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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Across The Pond and Beyond: The Genius Of Alfred Hitchcock



I'm certain that just by the video of the theme song that I have posted above, you can guess just who the subject for today's Across The Pond and Beyond blog post is.

Keeping in tradition with posting spooky, scary, and macabre topics from now until Halloween, I figure what better way to do this than making legendary director Alfred Hitchcock as the subject. After all, Alfred Hitchcock has been known to make some of the most frightening, scary movies of all time, and has been cited as an influential figure to such directors as Steven Spielberg, Brian DePalma, Robert Zemeckis, Tim Burton, Martin Scorcese, and Stanley Kubrick.



Alfred Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899 in Leytonstone, London, England. His childhood was reported to be very lonely and isolated, compounded by the fact that he was an obese child (which, come to think of it I can sympathize with, as I was in a similar situation). His parents were rather strict with the boy as he grew older, and some of the punishments that they would dole on young Alfred were certainly harsh. Hitchcock admitted in an interview that when he was ten years old, his father had sent him to the local police station with a note asking them to lock him up in a jail cell for ten minutes as a punishment for misbehaving. He would also talk about how his mother would also often force him to address her while standing at the foot of her bed, especially if he was misbehaving. Sometimes, Hitchcock would have to stay standing there for hours.

Who knew that these experiences with his parents would end up influencing Alfred Hitchcock's career? But, let's hold on to that thought and put it on the backburner for a few minutes.

When Alfred was 14, his father passed away, and the same year, he began to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London. When he graduated, he started working as a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company called Henley's.

It was during his time at Henley's that Hitchcock's creativity began to awaken. When the company formed an in-house publication called The Henley Telegraph in 1919, Hitchcock decided to submit a few short articles for the publication. Shortly after writing his first article, a story entitled Gas, was about a woman who imagined that she was assaulted one night in Paris, which ended up being merely a hallucination that she experienced in a dentist's chair while undergoing anesthetic. His next piece, The Woman's Part, was told through the point of view of a husband having conflicting emotions over watching his wife performing on stage in a play. Other stories he wrote for the publication included Sordid (1920), What's Who? (1920), The History Of Pea Eating (1920), and a rather controversial story for the time called And There Was No Rainbow, which depicted a young man wanting to have an adventure at a brothel only to end up at the doorstep of his best friend's girlfriend instead.



It was taboo stories and his shocking twist endings for his stories that really began to shape what would inevitably become his career choice even after Hitchcock submitted his final piece Fedora to the publication in 1921. By 1921, Hitchcock started to develop a love for photography, and this new interest helped him get into wanting to work in the film industry. He began his career as a title-card designer for the London branch of a movie studio (which would later become Paramount Pictures), and soon earned a full-time position at Islington Studios designing the titles for silent movies. His hard work would pay off just five years later when he made the transition from title designer to film director.

Granted, when Hitchcock first got interested in wanting to direct films, his luck didn't start off being all that good. His first film project was supposed to have been The Number 13, slated for release in 1922, but due to financial problems, production for the film grinded to a halt, and the project was scrapped. A 1925 film known as The Pleasure Garden was a huge flop to the audience. A third film, 1926's The Mountain Eagle was also left unreleased.

But 1926 would also net Hitchcock his very first success with The Lodger: A Story Of The London Fog. Hitchcock directed the film throughout 1926, and the film premiered in January 1927, and was a huge hit. That film is also cited as being the first example of what would soon be known as a “Hitchcockian film”, with such themes as the 'wrong man' and 'unfair punishment' being present. By 1929, Hitchcock already had nine films under his belt in his native England, and by the time his tenth film, Blackmail, was being completed, the decision was made by British International Pictures to bring sound to the film. The film was released in 1929, and is widely regarded by many to be one of the first and finest examples of a 'talkie'. The film's climax took place on the dome of the British Museum, which kicked off another Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense scenes.

Another concept that Hitchcock relished using, especially in his later films, is the 'MacGuffin device'. It was first used in his 1935 film, The 39 Steps, and was used as a plot device in which the movie is supposed to revolve around, but ultimately has nothing to do with the real meaning of the film.

Certainly, Hitchcock's early career wasn't all stellar. There were some incidents in his early career that would later come back to haunt him. Take a quotation that Hitchcock was heard to have made about how actors were 'cattle'. He said this in connection to stage actors who were snobbish about motion pictures. That quotation caused a bit of a scandal back in the day, and in 1941, his words would come back to haunt him on the set of a film production. During the filming of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, actress Carole Lombard had brought a few cows onto the soundstage with the name tags of each of the actors and actresses starring in the film attached to them. Hitchcock was surprised by this action, and he later claimed that he was misquoted, stating that he had meant to say 'actors should be treated like cattle'.

Which didn't sound much better, but there it is.

By the end of the 1930's, American film producer David O. Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven year contract, and when Hitchcock and his wife Alma moved to the United States in early 1939, his work in the United States had officially begun.



In 1940, Hitchcock had made his American film debut with the film Rebecca, a movie starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. The movie dealt with the subject of fear. A young bride moves into an English country home and must adapt to the extreme formality and coldness she faces each day she stays there. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year, which Selznick accepted, but by the end of the film's completion, reports were that the working relationship between Hitchcock and Selznick was strained, with Hitchcock being displeased with Selznick's creative control over his films, and Selznick's constant money problems being an issue. Selznick in turn complained that Hitchcock's method of editing was so jigsaw puzzle like that he felt as though his own creative control was being diminished in a sense.

