Day 127 - 5/7/09 - Movie #127
BEFORE: When Warren Zevon realized that he had a terminal illness, and he made an appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman" in 2002, it was sort of a unique opportunity. Having substituted for bandleader Paul Shaffer on the Jewish holy days, Zevon was considered a friend of the show, and a friend of Dave, so it was a rare chance to ask an intimate question of a famous person who knew that it might be his last interview. When Dave asked if he had any wisdom to impart to the home audience based on his experiences facing death (beyond, you know, maybe visit a doctor more often than once every 20 years...), Zevon, without missing a beat, came up with "Enjoy every sandwich."
Not bad, for words to live by. I get the feeling that this was Dom DeLuise's philosophy as well, and when I go, I wouldn't mind if people said I followed this mantra. This is the 2nd film in my "Tribute to Dom", also my 2nd Gene Wilder film this week. Wilder wrote and directed this film, and stars as Sherlock's brother Sigerson (not Mycroft Holmes, who was actually mentioned in the original books...) The cast includes a number of the Mel Brooks stock-players - Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman, in addition to DeLuise as a high-strung Italian opera singer.
THE PLOT: The younger brother of the famous detective tries to steal Sherlock's glory by solving an important case assisted by an eccentric sidekick and a lovely but suspicious actress.
AFTER: In addition to being "smarter" than Sherlock, Sigerson happens to sing and dance, which better utilizes Gene Wilder's skills, I suppose. Casting Marty Feldman as an ex-Scotland Yard detective with "photographic hearing" is pretty clever too. It's not a terrible Sherlock Holmes film - Sigerson's first interview with client Jenny Hill is classic - except it sort of runs out of steam (and story) about halfway through.
Bonus for Star Wars fans - Moriarty's gunman is played by John "Lobot" Hollis from "The Empire Strikes Back", and the make-up for the film was done by Stuart Freeborn, co-designer of Yoda and other chars. Not too surprising if they filmed in England in the 70's...
RATING: 5 out of 10 sandbags
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I have great respect for Gene Wilder and I recently listened to his autobiography on audio book, so I discovered this film (along with a few others, such as The Little Prince).
ReplyDeleteThis film just confused me, as it seemed to go nowhere as well as the impromptu singing and dancing. I was also turned off by Gene's baseless screaming at the other characters, especially Madeline Kahn.
Missed Lobot as well as not knowing the make-up was done by Stuart Freeborn. Might be losing my edge.
I thought the screaming at Madeline Kahn was pretty funny - and it might be a reference to the ending of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", when Gene Wilder screams "You get NOTHING! You win NOTHING! Good DAY!" at Charlie Bucket.
ReplyDeleteMy trivia team says that during every game, at the end of the Lightning Round. If you don't hand in your answer sheet within 30 seconds - you get NOTHING! You win NOTHING! Good DAY, sir! It always gets a laugh...