The Avengers: A Surfeit of H2O

A Surfeit of H2O (1965)

Starring: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Noel Purcell, Albert Lieven, Geoffrey Palmer, Talfryn Thomas, John Kidd, and Sue Lloyd

Director: Sidney Hayers

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A doomsday prophet (Purcell) and a winery with secret, highly scientific production methods are at the center of the mystery when agents John Steed (Macnee) and Emma Peel (Rigg) are tasked with uncovering how a man drowned in the middle of an empty field.

This is another excellent episode that features a tight script; a brilliant mix of sci-fi and investigative secret agent action; and an assortment of interesting and quirky characters that make it tricky to pinpoint who the bad guys are and what they are actually up to until the Big Reveal. It also features another nice "damsel in distress" riff along the same lines as what we had in "The Gravediggers", but with a stronger sense of danger than comedy. There's also a great bit with Steed's steel-plated trick bowler as an adjunct to that business.

Character-wise, the wisecracking between Steed and Mrs. Peel is topnotch, and some of the incidental characters here are so interesting and well-acted that I sorry to see them meet a violent end, or I wished there could have been a reason for them to make reappearance in a future episode--Noel Purcell's doomsday prophet Jonah Barnard being prime among these. The different approaches that Steed and Peel take to investigating the mysterious deaths also lend a great deal of entertainment value to this episode--Peel remains methodical and cautious in her approach, while Steed starts out that way but quickly starts resorting to antics to see what he can stir up. At the end, though, it's a combination of the two approaches that leads to the good guys ultimately winning the day. Peel's dignified unflappability also leads to one of the most amusing (and possibly one of the most British) witness interviews ever committed to film. Another nice bit in this episode is the way Steed and Peel turn firmly to science to help them figure out what's happening with the weather around the winery--which also gives the writers an opportunity to show that Mrs. Peel is also knowledgeable in the field of meteorology.

As great as this episode is, it's another instance of where the creators don't quite pull off the ending. It's got a dramatic set-up and the location in which it unfolds should make it one of the deadliest fights our heroes have ever been in--since they are exchanges punches with the bad guys at the very heart of a mad science experiment that has claimed three lives that we know of--but it's almost like the actors, director, and writers have forgotten what's happened earlier in the episode.

All in all, though... some 55 years after it first aired, "A Surfeit of H2O" is still highly entertaining and well worth the time you'll spend watching it.

The Jane Birkin Quarterly

It's time for another visit with Jane Birkin. What is she getting up to?

 

Your guess is as good as mine.

I don't know what she's doing here, either...

Harold and Bebe grapple with 'Spring Fever'

Spring Fever (1919)

Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Snub Pollard, Noah Young, Fred C. Newmeyer, Marie Mosquini, Gus Leonard, and Raye Hampton

Director: Hal Roach

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Stricken with Spring Fever, a bookkeeper (Lloyd) leaves work early. He proceeds to cause chaos in the park and find love in the arms of a young lady (Daniels).

"Spring Fever" is a few minutes of fast-paced fun. It hasn't aged as well as some of the other Harold Lloyd/Bebe Daniels team-ups--Lloyd plays a trickster character who is just a tad too obnoxious to be likeable and Daniels plays far more interesting characters in some of their other films together--but director Hal Roach doesn't waste a second of the film's eight minutes of run-time: If characters aren't being established, plot isn't being forwarded, and gags aren't being executed, then gags are being set up.

If you like silent comedies, I think you'll find this one entertaining. It's even more fun to watch if you've seen other of Lloyds and Daniels' vehicles, as you'll recognize some of the locations from other films. Why don't you kick back and take a few minutes to watch it right now?

Musical Monday with Nirvana

Is there a better song to feature on this beautiful Spring Musical Monday than "In Bloom"? I should think not! 

