A CROCKWORK LEMON

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
dir: Stanley Kubrick

MAD #159, June 1973
w: Stan Hart
a: George Woodbridge

In a dystopian world: Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his gang a/k/a droogs, Dim (Warren Clarke), Georgie (James Marcus), and Billie Boy (Richard Connaught) in a night on the town, beat up a homeless person (Paul Farrell).

Then get into a fight with another gang.

(The psychedelic lettering for the sound effects is used in the milk bar they hang out in. The sound effects refer to the slang used in the movie like “tolchok” and “ultra-violence”)


They invade the home of a writer (Patrick Magee, stand-in for Anthony Burgess, author of the novel this is based on) and assault him and his wife (Adrienne Corri) under the pretenses of being strangers needing to use the phone. They live in a house with a sign that says “Home”.After a satisfying night with the boys, Alex goes back home to the dilapidated apartment he lives in with his parents and listens to his favorite composer Beethoven ('Ludwig Van') while his mother (Sheila Raynor) checks on him.

His fellow droogs try to commit mutiny but he shows them who's boss. Later they go to the home of a cat farm because they hear there's money there and the husband's gone. They try the same scam they used earlier to get in but the wife is suspicious (she's called “The Cat Lady” in the film, played by Miriam Karlin) and won't let them in. Alex sneaks in.

This was one of the first issues of MAD I read in 1977 (I read a reprint in a super-special) and didn't know until seeing the movie ten years later what the statue of the elephant's head really was.

(He actually murders the cat lady, his arrest for it is the reason for the second half of the film)

While in prison, Alex is well-behaved. He reads the bible, but likes it for the violent and dirty parts.
He undergoes a new experimental treatment in prison, where he gets an aversion to violence by being forced to watch it.

One of the films he's forced to watch ('viddy') has Beethoven, which he develops an aversion to as well. (It's Love Story in this.)

He's shown to be cured in front of a panel of doctors by being provoked into acts of sex and violence but not being able to react.

He gets released and goes back home but is not quite welcome back by his family who has taken in a new lodger (Clive Francis). He threatens to beat the new tenant but can't bring himself to because now any act of violence makes him sick.

Kicked out and having no place to go, he wanders the streets and gets asked for change by a homeless man. The man recognizes him as one of the hoodlums who beat him up in the beginning. The rest of the homeless in the street get back at him and the fight is broken up by cops, who happen to be the droogs he used to pick on, and they use their stature for revenge and take him out into the woods and beat him.

Desperate for lodging in any home, he realizes the one he happens upon is the one of the writer he invaded while still a criminal.

(In the real movie, he isn't recognized right away)

The writer sees Alex as a victim and is politically opposed to the penal system Alex went through. He realizes he can use Alex as a pawn for his fight against it but while he's nursing Alex back to health, he overhears Alex singing Singin' In the Rain to himself (which he sang during the home invasion earlier) and it all comes back to him.

The writer sees he can exact his revenge and further his cause at the same time. He knows of Alex's new aversion to Beethoven and locks him in a room playing it. Alex will have no choice but to commit suicide and the writer can say it's because of the new prison method. Alex doesn't die. He wakes up in the hospital and is told he's a martyr to the government. He's cured and will have a new life and be used as an example of how the new prison treatment works.

Note one of the sickened audience members is Stanley Kubrick.

Later there were countless references on The Simpsons.

AN ORANGEWORK CLOCK
Grin #2, January 1973
w: John Norment
a: Alan Kupperberg & Jack Abel

The homeless man is probably Santa Claus here because it was a Christmas issue of Grin. Singin' in the Rain is their violence anthem.

At the Milk Bar where they hang out, the milk is dispensed from a breast on a statue. The apartments where Alex lives are really run down.

Not used in the MAD parody: Alex doesn't go to school and a perverted truant officer (Aubrey Morris) checks in on him and sees he doesn't really have headaches like he says. Nor is his going out to record store to pick up girls for 'the old in-out'.

When Alex is wandering the streets looking for a home, he's let in by houseboy Julian (bodybuilder David Prowse, whose name you probably recognize as the guy inside Darth Vader). Here they have him thrown out instead of his being driven to jump out.

And if you want to see an alternative...


UPDATE:

A SHOCKWORK LEMON
Drool #1, 1972
w: Jay Kinney
a: Larry Hama & Ralph Reese Drool only had one issue and was sold where underground comics were sold. It was put out by Cloud Studio, original art directors of National Lampoon that would go on to be art directors for Lampoon imitators Apple Pie/Harpoon/International Insanity. Jay Kinney had been a veteran underground cartoonist while Hama and Reese were assistants to Wally Wood. Hama would later edit Crazy and create G.I. Joe.

This parody begins with several scenes from the movie at once, the Cat Lady and the author are living together, and the author has already been disabled and all the Droogs are invading.

There are rabbits and chipmunks in this. They concentrate more on the futuristic language of the film though.

There's another, different Cat Lady in this.

The doctor forcing Alex to watch violent films is Kubrick himself.