SANE

SHANE (1953)
dir: George Stevens

SANE
MAD #10, April 1954
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: John Severin
This was John Severin's last piece for MAD. He was one of the “usual gang of idiots” for the first few issues but Kurtzman decided early on he wasn't quite right for them. He was perfect for western, war, and adventure stories in the other Kurtzman titles, but not for humor. Though years later he became Cracked's main artist, and his photorealism came in handy when they relied on Happy Days and M*A*S*H every issue. Here's his Shane parody in MAD, which kinda sorta worked since Westerns were still the dominant genre for movie the same way superheros are now.

A stranger, Shane (Alan Ladd) comes into town, Happening upon the land of homesteaders Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and their son Joey (Brandon DeWilde). A band of tough guys constantly terrorizes the Starretts and all the other homesteaders, trying to run them off their land.

Joey looks up to Shane, seeing another adult figure who will hopefully help him with fightin' and shootin'. Joe recognizes that Shane is a good guy and offers him a place to stay.

The “I'm a-leavin'/I'm a-stayin'” bit comes fom their earlier High Noon parody.

Shane goes to the general store to get local supplies where he gets harrassed by the posse of tough guys, particularly for ordering a non-alcoholic drink at the bar. One guy, Jack tries to pick a fight with Shane, and Shane fights back. The locals later decide to go to the store together since every time they go they're harassed by the tough posse and this time there's more likely to be safety in numbers.

The tough cattlemen go after the settlers, one tough guy, Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), is especially tough, and a fight ensues at the store. Joey hides but knows Shane will do something about it.

The settlers are chased away, one is shot by Wilson.

The settlers want to leave, deciding their land isn't worth fighting for, Shane takes the ranchers on and wins, then goes on his way. Joey's immortal quote “Shane, come back!” comes at the end.

STRAIN
Get Lost #1, March 1954
w & a: Ross Andru & Michael Esposito

The Van Heflin character and the other homesteaders aren't even used here.

SANE Nuts! 2, May 1954
artist and writer unknown

The Jean Arthur character of Marian Starrett is drawn as either a Daisy Mae-type or granny in these other parodies but she is just a mid-thirties housewife.

JULIUS CAESAR!

JULIUS CAESAR (1953)
dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

JULIUS CAESAR!
MAD #17, November 1954
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Wallace Wood

“There were so many imitations. The imitations were coming out of the woodwork. I've got an attic filled with MAD imitations, Blecch, Ecch, Ptui, Ergh, Blaugh, Blurp...”
--Harvey Kurtzman
Comics Journal interview, 1981

More of a parody of parodies than the movie itself, how when MAD first came out in 1952 and became a runaway success eventually, every other publisher jumped on the bandwagon trying to duplicate that success, and it was ubiquitous enough of a target for them.

The movie was an adaptation of Shakespeare's play, with Louis Calhern as Caesar. James Mason was Brutus.

These are caricatures of actual existing U.S. Senators.

Marlon Brando played Marc Anthony in Julius Caesar. Martin Kane was sponsored by the American Tobacco Company. The Sherlock Holmes portrait is based on Bill Elder's drawing of him in many MAD parodies.

“Dom Da Domm Domm” comes from the horns used in the Dragnet theme.

Kurtzman was no stranger to doing take-offs of take-offs, before MAD, he did this in his strip for Lana #2 in 1948.

Bijou Funnies, an underground comic of the 60s and 70s, did a whole issue that was a parody of Kurtzman's MAD in 1973, with the back cover a parody of the opening page from this story, written by Jay Lynch and drawn by Ralph Reese, who had been an assistant to Wood.

HINDU

HONDO (1953)
dirs: John Farrow, John Ford

HINDU
Panic #4, August/September 1954
w: Al Feldstein
a: Wallace Wood

This was a 3-D Western. It begins with Angie Lowe(Geraldine Page) and her son Johnny (Lee Aker) on their ranch waiting for her husband to come back home. Hondo Lane (John Wayne) and his dog Sam come up. He explains he's from the cavalry and fell off his horse fighting Indians. He is part Apache himself.

References are made to another Western called Shane that has a similar setting and ends with the father leaving home with the hopes that he'll come back.

