A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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Friday, September 30, 2022
MARDY
MARTY (1955)
dir: Delbert Mann
IF “MARDY” WERE MADE IN HOLLYWOOD TODAY
MAD #78, April 1963
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Based on a play about a single guy (Ernest Borgnine) in the Bronx hanging out with his friends and his mother wanting him to settle down to get married. Most people only know about “What do you wanna do, Marty?”/”I dunno. Whatchoo wanna do?” That's all I know, and that's all you really need too.
The angle here is about how movies used to be simply made on a simple budget. Paddy Chayefsky was a famous screenwriter known for The Hospital, Network, Altered States, and many others. He was one of the few screenwriters where his name was usually the bigger draw than the director or actors.
Movies are seen as all big-budget releases now (now being 1963), though big budget epics have been around as long as there's been a Hollywood.
The butcher here is Phil Silvers. The subway race is based on the chariot race in Ben-Hur (again a big budget epic remade countless times before 1963) driven by Tony Curtis, with Heston racing Kirk Douglas, their appearances being a reference to Spartacus.
Burt Lancaster (who co-incidentally co-produced Marty) and Marlon Brando are in the second panel. Brigitte Bardot and Yul Brynner are in the third. The last panel is a reference to Exodus.
Not sure if Marlon Brando as Mr. Christian or Kirk Douglas in the second panel are supposed to be the same characters.
From MAD #33, June 1957. Art by Wally Wood.
From If Famous Authors Wrote For the Comics by Frank Jacobs and Wally Wood, in MAD #46, April 1959.
ARTIE
Riot #4, February 1956
w: Stan Lee
a: Howie Post
In the Mad parody, the title "El Mardy" is a reference to the epic El Cid, which starred Heston and Loren.
On page 3, in panel 3, the man sipping wine is Jack Palance. He's also in the crowd in the previous panel.
On page 4, in panel 1, the woman speaking to Heston is Loretta Young. The woman in the background is Agnes Moorehead.
In the last panel, the guy urging the crowd to "break up the Yankees" is Bill Veeck, who owned several major league baseball teams at various times. "Like In Wreck" was the title of his autobiography. The man who wanted to sing the national anthem is Bobby Darin.
On page 4, panel 2, that's Kruschev riding in the plane ride in the back. His dialogue refers to a story where, in 1959, he was visiting Hollywood (20th Century Fox) and asked to go to Disneyland and got mad when he was refused because of security concerns. (Bob Hope has made the spurious claim that he was the one who said to Krushchev "You should try to go to Disneyland. It's wonderful!")
Bill Veeck is an interesting guy. He de-segregated the American League (hiring the first black there), and did various publicity things like hiring Eddie Gaedal (a midget) as a player. The "break up the Yankees" refers (I believe) to CBS having bought the Yankees and Veeck's criticism of that (also possibly his trying to get revenue sharing instituted in the American League)
In the Mad parody, the title "El Mardy" is a reference to the epic El Cid, which starred Heston and Loren.
ReplyDeleteOn page 3, in panel 3, the man sipping wine is Jack Palance. He's also in the crowd in the previous panel.
On page 4, in panel 1, the woman speaking to Heston is Loretta Young. The woman in the background is Agnes Moorehead.
In the last panel, the guy urging the crowd to "break up the Yankees" is Bill Veeck, who owned several major league baseball teams at various times. "Like In Wreck" was the title of his autobiography. The man who wanted to sing the national anthem is Bobby Darin.
This is probably obvious but:
ReplyDeleteOn page 4, panel 2, that's Kruschev riding in the plane ride in the back. His dialogue refers to a story where, in 1959, he was visiting Hollywood (20th Century Fox) and asked to go to Disneyland and got mad when he was refused because of security concerns. (Bob Hope has made the spurious claim that he was the one who said to Krushchev "You should try to go to Disneyland. It's wonderful!")
Bill Veeck is an interesting guy. He de-segregated the American League (hiring the first black there), and did various publicity things like hiring Eddie Gaedal (a midget) as a player. The "break up the Yankees" refers (I believe) to CBS having bought the Yankees and Veeck's criticism of that (also possibly his trying to get revenue sharing instituted in the American League)