In 1941, Hitchcock directed and produced the film Suspicion, starring Fontaine, and Cary Grant in one of his few villainous roles. The film is mostly remembered for the classic scene in which Hitchcock uses a light bulb to illuminate a glass of milk that Grant's character brings to his wife, implying that the milk might be poisonous. The ending was also changed as well. Initially, because the film was based on a book, the ending was supposed to have had Grant's character exposed as the killer, but because the studio did not want to tarnish Grant's image to the public, the ending was made more ambiguous.

Other films that netted Hitchcock some much deserved success included 1943's Shadow Of A Doubt (Hitchcock's personal favourite film he directed), 1945's Spellbound, and 1951's Strangers On A Train.

I could go on and on describing each and every single one of Hitchcock's many films, as all of them really did have an impact on pop culture and the cinema world, but I would be here forever if I did. So, what I'll do to give this blog a bit of a personal touch is to list my top three Hitchcock films of all time, and then talk a little bit about the plots, actors, and other bits of trivia.



My third favourite Hitchcock film is the 1963 film 'The Birds', which starred Tippi Hedren (whose daughter Melanie Griffith is also an actress) in the leading role. The film was originally inspired by a short story written by Daphne Du Maurier, but was also inspired by a news story coming out of California about an infestation of birds in a seaside town.

The film takes place in Bodega Bay, California which has been the location of several severe unexplained bird attacks. The film begins as we meet socialite Melanie Daniels (Hedren) who makes the acquaintance of a lawyer, Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) at a San Francisco pet shop. He mistakes her to be a salesperson, as he is there to purchase a set of lovebirds for a present for his sister's birthday. Intrigued by him, Melanie decides to find out where the man lived. After finding an address for him in Bodega Bay, she decides to purchase the lovebirds, and decides to leave the birds at his house along with a note. But on her way back home, she gets attacked by a seagull, leaving her with a gash on her forehead.



As a relationship develops between Mitch and Melanie, the bird attacks continue. A gull smashes into the front door of Annie Hayworth's (Suzanne Pleshette) home, and the next day, a group of birds swarm the birthday party of Mitch's sister. That evening, sparrows manage to fly inside the Brenner home.

Over the course of the next few days, the bird attacks escalate. A man is knocked unconscious after getting swarmed with birds at a gas station, and as the gas keeps pumping, another man carelessly throws a lit cigar on the ground, igniting the gasoline and causing an explosion. Melanie is forced to hide inside a telephone booth as thousands of birds attack the townspeople. The film leads to one final confrontation against the birds in the boarded up Brenner residence.

The reason I like this movie so much is because it was based on a real life news story (though exaggerated), and because it really had some awesome special effects for its time. Tippi Hedren did a great job in her role as well, even though Hedren said that her career reportedly stalled after filming the movie as she claimed that she refused Hitchcock's reported sexual advances. Initially, the film was written with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in mind for the lead roles. However, my second favourite Hitchcock film starred Grace Kelly.

Before Grace Kelly became the Princess of Monaco, she starred in three of Hitchcock's most successful films. Dial M For Murder and To Catch A Thief were both huge successes at the box office, but my own personal favourite of hers was one that I happened to see during a college film studies class.



Rear Window was released in 1954, and starred Grace Kelly, James Stewart, and Raymond Burr, and the movie dealt with the subject of what neighbours really did behind closed doors. After sustaining an accident which leaves L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries (Stewart) wheelchair bound with a broken leg, he is confined to his Greenwich Village apartment. The rear window of his apartment offers a good view of the courtyard in front of his apartment building, along with a view at the apartment building across the way. To alleviate his boredom during a heat wave, he stares outside the rear window at the tenants over at the other building.

At first, nothing out of the ordinary happens, but soon, Jeff notices something peculiar happening with one of the tenants, Lars Thorwald (Burr), a wholesale jewelry salesman who has a bedridden wife at home. Jeff is used to seeing Thorwald making late-night trips up and down the stairs with his sample filled briefcase, but one night, he notices that the briefcase, as well as his wife are not visible. Instead, he gazes at the rather chilling image of Thorwald carrying a large knife and handsaw. Later, Jeff spies Thorwald tying up a large wooden crate with a thick rope and having moving men remove it. He talks about what he has seen with his girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Kelly), and suspects that Thorwald has murdered his wife. Of course with no physical evidence proving that this is true, and police unable to find anything suspicious, the theory seems to be one that is simply that. A theory.

A few days later, the discovery of a deceased dog by its owner sends everyone running to the poor woman's apartment...all except Thorwald, who stays behind in his apartment, lighting up a cigar casually. This incident just confirms Jeff's belief that Thorwald was the one who not only killed the dog, but his still missing wife as well. He has Lisa slip a note, accusing him of the crime, underneath Thorwald's door, just so he can gauge his reaction to the note. Jeff soon realizes that he has to get proof that Thorwald really did commit murder, and in order to do this, he has to get him to leave the apartment. When Jeff calls Thorwald under the guise of a friend wanting to meet him at a bar. Jeff's theory is that he buried either the murder weapon or even the body of Mrs. Thorwald in the flower bed by the apartment, and that maybe he killed the dog because the dog was getting too close. 



When Mr. Thorwald leaves the apartment, Lisa and Jeff's home-care nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) start digging up the flower bed, but are unable to find anything. Lisa attempts to then sneak into Thorwald's apartment to find evidence, and manages to get in through the fire escape. But when Jeff stares in horror as Thorwald returns, he realizes that Lisa is in danger. Will Lisa get out before Thorwald comes back? And is Thorwald really guilty?

