Post two of this three post series, and yes, we have slowed this year long retrospective train down to ONE STRIP AT A TIME. Deal with it. It’ll speed up again, don’t you worry. I can’t imagine I’ll have much to say about ‘Strip #1,289 of DSH and Crazy talking about comics being nice.’ We’ll be speeding through that material like an out of control Simpsons Monorail.
But I couldn’t resist jumping down a google hole after this strip.
We’ve got a black and white tale being dictated to us. The plucky fourteen-year-old David Wigransky standing up against the censorious Dr. Wertham. A student against a doctor. A child against an adult. David vs. Goliath. A story with a hero and a villain.
And that villain? Dr. Fredric Wertham. The bogeyman of many-a comic book fan.
It’s easy to see why many hate him so much. After the 1954 publishing of Seduction of the Innocent, and the subsequent hearings of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, the comics industry took a sharp nosedive. Publishers went out of business, artists and writers were out of work, and the draconian tenets of the Comics Code Authority forced comic stories into a kiddie jail for decades.
Moreover, much modern memey criticism of Seduction of the Innocent focuses on the book’s homophobic content; where Wertham warns that Batman and Robin are a gay fantasy, and Wonder Woman is a lesbian obsessed with bondage.
Modern analysis of his book by Library Science Professor Carol Tilley in 2012 compared the claims and patient anecdotes in the book to his personal papers and found that he, “would take things from different days, from different parts of a transcript, reorganize them, omit words, make small changes that, in effect, change the kids’ arguments or change their viewpoints. He did this in so many instances that it’s hard to overlook.”
There are also multiple cases in the book where it doesn’t even seem like Wertham has read the specific comic books he’s critiquing, or he is deliberately lying about them to make them seem worse. Such as saying an issue of Captain Marvel (the Shazam one) showed a decapitated man, when the man’s head was really splashed with invisibility potion.
He was a liar that tanked an industry. I’ve seen numerous comments online calling him a crackpot, and worse. “It’s my personal believe that he more villain then Dr. Doom and Lex Luthor combine, it my believe that he was upset about Germany losing W.W.II in witch comic book played a part in that war with morale for our G.I.s that fought over there. infact I think his work and writting should be put in the city dump and not the Library of Congress , so they can be fourgot just like his book and life.”
But is this true? Is this fair?
Fredric Wertham was born in 1895 in Nuremberg, Germany to Jewish parents. After studying in Munich, Erlangen, Würzburg, and London, he graduated with a M.D, and moved to the United States in 1922. He worked for John Hopkins in Maryland, and then the Bellevue Clinic in New York.
Fredric Wertham in his early years was very influenced by Dr. Emil Kraepelin, an older German psychiatrist who advocated for better care of psychiatric patients with a goal toward treating instead of warehousing. Kraepelin blamed both abnormalities in brain tissue, as well as social and developmental factors, in mental illness, and rejected some of Freud’s psychoanalytical theories.
Kraepelin, however, became a racist, a social Dawinist, and a eugenicist, publishing thoughts such as, “Nevertheless, the well-known example of the Jews, with their strong disposition towards nervous and mental disorders, teaches us that their extraordinarily advanced domestication may eventually imprint clear marks on the race.”
Fredric Wertham was the opposite in that regard, refusing to believe in eugenic views of one race or bloodline being smarter, saner, more histrionic, or more violent. He was disgusted that racial segregation and discrimination in Baltimore and New York often meant Blacks couldn’t access mental healthcare, and Black mental healthcare workers couldn’t build up experience. After meeting with several Harlem intellectuals, such as Richard Wright, Wertham and a multiracial group of social workers and psychologists opened the Lafargue Clinic in Harlem in 1946. It was open to all races, and only charged a pittance.
It was part of his research at the Clinic which lead to him being called by the NAACP as an expert witness in a desegregation case in Delaware that was eventually joined with others into Brown vs. Board of Education. He testified:
“Segregation in schools legally decreed by statute, as in the State of Delaware, interferes with the healthy development of children. It doesn’t necessarily cause an emotional disorder in every child. I compare that with the disease of tuberculosis. In New York thousands of people have the tubercle bacilli in their lungs—hundreds of thousands—and they don’t get tuberculosis. But they do have the germ of illness in them at one time or another, and the fact that hundreds of them don’t develop tuberculosis doesn’t make me say, ‘never mind the tubercle bacillus; it doesn’t harm people, so let it go'”.
Here we see where Wertham’s crusade against comic books begins to make sense. Wertham was working in places, and on cases, where he saw the worst of humanity. He not only had to counsel and treat abused children, juvenile offenders; when in New York he was called upon to testify in criminal cases. This included the 1935 case of the infamous child-murdering, rapist, cannibal Albert Fish. He had to watch from across the sea as fascism, racism, and eugenics pushed his native country to genocide his own people.
And what did Wertham see in comic books?
Violence, sexism, racism, the glorification of the strong. He did complain about heroes like Superman who were by virtue of superior birth beyond the law. But his main disgust was aimed at the crime and horror genres, the most popular comics of the day.
He saw the comic books advertising things like knives and whips, and heard stories of magazine stand owners being told by distributors that they weren’t allowed to pick and choose. They had to sell all that was offered.
