Reviews

Those who complain about this movie's production values should remember it's a Bell & Howell production--in other words, done by a company that may have known cameras, but not film production. So give it a break. I haven't seen it in many, many years. What do I remember? 1. The Monitor's radio/television jingle, the lyrics of which varied: "The Monitors are here, oh boy, they . . ." (Forgot the next 2 and a half lines.) Ending, in one case, with "God Bless America . . . and The Montors!" 2. A confrontation between Monitors and rebels on a flight of wide steps--one of many cinematic versions of the Odessa Steps scene in Eisenstein's Potemkin. 3. Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, posing in his office in front of a framed ear of corn. (He passed away the year of the film's release.) 4. Ed Begley as the President, celebrating the Monitors' departure: "Back to the good old, bad old, good old days!" All told, a fun movie.

This cartoon has stuck with me all my life. I've even drawn upon it as a classroom teacher. The essential brilliance is the contrast between the two menaces. As Sniffles and the bookworm wander about the toy store, they are stalked by the store's cat. But when they turn a corner, they are threatened by the mechanical duck. The cat is rational: it wants to kill and eat. It's dangerous, but it has a motive, and thus there's a certain predictability to it that can be used to evade or defeat it. The mechanical duck, on the other hand, is entirely irrational, therefore unpredictable. In "real life" it would be the familiar child's pull toy. But Jones portrays it from a low angle, so that it looks huge. I always found it very scary.

I still have the soundtrack vinyl for WUTL, and I think I can summarize the liner notes after all these years. Someone (Allen himself) bought the rights to a James-Bondian Japanese movie with great production values (for the time) but no real commercial potential. Allen decided to toss the original story and soundtrack, edit the hell out of the remains, and add an over-the-top script. Result: very, very funny.

Here's where the liner notes leave off. As I understand it, the producers (money men) decided that The Lovin' Spoonful would be a good addition, make the film more marketable. Allen objected, disowned the film, then admitted it back into the fold when it turned out to be a reasonable financial/audience success. Fact is, The Lovin' Spoonful's music is wonderful, in itself and in context. Particularly good are the theme song, "Pow" ("I'm always the guy with his finger in his nose when the passport picture gets taken. When the big guys took me out stealin chickens it was me caught holdin the bacon") and the waltz that plays as the gangsters drop like Spanish flies. The soundtrack is available on CD.