This film was a fantastic movie, and I loved every minute of it. Great acting, humongous star power, and a storyline that kept you on the edge of your seat. Plus it offered a rather blunt social commentary on how our society was becoming more voyeuristic. A point that was effectively proven through the eyes of L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries.

And finally, my all time favourite Hitchcock film. A film that was made over fifty years ago, but still sends shivers down the spines of moviegoers past and present.



When the film Psycho was released on June 16, 1960, nobody knew just how much of an impact the film would have. The film spawned many recreations and spoofs on various television programs, inspired a rather dull 1998 remake starring Anne Heche, and shades of the plot even made its way to the soap opera Guiding Light, as a male rapist took on the persona of an elderly female named Marion Crane to conceal his identity.

Marion Crane, of course, being the name of one of the main characters of the movie.

Janet Leigh played Marion Crane, a secretary who had done some very bad things. She was a common criminal, embezzling thousands of dollars from her employer and fleeing town in a dash to avoid being caught. She needed the money to marry her lover, Sam Loomis, and believes that if she can just make it to his California home, she will be free and clear. Fate however would prevent her from reaching her destination. In this case, fate took the patronus of a heavy rainfall, which forced her to stop driving for her own safety. As a result, she eventually ends up arriving at the secluded Bates Motel where she is immediately greeted by the motel's manager and owner, Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins).

Norman Bates is an odd duck, to put it lightly. As Marion checks into the hotel, Bates explains that he very rarely has any customers, given the location, and he tells Marion that he lives in the house that overlooks the motel with his mother. He decides to invite Marion to have dinner with him. She accepts the offer, but upon meeting Norman on the date, she overhears Norman and his mother getting into a heated argument, which makes Marion feel uncomfortable. When Norman rejoins Marion, he is angered when Marion suggests that he institutionalize his mother, and Norman tries to explain to Marion that while he feels such a move would be best, he cannot bring himself to abandon her.

After thinking about it for some time, Marion begins to realize that she made a mistake in hastily robbing her employer blind, and makes the choice to drive back to Phoenix to return the money. But first, she has to make herself look presentable. She starts to get ready for a shower, unaware that Norman is watching her through the keyhole in her room (another voyeuristic film, what do you know?) getting undressed.

It is when Marion steps into the shower that the viewer is treated to one of the most goriest, scariest, shocking scenes that has ever graced the world of horror films.



Now, here's a little bit of trivia for the shower scene. Contrary to popular belief, Janet Leigh DID use a body double for the shower scene. In shots where her face is not shown, you're actually watching body double Marli Renfro stand in. The sound of a blade piercing human flesh was simulated using a knife stabbing a melon repeatedly. The blood used in the shower scene was actually Bosco brand chocolate syrup, and Janet Leigh reportedly could not get into a shower for years after the film was released.

So now that Marion was dead, we all know that the culprit HAD to have been Norman Bates, as he was the only other one at the Bates Motel. Right? Not according to Bates. Bates blamed his mother for the crime. Things get even more complicated when Marion's sister, Lila (Vera Miles) arrives on the scene, along with a private investigator (Martin Balsam), wanting to know what happened to Marion and the money that she had stolen. The whole film comes to a conclusion that left viewers stunned. And I'm sure you all know what that surprise ending is, but in case some of you haven't seen the movie, I won't spill any secrets.

But let this be another life lesson for you. Eventually, bad deeds do come back to haunt you, and karma can be a real bitch when she needs to be. For poor Marion Crane, her crimes were punished in the most severe way, though not even she knew what she was in for.

Alfred Hitchcock certainly knew how to create a suspenseful, powerful, edge of your seat movie. During his entire career, he released over fifty feature films, and had a career that lasted almost six decades total. He directed his final feature film, Family Plot, in 1976. Four years later, on April 29, 1980, Alfred Hitchcock passed away at the age of 80, survived by his wife Alma, and only daughter Patricia.

But even though Hitchcock has been dead for over thirty years now, his legacy continues to live on. With several of his classic films being remade (though not nearly having the same success as the original versions), and his two television series (one running from 1955-1965, the second one airing after his death from 1987-1989), millions of people watched and were influenced by his one-of-a-kind movie ideas, and his endings with a twist.

Alfred Hitchcock.  Creative genius of the mysterious and macabre.  Need I say more?



Tuesday, October 25, 2011

It was Colonel Mustard! No, Mrs. White! Augh...Gimme a CLUE, people!

I have always loved a great murder mystery.

It doesn't matter whether it happens to be in the form of a computer game, or a gripping mystery novel, or a spy movie. If there is a murder mystery on the air, I am definitely one to tune in. It's why I loved the reality show Murder In Small Town X, and stayed with the 13-episode run of Harper's Island, and why I have played every possible online murder mystery game out there. Maybe in a way, I'm enacting my fantasy of becoming a private detective, because I know that my queasiness over the sight of blood would make such a career impossible.

Though, I suppose I could always write a gripping murder mystery novel myself at some point. Hmmm...come to think of it, that's not a bad idea.

Truth be told, you know those mystery dinner improv performances and theaters that exist? The one where you get invited to a person's home and eat a fantastic meal only for the festivities to be interrupted by the death of one of the guests? I would so love to be able to go to one of those murder mystery weekends, just for the sheer fun of trying to discover who the murderer is. I would even do it just for fun. I wouldn't even want to play for the prize money or what have you. I just would want to take part in one of those weekends because I think I would really enjoy myself.