Maybe these comics wouldn’t hurt most kids, maybe they’d only hurt one in a hundred; but like a tuberculosis germ, that one in a hundred diseased was enough for Wertham to want to eradicate them all.
He wasn’t right in his steadfast assertion that comic books were a contributing factor in kids going bad. But it’s hard to look at these covers and say they should have been available to any kid with a dime. I don’t agree with him. I can see so many ways where his skewed viewpoint had him tossing out the harmless with the harmful. I don’t agree with him. But I do think I understand. He may have been an antagonistic force in the comics world, but he is not the cold villain so many want him to be.
“Dismissing Wertham as a hack and fraud may make us feel good about ourselves and our community’s past, but outside of that it has little probative or strategic value as a means of countering censorship today. The same goes for the adamant insistence that comics have no relevance to antisocial behavior. In contrast to Morrison’s more honest and accurate metaphors, our model of comics in academics and advocacy tends to be anodyne. Comics have power, yes, but only the power to be comfortable, familiar and safe.
However, comics, like all media, are dangerous. By insisting otherwise, we come across as naive and self-serving, much like ideological researchers whose empirical research always just happens to align with their agenda. We also do a disservice to comics themselves, which are valuable precisely because of their capacity to foster systemic change.”
Jeff Trexler, Comics Beat.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Similar to the Comics Code was the earlier Hays Code for film. It was a self policing standard forced upon studios to prevent government intervention. The year of division would be July 1934. A clear example is the treatment of Jane Parker, Maureen O’Sullivan in the early Tarzan films starring Johnny Weissmuller. In the first, “Tarzan the Ape Man” 1932, Jane is captured and probably raped by Tarzan. The second film, Jane is filmed nude swimming with Tarzan in “Tarzan and his Mate” 1934. After the film is released, the Hays Code begins. Then in 1936, the third Film, “Tarzan Escapes”, Jane wears a one piece covering her body modestly as compared to her revealing bikini in the previous film.
The Hays code challenged directors to be creative. It certainly did not limit James Cagney. Compare his acting in 1931’s precode “Public Enemy” to the Code film, “White Heat” in 1949. The director Raoul Walsh plays the Hays Code perfectly to present the vicious killer, Cody Jarret, (Cagney) in a terrifying fashion.
In a similar way, Alfred Hitchcock pushed the code’s limits. Actors were prevented from displaying facial intimacy past 3 seconds. On huge 50 foot screens, Hitchcock filled the screen with both actors passionate faces as they kissed deeply and longingly for 3 seconds. Break. Do it again. Break. Do it again. He also has the master’s touch in horror films. You have watched his film, Psycho. Nothing is explicit. Everything implied. Perfect writing. Perfect direction. Great actors.
Being graphic and gruesome is difficult to make into great art. In today’s era of graphic horror, I believe the only post code horror film that qualifies as also a great film in general is “American Werewolf in London” 1981. Directed by John Landis. Great writing. Witty dialogue. Perfect actors. Terrific special effects for the time. Spellbinding.
I think there are always a few horror films that rise above the level of schlock. The best deal with a level of psychological horror, something going on inside the characters.
A personal favorite of mine will always be the original ‘The Exorcist’, especially the Director’s Cut, which restores this amazing scene.
Great choice. I hope others will mention their favorite horror films that rise to great art. Thank you, CBH! (It is so late at night, I better wait and watch that clip in the daytime!)
♥️💖❤️🫂🌺💐🌹
“Alien,” 1979.
A movie so scary that Arthur C Clark and Stanley Kubrick write a book and make a film around it. 2010 Odyssey 2 or the Year We make Contact. I think they are boarding the abandoned Discovery One, and one guy is terrified of finding Jonesy the Cat. He should be more afraid of angering Robert the Cat.
Carpenter’s The Thing
Green Luthor
I have seen the 1951 version of “the Thing”
co-directed by Howard Hawkes many times, but I have never seen the Carpenter version. I attribute that to spending too much time trying to get through Joyce’s Ulysses. I should have joined a book club!😉
I have never been a fan of horror movies as a genre. Can’t really tell you why. I appreciate The Shining, The Exorcist, and some others, but I don’t seek them out
Gabby,
I am with you. As you can tell by my answers, my knowledge of horror film is very limited. I was fortunate to see “American Werewolf in London” as one of my very few examples of horror. That’s why I asked for other’s opinions to expand my view of the genre. I won’t watch slasher films. I did see the Predator film, “Prey”. I feared worse, but that was pretty calm, much more historical
sci fi than horror. I am glad someone mentioned “Alien”. That’s a horror film done perfectly. I will tell you a secret. I don’t watch horror because it scares me, and stays in my imagination too long.
I am 76. I have a PhD. I graduated from, and was later an instructor at the USAR Non-Commissioned Academy. I still keep the curtains closed on my bedroom windows because the Mole Men from Superman might be looking at me through them
😎 Maybe the Mole Men will carry Crankshaft away. We should be so lucky. I am almost 70. I spent 4 years in the USAF. Worked in acute mental health. I had patients that lived with the mole men.
This is actually aimed a bit more toward sorialpromise’s reply, but the commenting system limits how many levels of nesting replies are allowed, and this reply does also kinda relate to your comment as well.
