Welcome to another edition of The Land Before CGI. In this edition, we'll be covering 1941, the infamous Steven Spielberg comedy that laid a big box office egg back in 1979. After its disappointing initial run it found success on network and cable television with the extended version. I'm personally not a fan of either but must admit the extended version is infinitely better. Netflix currently has the theatrical version which is so choppy and exits so many scenes before they finish you'll find yourself hitting the "eject" button almost before you begin. The extended version may not tickle anyone's funny bone either but at least it makes sense. It is the extended version that has become a mini-cult classic, mini in that it's not revered like so many low budgets cult-classics of the sixties but still has a faithful following. But this is The Land Before CGI so I'm not here to talk about the film's success or failure at the comedic level but at the miniature and full-scale effects level and there it succeeds mightily.
Special Effects creator and legend A. D. Flowers worked closely with Miniatures Supervisor Gregory Jein and fellow effects legend L.B. Abbott to achieve a seamless flow between live-action shots and miniatures, used interchangeably throughout. The alternate shots between real planes, close-ups of actors in mock-ups and models flying through elaborate miniaturized sets blend together so well that at times the viewer would be hard-pressed to point out where one ends and the other begins. It was in this period, the late seventies through the late eighties that miniature work reached its greatest heights before computer generated imagery would forever relegate it to the dustbin of cinematic history.
While the miniature sets and airplane shots are terrific it is the movie's final two set-pieces that raise the bar as high as they could be raised for such work, the Ferris Wheel sequence and the house by the sea sequence. Neither is particularly funny, mind you, but visually awesome they are indeed. The Ferris Wheel scene was done using a miniature set of an amusement park by the ocean and the house scene was shot using a full-scale gutted mock-up of a real goddamn house, falling over a cliff.
That's Eddie Deezen (with his dummy) and Murray Hamilton in the Ferris Wheel and on the sub giving the order to fire is the great Toshiro Mifune. I chose to start that scene not with the order to fire but a beat before where Deezen proclaims they are trapped, "like beavers," which may be one of the funniest lines in the movie for me (as well as almost everything that comes out of Slim Pickens' mouth).
In the house scene you'll see a trim Ned Beatty with most of the rest of the cast (which you can find at IMDB) if you so desire) but keep an eye out for a very young Mickey Rourke, making his film debut. Enjoy.
15 comments:
Greg, as one who finds the movie riotously funny (seeing it last fall with an audience for the first time since 1979 was a real treat), I'm still glad to read your appreciation of 1941's superb miniature effects. Flowers, Jein and Abbott really rose to the occasion here and created a masterful and seamless integration of the real and the unreal, heightening the entire Los Angeles landscape to the point where even the full-scale sets seem like FAO Schwarz with biplanes, machine-gun fire and lots of things that blow up real good.
And you're right about that extended version-- after so many years of becoming familiar with it, it was the theatrical version we saw on the big screen last year, and the truncations felt more obvious than ever. It was still a wonderful movie (Slim Pickens to the Japanese sailors who have just pumped him full of castor oil: "You ain't gettin' shit outta me!"), but clearly the extended version is the one to see. I hope for an anamorphic DVD or Blu-ray release someday that will rectify this situation, including the indifference with which the movie, one of most splendid visual achievements of the 1970s, was transferred to home video.
Thanks for the post and the clip! I'm all cheered up now!
I also find the ferris wheel scene to be the best and funniest part of 1941. I wish you had let that scene run a little longer, with Deezen's dummy being the first one to pop his head out of the water.
Dennis, the effects work in this movie is truly extraordinary, some of the best I've ever seen. And this is going to sound crazy, but even though I don't find it funny, I do like it. Go figure. I enjoy watching the actors move about the period sets and locales and such.
And the extended version is the one I enjoy watching, especially with the Christmas trees at the beginning which I don't believe is in the truncated version. And yes, Slim Pickens is just effing hilarious in it. I love his scenes on the sub.
Glad I could cheer you up!
Peter, you know I almost did let it run to there but then I thought, "Nah, it's an effects video, I need to stick to that" but now I wish I hadn't. My favorite part is when they see the sub and Murray Hamilton acknowledges it by saying, "The dummy's right!" as if the dummy actually noticed it first.
tdraicer:
Count me among the group that finds 1941 a neglected comedy classic. I'm particularly fond of Robert Stack as Vinegar Joe Stilwell. ("It's going to be a long war.")
