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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Showing posts with label JACK MENDELSOHN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JACK MENDELSOHN. Show all posts
ZOO CHARADE
Panic #9, June-July 1955
w: Jack Mendelsohn
a: Joe Orlando
Marlin Perkins of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and announcer Jim Hurlbut would talk about various animals there. It was sponsore by Mutual of Omaha, sort of a precursor to the later Wild Kingdom series.
Science-fiction film of giant ants discovered in New Mexico as a result of bomb tests, and the government's attempt to destroy them and to keep them from reproducing.
A little girl in a catatonic state is found roaming the desert by Sgt. Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) and brought to the police station.
The girl is revived by Dr. Harold Medford (Edmung Gwenn) who comes out of her trance and just panics screaming “Them!”
Bob Graham (James Arness) is the FBI agent sent to investigate
”Who's got the ding dong?” is a reference to the Eartha Kitt song Somebody Bad Stole De Wedding Bell.
Pat Medford (Joan Weldon) is the daughter of Dr. Medford and an entymological expert.
Dr. Medford shows soldiers a film about ants to soldiers so they'll know what they're up against.
The background of the second panel has senator Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn.
'S A TRAGIC AIR COMMAND
Panic #12, December 1955/January 1956
w: Jack Mendelsohn
a: Wallace Wood
When television was released to a mass audience and became a threat to movies, they decided to compete with various wide-screen gimmicks. Paramount had VistaVision.
Cinerama was the first of these shot with three strips of film and used with three projectors. Their first features were travelogues.
Cinemascope was an easier and more accessible widescreen gimmick used by most studios, the first feature of which was The Robe, a bibilical epic. It spawned several imitations, which brings us back to VistaVision, an optical process by which the film was shot vertically.
Panic spends two and a half pages of a seven-page spoof talking about this rather than the content of the movie.
Robert “Dutch” Holland (Jimmy Stewart) is a professional baseball player in spring training. His wife Sally (June Allyson) has come to watch him play. An old war buddy, “Rusty” Castle (James Millican) , who he fought in the Air Force with, comes to see him.
Rusty is modelled after comic strip character Smilin' Jack. His strip had plugs for local aviation shows in the margins, which are lampooned here.
Dutch thinks Rusty's there to reminisce, but instead he finds he's needed to fight in the Air Force again. He reluctantly re-enters with the support of his wife, and is mistaken for a civilian on the first day.
Funny imagining it now that ball players were once paid $70K and houses were 45K
A STAR IS CORN
Panic #10, August-September 1955
w: Jack Mendelsohn
a: Jack Davis
Movie's been done several times with the basic storyline of a couple with the woman on her way up and the man on her way down, with the settings of showbiz from the time, leads have been Barbara Streisand and Lady Gaga. The 1976 version was parodied and covered a few weeks ago, here's the previous version, which like the others, was just as much a showcase for the female lead's songs..
At a benefit show, a drunken Norman Maine (James Mason) shows up, supposed to be the star of the show. Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland) is a singer and dancer opening for it and as Norman drunkenly runs on the stage, she pretends it's part of the act.
Esther kindly rebuffs Norman when he thanks her for saving her and he asks her out. His handlers put him to sleep that night but after they leave he goes out on the prowl and sees her at a club that's closing. She's nice to him again and he tells her she has the makings of a star, then conveniently forgets how to contact her.
Dr. Kinsey was a doctor who wrote the first major report on human sexuality. The heart in the fifth panel is from a scene where Norman grabbed Esther's lipstick backstage and wrote their names on the wall.
Esther assumes she has been blown off and tries to make it on her own. Norman tries to find her and eventually finds her, giving her a screen test, changing her name to “Vicki Lester”, and she gets a small part in a motion picture. studio head Oliver Niles (Charles Bickford), overhears her and is so impressed by her voice she gets a big part in his next movie.
Liberace is the piano plater in the second panel. Phfft! was the name of a movie at the time.
The audience is impressed by Esther and Norman tells her she doesn't need him to succeed anymore. They stay together and they get married. The studio break their contract with Norman because he's drinking too much and his pictures aren't making enough money.
Easther wins an Oscar and Norman crashes her acceptance speech. Later . She worries about him and insists the studio give him another chance. Oliver visits him in rehab and gives him a part.
Norman gets in a fight and starts hitting the bottle again, and gets arrested, having to be bailed out by Esther. She tells Oliver she'll give up her career to take care of him. He overhears her and can't stand putting her through this. He tells her he's going out for a swim and walks into the ocean.
The mermaid in the last panel is Esther Williams, who starred in many underwater musicals then
GROAN WITH THE WIND
MAD #300, January 1991
w:Stan Hart
a: Jack Davis
I saw this once in school in eighth grade. They used to show it on TV once in a while stretched over a few days. Damned if I'm going to spend four hours watching it again.
From anniversary issue of MAD in which they parodied what were considered "all-time classics". Gone With the Wind was the most highest-grossing movie ever until Star Wars beat it out of the #1 slot. It's been reconsidered from canon recently for black stereotypes, misogyny, and being pro-South and slavery.
It begins at the with a party at the Tara plantation when the Civil War begins, Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) is engaged to Melanie Hamilton (Olivia DeHavilland).
Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh)'s family owns the Tara plantation and flirts with Stuart Tarleton (Fred Crane) and his brother Brent (George Reeves), Hattie McDaniel is Mammy. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) is a Southerner at the plantation who disagrees about how the South will win the Civil War despite everyone else's prediction.
Brent has a Superman costume because the actor played him in a 50s TV series.
Carroll Nye is Frank Kennedy.
GONE WITH THE WIDOW
Panic #8, April-May 1955
w: Jack Mendelsohn
a: Wallace Wood
This page is about how one of the final lines in the movie is Rhett leaving Scarlett and telling her, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn".
UPDATE:
From Cracked's Sequels to Classic Movies in #180, September 1981, art by John Severin.
GOON WITH THE WIND: 1990
Cracked #246, August 1989
w: Rich Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
Not only are most of those celebrities still alive (though Roseanne is basically canceled), but fat-shaming still is with half the country. Many of the stars in the splash panel aren't even in the article. “I'm Chevy Chase and you're not” is how he used to introduce himself when he did the news on Saturday Night Live.