A few years ago, Shaenon Garrity (“Narbonic” and “Skin Horse” webcomics, and apparently worked in manga editing/publishing) did a year-long blog called “Horror Every Day.” The premise was “a thematically-correct horror movie for every day of the year.” Everything from the classics, to some modern flicks, to some horror comedies (my favorite is “Grabbers,” an Irish flick in which a small island is attacked by blood sucking tentacled alien monsters who have one weakness: alcohol is poisonous to them. They picked about the worst place to land…). If you want a good overview of the horror genre, this list is a good place to start.
I’m not sure what my favorite horror film is, but I think you might get a kick out of this.
One summer night, while my parents were out of town and my brothers were already asleep, I stayed up late to watch the horror movie Isle of the Dead, which starred Boris Karloff.
While watching one of the movie’s more intense scenes, I felt something touch my ear. I jumped off the couch, scrambled upstairs, and jumped into bed.
Turns out, the plant beside the couch moved from the breeze of the open window and brushed my ear.
It was kind of like this…
Folks have listed the who’s who of horror movies. I agree with their choices. I would also like to recommend Jaws, Rosemary’s Baby, Let the Right One In for the foreign film fans, and finally Nosferatu for the silent film fans.
If you twisted my arm for my favorite horror movie, I’d have to nominate The Bride of Frankenstein, primarily because my Mr. bwoeh and I dressed up as them for one Halloween.
First off, I would ki** to see that picture posted on SOSF. (That’s assuming you were the Bride!)
Second, the Wizard of Oz terrified me when I was a kid. I remember 3 nightmares I had about the Wicked Witch of the West coming to get me in my house. One was even a miniature witch in the bathroom pipe cabinet in the boys bedroom.
Third, the 1930’s Universal horror films frightened me. (BWOEH, I am a delicate soul!) In the first Frankenstein movie, the monster meets a little girl by the water. Oh, the suspense.
Lastly, plants are nasty little buggers waiting to frighten you, or to make homes for little pests.
Found it.
I was “The Bride”!
I’ll send you a dossier on whom I want killed. There are some pesky weeds in the driveway and yard that refuse to die.
The back of the photo reads, “Halloween 1987.” I was pregnant with our son.
I couldn’t find a bride of Frankenstein wig, so I put my hair up and used some spirit gum to attach a couple of pieces of white polyfill to my temples. Like my nightie? It’s amateur night. LOL
Gotta love those old 110 cartridge cameras. There was no need for me to obfuscate our faces, as they were already pre-blurred. Film cameras in the late 1980s were such a crap shoot. Did my friend get the picture? I guess we’ll find out when we have the pictures developed.
——————–
The Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie of all time! When I was in elementary school, one of the major networks used to air the movie annually, and I made it a point to watch it every single time! My Mom used to complain, “You’ve seen that movie so many times, you could act it out.” This was back in the days before VHS and DVD. You had to wait for a movie to re-air.
I remember the Young Frankenstein version of the scene between the little girl and the monster.
Little Girl: Oh no, we’ve run out of flowers. What will we throw in the water now?
Peter Boyle, as the monster, looks at the camera and gives a knowing smile. LOL
Young Frankenstein is another one of my favorite movies.
You ARE the Bride! (the unofficial SOSF poll was even money!) This has made my day. It is one of those rare days where the universe aligns, and grants you one wish. I could have wished for $1,000,000 or a picture of BWOEH. I came out WAY ahead with the picture. Mr. BWOEH looks very dapper as Frankie. We’re you pregnant with the writer? (Truth be told, I do not remember how many kids you have. I’m guessing 2?) [I am prepared to be wrong!]
To sleep. To sleep. Perchance to dream. To dream of such a Halloween party from 1987. Must give us pause.
{I loved the line about pre-blurred photos! That was so true!}
BTW, in Young Frankenstein the little girl isn’t thrown in the water.
The scene ends just as the creature reaches for the girl, the same way it ended in the censored version of 1931. We see the girl’s parents for a minute, and then return to the creature and the girl, who are now playing on a see-saw. So, we find out that the girl was not thrown in the water. When the creature sits on the see-saw, his weight catapults the girl through the air, after which she miraculously lands in her own bed, to the delight of her parents. No one is hurt or killed; we laugh, and we know that all will be well.
Amazing costumes BWOEH!
I also love Young Frankenstein. Peter Boyle was perfectly cast, he carries off creepy, stupid, and endearing amazingly. When I was younger my parents were addicted to Everybody Loves Raymond, where Peter Boyle plays the grandpa.
Because of the pics we’ve seen of “Bruce,” the overuse of the theme song, and the over-the-top acting, I don’t take Jaws seriously
The 1963 “The Haunting”.
I have not seen “the Haunting” but it has been recommended to me. Because of you, dear Batgirl, I looked it up on IMDB. As you said, it is from 1963. Surprisingly for that era, the cast is about 90% female. That impresses me.
@sorialpromise
Very surprising for that era. It is repeatedly hinted that Claire Bloom’s character is gay.
The Haunting 1963 is a great movie. Turn the lights off and turn the volume of your home entertainment system up.
The 1963 version much better than the other version of The Haunting made in 1999 featuring that actor you like. You know, the one who plays every character the same way. 😜
BE Ware of Eve Hill,
You crack me up.
I just watched Owen…his friends call him Owen…in season 2 of Loki on Disney +. His range is so good, strong, and every man. I am lucky to live in his generation!
