Brooks on Books: The Complete Dick Tracy Volume 1 1931-1933

I spotlighted this book in "Panel Discussion" posts the past few weeks, but I want to give it another rave here. If your exposure to "Dick Tracy" is limited to only the more recent strips, the cartoons, the old movies, oer God forbid the Warren Beatty flick, then you really haven't seen the primo "Dick Tracy." (Notice I resisted the urge to say, "You don't know Dick." Until now.)

IDW's awesome reprint collection publishes Chester Gould's strip's whole run from the beginning, dailies and Sundays, all in black and white (in this first book, early non-continuity Sunday pages are presented in color in the back) and with good reproduction quality. The presentation is fine (though the overall design apes that of the Fantagraphics "Peanuts" volumes), but the content is superb. I'm still surprised how much I love this collection, and I really need to get the subsequent volumes.

I keep hearing that "Tracy" doesn't really hit its prime until well after these early years, as Gould hits his own stride and rolls out the colorful over-the-top villains for which the strip is now known. But these early years make excellent reading in their own right. You get violent criminals, brave cops, a little romance, and a fascinating look at early-1930s culture. The slang, the fashions, and the morality of the times--assuming the comic strip does a halfway decent job of suggesting "reality"--are all on display. It's also fun to see early police techniques. Tracy does a little primitive forensic action at times. He's a sharp guy, I tells you.

The stories are exciting, with a good variety of crimes and criminals. He's not as outlandish as Pruneface, but a rogue like Stooge Viller makes an impression in his own right. Gould's storytelling is effective even this early in his career. I like how he finds different ways to introduce exposition to get new readers up to speed, especially in the Sunday pages, without bogging down the whole enterprise for everyone else. This helps make this collection readable straight through in chunks even though the original material was, of course, presented as several panels' worth of story per day.

Bottom line: This is a great job by IDW of collecting a great comic strip. If "Dick Tracy" gets better than this, I really look forward to future volumes.

Panel Discussions: The Aura of the Flash

That second panel there shows you how much _I_ know. I always thought what impressed criminals about The Flash was that he could run really, really fast.

The Wonderful World of TCM: Crime of Passion (1954)

WARNING: I'll be discussing the "spoiling" of this movie by my programming guide, and in doing so, I will myself be spoiling it thoroughly.

Crime of Passion is a decent if unspectacular noir. This 1957 Gerd-Oswald-directed film is about...Well, why don't I share the summary in the FIOS listings:

A woman stoops to murder in order to advance her husband's career with the police.


Well, yeah, that happens...more than 2/3 of the way into the movie! Talk about giving it away!

OK, I will grant that the movie is called "Crime of Passion," not "Manipulations and Schemes of Passion," which is what the story features up to that point. And granted, the woman in question is clearly an ambitious, tough cookie from the get-go, maybe one even capable of extremes. And granted, said woman is played by Barbara Stanwyck, which is kind of an indicator in itself.

But still. This plot description takes the key moment of "Crime of Passion" and presents it before you even get a chance to process all those clues and figure out the inevitable sequence of events. It's kind of a big deal because the movie doesn't really pick up until that murder is committed.

Maybe this is how the original marketing went: Let people know what's gonna happen and bring 'em in that way. "Ladies and gentlemen, we ask that you please reveal the last 20 minutes of 'Crime of Passion' to your friends.'"

There are some other interesting aspects of the flick the relatively frank depiction of sexuality being one. When Stanwyck and new hubby cop Sterling Hayden get married, there's a nice moment where she tells him she won't need many clothes on their honeymoon. Then, as Babs carries out her plan to get Sterling elevated in the department, she sleeps with a big-shot inspector played by Raymond Burr. I don't know about you, but the thought of a Stanwyck-Burr boudoir pairing kind of staggers me.

But overall, the movie just isn't that compelling until that murder, as Babs offs Burr. Stanwyck's character isn't her most memorable, and Hayden's is frustratingly mild. Business does pick up then, but I still think it presents a squandered opportunity. The event should happen way earlier in the film and give us more time to observe the dramatic tension as Hayden investigates Stanwyck's crime. Will he find out? What will he do?

There's some potential here, but in reality it unfolds quickly, with the drama between the two leads replaced by Hayden going all "CSI" and using, you know, forensics and stuff to discover the truth.

As I watched "Crime of Passion," I thought it played out in predictable fashion, but how can I be sure? After all, I read it all before I even recorded it, thanks to the ever-helpful FIOS on-screen programming guide.