So, yeah, if any of you know any places in Canada that specialize in murder mystery weekends, please drop me a line. I really would want to go to one (well, provided that I end up being a mystery solver, and not the subject of the mystery).

I suppose you might be wondering where I developed my love for all things murder mystery. Believe it or not, it was greatly influenced by my childhood. And, no, I didn't watch a lot of violent television shows and movies as a child, because my parents sort of monitored my television viewing as a young child, as parents tend to do.

But I did spend many hours playing a particular board game in my youth. A board game that was created many years ago that dealt with the very subject of trying to find out who the murderer was in a group of six suspects.



That board game of course is the game Clue (or if you happen to live in the UK, Cluedo).

The board game is a basic dice-rolling game that takes place in an extravagant mansion where the murder of Mr. Boddy has taken place (Dr. Black in the UK version). Using clues given by each of the players (through various cards), it is up to the player to figure out who committed the murder, what the murder weapon was, and where the murder took place. The player that can deduce all of the clues given and come up with the right solution will win the game.

What many people might not know is that over the game's sixty plus year history, the game has been redesigned quite a few times. There were playing pieces originally made that never made it into the final product. Some of the characters that did make it into the game had complete personality revamps and sometimes the characters changed hair colour, stature, even skin colour!

But first things first, let's get to how the board game Clue was created, shall we?

The origins for Clue were established in the year 1944. That year, an English solicitor's clerk by the name of Anthony E. Pratt had filed his patent for a murder mystery game which was originally named 'Murder'. The idea for the game was designed as a way for soldiers to play during lengthy air raid drills. Sometime during 1944 and 1945, Pratt and his wife presented the game idea to Norman Watson, an executive for Waddingtons (a toy company that focused on board and card games). The game impressed Watson so much that he wasted no time in purchasing the game, renaming the game Cluedo (a portmanteau of the word clue and the Latin phrase Ludo, meaning 'I play'). The patent for the board game was officially granted in 1947, but because of post-war shortages, it took some time for the game to be made available in stores. The first version of Cluedo was released in 1949. That same year, the American version (renamed Clue) began mass production, courtesy of the Parker Brothers corporation.

Now here's the thing about Clue when it was first released. The game that most of us have grown to love was originally designed to be much larger, and more complex than the version that we all know.



We all know that the current game of clue has six players, six weapons, and nine possible rooms. The version that Pratt came up with had ten players, nine weapons, and eleven possible rooms.

Some of the players that were a part of the original game that never made it to the final cut were Mrs. Silver, Mr. Gold, Miss Grey, and Mr. Brown. There was also a character named Dr. Black (which eventually was phased out to become the murder victim in the Cluedo version). Other characters simply received name changes.

Eliminated rooms on the game board included the gun room and the cellar. Eliminated weapons included a walking stick, syringe, poison, bomb, axe, and fireplace poker. Some were changed into the more contemporary weapons, which now include the standard six pack of weapons (which of course are the candlestick, knife, lead pipe, revolver, rope and wrench).

Some of these characters and weapons would be included in some of the game spinoffs over the years, including an interactive game for VHS, as well as an extended version which contained more rooms and players.

Five of the original ten players ended up making the final cut for the board game. The sixth one was created after the patent had been given. When players play the game, the order of who plays first is set, beginning with the red token, and going clockwise around the board.



Each of the six characters have their own distinctive characteristics and traits, and these traits could vary depending on what version of the game you play. The six suspects of Clue are.



MISS SCARLET: In most variations of the game, Miss Scarlet is portrayed as the femme fatale of the group. She always dresses in red, a colour symbolic with passion and lust. Depending on the game version, Miss Scarlet can be either Caucasian or Asian. In the 1985 Clue movie, she is portrayed by actress Lesley Ann Warren. In some versions of the various games and television series based on the game, Miss Scarlet could be a woman running an escort service, an international spy, a B-movie actress, and even the stepdaughter of Mrs. Peacock!



COLONEL MUSTARD: A great white hunter and colonial imperialist, Colonel Mustard was originally given the name of Colonel Yellow. In most versions of the game, Mustard sports a signature mustache and monocle, though in some versions, he appears clean shaven. In the 1985 Clue movie, he is played by Martin Mull. Depending on the game version, he can appear as young as a man in his thirties to someone who happens to be in his seventies. In some versions of the various games and television series based on the game, Colonel Mustard can be Miss Scarlet's partner in espionage, a thief of black market radio parts, using them as a way to supplement his income by selling them, a militaristic man, and a man who will always get into a duel at the drop of a hat.



MRS. WHITE: Mrs. White was originally called Nurse White in the original version of the game, but this was changed prior to the game being released. In almost every version of Clue, Mrs. White acts as a servant to Mr. Boddy. She can be a cook, a maid, or a housekeeper depending on the version of the game one plays. In the 1985 Clue movie, she was played by the late Madeline Kahn. Mrs. White probably has the most schizophrenic personalities throughout the Clue series. Sometimes she is seen as being very caring and nurturing towards Mr. Boddy/Dr. Black to the point where she becomes his lover. Other times, she mocks Mr. Boddy as well as the other houseguests.