Some episodes of The Twilight Zone, are still horrifying 60 years after they were made. Talky Tina, The Hitch-hiker, and Anthony Fremont can still freak you out, all for different reasons.
If you want a “just sneaked under the Hays Code” movie, I really suggest “Footlight Parade.” Starring Cagney, as well as Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler, and guys or gals who the like the smart clever funny women who are probably always one step ahead of you logically–yeah. It’s kinda sexy! I mean, if you like the movies where the women are dumb…gosh, I bet you think you’re a “really nice guy.”
I will gatekeep here: You “nice guys” shall never look upon Joan Blondell.
Blondell also excelled in the Code era. Check out her Zeena in the 1947 version of “Nightmare Alley.”
Toni Collette is similarly savvy in the 2021 remake, though somehow Cate Blanchett’s Lilith Ritter is no match for Helen Walker’s.
(I confess to having problems with Blanchett’s acting due to the 1999 “Talented Mr. Ripley,” where she played a character not in Patricia Highsmith’s novel. There is no reason for Meredith Logue to be there. Tom Ripley is not Clyde Griffiths and is not supposed to be. Whenever she gives a tour de force performance — as she does in “I’m Not There,” “Carol” {an apology to Highsmith?} or “Tar,” to name but three — the memory of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” returns and rankles.
(Incidentally, one of Tom’s other victims in the *The Talented Mr. Ripley* is a comic-book artist — Highsmith worked in the field before she turned to writing suspense novels — and reading the book you have the feeling that his profession makes him a completely understandable mark.)
I have seen “Footlight Parade”. I loved Footlight Parade. Joan Blondell is hot, smart, and talented. Huge cast. I always enjoy Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, and Hugh Herbert. The last 30 minutes are all Busby Berkeley numbers. Spectacular. You can cut the atmosphere with a knife in the “Shanghai Lil” number. A personal highlight is seeing a very young Billy Barty in “Honeymoon Hotel”.
A big thumbs up for Footlight Parade. Saw a big screen showing back in the 70s. Bought it on VHS, and now have the DVD.
Thanks to IMDB for these quotes:
Nan Prescott: Outside, countess. As long as they’ve got sidewalks YOU’VE got a job.
Chester Kent: Hello, Vivian. This is Miss Rich. My secretary, Miss Prescott.
Nan Prescott: I know Miss Bi… Rich, if you remember.
Policeman: Mr. Kent, seeing all these girls gives me a lot of ideas.
Chester Kent: And don’t let them keep you awake.
Thumbs up on those quotes – the first of which I was about to add myself; probably her best. (You neglect to add that immediately after that line, she literally kicks her roommate in the ass and shoves her out the apartment door.) Blondell is great in everything – I highly recommend the mis-titled “Blonde Crazy,” with Cagney, which has a sentimental streak you don’t see in many pre-codes.
A big thumbs up for Footlight Parade. Saw a big screen showing back in the 70s. Bought it on VHS, and now have the DVD.
Thanks to IMDB for these quotes:
Nan Prescott: Outside, countess. As long as they’ve got sidewalks YOU’VE got a job.
Chester Kent: Hello, Vivian. This is Miss Rich. My secretary, Miss Prescott.
Nan Prescott: I know Miss Bi… Rich, if you remember.
Policeman: Mr. Kent, seeing all these girls gives me a lot of ideas.
Chester Kent: And don’t let them keep you awake.
Saw a big screen showing
Lucky! I once saw it in a library on a screen smaller than many modern TVs, shown by one of those old classroom projectors that were louder than the movie. Yeah, that’s the way to see a musical! “clackety clackety clack”
I was the youngest person there, and I was in my mid-50s.
They also blur over the fact that his initial solution was some sort of rating system in big bold letters. When he realized that would lead to the moral equivalent of kids pestering an adult to buy them smokes and beer, he published his book.
Anyhow, he’s a big threat not because he’s a well-intentioned extremist or that he ignored the role of the parent in setting an example but because he appeals to the persecution complex in our boy Tommy. Batomic Comic Obsessive wants to be the victim always.
And in classic TB fashion, Wertham is a “big threat” that has already been vanquished. He’s a punching bag well-worn and extremely light, because all the stuffing was knocked out of him years ago. Just like “Hollywood” or Joe McCarthy or the Post Office or Wall Street… or even cancer.
TB doesn’t pick fights with anyone who can or cares to challenge him. He’s a chicken.
All that matters is that he’s not allowed to sit on his fat rump and gorge himself on treats as he reads nonsense about a man in a red zentai suit who runs at Improbable Speed. Worse still, he has to admit that other people are….gasp….REAL!!!!!!
People like the mother who might not actually be put on this Earth to feed him treats. He can’t live in a world where she isn’t…..thus the endless Mommy issues. Rather than admit that he’s in the wrong or doesn’t know what’s going on around him, he fights his legions of straw men.
What a tedious man Tom Batiuk must be. Every single conversation must about his comic books, his ego trips, and his inability to let go of any slight. He has zero interest in anything else, or anyone else.
10/15:
What is this? Little gremlin changeling troll moves leaves around. For no reason, because the reason sure ain’t a dang punchline. If the kid even exists, and is not one of Tom’s Childhood Phantom Creatures again.
WHO IS–the latest homunculus?!
You don’t recognize little Mitch Murdoch?
Mitch Murdoch?! That was my Dad’s favorite Western! Which was odd; he hated Westerns. We used to watch Bullwinkle every Sunday.
“Mitch Murdoch, Leaf Wrangler” ran from 1955 to 1962 on NBC. Most fans list their favorite episode as S2:E95 “I Smell A RAT!” in which Murdoch does, indeed, smell a large dead rodent. Ep summary: “Crimeny, dude! You think we can’t?!” Mitch does 1870s things we will not detail. Mass graves are dug.
Funny, I was certain Mitch Murdoch was the “swinger” fake twin brother Matt (Daredevil) Murdoch created to keep his pals Foggy and Karen from guessing his secret identity in Silver Age Marvel comics. Shows where my head’s at.
And, for those who don’t know comics… J.J. is totally NOT making that up. See, Spider-Man figured out that Daredevil was Matt Murdock, and decided to write him a letter stating such, because… reasons? And, of course, he sent that letter to Matt’s office, because clearly Matt’s secretary would NEVER open a letter addressed to her blind boss. So to cover his secret identity, Matt told Foggy and Karen that Daredevil was REALLY “Mike Murdock”, Matt’s identical twin brother whom he never mentioned, even to his college roommate, Foggy. So Matt would have to show up at the office pretending to be his own twin brother (who conveniently always wore sunglasses), but who never seemed to show up when Matt was around.
This subplot went on for, like, two years. It… was not one of the brighter spots in Marvel history.
I’m sure one of you will say “He’s Max!” or “Rex!” or some other popular dog name. But what is he? A robot prototype of the Lizard-Bot?
Since this is CS, and there are leaves, betcha we get some flamethrower action! Little Max or Oliver or who cares will be BURNED IN THE FIRES–The fires that the Testaments of Lisa say must become before the BURNING–and from the flames ROBOT BABY SCHWARZENEGGER SKELETON walks out!
“AND NOW–” it growls, “YOU WILL WATCH ME–KILLING TIME! –by opening an envelope for a week.”
(nothing happens)
The kid looks like Linus, with Moe Howard’s haircut.
(Moe Howard walks toward Crankshaft and slaps the shit out of him)
Great book about the 1950s comic book scare is David Hajdu’s “The Ten-Cent Plague” (2008).
Thank You CBH! So insightful. I loved Creepy, Eerie, and Weird comic titlkes as a kid. Yes some of them haunt me to this day.
Nice job CBH. You’d get an A in my Mass Com Theory course! I haven’t read his book in its entirety, but from what I know it reflects the then-emerging idea that under some conditions, at some times, with some individuals, mediated communication can have negative effects. This is in contrast with the prevalent idea at the time of the creation of the Hays Office that media content was “injected” into an individual who then behaved in ways intended by the communicator (the notion stemmed from the believed effects of World War I propaganda campaigns).
Much of the difficulty stemming from work like Wertham, and all who have followed in discussing the deleterious effects of media, is that the popular press, and attention-seeking pols over-simplify and sensationalize the results (and, like Wertham, the researchers themselves may seek to boost their status and money-making opportunities).
I don’t study video games, but I suspect what we have are some situations in which other conditions contribute to anti-social activities by some (mostly young, with not-fully-developed brains). Most of these are well-known: unstable family life, economic difficulties, etc. Video games, per se, are not the cause.
What the person goes home to is not something the meatball with something to sell likes to think about. Having to remember that juvenile delinquency’s prime cause is delinquent parenting means something Wertham didn’t want to see: unlike what he was raised to believe, authority of any sort has to be earned.
Every case of a kid going wrong is different. Maybe a slim majority of them can be blamed on parenting, but I’ve also seen so many kids with decent enough parents go bad…just in my personal experience with coworkers and acquaintances. I’ve seen parents who have loved and wept and agonized over their 20 year old kid going to jail or prison, while their other kids turned out fine.
There probably have been some kids who have gone wrong primarily due to media influence. Or kids where media influence feeds their already unwell minds. But mass censorship isn’t going to fix that.
But brute force no brain solutions appeal to people who need to be seen doing something about a problem.
The idea of a child being corrupted by comic books or heavy metal music seems downright quaint. Media has gotten so personalized and so pervasive, it’s hard to ignore. High school was hard enough, without having to be part of a social media ecosphere too. And whatever sickness you may have, it’s easy to indulge. To say nothing of what journalism has turned into.
some people are bad because of bad parenting, some because of people mistreating
while some people are just born evil and are waiting for shit to hit the fan so they can reveal their true colors
The impulse to reform doesn’t understand the insoluble.
I remember a court case where 2 young men committed suicide. The parents sued the musical artists accusing the musicians of putting messages backwards into their music, and that led them to commit suicide. During the trial, it was revealed the young men spent the last 2 days of their lives constantly drugging and drinking. Yet it HAD to be the the backmasking that was the only cause of their deaths. Fortunately, the judge threw the case out.
Here’s something the media never tells you about those outrageous lawsuits – almost of them them get thrown out. You can sue almost anybody for almost anything, but winning is a very different matter. Not saying the system’s perfect, but it’s better than you’d think.
*Bloom County* did a strip on backmasking. It turned out there were messages when you heard the record that way.
