindhouse style trailer in Scourge of the Undead.



NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: SANTA'S SLAY



I finally make good and actually watch something I said I would. The opening scene is hilarious thanks to the casting and just going way over the top. I didn't think the rest of the film lived up to this start, but it's a fun bad movie for a film trying to be consciously bad. It's got a wickedly dark sense of humor and it always helps to have some actors with talent; like Saul Rubinek, Dave Thomas and Robert Culp filling out the supporting cast. It's also nice to see that the kids have gone onto some sort of career with Douglas Smith on "Big Love" and Emilie de Ravin on "Lost," even though they don't show too much talent here. Goldberg is obviously having a blast. So decent casting and director David Steinman being buddies with Brett Ratner to help with money and crew makes this a pretty good lark.

Q: Sorry about the confusion, Leonard. What myself and the other guy were trying to point out wasn't that the girl in the picture you posted wasn't Brittny Skye. (it was) What we were saying was that Brittny Skye didn't appear in 40 Year Old Virgin. That was Stormy Daniels.
-Ben Piper

A: My confusion. Listed on imdb is Brittney Skye uncredited as a porn star, so I figured she was the girl from the deleted scene, since I have not seen the scene. Notice I posted a picture of the same girl twice and couldn't tell the difference. It's all hair and boobs and I tune the rest out. Ok, so you get a Stormy Daniels pic now.



Q: Svengoulie! He runs a late night Elvira type show in the greater Chicago area. I believe he's been doing it for years. Entertaining stuff. You should I dunno, do a little bio or whatever of him.
-Poppycock

A: Svengoolie started out played by Jerry G. Bishop as the host of "Screaming Yellow Theater" on WFLD in Chicago in September 1970. It ran until the summer of 1973. Rich Koz was a fan who wrote in some sketch ideas and became a writer on the show. In 1979 he revived the character as Son of Svengoolie. The show aired briefly on sister stations in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Detroit when the horror host craze really took off in the early eighties. The series was axed in 1986 when WFLD became a Fox affiliate. Koz continued with the station as the host of the "Fox Kids Clubs" and "The Koz Zone." Koz returned as just Svengoolie on WCIU in 1994. The show also runs on stations in Milwaukee and South Bend, Ind. In 2006 Svengoolie received the rights to run the classic Universal horror films, which puts him above many other horror hosts who are held to public domain movies due to costs. A running gag is the frequent use of Berwyn, a suburb of Chicago.



Q: Not quite the local host late night horror theatre but there is a station in Buffalo, NY that carries "Off-Beat Cinema" late on Saturday nights.
http://www.offbeatcinema.com/
They show old (and odd) movies and have similar sort introduction segments in and out of commercial breaks.

and the commercials were for places to get you Grateful Dead merchandise (and bongs) and locations to get a Taco at 3 in the morning (in case you got the munchies)

-CK

A: "Off Beat Cinema" started in 1993 as the brainchild of James Gillan to give exposure to films that were not only cult in nature, but didn't get a lot of airplay. It features Eddy Dobosiewicz as Maxwell Truth with Tony Billoni as Bird and Constance McEwen as Zelda. They hang out at the Hungry Ear Coffeehouse in a beatnik fashion. The show originates from WKBW in Buffalo, but also airs in Erie, Pa., Tampa, Fla. and a few other markets.




Q: How about "Love, Actually" as a Christmas movie. I'm sorry, but any movie that has lobsters at the birth of Jesus gets a thumbs up from me.
-The Great Capt. Smooth

A: You need to tune into the movies zone podcast this coming week where we will be talking about non-Christmas movies with Christmas elements to them. Jeremy Thomas will be our special guest and he'll be talking about Love Actually. So not to steal his thunder, I won't go into detail here.

Q: Hey Leonard,
Just a quick TV question for you. In the second season of OZ, LL Cool J has a one episode stint as a character named
Jiggy Walker. He claims to be the drug dealer of Governor Devlin but is exposed to be a fraud as he only made the claim so he
would gain some notoriety within the prison.