But funny is the most subjective of qualities-you either laugh or you don't, and nobody can talk into or out of it.
Not true, you just did talk me into it. It's the funniest movie ever made!
Okay, so you didn't but hey, like I said, I still actually like it without finding it funny. And I don't find that kind of broad humor funny often, but sometimes. For instance, I think 1941 is a hell of a lot better than It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World which is its distant comedy cousin in many ways but not definitely as good as Catch-22 which has much of the broad over the top strokes and does work for me, quite well in fact.
I find that, with older comedies, say from the 30s and 40s, I don't have to find that movie that funny to like it. I don't think BALL OF FIRE is all that funny, but I think it's a great movie anyway. I'm not entirely sure how this is possible, but apart from the obvious (performance), I think it probably has something to do with craft.
I haven't seen 1941 in ages, but since it's Spielberg, I would think there would be an element of enjoyment on that level, too.
It's interesting that you compare 1941 to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, since both were the All-Star Comedy Romps of their time, with broad, almost slapstick humor (it's no coincidence that the Three Stooges...well, actually the Two Stooges with Joe DeRita...show up as firefighters at the airport). I guess you either find it funny or not. I grew up on It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and my father, brothers and I would spend hours laughing at the tv when this was on (or they were showing a Three Stooges two reeler or a Marx Bros. classic), while my mom would just roll her eyes. Same thing with 1941, which I saw with my father and brothers on its first run, while my mom went to see something serious with her friends (I can't remember if it was Interiors, the Turning Point or Julia, but I bet she can't remember either). I still think we made the right choice. And tell me, everytime some idiot wannabe singer on American Idol yells out "Hollywood!" it doesn't remind you just a little bit of that Japanese sailor?
It's a good point, Bill. I think you could say the same thing about something like Sullivan's Travels. It's not fall-down funny, but there's something there to replace the need for constant laughter, and that would be interesting characters and a story worth telling. That's why these awful parody movies, like Date Movie, Disaster Movie, et al. seem so desperate-- there's nothing there behind the sensation of being clonked over the head with reference after reference, as if the mere recognition of something pilfered from somewhere else constitutes a joke. And these movies now often just settle for restaging the bits being referencing rather than putting any kind of spin on them-- the most recent of these is so cranium-crushing ghastly, retching, steaming, turd-clumping offensive that it actually made feel like I was aging at an accelerated rate while I watched it. (And this is the only place I will publicly admit having seen it.) The very same night after having witnessed this horror, I heard the "jive talk" bit from Airplane! on the radio, and the reminder of how kitchen-sink comedies like this and Police Squad! used to have some context, some measure of intelligence behind the silliness, made me simultaneously elated and sad.
Holy crap. So now they're spoofing movies that are already comedies? What's next, a spoof of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN?
Bill, that's an excellent point and kind of what I was trying to say. I don't find 1941 funny but I do find it entertaining, which may have a lot to do with nostalgia too. My friends and I saw the extended version on cable a lot in the eighties and always enjoyed it. And there really aren't a lot of comedies that get me gasping from laughter but I still love them. Weird but true.
Also, I edited the piece. I removed the word "inexplicable" to describe its following since I find myself discussing here in the comments that I like it.
"Hollywood!"
Fred, I love the part at the beginning on the sub with the sailor looking up at our JAWS victim's ripe bottom and screaming "Hollywood!"
This movie is kind of historic in a way because it has to be one of the last instances of this type of comedy ever made right? Can anyone think of others?
there's nothing there behind the sensation of being clonked over the head with reference after reference, as if the mere recognition of something pilfered from somewhere else constitutes a joke. And these movies now often just settle for restaging the bits being referencing rather than putting any kind of spin on them...
Those movies (Epic Movie, Date Movie, etc) are atrocities of modern cinema. I hate them. I hate the idea of them. I hate that they get made. But most of all, like you, I hate how utterly lazy they are and cheap.
And I'm with Bill - what in the hell is the purpose of parodying a parody?! That's just... stupid!
I think the Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu with Peter Sellers came out a year later. If Sellers didn't die before they released this one, they may have had to kill him b/c it's Asian racism was so bad, it made the stereotyping in 1941 seem mild in comparison.
Fred, I remember that one and how bad it was mainly but it wasn't the all-star, huge cast of characters extravaganza like 1941; The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming; It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Catch-22, etc, that they used to make.
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