MR. GREEN: A funny thing about Mr. Green is that prior to 2002, when the game was released, he was known as Reverend Green in the Cluedo version. Depending on the country of origin of the game played, you can have Reverend Green, a hypocritical preacher who apparently is accused of breaking the sixth commandment...thou shalt not kill. Or you could have Mr. Green, a ruthless, white-collar criminal who may or may not have mob ties. In the 1985 Clue movie, he was played by Michael McKean. Depending on the version you play or watch, Mr. Green can be an aristocrat who lost everything in a stock market crash, a greedy and conniving businessman, a closeted gay man who must keep his secret in order to keep his government job, or a village vicar.



MRS. PEACOCK: Mrs. Peacock is the only character to be created after the original patent was issued in 1947. In most cases, she is portrayed as a wealthy, elderly woman who seems to put good manners and dignity above everything else. She was played by Eileen Brennan in the 1985 Clue movie. Depending on the version you play or watch, Mrs. Peacock can be an ornithologist, fascinated by bird watching, a black widow who buried thirteen husbands, a prim and proper lady who makes it a mission to point out the rudeness that other guests exhibit, and a politician's wife who dabbled in taking political bribes on behalf of her husband.



PROFESSOR PLUM: Professor Plum, like Colonel Mustard can be seen in a variety of ages and may or may not have facial hair, depending on the version of the game you play. In most cases, he is portrayed as an absent-minded professor. He is played by Christopher Lloyd in the 1985 Clue movie. Depending on the version you play or watch, Professor Plum can be an archaeologist, a brilliant professor who forgets everything and anything, an absent-minded klutz, and a man who killed his wife out of desperation while trying to perform an experiment.

(Wow...you know, when I play this game, I almost always want to be Professor Plum in the game, as purple is my favourite colour, but after reading that last description, now I'm not so sure...)

At any rate, now that you know who the six suspects are, you have to find out which one did the crime. By rolling the dice and moving from room to room, you can offer theories as to who you think the killer is.

Was it Miss Scarlet with the Candlestick in the Study?
Was it Mrs. Peacock with the Rope in the Billiard Room?
Was it Professor Plum with the Lead Pipe in the Kitchen?

There are many possibilities, 324 different combinations in all. That's a lot of possibilities. Fortunately, after you present your theory, your opponents can disprove your theory by showing you a card that they are holding, eliminating a suspect, a room, or a weapon from your list of possibilities. After all, there can only be one of each used, and those cards are placed in the file envelope located in the middle of the game board.

As the game progresses and more and more suspects, weapons, and potential crime scenes are eliminated from play, a player can issue an accusation against a suspect, and exclaim that 'yes indeed, it WAS Colonel Mustard with the Revolver in the Conservatory'.

One of two things can happen. Either the accusation is correct and you can win, or one of your opponents may end up having an alibi for Colonel Mustard, and you end up losing the game with the false accusation. So you really have to make absolutely sure that you are one hundred per cent correct with your accusation, or else it's curtains for you.

But that's part of the game. Certainly the game mirrors real life murder investigations, as if a detective tried to arrest someone for murder without having the evidence against them, the real criminal would go free, and the detective may or may not be in serious trouble.

Many variations of the game have been released. A version for little kids called Clue Jr. proved to be just as successful as the more mature counterpart when it first hit toy stores in 1989.



In 1985, as explained earlier in this blog, a feature length film was made that was loosely based on the game. The movie also starred Tim Curry as the butler, in addition to the six actors and actresses who played the main suspects. And true to the game, the movie had multiple endings...at least three in total...maybe more.



Beginning in 1992, a series of novels for children were put out by Scholastic books which featured between ten and thirteen mini-mysteries surrounding Mr. Boddy, his maid, Mrs. White, and his five houseguests. Eighteen books were published in the series between 1992 and 1997. In 2003, a second book series called 'The Clue Mysteries' was published by Canadian author, Vicki Cameron. Two VHS interactive games were made and released between 1985 and 1987. The game has been ported to several video game systems including the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance.
In 2008, the game was reimagined under the name Cluedo: Discover The Secrets, and there is currently a Clue online game available in online format on the official website for the television channel The Hub. Go on, and try it out! You'll notice that some of the rooms and weapons have become more modernized, but fear not, the original classic game of Clue and Cluedo is still being manufactured as of 2011.

There are many, many versions of Clue out there for people of all ages, and I for one am happy that I had the game of Clue in my life...because if it weren't for that game, perhaps I never would have developed my love for the classic murder mystery.



Monday, October 24, 2011

Monday Matinee: Ghostbusters

Nineteen-eighty-four was a fantastic year in the world of film. Well, at least it was in my humble opinion.

If I could list some of my favourite movies from the entire decade known as the 1980s, I reckon that quite a few of them would come from 1984. The Terminator, for instance. Yep, that was '84. So was Sixteen Candles and Gremlins. That's three examples right there.

Therefore, you're probably going to assume that this week's edition of our Monday Matinee will involves a film that was released in the year 1984. Well, you're absolutely correct on that one.

And seeing as how Halloween is just one week away from today, I reckon that I should try to come up with an appropriate movie to discuss. And I believe that I have found one.

And what better way to kick off the discussion by throwing in a few leftovers from the Sunday Jukebox? Yesterday, I talked about Halloween songs, and how there just wasn't enough airplay for them when the Halloween season did come around. I also talked about DTV, the Disney version of MTV. If memory serves me, I believe that the following song was featured in the 1987 DTV Halloween special. I can't be sure though. At any rate, here it is in all its glory.



