House of Leaves

We wish to inform you that the following review will contain spoilers for House of Leaves. — Ed.

During my research for a review of The Beginner’s Guide, I came across a comparison to the books House of Leaves and Pale Fire, neither of which I had heard of until that point. After reading the premise for both, I was more intrigued by the one for House of Leaves, a twenty-year-old novel by Mark Z. Danielewski, and later received the Remastered Full-Color Edition hardcover release as a Christmas present. The sheer size of the book intimidated me at first, but I worked up the courage and dove right in. Finishing it took a little longer than I thought, but I felt strongly enough about my opinion afterwards that I thought I’d do a one-off book review due to the book’s connection with film and the game that led me to it. To that end, I respect Danielewski’s commitment to painstakingly writing and formatting a novel exactly the way he wanted it for the effect he sought over the course of ten years, but it’s a bit overhyped.

Stubs - You Nazty Spy!

You Nazty Spy! (1940) Starring: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Lorna Gray, Dick Curtis, Don Beddoe. Directed by Jules White. Screenplay by Felix Adler and Clyde Bruckman. Produced by Jules White. Run Time: 18 minutes. U.S.A. Black and White. Comedy, Satire, Slapstick

If you’re of a certain age, the Three Stooges was something you watched after school on television. For me, they were the feature on a show called Slam Bang Theatre, hosted by Icky Twerp (Bill Camfield) with his two sidekicks in ape masks, Ajax and Delphinium. They were not something that my parents really wanted me to watch, thinking these old slapstick shorts would be a bad influence on me and my brother. They never out and out stopped us from watching, just looked disappointed when we talked about it.

Long before the Three Stooges became mid-60s syndication figures, they had appeared on vaudeville starting as support players for Ted Healy. Larry Fine, a vaudeville violinist, met Shemp Howard and Ted Healy when they were performing in the Shubert Brothers' A Night in Spain. Since Shemp was leaving the play, Fine was asked if he wanted to replace him, a replacement stooge. At the time, Healy’s other two stooges were Bobby Pinkus and Sam 'Moody' Braun.

Later, in 1929, Healy signed a contract to perform in a new Shubert Brothers revue, A Night in Venice and brought with him Fine, Shemp and Moe Howard. Moe had previously worked with Healy as well, back in 1921 in vaudeville. A Night in Venice ran until March 1930. That spring and summer, they toured as "Ted Healy & His Racketeers" before heading to Hollywood for Fox Studio’s Soup to Nuts (1930).

The Stooges broke away from Healy after that, as "Howard, Fine and Howard: Three Lost Soles" until the Summer of 1932. In July, Fine, Moe and Moe’s brother Curly joined back up with Healy; Shemp had broken off to pursue a solo career.

MGM signed Healy and his Stooges to a contract in 1933 and they appeared in several feature films and short subjects. Their final film together was Hollywood Party (1934). After that, the stooges parted company. The Stooges would sign a contract with Columbia Pictures to make two-reel comedies. They would go on to make 190 shorts at Columbia between 1934 and 1958, though there would be changes in the group, with Curly replacing Shemp in 1932, Shemp coming back to replace Curly in 1946 and Joe Besser replacing Shemp in 1956. Curly Joe DeRita would replace Besser in 1958 until 1970.

Their humor was considered low-brow slapstick. Moe was basically the ringleader and used physical abuse to keep the others in line and to do his bidding. I can understand why my parents were wary of me watching them and over time I feel like I’ve outgrown their humor, though it’s been a long time since I’ve watched any of their shorts.

What is of interest here is You Nazty Spy! the groups’ 44^th short. The subject matter is something that Hollywood had tried to ignore up until now, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. While Charlie Chaplin would get a lot of credit for parodying Hitler in his film The Great Dictator (1940), the Stooges beat him to the punch by about 9 months.

At the time of the film’s release, the U.S. was trying to avoid taking sides in what was becoming a European War. So worried was the U.S. government about taking sides, in 1941, isolationist senators were investigating suspected anti-Nazi propaganda by Hollywood. The committee had gone as far as making a list of films with an anti-Nazi bent. (These hearings are little known because they were canceled on the morning of Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, and the findings were never reported.)