Budget DVD Theater: Make Room for Daddy

Here's the deal: I have a ton of cheapo DVDs and cheapo DVD collections--some of them a buck apiece, others in value sets--and I tend to let them sit around and pile up. Incidentally, what happened to dollar DVDs? I STILL go to the $1 Spot each time I hit Target, hoping to find a new selection of shoddy TV collections. I refuse to believe that every public domain episode of television programming has already been issued on a dozen different dollar discs.

Well, I will no longer neglect these cheapo--er, let's call them BUDGET discs. I'll take one out and write about it every now and then, so that way I reduce the pile AND get to write off the DVDs on my taxes.

(I'm not really gonna write off dollar DVDs on my taxes, of course, but, come on, indulge me and let me act like a real writer just this once).

Kicking off our prestigious new series is Danny Thomas in "Make Room for Daddy." Tonight's episode, "The Children's Governess," is likely a familiar one. There are apparently a handful of episodes of this 1950s sitcom in public domain, and they all show up over and over on various releases. Tonight's selection comes on a cardboard-sleeved collection of 3 episodes.

This episode offers a simple story in which the show's original wife/mom, Jean Hagen, wants her kids to be more proper, or PRAH-pah, so she hires a governess to watch them while she and Danny are out of town. The uptight guv, with all her rules and regulations and manners, drives the kids crazy, and she also conflicts with easygoing Grandma. Oh, I didn't mention Grandma? She just drops in when she finds out the parents were heading out of town, assuming she'll be doing her usual babysitting duties.

The plot isn't innovative, probably not even by 1955 standards, but it produces a solid half-hour of comedy. The high point is when the kids decide to be hyperpolite and PRAH-pah (to expose how ridiculous the governess is), and during breakfast, Rusty comes down and calls Danny FADER.

This simple yet ridiculous utterance infuriates Danny until he declares he wants no more "high-ta-flootin'" talk. Rusty responds by standing up and saying, "My most humble apologies," with a formal bow, which produces a 5-star spit take as Thomas lets go of his coffee/tea/mystery breakfast liquid with abandon. It's a hilarious moment, and you can even see Hagen smiling--not entirely out of character, but I like to believe she's really on the verge of losing it. It's obvious that Rusty Hamer is cracking up. The scene fades out on this high note.

Legend* has it that Thomas' spit take was so prodigious, it reached director Sheldon Leonard 20 feet away. After the scene, a glowering Leonard approached Thomas, raised a clenched fist, and threatened, "Why I oughta..." As the cast, crew, and studio audience held its collective breaths, Thomas just stared for what seemed like hours, until Leonard finally finished his sentence:

"...have you do that EVERY episode, Danny! That was SPECTACULAR!"

As the tension evaporated, a stagehand rushed in with a towel as Thomas and Leonard embraced. The Danny Thomas Spit Take became a staple.

Really, though, it isn't the volume of the launch that makes the spitting so impressive; it's the conviction. No one could accuse Thomas of not feeling this one. Hearing "FADER," then seeing that bow, has so rattled this father that he truly can't hold his water, so to speak.

Throw in the original Pall Mall cigarette commercials (it's eerie but fascinating to see them integrated into a family sitcom) included on the DVD, and this disc is already worth my dollar and then some.

There are two official season sets of this show: Questar's inferior, edited season 5, and S'Mores reportedly excellent (but reportedly non-selling) season 6. Each time I see an episode of "Make Room," I want to see more. Simply put, this is a funny show that is underappreciated today because of its lack of exposure. Daughter Marlo is still around, but I don't see a lot of Danny Thomas hype out there, and though I think this was a Nick at Nite staple in the eighties, good luck finding the show on TV today. I remember seeing it in reruns when I was a wee lad, but seeing it now is like finding a lost gem. The show is not just good because it's old or nostalgic; it's good because it's funny.

And because it has great spit takes.

*"Legend" is another word for "I made it up"

Maybe my final live blogging post of the day

In retrospect, yeah, lots of folks live-blogged the Academy Awards, and, yeah, I might have had a unique idea in waiting till today to do it, but go figure: There just isn't as much to cover two days after a big awards show.

SIGH.

Anyone want to know what I had for lunch today?

More live blogging...

Well, there hasn't been any big Oscar stuff going on outside MY window.

Hey, while we're waiting for something, let me say I thought the show was pretty good. I wasn't into the movies this year, so I felt a certain distance from everything, but Jackman was a fine host and the presentation was solid.

There were a few things that bothered me, but nothing that outraged me. Overall, a fine effort with some new ideas. The show is still too long, but it always will be. My advice: Either DVR it or multitask while it's on live.

But that's old news, the day OF the Oscars. I'm covering the Tuesday AFTER the Academy Awards today. Just think, you can keep it right here throughout the day for commentary on all the happenings.

You know, I really didn't think this through.