ARTIST: Ray Parker Jr.
SONG: Ghostbusters
ALBUM: Ghostbusters Official Soundtrack Album
DATE RELEASED: June 7, 1984
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 3 weeks

How odd that the few Halloween songs that were released on the charts have made it to number one? Well, at least the two examples I found anyway.

At any rate, the song became one of Ray Parker Jr's biggest hits (even netting him an Academy Award nomination for best original song), and the film that it appeared in is the subject of today's blog.



As it happens, I think the first time that I attempted (key word attempted) to watch Ghostbusters was on television. I want to say that this was around 1987, as it usually takes about two to three years for movies to debut on network television. I really wanted to see this movie, as both my sisters were old enough to see it at the old Capitol Theater in town, and both of them had the Ghostbusters movie posters and T-shirts. I mean, they were 18 and 12 at the time the film was released, so I guess it was only natural.

Me being only three at the time of the film's release, I obviously had to wait to see it.

When the listings for the Friday night movie showed Ghostbusters playing on television, I was excited and couldn't wait to see it. I even made a little party for one surrounding it. Had gotten Mom to pop me some popcorn, and then we went to the store to buy a huge bottle of A&W Root Beer, and I waited to sit down and watch the movie.

And, I made it about five minutes before getting scared and running away.



All it took was the opening scene of the library card catalogs spitting cards all over the place and the librarian screeching that oh so blood-curdling scream that did it to me. There was no way that I was going to watch THAT movie!

But, then again, I was six. A balloon popping would have scared me. Hell, at 30, a balloon popping STILL scares me. But that was many entries ago...

The point is that while the first attempt at watching the movie didn't go so well, there was still a part of me that wanted to tune in so I could see what happened after the first five minutes of the movie. So, the very next year, the movie aired again...this time on a different network. And the second time around, it didn't seem so scary. I actually kind of liked it (even though some of the grown-up humour I didn't really get).

So, I guess that's our life lesson...don't let fear control what you do. You may miss out on a rather exciting and rewarding experience.

Or, in my case, a classic film.



And what a film Ghostbusters was too. The film opened up nationwide just one day after Ray Parker Jr. released the song Ghostbusters, on June 8, 1984. It starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Eddie Hudson, Rick Moranis, and Annie Potts. The film ended up making almost $230 million dollars at the box office during the summer of 1984, making it the 32nd highest grossing film of all time (if you converted the amount of money it made into 2011 dollars, it would surpass $500 million dollars in profits!)

The film was so successful that a sequel was made in 1989 with all of the original cast members. It is also rumoured that a third sequel is supposed to be coming in 2012, though details of that news are sketchy at this time. I imagine as we get closer to the date, more info will be leaked out, if of course this project gets off the ground.



The original film though was something very special. Most of you who have seen the movie know what it's about. Three parapsychologists named Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) have lost their positions teaching at Columbia University in New York City. As a way to earn a living, they rent out an abandoned fire house and open up a paranormal exterminator service designed to exterminate ghosts from the places they are haunting. They dub themselves the Ghostbusters.



After a rocky start, the trio are summoned to the Sedgewick Hotel to investigate a report that a ghost is haunting. 



After capturing the first ghost (a blobbish green ghost by the name of Slimer) and dropping him off at a containment unit located in the basement of the office, more paranormal activity seems to take place in various areas of New York City. While the Ghostbusters become celebrities because of their efforts to try and contain the paranormal activity, they find themselves become more and more burdened. With assistance from their secretary Janine (Annie Potts), a fourth Ghostbuster, Winston Zeddemore (Eddie Hudson) is hired.

The Ghostbusters are soon requested for a job by a woman named Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), who lives in the apartment building located at 55 Central Park West. The building is being haunted by a demonic spirit called Zuul. Zuul is a demigod, worshipped as a servant to Gozer the Gozerian, a Sumerian shape-changer.

Try saying that tongue twister three times fast!

Anyway, Peter Venkman is interested in taking on this case, if for no other reason being that he became quite smitten with Dana. Of course, Venkman also had to deal with some competition for her affections courtesy of the bookish looking Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). While the team of Ghostbusters investigate the building, both Dana and Louis are possessed by a duo of demons (Zuul and Vinz 'The Keymaster' Clortho respectively), speaking of the coming of Gozer, whose mission is to destroy everything in his path. The Ghostbusters attempt to come up with a plan to stop this from happening, by doing their best to keep Louis and Dana separated so the two demons do not join forces.

However, when fate brings a visit by EPA worker Walter Peck (William Atherton), it spells doom for the Ghostbusters plan. Peck immediately arrests the Ghostbusters on the charge of keeping dangerous chemicals stashed away in Ghostbuster headquarters, and then does something really stupid. He orders the ghost containment chambers to be decontaminated, sending Slimer and all the other ghosts the group had captured back out onto the streets of New York City to cause mischief. Even worse, with the Ghostbusters being held in custody, there was nobody stopping the possessed Dana and Louis from joining together to summon Gozer.

Somehow, the Ghostbusters manage to secure the blueprints of 55 Central Park West, and learn that the building was designed by a mad scientist named Ivo Shandor. He designed the building in such a way that it would make it easy for Gozer to be summoned back to the land of the living. His reasoning was that it would bring about the end of the world, as he had deemed humanity too sick to go on living.



A rather bizarre claim, but still serious enough for the Ghostbusters to want to stop Gozer from coming back to cause massive destruction. Of course, they also had to deal with recapturing all of the ghosts that Peck and his team released back out onto the scared citizens of New York.