Do you think this a shot at Will Smith and the perception among other rappers that he is a fraud? The single "Getting Jiggy With It" came out a year or so prior to the episode so the timeline fits. If this is more of a music question maybe you could check with some of your co-writers. Thanks,
-Jared

A: I think they used Jiggy just because it was the hot word at the time and made a good name for such a character. I couldn't find anything on this being a diss of Will Smith and it doesn't really seem like it.

Q: Quick question..What happened to the show Reaper? I really liked it, but can't find out if and when it will be back on televison. Did it get lost in the CW shuffle?
-Dwayne



A: From what I could find "Reaper" was renewed for a 13 episode second season last May, but a return date has yet to be set by the network. The limited number of episodes would lead me to believe they intend it for a midseason replacement, so I would guess sometime after the first of the year. A cancellation has not been announced either.

Q: Do actors/actresses get paid royalties each time one of their films is shown on television? Is Samuel Jackson collecting $$ on all 1,604 of the movies he has been in?
-Guest 1587

A: Royalty fees are negotiated at the time of an original contract. Most actors get a straight up salary, while the big names will negotiate for a piece of the gross, known as the ‘back end.' DVD, downloads and other viewing outlets dough would be hammered out too. So basically it all depends on what your agent can work out with the studio. Jack Nicholson was smart enough to ask for part of the merchandising rights on Batman and made millions.

Things get different when you get to television shows where actors will negotiate for syndication rights. Usually this is for so many cycles, like the first five times a show is rerun in syndication.

Q: Who has been in the most movies? (Porn don't count.)

If you could produce one movie and you could have any director, writer, and actors (living and/or dead), who would you have in your movie? For me, I would have Hitchcock direct, Billy Wilder write, and Tom Hanks & Jimmy Stewart star.

Speaking of Hitchcock, how come some director's or producer's names come before the movie title? I have seen that with John Carpenter, M Night Shylaman, Hitchcock, and sometimes when Spielberg produces. I know many people would see a movie just because X is directing it. However, I have never seen that with great directors like Billy Wilder, John Ford, or Clint Eastwood.
-David

A: Ward Bond appeared in 270 movies from 1929 to 1959. That's an average of 9 per year. He appeared in 30 movies alone in 1935. Bond certainly has the record for being the actor in the most classics as his filmography includes It Happened One Night, Topper, It's a Wonderful Life, Bringing up Baby, You Can't Take it With You, Son of Frankenstein, Drums Along the Mohawk, Gone with the Wind, The Grapes of Wrath, Sergeant York, Shepherd of the Hills, The Maltese Falcon, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, The Quiet Man, The Searchers and Rio Bravo. Bond was lucky to be a contract player who became friends with prolific directors like Howard Hawks, John Ford and Frank Capra. Bond's buddy John Wayne is listed by the Guiness Book of World Records as being the lead actor in the most films as he got top billing 149 times. In contrast, our good friend Samuel L. Jackson mentioned above has only 119 credits to his name according to imdb, including TV and things currently in production.



Your second question depends on what the movie is about and you have to have people that fit together. So how about Cary Grant and George Clooney fighting over young Shirley MacClaine in a sophisticated romantic comedy directed by George Cukor and written by Woody Allen.

Like I was saying above with royalties, it depends on what gets negotiated. Some directors and producers want that ownership. Sometimes, a studio thinks that putting the name of the director first will help sell the movie if they've become a commodity themselves or there are no other big names involved. Guys like M. Night Shylaman, Alfred Hitchcock and John Carpenter have a distinct style and a fan base, so their name lets people know what they will be getting and gets them into theaters.

Q: In mentioning the Three Stooges last week you said they had many incarnations. How many?
-Ted



A: The stooges started out in vaudeville with comedian Ted Healy. Healy would attempt to tell a joke, sing or dance and his noisy assistants, the stooges, would interrupt him. Originally the stooges were brothers Moe and Shemp Howard and later Larry Fine and Fred Sanborn were added to the act. Everyone in the act made their first film appearance with Soup to Nuts. The movie flopped, but the Stooges came off well and Fox Studios offered them a deal without Healy. Healy refused to let them take the offer. The Howards and Fine left the act, but Healy tried to sue them. They eventually patched things up, but Shemp was fed up and left to try his hand at movies in New York. Moe then brought in brother Jerry. Healy didn't like Jerry's long red hair, so they shaved him bald and gave him the ironic nickname of Curly.