The Hays office and the production code discouraged or prohibited many types of political and satirical messages in films, requiring that the history and prominent people of other countries must be portrayed "fairly". Short films, though, like those starring the Stooges, were given less attention than features and apparently didn’t stop them from making the film.

Filmed between December 5 and 9, 1939, the film was released on January 19, 1940. Written by Felix Adler and Clyde Bruckman, the latter of whom had worked with Buster Keaton and W.C. Fields. The director was Jules White, head of Columbia Pictures' short-subject division. In the 1930’s, while other suppliers of comedy shorts Hal Roach, Educational Pictures and Universal Pictures were scaling back, Columbia was just ramping up. White was used to physical humor, which fit in well with The Three Stooges act. Rather than the physical humor of say, the Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges were much rougher. Rather than cutting a deck of cars with an ax, as Harpo does in Horse Feathers (1932), Moe is more likely to hit Larry over the head with one.

You Nazty Spy! featured a new title sequence including the Columbia logo's torch-bearing woman on the left-hand corner, standing on a pedestal where each step has printed out "Columbia," "Short Subject" and "Presentation." 

The short begins with a title card disclaimer that reads: "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle."

The story takes place in the fictional country of Moronika, where three munition manufacturers, Ixnay (Richard Fiske), Onay (Dick Curtis), and Amscray (Don Beddoe), are sitting around complaining about the lack of money they’re making. They blame their king, Herman the Sixth and Seven-Eights, and his policy of peace over war. Their solution is to instigate an overthrow of the King and install a dictatorship in his place. But who in the kingdom would be stupid enough to be a figurehead they could control?

Ixnay (Richard Fiske), Onay (Dick Curtis), and Amscray (Don Beddoe) meet with Moe Hailstone (Moe Howard), Curly Gallstone (Curly Howard) and Larry Pebble (Larry Fine) to discuss setting up a dictatorship.

Ixnay suggests they use one of the paper hangers working in his living room. They go in and we meet Moe Hailstone (Moe Howard), Curly Gallstone (Curly Howard), and Larry Pebble (Larry Fine). It is decided that Moe shall be the dictator, Curly his Field Marshal and Larry as Minister of Propaganda, send-ups of Adolph Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Joseph Goebbels respectively.

Moe, Curly and Larry accept the offer and give their own version of the Nazi salute.

They are told instigate a Beer Hall Putsch; to buy beer for a crowd and then lead them against the King. This apparently happens off camera, as next, we see the flag of Moronika features two snakes in the shape of a swastika and the phrase "Moronika for Morons".

Moe gives a parody of a Hitler speech flanked by his Field Marshal and Minister of Propaganda.

Next, we see the Stooges, Moe is making a speech on a balcony flanked by Curly and Larry. As Moe speaks about helping Moronika helping its neighbors and then helping themselves to their neighbors, Larry holds up signs directing the masses on how to respond. The signs read "CHEERS", "APPLAUSE", and, accidentally, "HISS".

The king's daughter (Lorna Gray) disguised as Moe's secretary.

Afterwards, Moe’s secretary, or stenographer as Curly calls her, is the king’s daughter (Lorna Gray). She announces to Moe that Mattie Herring (a spoof of World War I spy Mata Hari) is there to see him and then changes out of her secretary disguise. As Mattie, she comes to read Moe his future. Rather than a crystal ball, she uses an 8 ball, which she instructs Moe to sit behind. When the 8-ball gets busted in two, a note inside gives her away as the daughter of the King.

As Mattie Herring, she plays fortune teller with an 8-ball.

Suspecting her of being a spy, she is sentenced to death and Curly is supposed to execute her. But when he offers her a blindfold, she says “yes” and then puts it over Curly’s eyes. Curly, even though he can’t see anything, still tries to go through with the execution, but she takes the opportunity to make her escape.

Moe wants to have a round-meeting with neighboring countries, and when Larry points out that it is a square table, Moe gives him a saw to round it off with.

The map showing Moronika and the surrounding countries.

Then for some reason, a ballerina enters, dancing of course, and informs Moe that the delegates for the meeting have arrived. Moe tells those assembled that Moronika demands concessions from its neighbors, leading the delegates to start arguing with him. Curly quells them by knocking them out with golf balls.

But their triumph is short-lived. After the meeting, a large mob, led by the King and Mattie Herring, advance on the palace. The trio immediately abdicates and try to find a place to hide. They inadvertently run into a lion’s den and are eaten. The film ends with the lions wearing articles of the trio’s clothing. And if it’s not clear what took place, one of the lions burps.

The short was surprisingly successful, even playing at major theaters that had previously not shown their work. A sequel followed, I'll Never Heil Again, in 1941, the first in the Stooges film canon. By then, everyone was getting onboard the anti-Nazi bandwagon.

The short is in many ways typical fare from the Stooges; eyes are poked, heads are slapped and mayhem. It shows a limit to the Stooges repertoire, and parts of the act that would be used in pretty much every short they made. Theirs is a different type of physical humor that one sees in Charlie Chaplin and Marx Brothers movies.

There are some cultural references that many today may not get. An example is that while the Stooges are waiting for their fortune, they tell each other to shush, which turns into mimicking the sound of a train going down the track until stops. A conductor comes out of nowhere and announces All out for Syracuse!" Hearing that, Larry gets up and announces that it's his stop. Moe explains to a confused Mattie, that "The boy's from Syracuse" - a reference to the musical The Boys from Syracuse which premiered on Broadway in 1938.

The Stooges were all Ashkenazi Jews and would work in Yiddish into their dialogue. In Moe's imitation of a Hitler speech, he says "in pupik gehabt haben" (the semi-obscene "I've had it in the bellybutton" in Yiddish). The irony of hearing Hitler speaking Yiddish was not lost on the Yiddish-speaking Jews in the audience.

But the main aim of the film is to parody Hitler and Nazi Germany. The phrase on the flag "Moronika for Morons" is a direct play on the Nazi slogan "Deutschland den Deutschen" (Germany for Germans). Hitler’s failed attempt to take power in 1923, leading a Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, is also parodied. The reference to Hitler as a paper hanger refers to a 1937 speech by Cardinal George Mundelein of Chicago, who called Hitler an "Austrian paperhanger", perhaps because he was a failed artist. The nickname stuck, even though there is no evidence that Hitler actually ever made a living doing that.

Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 was as a figurehead of sorts. The Post World I German Weimar government was run by a coalition of fascists, communists, and socialists. All of the parties were pulling for power and when they had to elect a new Chancellor of Germany, none had enough votes to win the position. They decided to elect Hitler, as a puppet figurehead, because he seemed harmless enough.

In 1933, Hitler was elected by a democratic process to the position of Chancellor of Germany. Less than one month later, a fire broke out in the Reichstag building, similar to our Congress, known as the Reichstag Fire. Hitler seized on the moment and claimed the fire was really a coup attempt by the communists. The S.S. destroyed documents and framed the communists, the leaders of which were arrested and sent to Dachau -- the beginning of the concentration camps. As Chancellor of Germany, Hitler declared a state of emergency, taking away all personal rights and freedoms. The accidental fire allowed Hitler the opportunity to become Dictator.

The Three Stooges might not be to everyone’s taste, but you have to applaud them for being the first in mainstream Hollywood to satirize the Nazis and the Third Reich. There is a certain amount of bravery involved by not only the Stooges, but also the director and writers, not to mention Columbia Pictures, for going against the isolationist grain that was predominant at the time in the U.S. So, while you might not laugh out loud at the short, you have to appreciate the Stooges for taking a stand when no one else was willing to.

Stubs – Head (1968)

Head (1968) Starring Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Victor Mature, Annette Funicello, Carol Doda, Frank Zappa, Terry Garr, Sonny Liston. Directed by Bob Rafelson. Written by Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson.  Produced by Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson. Run time: 86 minuted. U.S. Color, Comedy, Musical, Satire.

It’s nearly impossible to talk about The Monkees without mentioning The Beatles, because you wouldn’t have the former without the latter. Bob Rafelson may have come up with the idea for the show in 1962, but it took the British Invasion, led by that group for Liverpool, and of course a catching theme song by writers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, to get it greenlit in 1965.

The TV Series, which had been aptly described like a little bit of Help! (1965) every week was filmed on many of the same sets that Columbia Pictures had built for the Three Stooges shorts and even some of the same props would be reused. The Monkees TV series only lasted two seasons, 1966-1968, but in that short period of time, the “band” had gone from lip-synching front men to demanding to play their own instruments. The Monkees had some very real success on the pop charts, posting several number one singles and albums. They even toured in 1967 with The Jimi Hendrix Experience as an opening act for a few of the gigs.

By the time the series was winding down, the group had already started work on a new venture, a feature film. With Rafelson and actor Jack Nicholson, the group met in Ojai and brainstormed ideas into a tape recorder. They also apparently smoked a lot of weed while doing so. Nicholson then took the tapes home and banged out a screenplay. He apparently took a lot of LSD while he did. The band members were upset about not getting writing credit and three of them boycotted the first day of production, February 15, 1968. The dispute would drive a permanent wedge between them and Rafelson, who not only did receive writing credit, but produced (along with Nicholson) and directed the film.

Production took place at the Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems Studios in Culver City and on the Columbia Ranch (now the Warner Bros. Ranch) in Burbank. There were also scenes shot on the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach; the Pasadena Rose Bowl; the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant in Playa Del Rey; Bronson Canyon; Palm Springs; the Valley Music Hall, Salt Lake City; and the Bahamas. Filming completed on May 17, 1968 on a budget of reportedly about $750,000.

The film is touted, at least on the DVD case, as being “A Hard Day’s Night on acid” but it’s more like a poor man’s Magical Mystery Tour (1967). Trailers at the time called it "most extraordinary adventure, western, comedy, love story, mystery, drama, musical, documentary satire ever made (And that's putting it mildly)."  And yes, the film does touch on all of these genres, but it never really does anything with any of them.

The film starts with a ribbon cutting ceremony on the Gerald Desmond Bridge, which is interrupted by the Monkees. Micky Dolenz is in hot pursuit by the other members, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith and Davy Jones. Micky jumps over the railing and falls into the sea where we’re treated, if that’s the right word, to The Porpoise Song, the best known of the songs from the film.

Micky Dolenz about to jump from the Gerald Desmond Bridge.

The colors become distorted the way psychedelic films do and transition into a scene where a girl is in the Monkee pad kissing all four boys one by one as if judging who is the best kisser. On the way out, she relays to Micky that there really isn’t a difference. After she leaves, the screen gets thumbnailed.

We’re next treated to a mockup of The Monkees theme, written by Jack Nicholson. Called the Ditty Diego Chant!, which parodies the Boyce-Hart song. In the song they admit to being a manufactured band amongst other things. The video sequence accompanying it shows what would now be called a thumbnail from pretty much every scene in the film, ending with the horrific piece of footage from the Vietnam war of a local prefect shooting a suspected Viet Cong in the head at close range. This sequence would be replayed several times throughout the film.

After that, we’re thrown in and out of genres and situations, from War to Westerns and on and on. Along the way some famous people show up. Green Bay Packer Ray Nitschke (Private One) wearing a football uniform continually tackles Peter Tork as he runs through the trenches to get ammo that his company commander Mike had sent him to get.

Micheal Nesmith, Davy Jones, Micky and Peter Tork in the film's take on war films.

The band plays live, in Utah, while footage from Vietnam is mixed in with the band performing and throngs of young girls screaming. The girls rush the stage and literally pull the boys apart.

The band performing live in Head.

The film uses some stock footage, including Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, interspersed with clips from various unrelated movies, including some clips of Bela Lugosi, local car commercials and what not. In the desert, we see Micky Dolenz rolling down a sand dune. Thirsty for water, he comes across a Coke machine in the middle of nowhere, but it’s empty.

Micky can't believe the Coke machine is empty.

After Micky struggles with it for a while, an Italian tank comes over the dune and Vito Scotti (I. Vitteloni) gets out. He surrenders the tank and his weapons to Micky, followed by a platoon of Italian soldiers, all who drop their weapons and march off to be POWs. Micky gets into the tank and blows up the Coke machine.

We end up in a Western, so to speak, with one of the first of our cameo appearances, Terri Garr, then credited as Terry Garr (Testy True). Actually, this is only a cameo since Ms. Garr has gone on to bigger and better things. She was still pretty new to Hollywood and this is actually her first lines in a movie, even though they aren’t much and don’t really have anything to do with the story, but of course, there isn’t one.

