Ahoy, squirts! Quint, the birthday boy, here. As you probably know last month I had to put a stop to my A Movie A Day column. If I could make that column my only responsibility for AICN I could have kept it going, but the time commitment involved was crazy stressful.
But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done for the site. Submerging myself in vintage film, some forgotten, some not, not only expanded my own personal horizons, but it opened up a very crucial dialogue with you guys, the readers.
Most sites can’t afford the space or time to cover anything but the current and up and coming releases. Understandably, of course. That’s where the main focus should always be for a news site… looking forward, not backward. However I think you can do both and benefit from it.
What I love about AICN is the focus on film, not just what’s new, but on all film. I remember loving it when Harry used to review the midnight movies that ran at the original downtown Alamo every weekend. So he’d be reviewing the newest studio movie… PEACEMAKER or FIGHT CLUB or something… and then he’d throw up a review of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK or GREMLINS and treat it just like what was hitting theaters next weekend.
All this is to say that while AMAD may have been put to rest I’m still committed to covering vintage films here. It’ll very much be like AMAD, but I can’t call it that… I can’t even call it AMAW (A Movie A Week) because I don’t want to force these columns, put them on a rigid timeline. There might be 4 or 5 of these articles to hit some weeks and maybe none on others.
I’m going to free myself up a bit on what I choose to watch. I won’t be forcing these movies to have connecting tissues, but I will say that I do lean towards double and triple features a lot, so expect some runs (like I have the Thin Man box set here and I’ve never seen one Thin Man movie and I’d love to just hit them all in a row like I did with the Pink Panther series).
Also, I want to take suggestions on what is next from you guys. Take a look at the bottom of this review to see what I mean.
On this first one, I figured throwing it up on my Birthday was a good way to start. Today we look at a bizarre late ‘60s counter-culture commentary on advertising called PUTNEY SWOPE, directed by Robert Downey Sr.
I’ve been meaning to seek this one out for years, ever since I first saw the trailer play at the Alamo, leaving most in the audience scratching their heads… and, if they were anything like me, saying “I don’t know what the hell that is, but I like it.” I won’t give it away here because I found it on Youtube and will include that embed a little later in the review, but it’s a helluva hook.
The film is about an advertising agency that is in a downward spiral and is grasping at straws. The board members spend more time bickering than being productive. Case in point:
The token black guy on the board, Putney Swope, tries to act as a voice of reason, with little support. With his gravely voice, Putney says he’s not comfortable with selling tobacco, alcohol and gun toys and feels the company should put themselves on a higher moral level.
Of course, everybody (save the chairman’s son) on the board is the evil, greedy monster that Bill Hicks tried to warn us about and Putney is overlooked, the bickering turning into the clip above. That is only interrupted when it’s time to kiss ass and the head chairman comes in.
He’s in a fury, having seen the numbers and is tired of the white noise that comes whenever the board gathers together. Right in the middle of his big rant, though, he keels over and dies. While his body is still on the table, the board members all start to vie for his seat. But the rulebook states that all must democratically vote for the new chairman, but nobody is allowed to vote for themselves.
Surprisingly, Swope gets the votes. Turns out everybody voted for him because they each thought no one else would.
The movie is basically Swope shaking things up in the agency, firing all the kiss-ass greedy pieces of shit and promising a radical new type of advertising.
Swope essentially replaces all the old white men with young brothers and sisters, turning the agency into something very valuable to those trying to market to the black community. But what starts off as a movement of morality and honesty starts to fall into the same trappings as the old, corrupt men who previously ran the company.
The film is shot in black and white, with the commercials produced in color, although it’s not like they needed to make these segments stand out from the rest of the movie any more than they already did. The commercials and the opening boardroom scene are what take this movie from interesting to extremely memorable.
Here’s the commercial that forms the trailer I told you about… wait out the bouncy girls and it’ll start up:
Isn’t that great?
CRAZY PEOPLE owes a whole helluva lot to this film and I’d wager that John Landis might have used this film as a jumping off point for KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE. I could be completely off with that assessment, but the way the story detours into this series of one-off, often vulgar, jokes reminded me of KFM.
The comedy works amazingly well, even now, some 40 years after its initial release. Like I said above, the opening 15 minutes and all the commercials are good enough for the movie to float on if there was nothing else to it. Thankfully there is, but I will say that I don’t think the main story ever gets any better than the back and forth we see in that opening board room.
Instead, Downey focuses on the commentary. He opens skewering the older, stuck-up generation, but as the movie continues on Downey has a lot to say about the activist mentality as Swope and his band of revolutionaries prove to be just as corrupt, maybe even more so, than those who came before.
By the end of the movie there’s a case you can make that Swope never lost his moral compass, but throughout the movie he’s stealing every good idea he can find and firing the one who originally came up with it, cheating on his fiancée, fucking over his friends and treating everybody around him like they’re bags of shit.
Sure, it’s funny, but it also makes for a fascinating protagonist. The credit is split two ways here. Way number one goes to Arnold Johnson who played Putney and way number two goes to Robert Downey Sr. himself, who provided the memorable Swope voice (according to Downey, he had to come in and ADR all of Johnson’s lines because he was a good, but very forgetful actor and was always misspeaking his lines).
Also of note is Pepi Hermine and his sister, Ruth. Pepi is a little person (as is his sister) and to make things even more fucked up Pepi and Ruth play husband and wife. Pepi plays President Mimeo, one of the many colorful characters that populate this insane world. I don’t know why these two stuck with me so strongly, but I loved that Downey essentially was making the point that those in the highest offices of the country are essentially children.
I’m not just talking about the size of the actors, but the way they act is full of laughter and immediate satisfaction. His attention span is that of a child, going so far as to have a previous board-member who does nothing but tell bad jokes one after the other on his staff to just spew out jokes for minutes at a time, distracting him from whatever is more pressing around him.
Final Thoughts: PUTNEY SWOPE is my first real exposure to the work of Robert Downey Sr. and I have to say that I’m curious to see his other output. SWOPE is sharp and, more importantly, very funny. If his following work has the same edge and dark satire I’m sure I’ll be a big fan.
I mentioned above that I will be trying something new. I’ve picked out 10 titles that I’m really looking forward to getting to. These films span decades and genres. Instead of picking the next one myself, I was contemplating a new approach, so we’ll test it out and see if it works.
What I want is for you guys to look over the ten films below and I’ll let you guys and gals guide me to the next film, via email and talkback. Whatever title gets the most support from you, I’ll cover next. If there’s no clear preference, I’ll pick the next. If this system works well, then when we run through these 10 titles, I’ll pick another 10 and we’ll knock those out.
Here’s what’s on the docket:
I CONFESS (1953)
THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (1969)
PEEPING TOM (1962)
HUSH… HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE (1965)
HI, MOM! (1970)
THE BEGUILED (1970)
KOTCH (1971)
THE LOVED ONE (1965)
RABID (1977)
THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES’ SMARTER BROTHER (1975)
So, let me know what you want me to watch and write-up next! I’m off to make myself all presentable-like and celebrate my 28th year! Be back soon!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