They were:
“Tithe! Tithe!”
“Give to the church!”
Hardly “turn me on, dead man” or “acid’s groovy — kill the pigs.”
If I can stretch the parameters of “Horror,” I’d like to put in a good word for 1966’s “Seconds.”
I have not seen Seconds, but any film that includes Rock Hudson, Jeff Corey, AND Will Geer must be pretty good!
Other standout performances in “Seconds” come from Richard Anderson, John Randolph, Salome Jens and Wesley Addy.
Come to think of it, Addy is also in 1955’s “Kiss Me Deadly” (he’s Mike Hammer’s police lieutenant friend Lt. Pat Murphy, a demoted and renamed Captain Pat Chambers), which turns film noir into something pretty horrific and apocalyptic.
Now listen, Mike. Listen carefully. I’m going to pronounce a few words. They’re harmless words. Just a bunch of letters scrambled together. But their meaning is very important. Try to understand what they mean. “Manhattan Project, Los Alamos, Trinity.”
Anyone seeing “Kiss Me Deadly” after “Oppenheimer” will get Pat’s drift immediately, vrooom vrooom!
I always liked Ralph Meeker. He was a tough guy’s tough guy. Great voice. My favorite film of his was a TV movie, “St Valentine’s Day Massacre,” directed by Roger Corman. Ralph was Bugs Moran opposite to Jason Robards, Al Capone.
“ Kiss me Deadly” had a super cast. Paul Richards, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam. Special appearance by Jesslyn Fax. She was magnificent acting along Madge Blake on the Jack Benny Show playing members of his Pasadena Fan Club. (“He called us, girls!” Squealing ensued.)
Anonymous Sparrow, just for you and your connecting Kiss me Deadly to Oppenheimer. This is from Madge Blake’s bio on IMDB:
💎 Both Madge and her husband worked for the government and their job necessitated top secret clearance as they worked in Utah during construction of the detonator for the atomic bomb.💎
“Tout est interconnecté!”
SP:
What a great detail about Madge Blake! Next time I see “Singin’ in the Rain” or “An American in Paris,” there’ll be a real lagniappe for me when she comes into view.
Merci mille fois!
Ralph Meeker also has an Anthony Mann connection — see “The Naked Spur,” which may be the purest of the Mann/Stewart Westerns, as it strips the formula down to the essentials (come to think of it, Millard Mitchell’s in that…and in “Singin’ in the Rain”!) — and is one of the unfortunate French soldiers in Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory.”
Meeker originated the role of Hal Carter on Broadway in *Picnic* which William Holden took over in the screen version.
Connections are everywhere…Timothy Carey’s also in “Paths of Glory,” and in looking carefully at “The Wild One” last weekend I saw him as one of Chino’s biker gang.
“The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.”
— Harry S Truman
Big thumbs up to “Seconds.” Even the opening credits are terrifying – I once had a friend refuse to watch the actual film, they’re so unsettling. Also, Hudson could really act with good material and direction.
Jeff:
Hudson proves this again and again in his work for Douglas Sirk (especially in “All That Heaven Allows,” “Written on the Wind” and “The Tarnished Angels”).
Oddly, his one Academy Award nomination is for “Giant,” which will probably be best remembered as James Dean’s last film. (Dean was also nominated for Best Actor. The winner that year was Yul Brynner for “The King and I.”)
Not sure whether that counts as a puzzlement, and I will not invite John Howard to sort it out.
While he’s not as prominent in two Anthony Mann Westerns (“Winchester ’73” and “Bend of the River”), Hudson’s also fine in both.
The underlying idea appears to be that the complainant knows the person wronged. The answer they get is one they don’t like: apparently not.
This is unrelated to the post, I didn’t know how else to inform those in charge sorry, but I keep getting redirected to some weird “McAfee Virus Cleaning” site from here. I don’t know if that’s intentional or something, but I just figured you guys should know that something might be up.
I did check if it was my phone and it didn’t happen on other sites I tried.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll try the site out on a couple different phones and see if I get anything similar.
Sounds like you’ve got some spyware. Run a scan. This website’s never done that to me.
I mean maybe, but like I said this is the only site I got it on and nothing’s happened so far today, here or otherwise. 🤷🏻♂️
1. YES, it’s been well documented that early Wonder Woman was an absolutely filthy little girl who had a fetish for being tied up with her own lasso by the bad guys and she tried to “create” this scenario at every opportunity…
2. “But… but… Wasn’t anyone willing to stand up for our blessed comic books back then??” MOTHERFUCKER WHAT DO YOU THINK?! Fifty years later you’re standing in a comic book store speaking with a comic book store owner and comics collector, and you undoubtedly have a trove of thousands of issues back in your bedroom… You have never known a world where the comic book hasn’t existed so yes, it’s safe to say that a lot of people stood up back in those days…
He’s such a victim, isn’t he? He goes on and on about losing his precious comic books, when there’s no evidence his consumption was ever limited in any way. As a child he was allowed to draw comics, read comics, and go to the “imperious Rexall” to buy comics.
On top of that, Batiuk owes the existence of his precious Silver Age comic books to Frederic Wertham and the Comics Code. They put an end to Underworld Crime and Crime Suspenstories and Tomb of Terror. Publishers replaced them with the violence-free, consequence-free, drama-free, leotard-wearing world The Flash inhabits. The kiddie comic books Batiuk loves so much at age 76 were largely a response to criticism of comic book content.
