THE MONKEY'S UNCLE

There's really only one reason to watch The Monkey's Uncle, unless you're a big fan of Annette's, Tommy Kirk's, or Monkeys. Luckily for those not interested in any of the aforementioned, you can catch the real reason to watch The Monkey's Uncle in the first few minutes of the movie. That's when Annette and The Beach Boys duet on the title song....heck you don't even have to watch the movie at all, since that clip is on Youtube. 

The title tune is a catchy little number written by The Sherman Brothers, who wrote many of Annette's songs. The Beach Boys look like they're having fun performing with Annette, and Brian Wilson has said it was a real thrill. Mike Love even gets to do a little bit of dancing with Annette. I'm not sure all of "the boys" thought it was as thrilling as Brian, if you check out the studio photo below. Dennis appears to be wishing he was somewhere else, while Carl studies the floor and Mike appears to be using his time to study the bored Dennis and Carl. Only Brian and Al Jardine appear to be engaged in the process.

The rest of the film is made up of what is basically three different movies. First, we have Tommy Kirk becoming the guardian for Stanley, the monkey, so he can raise him in his home. Kirk uses sleep learning on the monkey, which leads into the second part of the movie, where Kirk uses the same methods on some "not so bright" football players to enable them to pass their exams. After that The Monkey's Uncle moves into its third act, with Kirk trying to win a $10 million dollar endowment for the college, if he can prove a man can fly on his own power.

The movie isn't bad and some of the plot for the film was obviously taken from "the beach party films", which were still pretty popular at the time. Not only does The Monkey's Uncle have the club scene at the first, but the first part of the film also has Annette talking marriage, pouting when Kirk doesn't show her enough attention, and jealousy over the monkey's baby sitter becoming too chummy with Kirk....all of these things could have been part of the plot of any of Annette's "beach party films". About half way into the film, most of this is dropped and you get your basic Disney family movie. So check out the first of the movie for The Beach Boys and Annette's song, and if you've got nothing better to do and you're in the mood for some mindless entertainment, stick around for the rest of the film

DISORDERLIES

 

Anthony Geary (General Hospital's Luke) is deep in gambling debt, but if his uncle (Ralph Bellamy) dies, he can collect his inheritance. To speed his uncle's demise along, he hires three bumbling orderlies (Markie, Buffy & Cool - The Fat Boys). Much to Geary's chagrin, The Fat Boys total ineptness actually works in reverse and they have his uncle feeling better than ever, so Geary has to go to plan B, murder his uncle and blame it on the Disorderlies.

The Fat Boys only perform one number in the movie, "Baby You're A Rich Man". The only other song performance in the film is by Laura Hunter who sings "Work Me Down Down" during a roller rink segment. There are several cameo appearances: Ray Parker, Jr. is a pizza delivery guy; Helen Reddy appears as a socialite; Broadway's Linda Hopkins plays Buffy's mother; Rick Nielsen (wearing a Cheap Trick t-shirt) has his car hijacked by two of The Fat Boys; and The Beach Boys (Brian and Carl Wilson and Mike Love) show up near the end of Disorderlies.

The Fat Boys in Disorderlies are akin to The Three Stooges, but without the sophistication. Maybe in 1987 this movie was funnier, but I doubt it. I don't blame The Fat Boys, they were just stuck in a bad movie and appeared to be giving it their all. The best part of the film was when they performed "Baby, You're A Rich Man".  At least Ralph Bellamy got some practice being in a wheelchair, which came in handy when he played Roosevelt a couple of years later in the TV mini-series War and Remembrance. If only Bellamy as Roosevelt  could have used one of his lines from this movie and told Hitler "Step Off, Homeboy", WWII might have ended sooner.

THE BEACH BOYS and the SATAN

The Beach Boys and the Satan is a 1997 German documentary which definitely DOES NOT deliver on the title. The title leads you to believe it's going to be one of those Christian type exposes' of the evils of rock music. Instead the film is a recap of The Beach Boys career centering around Brian Wilson. Finally, at about 2/3 of the way into the movie the filmmakers discuss Dennis Wilson's brief association with Charles Manson. Then the film continues on with the history of The Beach Boys. Near the end of the documentary, the movie goes back to Manson and his followers. The Beach Boys and the Satan includes interviews with Brian Wilson, Kim Fowley, and Don Was. While the Brian Wilson interviews are fairly interesting, the Manson material is mostly a rehash of well known facts and I believe was only included so the title might peak viewers interest.

THE BEACH BOYS STORY: - SUMMER DREAMS - ENDLESS HARMONY

Here are some facts you might like to know up front: I'm not that big of a Beach Boys fan. I think they were a great "singles" band at the first part of their career and I still like those earlier hits. I never bought into the whole "Brian is a genius" statement. All of Brian Wilson's later work just left me scratching my head and wondering what the big deal was.


On October 19, 1968 (remember The Beach Boys had become somewhat passé at this point in their career) I saw The Beach Boys in concert at Greenville Memorial Auditorium. It is one of my two biggest disappointments in concert going (I'll get to the other some day). They only sold a few thousand tickets in the 7500 seat hall and Mike Love acted like an ass and let it be known he was unhappy with the small crowd. I find this quite amusing since Love had just gotten into Transcendental Meditation earlier that year. Guess he hadn't perfected his mantra yet! Anyway, they did a 30 minute set and refused to do an encore.


Now you have an idea of where I'm coming from when I watched two different movies about The Beach Boys. First a biopic: Summer Dreams: The Story of The Beach Boys (SD) based on the Steve Gaines book "Heroes and Villains: the True Story of The Beach Boys" and second the documentary: Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story.


I liked the fact that SD lets the viewer know right up front that the movie added dialogue and created scenes, plus that the music in the film was not sung by The Beach Boys. At least that's giving you some sense of what's in store for you in this film. The first part of Summer Dreams is stronger than the second part and I think a lot of that has to do with facts. Since the first part is concerned with formation of the band and how they achieved success, it's much easier to base this part of SD on noted and known events. Although I'm sure, like any biopic, the facts have been condensed or re-arranged to fit into the short time span of a TV movie. In the second part of SD, we get more into the personal side of the Beach Boys and SD struggles some with showing the downside of success - especially Brian's drug use and mental illness and Dennis' drug use and philandering. Even though, SD may not be completely accurate, it still didn't shy away from some of the truths, even including a brief segment about Dennis getting tangled up with Charles Manson.


The movie starts with the accidental drowning of "down on his luck" Dennis Wilson and flashes back to show us how he got to that point in his life. SD mainly focuses on the relationship between brothers Brian (Greg Kean) and Dennis (Bruce Greenwood) with Carl (Bo Foxworth) playing only a secondary role in the movie, as do Mike Love (Casey Sander) and Al Jardine (Andrew Myler). Murry Wilson (Arlen Dean Snyder), their father, is shown to be a tough S.O.B. and from what I have read this is somewhat of an accurate portrayal of him. Man! it's no wonder the Brothers Wilson had such problems, because it appears Murry's terrible child rearing skills may have been a cause of Brian eventually becoming mentally ill (although drugs probably added some to this), Dennis being a wild child rebelling against his upbringing and although we don't get a full grasp on Carl, it appears he became withdrawn and that food was his friend.


Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story (EH) mainly focuses on the music and only briefly mentions any personal or band problems. It was interesting to see events in EH that correlated with the fictional events shown in SD. The main problem with EH is that is became quite repetitious hearing how great all the Beach Boys music was over and over. I would rather have seen a documentary that was more accurate and combined some true details that were incorporated in the fictional SD instead of just the mostly white washed version that is EH. Of course EH was authorized, so I imagine that The Beach Boys had a good bit of control over the final product. Two things that I definitely did come away with from watching both SD and EH, Mike Love was a much more integral and important part of The Beach Boys than I had imagined, and Mike Love must have the worst sense of fashion, since he appears in one sartorial disaster after another.

DEAD MAN'S CURVE The Jan and Dean Story

This is the type of movie that you would normally see after someone has died and other people get to tell their story. The story will tell how the person wasn't very nice and since they're no longer alive to disagree, they can't repudiate it. The strange thing is that Jan Berry was alive when this TV movie was made in 1978. It's interesting to read what Jan has to say about his own personality: CLICK HERE. I was surprised to find that he readily admits that he was a Type-A, Control Freak, Asshole.

Below is the story of Jan and Dean as shown in Deadman's Curve: The Jan and Dean Story (DMC). I emphasize shown since, as with any biopic, some facts are condensed for the movie and other facts are put into the movie for dramatic reasons. When I know something is obviously wrong, even for a casual fan like me, I have made a note of the real fact(s).


DMC opens with Jan (Richard Hatch) and Dean (Bruce Davison) hanging out and this is a shorthand way to let us know that they are friends. The puzzling fact that is never shown in DMC is WHY Dean would remain friends with someone who belittled and mistreated him over so many years. I've even read the biographical chapters that Dean has written on The Jan and Dean website and I cannot quite get a grasp on why they remained friends. My only guess is that Dean is the type of person that once he's your friend, he'll be your friend for life.


Up next we find Jan and Dean and another friend harmonizing in the showers after high school football practice . DMC immediately cuts to Jan recording the three of them in his garage. The friend drops out, but Dean stays on. The friend's name in the movie is Billy, I assume this was supposed to be Arnie Ginsburg (even though they do mention the name Arnie a couple of times in the movie) who originally recorded with Jan as the duo Jan and Arnie. When Dean asks Jan "what about football?", Jan says football season is over and he's going to create "the sounds of summer" ....I kid you not, that line was actually in the movie, I even backed it up several times to be sure I heard it correct. Now Jan was smart (his IQ was supposedly 181 before the accident), but I don't think he was smart enough to have thought that far ahead or to have been a prophet. This is just an example of DMC making up its own history for the sake of a good story, as I mentioned above.

Dean joins the army and Jan releases their song with ONLY his name on the label, according to the scene we see in DMC. Actually "Jennie Lee" was a song released by Jan and Arnie. Needless to say Dean's not real happy about this; but, after Dean gets out of the army, the pair hook up again and start their successful recording career.


