WILLIES

WILLARD (1971)
dir: Daniel Mann

WILLIES
MAD #149, March 1972
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker

Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison) has a dreary job at a factory that was apparently once owned by his late father and stolen by his boss Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine). He comes home to find his mother Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester) has thrown a surprise party for him. It is only her friends in attendance since he has none, and he leaves embarrassed, going to the backyard seeing some rats. His bedridden mother wants him to do chores around the house, including having to kill the rats.

Willard's boss is strict and has him come in on the weekends, and has hired a temp, Joan (Sondra Locke), to help him out. At home, he's secretly befriended the rats.

Willard takes care, feeds, and trains the rats, hiding them from his mother. He has to handle Mr. Martin's invitations to his party, but is not invited, so he has the rats crash it.

He brings his two favorite rats, Ben and Socrates, to work with him, then gets a call, and finds out his mother died. Her friend Charlotte (Jody Gilbert) was told to look after him and he kicks her out. He's told by a banker his mother owed taxes on the house and he has to pay them or lose it. Willard's at a loss for what to do until he overhears that one of his boss's clients is really rich, so that night he summons the rats to invade the guy's home and steals breaks in and steals money as the rats chase him away.

One day when Willard brings Ben and Socrates to work and puts them in the supply closet, but they escape, freaking out one of the employees and causing a ruckus. Mr. Martin runs in and bludgeons Socrates to death. Mr. Martin has also been trying to pressure Willard to sell his home to knock it down and build an apartment complex. Mr. Martin tries to convince Joan to pressure Willard but she won't do it, and he fires them both.

Willard can't stand anymore and goes to the Mr. Martin's office with his army of rats, demanding a raise and to be treated more respectfully. They swarm all over Mr. Martin and he jumps out a window. A newly confident Willard is through with the rats now. He's invited Joan to his house and they come back to invade it.

WILL-ODD
Cracked #99, March 1972
a: John Severin

MOVIE REVIEW: THE WILD ROVERS

WILD ROVERS (1971)
dir: Blake Edwards

MOVIE REVIEW: THE WILD ROVERS
Sick #87, November 1971
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)

WHO IS HARRY KELLERMAN AND WHY IS HE SAYING THOSE TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT ME?

WHO IS HARRY KELLERMAN AND WHY IS HE SAYING THOSE TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT ME? (1971)
dir: Ulu Grosbard
>
The last of the movies with long names that started with Dr, Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, then continued with Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad and Can Hieronymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?.

SICK MOVIE REVIEW
Sick #89, March 1972
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)

EAST SIDE STORY

WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
dir: Robert Wise

The Broadway musical that became a movie (and remade a couple years ago) was parodied a few times. The premise, based on Romeo and Juliet, about members of two rival gangs falling in love, lent itself to the issues of other then-current rivalries.

EAST SIDE STORY
MAD #78, April 1963
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Mort Drucker

When Mort Drucker died a few years ago, this was cited as one of the pieces he was the most proud of. Instead of the Sharks and the Jets in a pre-gentrified Upper West Side, the backdrop is the newly-founded United Nations and the leaders of the Western World versus leaders of Eastern bloc countries. Here we have Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia, Wladyslaw Gomolka of Poland, and Fidel Castro of Cuba among other communist nations representing a gang led by Nikita Kruschev. A lot of the world leaders aren't likenesses of anyone in partocular.

The Western nations are a gang led by JFK that included Charles DeGaulle of France and Harold MacMillan of the United Kingdom,

Barry Goldwater is in the Western gang as well.

WEST COAST STORY
MAD #142, April 1971
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Jack Davis

With campus protests in the news just this week, this article is another example of history repeating itself.

CURLYLOCKS AND THE THREE HOODS
Sick #12, March 1962

BEST SIDE STORY
Not Brand Ecch #6, February 1968
w: Gary Friedrich
a: Tom Sutton

This takes on the rivalry between Marvel and DC (or “Distinguished Competition” as Marvel called them). Dr. Strange and Wonder Woman fall in love.

Leonard Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story.

THE TRAUMA OF '42

THE SUMMER OF '42 (1971)
dir: Robert Mulligan

THE TRAUMA OF '42
MAD #148, January 1972
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
Drama about Hermie (Gary Grimes) reminiscing about his childhood at his family's summer home, and hanging out with his friends Oscy (Jerry Houser) and Benjie (Oliver Conant). Director Robert Mulligan provides the narration.

The kids are all 15 years old and virgins, looking at a book in secret to see how sex and dating is done. They watch older woman Dorothy (Jennifer O'Neil) from afar with her husband and her seeing him off to war.

The first panel refers to Tijuana Bibles, eight-pagers that were usually of comics characters, which were how most teenagers learned about sex before dirty magazines existed.

They all continue to watch Dorothy on the beach and urge Hermie to get up close to her, then yell when he does. Later, he runs into her at the grocery store and helps her carry her groceries home. She offers him a cup of coffee, which it's clear he's never had before.

They go to the movies where they meet Miriam (Christopher Norris) and Aggie (Katherine Allentuck) and ask them out. Miriam resists Oscy's advances. Hermie thinks he's feeling Aggie up but since he doesn't know what he's doing he touches her arm and thinks he's touched her breast. They think they're going to get lucky the next day and Hermie goes to the drugstore to buy condoms while Oscy waits outside.

Hermie fumbles around at the drugstore stammering about what he really wants, buying ice cream and candy before getting the confidence to finally ask the druggist (Lou Frizell) for contraception. Hermie and Oscy look at the sex manual again to see how to do it.

Not used: They have a date that evening with the girls. Oscy goes all the way with Miriam and uses all the condoms they were supposed to share. Aggie sees this and runs away.

Hermie goes to Dorothy's house which appears to be empty. Then he finds out her husband's been killed in action.

Dorothy seeks comfort in Hermie, and ends up taking his virginity. He leaves finding it wasn't as fun as he thought it would be. When he goes to see her the next day, he finds a note that she had to go and wishes him well.

Mulligan is drawn near the end.