What an ingrate.
Eh, that’s not an entirely accurate take, honestly. All of the REALLY gruesome stuff was only being done by EC; other publishers (including what’s now Marvel and DC) weren’t THAT heavily involved in those types of horror and crime comics. (They may have done horror and crime comics in general, but nothing as explicit as EC, and it was only a portion of their lineup, not the main focus.)
Really, Marvel and DC didn’t care much about the Code, because they weren’t publishing anything that wouldn’t pass muster under the Code even before it was established. The Code was designed to push EC out of comics, which it did; its effect on everyone else was minimal. There’s not much reason to think the superhero revival that the Flash kicked off couldn’t or wouldn’t have happened even without the Code.
Fair enough. You probably know a lot more about it than I do. The Code probably didn’t hurt, though.
The idea that it was a means by which one company would be ruined while the rest were left alone is not a new one. Look who administered the code in the first place: the guy who ran Archie comics!
Was gonna have part 3 up tonight, but had a major combine breakdown that had me scrambling all over inside like a old timey gremlin. Now that I’ve finally finished washing axle grease out of my hair, I’m too dead beat to finish.
Love you all! I’ll be up soon! Please continue to gush about awesome old movies.!
ComicBookHarriet,
I will take you up on your offer before you post part 3. I submit this film is great horror and also great art: the 2019 film, Midsommar, directed by Ari Aster. Great actors, though most are not well known. Great premise: sweet little isolated Scandinavian village, allowing college students in to observe. Then it takes off. Intense.
What helped me deal with the film is that I was editing the Old Testament book of Joshua at the time. I saw the village as a perfect example of a Canaanite town that could not survive alongside Hebrew newcomers.
Great writing. Great visuals. The landscape in the film is powerful, especially when you turn 72.
SP:
Check out Florence Pugh in “Little Women.”
She plays Amy March.
Yes. Florence is a fine actor. She showed power as she changed her persona in Midsommar.
Has there ever been a bad film of “Little Women.” I have liked everyone I have seen.
I took my wife out to eat today. Went to a restaurant in Smithville Missouri. We shared the chicken piccata. My first time. I liked it. We also had sweet potato waffle fries. I am not a sweet potato fan, but these were good. They served it with a Thai sauce. I liked that too.
Are you eating out this week?
SP:
The 1949 “Little Women” (June Allyson as Jo, Elizabeth Taylor as Amy) may not be “bad,” but it is weaker than the 1933 and 2019 versions.
Professor Bhaer always seems to be youger, thinner and handsomer in the movies than he is in the book.
I will be seeing a play called *Partnership* this Saturday and expect to eat beforehand at Ollie’s Sichuan, where I look forward to feasting on hot and sour soup, dandan noodles (or scallion pancakes) and prawns with garlic sauce.
It depends, as always, on the subway. Last weekend, for instance, I thought I left myself plenty of time to see “Niagara” and didn’t make into the theater until the trailers were over and the credits were almost finished. As the Duke of Wellington said of Waterloo, “it was a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”
I wonder if the 1907 Maxwell Joseph Cotten’s George Loomis was trying to build in “Niagara” was an in-joke that supporting player Don Wilson was Jack Benny’s announcer and Benny’s vehicle of choice was a Maxwell. I’m not sure of the year, though: as the sound of the car starting up was the work of Mel Blanc (that’s what’s up, doc!), and as Blanc was born in 1908, I’d go for that.
Benny’s Maxwell was a character all to herself. I loved her in Jack’s vacation, “Jack Drives to Palm Springs”. (Warning: Look before you leap!)
A cousin to the Maxwell, I do not know the model, is the car Fred Meryl drove in “the Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour, Lucy finds Uranium”. I roar every time I watch Fred and that car.
I will join you in spirit at “Ollie’s Sichuan”. Have a Crab Rangoon on me.
Damn Siri: Mertz!!!!!
SP:
I tried to learn the make of the car you mentioned in “Lucy Hunts Uranium,” but have so far had no success.
The only other references to the Maxwell that I can recall comes in a post-War *Barnaby* strip, in which Mr. O’Malley displays his lack of contemporary knowledge in not knowing that Chrysler acquired Maxwell’s assets in 1925.
Where I live, you can find several vendors of live crabs on the streets. You can also find representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who invite you to come to church on Sunday.
I’ve never felt so malicious that I’ve told one of them what Mark Twain had to say about the Book of Mormon…or asked if they’ve read Stephenie Meyer’s *Twilight Saga.*
Not yet, at any rate. Remember, these are the times that try men’s souls…
Perhaps JJ O’Malley has the answer for what we look for. 😇
These are the times that try men’s souls.
Yesterday I posted the following on LinkedIn. I will copy and post here. You and I are posting on a blog that is already in the past tense. “Monological” has already superseded it. If you are so inclined, please, do not feel any pressure, I would value your opinion. Feel free to completely ignore if you desire, and blame it on the weekend.
💎Peace among Israelis and Palestinians
All I am saying, is give peace a chance.
What would peace look like between Palestine and Israel?
*One state solution. That is really what both sides want.
*Hamas and Al Fatah lay down their weapons. Israel remove security checkpoints and security walls. Allow free travel.