It just happens that one time while they are touring, they get lost in a town somewhere in Texas....right in front of a radio station! The DJ at this station is Bob Smith: The Jackal (who is played by Wolfman Jack, whose real name was Bob Smith!). The actual truth is that Jan and Dean continued their college careers and recorded and performed on weekends or during college breaks. It is very doubtful that they would have been driving from California to Texas. Jan and Dean get The Jackal to play "Sidewalk Surfin'" from one of their albums and at the end of this scene, Dean gets on his skateboard and Jan pulls him with his car as they leave town with the song playing on the radio.

Jan is going to get drafted and he goes to the induction station and tells them they can't draft him "He's Jan and Dean". The Sergeant tells him "We took in Elvis and he was a lot bigger star than you are Boy!". Jan huffs out of the office and according to the movie, this is when he had his wreck on Dead Man's Curve. This scene is all fabrication and you can read the real story HERE


This is about the half-way point of the movie and the latter half is about Jan and his recovery. Jan finally gets to the point where he wants to perform again and grudgingly asks Dean to help him. Jan decides he will have to lip synch his part. The crowd catches on and tries to boo him off stage. After an emotional address to the audience, Jan sings live and the audience gives him a standing ovation. At the start of this scene look for Bruce Johnston and Mike Love (in one of his sartorial disasters) of The Beach Boys. If you look carefully at the audience you can see the real Jan Berry watching his movie self performing on stage.

DMC began with Dick Clark introducing Jan and Dean in 1966, after which the movie flashed back to 1957 carrying us from that year until the early 1970s. I have read that DMC was supposed to have been a mini-series, instead 15 years of the lives of Jan and Dean were condensed into approximately 100 minutes. Thankfully the director Richard Compton was used to working in TV and should be given credit for being able to make such a coherent story in the time frame he was given. The only real problem with DMC was that I felt it skewed more toward Jan and could have easily been called: Dead Man's Curve: The Jan Berry Story featuring Dean Torrence. I would have liked to have seen a little more about Dean, but then that would have probably required another 100 minutes!

A special Thanks to skippercollector who sent me the photo of the the rare vhs Video Gems release.

THE RUTLES - ALL YOU NEED IS CASH

One of my current favorite TV shows is Fringe and the main arc in that series concerns an alternate universe that exists parallel to ours. That other universe is sort of like ours, but has some slight variations. The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash is like watching a documentary from an alternate universe. The characters seem familiar, the songs sound almost like what I'm used to hearing and the history of the group sounds mighty familiar. The only thing that keeps me from being completely convinced that this isn't from another universe is a few spots of broad humor that play out through the movie. These spots sort of give off a Monty Pythonesque: wink, wink, nudge, nudge, which is understandable considering Eric Idle conceived, wrote, co-directed, and stars as Dirk McQuickly (Paul McCartney) The Rutles.

The other three Rutles are Stig O'Hara (George Harrison) played by Rikki Fataar (The Beach Boys drummer), Barry Wom, shortened from Barrington Womble (Ringo Star nee Richard Starkey) played by John Halsey, and best of all Ron Nasty (John Lennon) played by Neil Innes of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Neil not only made a great John Lennon, but also composed the songs for the movie, which are as enjoyable as the original Beatles' songs.

In The Rutles, we have songs such as: "Get Up And Go," "OUCH!", "Hold My Hand", "Piggy in the Middle", "Doubleback Alley" and more. The amazing thing that Neil Innes did is that he didn't just copy the original songs and exchange the lyrics for something silly, but instead he wrote new songs with lyrics that simply remind you of the original songs when you hear them. The songs in The Rutles are so good that listening to the soundtrack is like listening to a "lost" Beatles album.

Anyone that is a fan of The Beatles should enjoy The Rutles. John Lennon and Yoko Ono let it be known that they got a kick out of The Rutles even though the movie really skewers them with Nasty and Chasity's meeting at The Pretentious Gallery, plus their Shower-In For Peace. George Harrison even makes an appearance in The Rutles as an interviewer. With his short gray hair and mustache, I'm sure he could walk the streets without being noticed. An interesting fact from the commentary track is that during the filming of The Rutles, George "the interviewer" was pushed aside, so some fans could ask The Rutles if they were Beatles! I have read that Sir Paul didn't find the movie all that amusing, but that could just be hearsay.

Mick Jagger and Paul Simon are featured in The Rutles, lending even more credence to the fact that you're watching a real documentary. Mick talks about The Rolling Stones rivalry with The Rutles among other things and Paul Simon talks about being on the record charts with The Rutles.


The Rutles have their own web site: The Rutles Tragical History Tour and it includes lots of photos, history of the band, lyrics to all of their songs, album covers, and even a trivia game. So if you want to visit some more into that alternate universe that includes The Rutles, click on the link provided above.

There are lots of Rutles clips to enjoy on youtube, below is a video from The Rutles animated movie "Yellow Submarine Sandwich". It should be noted that The Rutles employed the same artists who did The Beatles "Yellow Submarine"