And when Gozer does make an appearance towards the end of the movie, it is in the form of a beautiful woman. The team briefly manages to subdue Gozer, but Gozer warns that the destructor will follow, taking on the form that is chosen by the team. Peter immediately tells everyone to clear their minds and not think of anything, but somehow Ray ends up not hearing this, and as a result, the destructor takes on this form.



A gigantic marshmallow man by the name of Stay-Puft. And, yes, I did have a Stay-Puft marshmallow man action figure. And yes, I wish I still had it.



So, can our heroes defeat Gozer and turn the Stay-Puft marshmallow man into one gigantic S'more? Will Dana and Louis ever be freed from possession? Will Slimer finally find a home? Will Janine become a designing woman in the near future?

Well, what, you expect me to tell you the ending? Watch it yourself!

What I can tell you is a few pieces of trivia about the movie Ghostbusters, and also talk about some possible actors who could have gotten parts on the movie, and how very different the movie could have been.



Did you know that the movie spun-off an animated series on ABC? It's true. And Slimer was actually a good guy in this series. You may also recognize Maurice LaMarche and the late Lorenzo Music as voice actors in this series.

Did you know that the movie Ghostbusters was initially supposed to have John Belushi as one of its stars? As we all know, it was never meant to be, as Belushi died in 1982. But, it is rumoured that the character of Slimer was loosely designed after Belushi.

Did you know that the original title for the movie was supposed to be Ghostsmashers? And that the original concept was supposed to have been the team travelling through time and space to fight ghosts? That would have made for a different kind of movie!

Did you know that the screenplay was written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis? The original screenplay had to be rewritten after director Ivan Reitman loved the concept but simply didn't have the budget to pull off such a film.

Did you know that John Candy was the first choice to play Louis Tully? It's true. John Candy was unable to commit to the role, so Rick Moranis got the part.

Did you know that Eddie Murphy was the first choice to play Winston Zeddemore? Had Murphy gotten the part, Winston Zeddemore would have accompanied the group to the hotel scenes instead of Peter Venkman, thus Winston would have gotten slimed instead. The reason why Murphy didn't take the role? He had agreed to star in another movie project. The movie? Beverly Hills Cop.

Did you know that Harold Ramis didn't want to act in the film? Ramis was content just to co-write the screenplay. However, the casting directors couldn't find a suitable actor to play Egon Spengler, so Ramis decided to play Egon, as he had created the character himself.

Did you know that John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken, Michael Keaton, Chevy Chase, and Christopher Lloyd were all at one time considered for the role of Egon Spengler before Ramis got the part?

Did you know that when the film was test screened, half of the ghostly effects were not yet ready at the time? Despite this, the audience was very enthusiastic over the film anyway, and by the June 8 release, the special effects had been completed.

Did you know that a theater in California had the first screening of Ghostbusters one day before the film was officially released to the public on June 7, 1984?

Did you know that when the movie was released on laserdisc format that director Ivan Reitman HATED it? He said that the light levels on the disc was so bright, you could see all the matte lines. Thankfully by the time the DVD was released, these problems had been fixed.

Did you know that the movie Ghostbusters was the first film to be ever released on a USB flashdrive?

Did you know that beginning October 13, 2011, select theaters will be showing Ghostbusters back on the big screen for about two weeks? As of this writing, if you are one of the lucky cities that is taking advantage of this screening, you still have time to see it!

Did you know that legal problems almost caused the film to have to change the name of the title? Back in 1975, a Filmation cartoon series called Ghostbusters starring Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker was produced (I have seen it, and it has nothing to do with the movie, as one of the characters is a giant ape) with the title Ghostbusters, and the studio was forced to come up with alternate names should a lawsuit be launched. But when the extras involved with filming the final scenes kept chanting 'Ghostbusters!', the studio was forced to buy the rights for the name.

So, that's Ghostbusters. One of my favourite films of the 1980s, and a film that taught me that fears should be confronted. Otherwise you may miss out on a great experience down the road.

I ain't afraid of no ghosts!


Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sunday Jukebox - The Monster Mash

There certainly are a lot of songs out there for almost every holiday on the calendar. Certainly, there is no shortage of Christmas favourites (and yes, in a couple of months from now, you will likely be seeing some of them in the blog). There are dozens of love songs out there for lovers to dance to on Valentine's Day. There's a few for New Years Day, a few for the 4th of July, and heck, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some for St. Patrick's Day.



For Halloween, there's really not a lot of choice to pick from for the Sunday Jukebox. I certainly have found some picks. Some you've seen already, while others you will see in either the near future or even next year.

Still though, it seems as though finding a radio station that will play Halloween music on Halloween night is a bit of an impossibility. I have actually been hearing reports that some radio stations are already playing Christmas music. To me, this is absolutely ridiculous, as Christmas isn't for another few weeks yet.

And, yes, I realize that I have posted Christmas songs in both July and September entries for the blog, but that was merely for supplemental purposes. I mean, who knew that a Christmas version of the Macarena existed?

The thing is that a lot of the Halloween themed songs that have been recorded over the years seem to get lost in the shuffle when it comes to the tens of thousands of songs on the various playlists of radio stations all over the world. It's hard to say why this is the case though. One theory could be that the songs are too scary for young children (which I find ridiculous as the whole point of Halloween is to celebrate the spooky and scary). Another theory is that the radio stations just don't have very many songs to play. But if one were to really look at various sources, they may find that there are more Halloween songs than they think.



How many of you remember something called 'DTV'?



