CATCH-ALL-22

CATCH-22 (1970)
dir: Mike Nichols

MAD #141, March 1971
w:Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker

Based on the novel by Joseph Heller.

Director Mike Nichols is one of the people painted on the plane under Alfred E. Neuman's thumb.

Capt. Yossarian (Alan Arkin) is a bombardier in World War II assigned to mission after mission and just can't take it anymore, finally getting a discharge from the war. The story is explained by flashbacks upon flashbacks.

On his way home, he is stabbed, this leads to the beginning where he initially requests a discharge because he's too crazy to fly. The doctor (Jack Guilford) explains the catch that keeps him for doing so. (see trailer above)

Colonel Cathcart (Martin Balsam) is supposed to have his squadron fly twenty-five missions, but he raises it to make himself look good. Major Danby (Richard Benjamin) is under his command. This increase is making it hard on Yossarian, something he confides in Chaplain Tappman (Anthony Perkins).

Cathcart has also worked out some kind of black market scheme with Maj. Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight) trading military items for items available in Europe. This results in Yossarian not having a parachute and crashing, then ending up in the hospital wanting to get out of the war.

Missing here is Captain Major (Bob Newhart) being promoted to Major because his name is Major, despite protests of not being qualified for the job.
Yossarian is fooling around with Nurse Duckett (Paula Prentiss). General Dreedle (Orson Welles) inspects the quarters because Cathcart and Korn (Buck Henry, also screenwriter) invited him to make him think they're doing a good job, and his wife is in the movie to show how horny the men can get. Dreedle's incompetent son-in-law (Austin Pendleton) is left out of the spoof.

While on R & R, the men mention that Cathcart has upped the missions yet again, and Yossarian falls in love with a local.

Dreedle pins medals on soldiers. When it's Yossarian's turn, he is completely naked in an attempt to seem too crazy for combat. Then he's in bed with his Italian girlfriend and has another flashback. This time it is more detailed and there is another soldier in the plane. One of the soldiers (Martin Sheen) attempts to kill Cathcart and Korn because he can't take it anymore, and is arrested. Milo Minderbinder conducts an air raid on the town because it's the only way he can get rid of an inventory he's stuck with.

As he wanders the streets, Yossarian finds out Nately has died. He has to tell the Italian girlfriend this and she gets mad at him and he has to escape.

Not parodied: Yossarian sees a hooker has been killed and he sees one of his fellow soldiers (Charles Grodin) was the one who killed her. As Yossarian urges the guy to turn himself in, it is he who gets arrested by military police for being AWOL.

Now we're back where the movie began, Yossarian is discharged on the condition that he “like” Captains Cathcart and Korn. In exchange he will be treated as a hero back home. On his way home he is stabbed. Here's where the actual movie and MAD part ways.

In the actual version, while recovering, he realizes it's a bad deal and jumps out the hospital window and escapes into the ocean. In MAD's version, he's brought back and treated by Hawkeye and Trapper John from M*A S*H (Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland).

M*A*S*H was 20th Century Fox's more successful comedy war film of that year. I'll eventually get to why it ended up not aging well, and how the TV series started out as a pale imitation but ended up surpassing it.


SCRATCH-22
Sick #82, March 1971
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
a: Jack Sparling

Here's a “review” that sums up most of what I just said.

Some of these portraits look like they were just traced.

“Catch-22” ended up becoming a word in the English language, and was later used in this piece from MAD #199 in June 1978, by Lou Silverstone and Sergio Aragones.

AN OFF-ROAD WEEKEND AT CATCH-22
Car Toons #90, June 1976
a: Dave Deal

I never read the book though I've heard the more recent series is more faithful to it.

UPDATE:
A sequel to MAD's earlier article was used in #235, December 1982.