In Bloom (1992)

Starring: Nirvana and Doug Llewelyn

Director: Kevin Kerslake

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

"In Bloom" is one of my favorite Nirvana songs... and this video makes me love it even more, because it's perfect for this blog. (That said, one can't really fault people for singing along with a Nirvana song and not knowing that the lyrics are pretty gruesome or depressing; Weird Al nailed it in his spoof of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"--unless you're reading a lyrics sheet, it's hard to know what's actually being said half the time.)

When the King met Betty

Betty Boop and the Little King (1936)
Starring: Jack Mercer (voice of the Little King and others) and Mae Questel (voice of Betty Boop)
Directors: Dave Fleischer
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A fun-loving king sneaks out of an opera performance and out from under the iron fist of his queen to enjoy a vaudevillian rodeo performance by Betty Boop. 

In 1933, producer Max Fleischer approached Kings Features Syndicate with a proposal to turn their Popeye the Sailor comic strip character into an animated character. The Syndicate was dubious, but Popeye proved to be a far bigger hit in animation than he ever was on the printed page. After the demise of the Van Beuren Corporation, which had licensed Kings Features strip "Little King" for use in animation (and had produced a dozen shorts starring him), Fleischer decided to see if he could replicate the success he'd seen with Popeye.

"Betty Boop and the Little King" was a back-door "pilot episode" for a potential "Little King" series, just like "Popeye the Sailor" had been in 1933, and it follows the same template as that previous effort: Betty Boop is relegated to supporting-character status in her own series, as the Little King encounters her performing, joins the act, and triggers additional events and complications.

Unfortunately, the attempt to launch "The Little King" to screen stardom fizzled on the ground. The reasons for this could be many, but obvious ones are plain to see as the cartoon unfolds. First of all, Betty Boop lost her edge when the Production Code made the Fleischers feel obligated to redirect her adventures from an adult audience toward children, so the sly humor and escalating violence of "Popeye the Sailor" is nowhere to be found here. Second, where both "Betty Boop and the Little King" and "Popeye the Sailor" were structured in a way that they introduced viewers who might not be familiar with the source material to the characters, only "Popeye the Sailor" put major effort into building some new, unique, and fresh for the animated version. In fact, the Fleischer cartoon unnecessarily violates a standard of "The Little King" comic strip when they have the King speak. In the strip, he NEVER speaks... and there was no reason for him to do so here, either. Thirdly, while the story is cute and the King is equal parts funny and sympathetic (just like his more proper Queen is equal parts funny and UNsympathetic since she is trying to keep him behaving in a way that is befitting his status), it's generally a low energy affair. The animation is nice--even impressive at a couple of points--but when compared to other Betty Boop cartoons, the gags are weak and prone to overstay their welcome and there's barely enough going on to keep viewers engaged.

"Betty Boop and the Little King" isn't a terrible cartoon... it's just a little too tame and genteel.

This was the only time Fleischer used the Little King in one of his productions. It was probably for the best, since I have a feeling that he was much better suited for the type of fare that the Van Beuren Corporation put out--and with that said, I will have to seek out and watch some of those to see if I'm right or wrong. If anything, I'm fairly certain that the King didn't speak in those shorts, because most of the Van Beuren cartoons were essentially silent movies with elaborate musical scores.

But just don't take my word for whether "Betty Boop and the Little King" is good or not. I've embedded it" below, you can can check it out yourself; it's only seven or so minutes long. If you disagree with my take, I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below.

The Avengers Dossier, Page Seven

Here's another look at a supporting player from the Fourth Season of "The Avengers".

PATRICIA HAINES

In "The Master Minds", Patricia Haines played the archery instructor to an exclusive club of super-geniuses.

Born in 1932, Patricia Haines was a familiar face on British television during the 1960s and into the mid-1970s. She had incidental roles in many popular series and was a regular cast member in "The Flower of Evil" (1961), "Six Proud Walkers" (1962), and in early seasons of soap operas "Compact" and "Emmerdale Farm". She also appeared in several films, with her role in the horror film "The Virgin Witch" (1971) being perhaps the most remarkable--as she played a particularly evil villainess.

