Charlie Chaplin. One Day She’ll Love Me
A music video of three Charlie Chaplin movies, “The Gold Rush”, “City Lights”, and “Modern Times” to the song “One Day She’ll Love Me” sung by Sting and Shawn Colvin.
Batman TAS: Mad Love. (the Harley Quinn origin story)
Harley reflects on what led to her partnering with the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker.
The comic book that this episode was adapted from was originally released in 1994 as a special issue of The Batman Adventures based on the show Batman: The Animated Series. It won the Eisner Award for “Best Single Story.”
Poison Ivy is seen in Arkham Asylum during the flashback to Harley Quinn’s origins, meaning that this episode takes place at least after Poison Ivy’s premiere episode, “Pretty Poison”. This episode takes place with the designs of Batman and the Joker from Batman Gotham Knights in Harley’s flashback of how she became Harley Quinn. But at that time she was in Batman: The Animated Series which had different designs for them.
Allusions:
Joker: May the Floss be with you. This is a direct allusion to the movie Star Wars, even more so because it was Mark Hamill, voicing the Joker, who said it as Luke Skywalker.
Title: While there have been several movies by this name, the title almost certainly alludes to the most famous – the 1935 movie starring Peter Lorre as an insane doctor obsessed with a beautiful woman who replaces her mutilated hands with those of a knife murderer.
Casablanca. Dueling Anthems
Amazing scene from Casablanca.
There is a scene about halfway through the movie Casablanca that has become commonly known as ‘The Battle of the Anthems’ throughout the film’s long history. A group of German soldiers has come into Rick’s Café American and are drunkenly singing the German National Anthem at the top of their voice. Victor Lazlo, the leader of the French Resistance, cannot stand this act and while the rest of the club stares appalled at the Germans, Lazlo orders the band to play ‘Le Marseilles (sic?)’ the French National Anthem. With a nod from Rick, the band begins playing, with Victor singing at the top of HIS voice. This in turn, inspires the whole club to begin singing and the Germans are forced to surrender and sit down at their table, humbled by the crowd’s dedication. This scene is a turning point in the movie, for reasons that I leave to you to discover.
As I watched this movie again for what must be the 100th time, I noticed there was a much smaller scene wrapped inside the bigger scene that, unless you look for it, you may never notice. Yvonne, a minor character who is hurt by Rick emotionally, falls into the company of a German soldier. In a land occupied by the Germans, but populated by the French, this is an unforgivable sin. She comes into the bar desperately seeking happiness in the club’s wine, song, and gambling. Later, as the Germans begin singing we catch a glimpse of Yvonne sitting dejectedly at a table alone and in this brief glimpse, it is conveyed that she has discovered that this is not her path to fulfillment and she has no idea where to go from there. As the singing progresses, we see Yvonne slowly become inspired by Lazlo’s act of defiance and by the end of the song, tears streaming down her face, she is singing at the top of her voice too. She has found her redemption. She has found something that will make her life never the same again from that point on.
Basically, this is Casablanca in a nutshell. On the surface, you may see it as a romance, or as a story of intrigue, but that is only partially correct.
The thing that makes Casablanca great is that it speaks to that place in each of us that seeks some kind of inspiration or redemption. On some level, every character in the story receives the same kind of catharsis and their lives are irrevocably changed. Rick’s is the most obvious in that he learns to live again, instead of hiding from a lost love. He is reminded that there are things in the world more noble and important than he is and he wants to be a part of them. Louis, the scoundrel, gets his redemption by seeing the sacrifice Rick makes and is inspired to choose a side, where he had maintained careful neutrality. The stoic Lazlo gets his redemption by being shown that while thousands may need him to be a hero, there is someone he can rely upon when he needs inspiration in the form of his wife, who was ready to sacrifice her happiness for the chance that he would go on living. Even Ferrai, the local organized crime leader gets a measure of redemption by pointing Ilsa and Lazlo to Rick as a source of escape even though there is nothing in it for him.