Cameos continue throughout with Davy boxing Sonny Liston (Extra) in a one-sided fight, even though his girlfriend, Annette Funicello (Teresa/Minnie), in a “spoof” of 30’s boxing films, tries her best to convince him to stick with the violin and not get into the ring. Micky is sitting with Michael assuring him that Davy will take the dive he’s supposed to. Sitting next to Michael is Carol Doda (Sally Silicone), the famous enhanced topless dancer. This sort of spoof was handled much better in Movie Movie (1978).

Davy Jones picks Sonny Liston as his foil in a boxing match.

After Micky walks off the Western set and through the backdrop, the boys end up in a coffee shop on the lot, where a man dressed as a woman who runs the place trades insults with the boys before Peter finally punches him. But Peter frets openly to Bob (Rafelson) as the director about how the kids will react to it. With Bob are Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper, but the latter is only briefly on the screen and says nothing as he passes through.

The boys end up on a tour of a plant, the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant, where Davy notices some strange goings on that the others, including their tour guide, ignore. No one listens to him until they are trapped in a cargo container. They end up being a part of a dandruff commercial on actor Victor Mature’s (The Big Victor) head and are vacuumed up by his assistant.

While Micky, Mike and Peter end up in the canister, Davy gets hung up in the hose and then manages to escape into his own song and dance routine, Daddy’s Song, with Toni Basil, years before her own hit single, “Mickey” in 1982.

Davy gets one song and dance number, "Daddy's Song".

When he leaves the stage Davy is accosted by Frank Zappa, who critiques the number as being awfully white, before walking off with a cow.

Frank Zappa makes a cameo, walking a cow and criticizing Davy's performance.

The others escape the container, but not the movie. The rest of which is sort of a hodge podge of ideas, most centering around interactions with Timothy Carey (Lord High 'n' Low), both in and out of a Western movie set. The boys unsurprisingly end up back in the container, but this time it gets dumped out in the middle of the desert.

The Monkees keep having run-ins with Lord High 'n' Low (Timothy Carey) throughout Head.

At this point, all the various characters they’ve interacted with during the movie come at them all at once. The boys start running off, with Micky in the lead. They end up back on the Gerald Desmond Bridge and this time we see all four boys leap into the water. This time, they end up in a giant fish tank being pulled on a tractor with Victor Mature sitting on the platform behind the tank.

All the boys end up in the water at the end of Head.

The soundtrack music at the end has an almost Help! feel about it, which isn’t that surprising since Ken Thorne, who did the score for Head, also did it for that earlier Beatles film.

This is a stream of consciousness mixed with mind-altering drugs sort of experience and is more like a bad dream than a good movie. Judging by its initial reception, I’m not alone in this opinion.

The movie opened on November 6, 1968 to less than stellar reviews or boxoffice, earning a paltry $16,111. Part of the problem with the box office might be laid at the feet of the film’s marketing. There were no pictures of the Monkees on the original poster (see above); only a picture of John Brockman, who did the PR for the film. The sole television ad also featured Brockman with a close-up shot of his head. After 30 seconds he smiles and the name HEAD appeared on his forehead. The ad was an apparent parody of Andy Warhol's film Blow Job (1963), which only showed a close-up of a man's face for an extended period, supposedly receiving 'head'. Needless to say the ads and promotions were a complete failure. Perhaps whoever devised it was as high as everyone else related to the production.

There are a few films from this time period which I personally blame on LSD. The aforementioned Magical Mystery Tour, How I Won The War (1967), the original Casino Royale (1967) and this one.  All were made about the same time and most are pretty much unwatchable unless you’re also imbibing. What sets Magical Mystery Tour above most is the thin plot device that it is a holiday bus tour. There is no plot to hold onto with Head. Another thing that helps Magical Mystery Tour is that it features the Beatles and several of their songs, including “I Am The Walrus”. Head features Beatle-wannabes and some fairly uninteresting songs. Even a “bad” Beatles song beats anything that appears in this film.

Head is really a relic of the 1960s, with its use of psychedelic coloring, its repeated references to the Vietnam War, Transcendental Meditation and it’s obvious drug culture influence. Head has midnight movie written all over it. It’s perhaps best if you don’t pay too close attention to it. Now, I know there are some die-hard Monkees fans out there, but I can’t imagine they really love this film either. While this is more than just an elongated Monkees episode, it is also devoid of much of the zany fun that made that series worth watching.