This version of the Stooges was signed by MGM and they worked in various combinations, with Healy and Sanborn drifting farther and farther from the other three. When their contract was up in 1934, the Stooges left for Columbia. Healy died in 1937 under odd circumstances, but he was known to be an alcoholic.

The Three Stooges were very successful at Columbia making a few movie appearances, but mostly shorts. Curly's health went down hill in the mid-forties and he suffered a stroke in 1946 that forced his retirement. Moe then asked Shemp to come back. Curly died in 1952 and Shemp had a heart attack and died in 1955. Joe Besser was a Columbia contract player that the studio suggested to replace Shemp. Besser was not liked by Moe and Larry. He had a stipulation in his contract that he was not to be hit too hard and limited hits to the face. This was later lifted. Columbia dropped the group in 1957, although they had shorts on the shelf until 1959.

Columbia then sold their Stooge catalogue to TV syndication. Their popularity boomed and Moe planned a cross country tour. Besser's wife was ill and he chose not to take part. Moe then hired Joe DeRita, who was renamed Curly Joe. This version did some feature films and a cartoon series with live action bumpers. Larry and Moe's health began to decline in the early seventies. Larry died in 1974. Moe asked Emil Sitka, who had been a bit player in many Stooge shorts, to take over for Larry. He created the character of Harry and some publicity stills were shot. However, Moe died before this lineup really did anything and the act was shelved.



Q: To add to the list of actors/actresses that kind of dissapeared after winning an accademy award, I would have to say Marisa Tomei and Roberto Benigni.

I do have a few questions for your consideration...

Are there any remakes/reboots that you think are better than the original?

Are there any films that are sacred ground to you and hope never get remade?

Are there any films that you would like to see get the remake treatment?

Personally I think a remake of It's a Wonderful Life would be interesting. I love the original but think a remake is inevitable.

Thanks for the great column every week.
-Mario

A: We have talked a bit about remakes and reboots lately with the best being touched on. I think both 3:10 to Yuma and The Thing are technically better movies than the originals thanks in large part to larger budgets and better special effects.

It comes up every few years that they're going to do a remake of Casablanca, which simply wouldn't work with the style of filmmaking today and also people would just reject it out of hand. Citizen Kane is about the same way. Pretty much anything considered to be in the top 10 greatest of all time shouldn't be touched. How can you improve on perfection?

It's a Wonderful Life I would probably put in that category. Especially since the basic concept has been aped and parodied countless times. A TV remake was done in 1977 called It Happened One Christmas with the lead role being gender flipped and played by Marlo Thomas. Orson Welles was Mr. Potter, that could work. In 1997, PBS taped a live stage reading of the original radio play under the title Merry Christmas, George Bailey with Bill Pullman as George leading an all-star cast. There was also a 1990 TV movie Clarence starring Robert Carradine as the title angel helping someone else.



I think a remake of Topper would work with the right cast as just a change of pace from the current comedy trends. It's screwball, yet sophisticated at the same time. I like Jack Nicholson for Topper and George Clooney and Julia Roberts as the ghosts. I've also joked that they should make a Cannonball Run remake for years by finding the current counterparts to who was in the original movie. It would add a little personality to Daniel Craig to have him play the Roger Moore part, especially with the character still thinking he's Roger Moore. Pierce Brosnan might be a better fit. I like Burt Reynolds as the doctor. Steve Carrell as Captain Chaos. Stephen Colbert as Mr. Foyt. Maybe Ryan Reynolds to replace Burt just so we can get Scarlett Johansson to replace Farrah Fawcett. Toby Keith and Brett Favre to replace Mel Tillis and Terry Bradshaw. George Clooney and Don Cheadle to replace Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin. I could see the studio wanting Will Smith though. Jackie Chan can reprise his role. Jamie Farr could be the sheik in a cameo funding the race. Basically, the fun of talking remakes is who you would cast.

I finally watched The Serpent and the Rainbow, but I'm going to make you wait another week to find out what I thought about it, because I've got a bit something extra to throw in as a space filler. Space filler! That will bring you back.

Don't die.

"Thank you for not making us poor or Samoan."