* United States, European Union, Arab League, China, and Russia provide funds assisting Israel to rebuild homes and businesses for the Palestinian people.
*The same organizations help build an economic Fertile Crescent joining Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Damascus, Amman, Riyadh, Baghdad, and Tehran. Other major cities will join as well.
*What is the center of the peace? All of us are children of Father Abraham, the father of the faithful.
*What else unites the people? Jews believe in Zion, the dwelling place of Jehovah. Islam believes in Dar-al-Salaam, the City of Peace or the dwelling place of Allah, Christians believe in the Kingdom of the heavens, the heavenly Father dwells on the Earth with His people. These beliefs are basically the same thing. We can start building God’s dwelling place here on the Earth. It starts in your heart. Are you building your life in this direction?
*Peace looks impossible. It is not impossible, if we can picture what it looks like.
In March 1968, an American politician, Bobby Kennedy said at the University of Kansas, quoting the playwright:
“George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?”
All I am saying, is give peace a chance.💎
SP:
The words from Shaw come from his *Back to Methuselah* (subtitle: *A Metabiological Pentateuch*) and were part of Senator Kennedy’s stump speech in his brief 1968 campaign for the Democratic nomination.
Brother John used them in addressing the Irish Parliament in 1963.
*National Lampoon* once ran a mock newspaper full of wonderful news for 1977: the Pope changes his views of contraception, the Beatles reunite and, in the Middle East, the Jews resolve to leave Israel.
“We’ve had enough of trying to make this work,” say the Jews. “It’s yours.”
“But we don’t want you to leave,” say the Palestinians. “We just want to live in peace with you.”
“That’s all you want? That’s all we want!” say the Jews.
“Let’s talk,” they both say, and peace results.
Would that it were so.
Something else from Shaw worth remembering, the final lines of the play after *Back to Methuselah,* 1923’s *Saint Joan*:
JOAN. O God that madest this beautiful earth, when will it be ready to receive Thy saints? How long, O Lord, how long?
You are such a joy to read. At the risk of voiding the “Anonymous” part of your nom de plume, have you published any works? I would buy.
Back to Fred Mertz’s car. According to a fellow on YouTube named Rick Nineg: on their first going to California episode, Fred buys the car. Rick Nineg identifies it as a 1923 Cadillac convertible. I googled images and it sure looks the same.
Thanks again for your take on peace in the MidEast. I loved the part about the Jews deciding to leave Israel. As for Shaw, I will checkout.
I did not know Bobby K was quoting Shaw. I had always heard it without the attribution. Then it truly shocked me that he gave the speech at the University of Kansas. I live in Missouri right on the border. My sister-in-law taught at the university for a while. KU Lawrence was a hotbed of LBJ opposition very early on in 1968. Either in December or January, young people surprised the standard Democrats and challenged to take the Party away from the party machinery.
SP:
Alas, no publications beyond a piece on radio Westerns in a now-defunct periodical. (*SynnWatch* #2 from AC Comics.)
Truth to tell. Robert Kennedy paraphrased the quotation from Shaw. The proper quote from *Back to Methuselah* is what John Kennedy said in Dublin in 1963:
“Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.”
RFK wasn’t above going beyond his version: at one campaign stop, it began to rain, and he ended his remarks by saying: “As George Bernard Shaw said — run for the buses!”
Eugene McCarthy called 1968 “the Year of the People,” as it did bring out a great show of youthful energy in politics. For a fuller account of this, look for the *An American Melodrama* from three British journalists (Chester, Hodgson and Page).
Theodore H. White’s *Making of the President — 1968* is also good, but Chester, Hodgson and Page has the edge for me.
Ooh, I’m about ready with a “TBTropes” installment and I can have something ready for tonight. Now pinch-hitting for Pedro Borbon: Manny Mota.
My potassium-rich hero swoops in to the rescue!!!
I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue…
Surely you can’t be serious
If you want to watch a great science fiction/horror film, watch 1967’s “Quatermass and the Pit,” a/k/a “Five Million Years to Earth.” An extremely intelligent film, quite terrifying at times, it explains the Devil, ghosts, and the origin of the human race. I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.
“I suppose it’s possible for–for ‘ghosts,’ let’s use the word–to be phenomena that were badly observed, and wrongly explained.”
“I never had a career. Only work.”
Oh, yeah! There’s no reason for a movie like Quatermass to be so upsetting when it includes (SPOILER) giant crickets.
And that ending. No, the next part. A lot of audiences didn’t get why they just stared at the carnage. That’s what most people would do. Especially when they pretty clearly stated “If those things were Satan, then what is..?” They don’t say it, but it’s clear it’s set in a universe where if there is a God, It doesn’t care.
Bill:
Have you ever heard Randy Newman’s “God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)”?
God was not there, muses Rorschach, recognizing that there is no justice, just us…
First, my fat finger hit the downvote. It was supposed to be an upvote!
Yes, Quatermass was a really good horror movie. I think it was actually a BBC miniseries that was edited into a full-length film
Yes, all four of the Quatermass stories started as BBC TV series before being made into movies. I’ve got the one in question, it’s very much the same story, just on a smaller scale.
Harriet, thank you for the post and for keeping this all rolling. May this tiny corner of the Internet remain as it is for as long as it can.