This is the beauty of this movie. Every time I see it (and I have seen it a lot) it never fails that I see some subtle nuance that I have never seen before. Considering that the director would put that much meaning into what is basically a throw away moment (not the entire scene, but Yvonne’s portion) speaks bundles about the quality of the film. My wife and I watched this movie on our first date, and since that first time over 12 years ago, it has grown to be, in my mind, the greatest movie ever made. (user rdryan on imdb)
Wario Obey Commercial
I remember seeing this a lot on tv. It didn’t make me buy the game, but I still liked it.
At The Circus. Marx Brothers. Midget Bullying
The Brothers step into strange territory, try to trick a midget, and fail. There’s a moral in there somewhere.
From At The Circus.
Maya the Bee Intro
Based on the children’s book by German Author Waldemar Bonsels, Maya the Bee first aired as a cartoon in 1975 in Japan and West Germany. Maya would sometimes get into trouble. others in the cast include her brother Willi, Grimelda, Flip the Grasshopper and Ms. Cassandra. It began airing in the U.S on Nickelodeon for 2 years from 1990-1992.
Citizen Kane. How to Run a Newspaper
“You’re right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in… 60 years.”
The principal source for the story of Citizen Kane was the life of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, and the film is seen by critics as a fictionalized parody of Hearst. Hearst often entertained Hollywood celebrities at Hearst Castle (just north of San Luis Obispo, California)—but only as long as they revealed secrets that would be published the following week in the Hearst newspapers. Because of this quid pro quo, Hearst was widely resented by many actors and directors in Hollywood, and Citizen Kane was seen by many as payback for Hearst’s exploits.
The most overt reference to Hearst comes early in the film, as Kane (played by Welles) provides a quote that paraphrases an apocryphal quote attributed to Hearst on the Spanish American War: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Kane states, “You provide the prose poems, I’ll provide the war.” (In real life, Hearst denied saying it, and the only source for the quote is a James Creelman memoir published several years after the statement was reportedly made.)
Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. The Walrus and the Carpenter
The Walrus and the Carpenter or the story of the curious oysters…
Without question, the best depiction of this story within a story.
The Walrus and the Carpenter are the titular characters in the poem, which is recited by Tweedledee and Tweedledum to Alice. Walking upon a beach one “sunny” night, the Walrus and Carpenter come upon some oysters, four of whom they invite to join them – however, to the disapproval of the eldest oyster, many more follow them. After walking along the beach, the two titular characters get hungry and eat all of the oysters. Afterward, the Walrus regrets his actions and cries, mostly because now there are no more oysters for him to eat.
In the movie Dogma (directed by Kevin Smith), a fallen angel named Loki explains his theory that the poem is really an indictment of organized religion (despite Carroll being an Anglican clergyman), with the Walrus representing Eastern religions (either Buddha or Ganesha) and the Carpenter referring to Jesus and Western religions in general. Loki chides them for eating the innocent oysters, which represent the masses under their sway. A further twist to this satirical episode is that Loki, who uses this interpretation specifically to undermine and test the beliefs of a Catholic nun with whom he is speaking, knows these beliefs to be right through his own first hand knowledge of God. Loki states he does this to the clergy to “keep them on their toes” implying he does this to test their faith and later strengthened it should they recover.
Marx Brothers: “I’ll Say She Is”
A scene from a 1931 Paramount publicity film called The House That Shadows Built and the Four Marx Brothers appear to promote Monkey Business. It’s actually a reworking of a scene from their Broadway revue “I”ll Say She Is!” where they all do their Maurice Chevalier impressions (again) while trying to impress a talent scout.
This clip is from the fantastic Marx Brothers documentary “The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell.”
Are You Afraid of the Dark. Nightly Neighbors
This was the first Are you Afraid of the Dark I saw. I was in my parents room watching their tv and felt like I was staying up super late. I loved the show for awhile but as the endings to the tales got more and more tame and happy, I got bored with it.