DTV was Disney's answer to the phenomenon known as MTV, the music video station that premiered in 1981. During the 1980s, several DTV specials were produced and aired. The program was designed as such that clips from classic Disney cartoons, movies, and television specials would be set to a song that had charted on the Billboard Top 40. It was a neat idea, I have to admit, and certainly it was an idea that I supported more than the carbon copy shows the company is churning out these days.

And sometimes these DTV specials were holiday themed. I know there was one for the Christmas season. A Valentine's Day special was also produced. And in 1987, a Halloween DTV special was produced, where one of the songs put in the special is today's blog feature!



ARTIST: Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers
SONG: The Monster Mash
ALBUM: The Original Monster Mash
DATE RELEASED: August 25, 1962
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 2 weeks

In 1962, the song 'The Monster Mash' was released on radio by a man named Bobby “Boris” Pickett and his band the Crypt-Kickers. Its chart history is a very interesting one.

In North America, when the song was first released in the summer of 1962, it peaked at the top of the charts the week of October 20 (appropriately enough for Halloween) and stayed at the top until November 3 when 'He's A Rebel' by the Crystals unseated the Monster Mash. But that wasn't the only time that the song found its way to the Billboard Charts. It entered the Billboard charts a total of three times. The first time was in 1962, but it also made reappearances in 1970 and 1973.

1973 was a fairly important year for the song in Great Britain. That was the year that the ban on the song was lifted (the BBC had banned the song from airplay the same year of its release as it was declared 'too morbid'). It managed to reach the number three position on the British music charts in October 1973. It managed to make a second appearance on the British charts in November 2008, where it hit #60.

For a song to chart five separate times on two different music charts over its nearly five decade history, you know it had to be a popular song.

The song has also been covered by several artists over the past few decades. The Beach Boys released a version in 1964, and veteran horror film actor Vincent Price recorded a version of the song in 1977. Horror punk band The Misfits recorded a cover in 1997. Alvin and the Chipmunks put out their own version in 1994, while Mannheim Steamroller put out a version of their own during 2006. Even in 2011, three cast members from the Disney television show 'Shake It Up' remixed their own cut of the track for a younger generation (though admittedly, it's not my own personal favourite mix).

Still though, for new versions to be churned out every few years or so, it had to have a great impact on the world of music, specifically Halloween music.

But how did the Monster Mash first come into fruition? Not in the way you might think.



Before Bobby Pickett took on the stage name of 'Boris', he was looking at breaking into the world of acting. During the day, he would attend various auditions, while performing in a band known as The Cordials at night. During one of these performances, when the band was performing their cover of The Diamonds' Little Darlin', Pickett did an impression of Boris Karloff. That impression left the audience wanting more, and band member Lenny Capizzi encouraged Pickett to do more with the impression.

Which explains why Pickett adopted the 'Boris' handle.

This lead to Pickett and Capizzi working together to pen the lyrics and compose the music for 'Monster Mash'. With help from a group of musicians who dubbed themselves the Crypt-Kickers, the song was recorded during May 1962. An instrumental version of the track was released as the B-side, which included an additional musician, pianist Leon Russell, who had arrived late to the recording session.

The song was reportedly influenced by a couple of other songs that were popular at the time. Gary S. Paxton's novelty hit, Alley Oop, as well as the dance craze known as the Mashed Potato.

Because the song was recorded on a budget, a lot of the sounds heard in the song were created by simple household objects. The sound of a coffin opening up was replicated by a rusty nail being pulled out of a board. The sounds of chains dragging were made by dropping a set of chains on bathroom tiles. The sound of a bubbling cauldron was made by people sticking a drinking straw in a cup of water and blowing bubbles. Simple tricks that made for effective sound effects.

On top of all that, Pickett seemed to have a lot of fun perfecting his mad scientist voice for the recording of the song. He even managed to slip a reference to actor Bela Lugosi by reciting the line 'Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?' in a Lugosi like accent.

The Monster Mash proved to be Bobby 'Boris' Pickett's only number one hit, but it certainly wasn't the last time he would have success on the music charts. In 1962, he released a Christmas themed follow-up of the song called 'Monster's Holiday', and peaked at #30 on the charts that December. This prompted the release of the album 'The Original Monster Mash', with other horror themed songs including 'The Monster Swim' and 'Werewolf Watusi'. Another single, 'Graduation Day' would peak at #80 in June 1963.

Years later, Pickett would record a novelty spoof with Peter Ferrara based on the television series 'Star Trek', entitled Star Drek, in 1975. The song was played on the Dr. Demento radio show for years. A year later, Ferrara and Pickett would collaborate again with the song 'King Kong (Your Song)'. Over the years, he would record three more songs based on his biggest hit. In the mid-1980s, a version called 'Monster Rap' was released, capitalizing on the growing popularity of rap music at the time. It didn't do as well as the original version, but it was on a regular rotation on the Dr. Demento show. Another loose sequel of the song was recorded and released in 1993 entitled 'It's Alive', but it didn't chart. One of Pickett's final recordings was in 2005, which was meant to serve as a protest song against the inaction of the United States government towards global warming, in a song called 'The Climate Mash', a reworking of his hit single. That same year, he released his autobiography called 'Monster Mash: Half-Dead In Hollywood'.

On April 25, 2007, Bobby “Boris” Pickett died at the age of 69, after a battle with leukemia. The May 13, 2007 edition of Dr. Demento was dedicated to his memory, and aired a documentary retrospective of all of his work.

Which would not have been possible had he not recorded the Monster Mash.