Monday, August 6, 2018

'Mooners Monday: The Secret History of Alice Kramden

One of my favorite lines in Honeymooners history is one probably intended to be a showstopper, but one that is nevertheless in the pantheon of most quoted pieces of dialogue in my family:

Alice, you've been at that rum candy again!

Let's go to Alice and the Blonde, originally airing June 2, 1956. It's the night after the Kramdens and Nortons visited the Weedemeyers, and Alice attempts to woo Ralph by being like the woman she thinks he admires: Rita Weedemeyer.



Her vamping and cooing is a delight--it's a lot of fun to see Audrey Meadows get to glam it up, even for comic effect--but Ralph isn't having it. His facial expressions as he wonders what's she up to are hilarious.



Eventually Ralph can't take it anymore, and that's when he bellows his accusation:


This is a great piece of dialogue. The idea of someone being tipsy from rum candy is funny, the idea of it being Alice is even funnier, and...well, look at that last word: again.

Again?

Was there some other incident in which Alice really did get drunk on rum candy and made a fool of herself? I don't know about you, but I'm fascinated and want to know more about this.

Alice insists that it's Ralph. "You intoxicate me," she says. "Don't give me that. It's that candy!"




It's obvious that something happened in the past with Alice and rum candy. But when, what, where?

This will remain one of the great mysteries of the 'Moonerverse. It's not a mystery that this is a fantastic episode, and this scene is classic. As Alice heads into the bedroom (easy now, tigers), she tells Ralph, "I call you Killer 'cause you slay me."




 Of course he responds, "I'm calling Bellevue 'cause you're nuts!"




No comments: