The Kent M. Beeson of Western Civilization

Whistling in Brooklyn (1943, S. Sylvan Simon)

Unlike a lot of my Reclamation Project movies, a) this dub is from the eventually-released VHS version and b) I’ve seen it.  In fact, I have a bit of a history with this movie, which is kinda odd, since I’ve only seen it once, when I was about 13 or 14.

Even though I don’t think I considered myself a big movie fan back then at that age, I did stay up late watching all sorts of shit.  This one grabbed me right from the beginning.  A killer named Constant Reader is murdering cops, and somehow “radio detective” Red Skelton gets mixed up the in the case, being mistaken for Constant Reader, IIRC.  I remember thinking it had a Hitchcockian, North by Northwest quality to it — not nearly as good as the Master, of course, but respectable enough — with a good scene involving an elevator and a baseball climax that anticipates the one in The Naked Gun.  No idea if it holds up; Skelton’s humor can be corny, but I’m okay with corny if there’s commitment, and Skelton was about commitment.  (In fact, I think Skelton is the reason why I don’t hate, and in fact kind of like, the first Ace Ventura.  There’s definitely a continuum there.)

Some notes:

1.  This was my first (and only, I think) Amazon review.  I’m not gonna provide the link; find it yourself.

2.  I missed the opening titles, so for several years, I remembered this crazy movie but didn’t know what it was called.  Video guides and the like were no help, since (at the time), it wasn’t available on video.  So when I was about 17, I had a crazy idea — I wrote to the one guy I knew who knew his movies (remember, this was before the internet, kids), describing the film, and wondering if he could figure out what it was.   Roger Ebert, right?

No, Danny Peary.

I don’t know if I really expected an answer or what, but several weeks later I got a letter back from him.  Holy shit!  I opened it and… wow.  Oh, he answered my question, succinctly.  But I was flabbergasted at the man’s handwriting.  ”Childish scrawl” would be too kind.  Just awful.  Everyone I showed it to just laughed and laughed, and I laughed, too, while still admiring the man and his writing.

Of course, now, when I think about it, I think “oh shit — does he have some kind of nerve damage in his hand?” and feel bad about laughing.

(Do I still have the letter?  That’s something I’ll find out in the next couple weeks.)

3.  Around this same time, this movie occupied enough of brain that I made up a villain for the Marvel Super Heroes RPG named Constant Reader.  I think the idea was he was like an evil Max Headroom type, not so much a guy you fight head-on but a evil-behind-the-scenes-controller type.  But was that enough?  No!  I also — I can’t believe I’m admitting this — but I also made a hero (for the Champions system) named Constant Reader as well.  And not only that, but (as Watchmen was occupying the rest of my brain at the time) the concept behind him was… are you ready for this?

Dan Dreiberg as the Comedian.

Does that even really make sense?  I guess it did at the time.  What really gobsmacks me is that, if you consider the five main male characters as different types of nerd/fanboy fantasies, what the hell does it mean to want to be Dan Dreiberg-as-Comedian?

(This isn’t to say I didn’t have a Rorschach character.  Of course I had a Rorschach character.  His name was Notan.)

4. I still have only seen this once.  I’m afraid it won’t live up to that first viewing (how could it?), but I’ll probably bite the bullet later this year, especially since it’ll be on my computer.  But man, I hope the embarrassment factor is low.