Haines appeared three times during the six seasons of "The Avengers", playing a different character each time. In addition to her role on "The Master Minds", she was in "The Nutshell" (1963) and "Who's Who???" (1967).

Although a talented actress, Haines is more frequently mentioned as the one-time wife of Michael Cain. (They were married in 1954 and were divorced in 1962.)

Haines, a smoker since she was in her teens, passed away from lung cancer at the age of 45 in 1977. 

Wonder Woman Wednesday

Women's History Month may be over, but Wonder Woman and her gal pals are still making history--by delivering epic beat-downs to bad guys!

It's a 60-year old film that still resonates today

Cone of Silence (aka "Trouble in the Sky") (1960)
Starring: Michael Craig, Bernard Lee, Peter Cushing, Elizabeth Seal, Gordon Jackson, George Sanders, Noel Willman, Marne Maitland, and Andre Morell

Director: Charles Frend

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

An aging pilot (Lee) is blamed for a near-crash with the latest passenger jet design, the Phoenix. While the designer of the jet (Willman) and a pilot-turned-airline-executive (Cushing) are pushing all the blame onto pilot error, a training pilot (Craig) starts to discover evidence that the problem may be with the aircraft design.

"Cone of Silence" is a nice little drama that revolves around the business and politics involved in running an airline and the processes by which mistakes and accidents are investigated, blame is assigned, and steps are taken to understand why the mistake or accident happened and how they can be prevented from occurring again. In the hands of less talented people, and with a cast that wasn't comprised entirely of top-notch actors--with even smaller roles being filled by the likes of Gordon Jackson, George Sanders, and Andre Morell--this could easily have turned into a preachy melodrama. Instead, we're treated to some nice performances by talented actors and a character-driven story that's made even more suspenseful by the fact that the audience knows there's going to another plane crash (or several) than just the one that got pinned on old Captain Gort (played with great charm by Bernard Lee) at the outset.

One interesting aspect of the film is that none of the major characters are ever acting out of malice--every character has blind spots/fatal flaws that contribute to the film's chain of events, but there isn't anyone who can truly be described as villains. Everyone is acting in a way that they believe forwards the greater good, and in the interest of truth and public safety. (There is one character who remains as apparently shady and misguided at the end of the film as he seemed at the beginning, but even he is more arrogant than outright bad.)

Further, with the plane crashes that have been dominating the news about the airline industry in recent years, this sixty year-old movie still has relevance today. I suspect that you'll find the exact same personalities in those same jobs, performing the same functions, today as you did back then... and I think that they'll behave in much the same fashion and be motivated by the same outlooks as those in "Cone of Silence."

If you have some time, you can watch "Cone of Silence" from this very post. I think you'll enjoy it. It's got fine performances from Elizabeth Seal, in her only starring role, as a dutiful daughter hoping that her father's name will be cleared; Michael Craig striking a nice balance between earnest and smarmy as a cocky pilot; and Peter Cushing as a "company man" trying to find a truth that is most beneficial to growing the bottom line. (It may be because I'm a huge fan of him, but I think that out of all the cast Cushing gave the most excellent of performances. He communicates more with a shift in body language, a darting of the eyes, or a slight change in tone than pages of dialog might reveal about a character. I don't recall ever seeing him give a bad performance, but he is particular excellent in this film.)

Musical Monday with Lykke Li

Lykke Li is a Swedish singer/songwriter who spent her childhood globe-trotting with her family. As an adult, she settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she began her musical career. 

Lykke Li's music is mostly danceable pop with an undercurrent of darkness and a strong indie flavor. She joins us today to get your week started with a bit of video madness--and one that in some ways sums up the nature of this blog--and a song with lyrics that have multiple layers of interpretation.

Get Some (2010)

Starring: Lykke Li

Director: Johan Soderborg

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Happy birthday, Amanda Righetti!

Actress and model Amanda Righetti--best known for her roles on the television series "The O.C." (2003-2005), "Reunion" (2005-2006), "The Mentalist" (2008-2015) and "Colony" (2017-2018) was born on April 4, 1983. Here are some photos in celebration!