Hondo claims that because he has Apache blood, he has a strong sense of smell and can therefore smell Angie. He lets Johnny to pet his dog knowing the dog will bite him, but he knows this will teach him a lesson in becoming a man. The sequence teaching Johnny to swim happens like this, but isn't until later in the movie.

They leave out how during Hondo's stay, Angie discovers he's a famous gunman and initially doesn't trust him, but comes to learn he's a gentleman.

After Hondo leaves, the Apaches invade the property and Johnny tries to save his mother but is too small for the gun and falls down recoiling. The head of the tribe admires his bravery and makes him an honorary Apache.

The Indian on the nickel was replaced with Thomas Jefferson around this time.

Much later, Hondo has returned to the cavalry on a new horse, which was Angie's. A stranger (Leo Gordon) claims the horse is his and gets in a fight with Hondo and gets beaten (not shot like here) and killed. Hondo realizes the man he just killed was Angie's missing husband, and returns to her ranch.

He runs into Gene Autry as the Lone Ranger (?) and is informed by Bob Hope (Son of Paleface reference?) he's in the wrong movie.

Hondo's sidekick Buffalo (Ward Bond) finds a photo of Johnny on the dead man, confirming it was Angie's husband. On his way back, he is attacked by Indians. The film had an intermission even though it was only an hour and a half. Maybe people couldn't handle wearing 3-D glasses that long.

Hondo returns and Angie says he is in fact her husband so the Apaches will spare him. This is where he teaches Johnny to swim. He also teaches Johnny to fish.

Getting the news there's no need for a cavalry outpost there, Hondo and the Lowes go to his ranch to start a new family. "Somebody's gotta work..." was how they ended every story in that particular issue of Panic.

HAMBO
Crazy #7, July 1954
w: Stan Lee
a: Carl Hubbell

The cover was drawn by Russ Heath.

All these comics used Melvin as their go-to "funny" name.

HUNDO
Get Lost #3, June-July 1954
w & a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito

FLUSH GORGON

FLASH GORDON (1980)
dir: Mike Hodges

FLUSH GORGON
Crazy #75, June 1981
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Bob Camp

Based on the comic strip, which had inspired an earlier radio show and movie serial.

The tagline for the movie was "Puny earthlings... Who will save you now?"

We begin with Ming the Merciless (Max Von Sydow), emperor of the planet Mongo, causing disasters on Earth just because he can. On Earth, Flash (Sam J. Jones) is a Jets football player flying a plane with Dale Ardor (Melody Anderson) and they have crashed into a meteor. When they notice the pilots have been lost, Flash tries to land the plane and crashes into the laboratory of Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol). This is where our parody begins.

Zarkov's assistant has refused to come aboard his spaceship where he plans to investigate these disasters, so when Flash and Dale conveniently crash land into his lab, he forces them to come with him.

Flash Pilots the ship and lands on Mongo...

...where they are captured by Ming.

The first panel refers to Topol's role as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, the MAD parody of which we printed pages from last week.

Ming has forced Dale to marry him. Flash has been rescued by Ming's daughter, Princess Aura (Ornella Muti).

Flash is forced by Vultan of the Hawk-men (Brian Blessed) to fight Prince Barin of Arboria (Timothy Dalton) in a death match, but after Flash saves Barin from falling into a deadly pit they all form an alliance to overthrow Ming.

Ming is about to blow up the Earth and marry Dale but Flash, with the help of the Hawk-men and Prince Barin's army, who feature prominently in the movie but not as much here, swoops in and stops both. He has saved the universe, but him and Dale plan to go back to New York.

The Flash Gordon strip was probably best known for the Buster Crabbe Saturday matinee it was adapted into...

...which was parodied by MAD

FLESH GARDEN
MAD #11, May 1954
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Wallace Wood

There was a recurring bit on the National Lampoon Radio Hour called Flash Bazbo, Space Explorer. This one you can tell was actor Christopher Guest improvising.

There was a porn version of the classic movie serials. Pornographic for 1974 at least. I saw it in high school but I bet if I looked at it now it would be a hard R at most.

UPDATE:
FOUR-FLUSH GORDON: ACE OF SPACE
Get Lost #1, March 1954
a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito

Not of the 1980 reboot, but why not.