Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.
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Richard Willis > Captain ComicsAugust 7, 2024 at 11:29pm
Looking for the 1962 movie, I discovered that there was an earlier movie, Doctor Syn (1937), 78 minutes, available in full on YouTube, which I'm currently watching.
Looking at the IMDB description of the 1962 movie, using the term Royal Crown and containing a character called Doctor Pepper, I half expected another called Coca Cola.
In the early 60s British terminology was still very polite. I’ll never forget that an article from one of the staid newspapers of the time said that a woman’s torso (just the torso) found in the river hadn’t been “interfered with,” as in “attacked.”
In the Western I'm reading now (written in America in 1936), the villain has kidnapped the hero's girlfriend in order to keep him from completing a government contract on time and makes two demands: not to trail him and to slow down work on the railroad. "If he disregards Number One," the villain says to his men, "[she] will be killed outright. If he pushes the contract through on time, she'll be returned to him, but as damaged goods."
Disney's Scarecrow of Romney Marsh is much better than Night Creatures. Patrick Mcgoohan is excellent in the dual role of the reverend and the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow is suprisingly creepy for a 1960's Disney TV show. Funny thing when I wanted to watch it last winter it was not available on Disney Plus, I found it on You Tube.
THE LONE RANGER (1956) & THE LONE RANGER AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1958):
I have known about these movies for some time, but watched them for the first time only this week. I liked the first one more than the second, but both are far better than the 1981 or the 2013 versions (as if that even needed to be said). The plots are more complex than can be resolved in a half hour episode, and the production really benefits from a movie (as opposed to a television show) budget. There are many familiar faces from the TV show in both movies (lots of "that guy" actors), plus the great Michael Ansara as "Angry Horse" in the first. I have a memory of an alternate TV theme song ("Six Texas Rangers - Alone on the Trail - Six Texas Rangers rode into an ambush, one lived to tell the tale"), but I can't find it anywhere online. The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold has a version of the song I rememeber, but it's a different arrangment and the lyrics are different. The first movie is filmed on location in Utah, the second in Arizona (13 miles away from where my mother-in-law lived). One of these days, I'm going to make a pilgrimage to the former site of the Iverson Movie Ranch and pay a visit to the rock in Chatsworth, Ca. where the opening of the TV show was filmed.
THE LONE RANGER (1956) & THE LONE RANGER AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1958)
If I were going to illustrate to some uninitiated soul what made Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels so impressive as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, I would simply show him these two films. For all the right reasons, including the higher production values you pointed out, Jeff, these two motion pictures demonstrate why these two men were the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Mr. Moore delivered the Ranger's high principles of justice and morality so sincerely and with such conviction that the viewer believed in them, too. Yet, Moore's Masked Man was not a Dudley Do-Right. The Ranger was well aware of the evil that men do and understood how even good men can falter, and he took that into account when dealing with people.
A few pages back, Jeff, you stated that you liked John Hart's performance during the two seasons he played the Lone Ranger. I have liked Mr. Hart's performances in other rôles---but not as the Masked Man. Hart was too wooden and his portrayal edged the Ranger too close to the melodramatically stalwart "Along Came Jones" heroes of the silent movie serials. As you pointed out, he wasn't popular with the other Lone Ranger viewers, either. In his autobiography, I Was That Masked Man (Taylor Trade, 1998), Clayton Moore stated that he did not know why Jack Wrather replaced him with Mr. Hart. Mr. Wrather assumed that it didn't matter who was behind the mask, but two seasons of sagging ratings informed him that the audience was more perceptive than he had realised, and Moore was asked back.
Modern-day virtue-signalers attack the show's depiction of Tonto. But that's based on anecdotal evidence and, admittedly, Tonto's broken English. If someone wants to give the Indian's grammar a downcheck, fine. But, otherwise, there is nothing to contemn. Tonto was intelligent, capable, resourceful, and more perceptive than almost everyone around him. And Jay Silverheels invested dignity and integrity in the character. Tonto was no "fetch my boots" underling. The relationship between him and the Lone Ranger was one of the most striking examples of friendship and loyalty you'll find on the big or small screen.
You've got me in the mood to watch those two films again, Jeff. I'll have to see if one of the Roku channels has them.
If I were going to illustrate to some unitiated soul what made Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels so impressive as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, I would simply show him these two films.
I have been trying to decide whether to show the first movie or the first three episodes of the TV series to my young niece and nephew to introduce them to the Lone Ranger if I ever have the opportunity. You've just tipped me toward the movie. One thing I noticed about the movie is that not a lot of time is spent releating the Ranger's "origin" story. (Tonto orally relates the story of Silver to another character, and the Ranger briefly summarizes his own origin.) That's where so many "recent" super-hero movies lose me; each reboot feels it necessary to recap the main character's origin in detail. Can't we just admit everyone is familiar with Superman and Batman and move on?
Mr. Moore delivered the Ranger's high principles of justice and morality so sincerely and with such conviction that the viewer believed in them, too.
He was like that IRL, too.
A few pages back, Jeff, you stated that you liked John Hart's performance during the two seasons he played the Lone Ranger.
I don't disagree with your assessment of the relative merits of John Hart vs. Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger. What I was getting at was that, had Hart assayed the role first, he would have been perfectly fine.
Mr. Wrather assumed that it didn't matter who was behind the mask...
His attitude is not unlike that of Martin Goodman toward Timely's characters.
The relationship between [Tonto] and the Lone Ranger was one of the most striking examples of friendship and loyalty you'll find on the big or small screen.
One thing that struck me while rewatching season three recently is the rapport between John Hart and Jay Silverheels.
You've got me in the mood to watch those two films again, Jeff. I'll have to see if one of the Roku channels has them.
Good luck fonding them and I hope you enjoy them. If you can't find them streaming, I bought the "two-fer" DVD off Amazon for eight bucks.
Back to John Hart...
I was no longer watching Happy Days when Fonzi met The Lone Ranger, but I do remember watching that particular episode. (Whether that was before or after he "jumped the shark" I don't know), I don't remember if I tuned in specifically because I knew in advance the Lone Ranger was going to be on it or I just happened to catch it, but I do remember being disappaointed that they cast John Hart rather than Clayton Moore.
While I was poking around YouTube I was excited to find this video of The Lone Ranger in St. Louis - 1980 because I was there! I I attended two of those shows: one in St. Ann (which is in St.Louis Country) and one in St. Charles (my hometown). Unfortunately, this footage is from neither of those shows. :(
Can't we just admit everyoine is familiar with Superman and Batman and move on?
Well, you'd think that was true ...
Last year my sister-in-law was visiting and it came up in conversation that she had never seen the 1989 Batman. So after dinner we popped it in. After a while, she said, "Why do they keep showing this Bruce Wayne guy? I want more Batman!"
Joan and I thought at first she was joking, but no, she was genuinely confused. I finally choked out "Because ... Bruce Wayne ... IS ... Batman."
And she said grumpily, "Well, how was I supposed to know that?"
So let's not jump to any conclusions. My SIL is an outlier in our community, but in her community (rural evangelical Alabama), she's probably the norm.
JD DeLuzio > Captain ComicsAugust 19, 2024 at 11:58am
Wait... No, wait.... Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered by a criminal when he was a child.... He witnessed it.... He has zillions of dollars and the physique of a heavyweight.... I think you're right! I think that Bruce Wayne IS Batman!
The Baron > Captain ComicsAugust 19, 2024 at 4:43pm
It's a tricky business. As a group, we tend to know a lot about comics, and I think that we are in danger of forgetting that what is "common knowledge" to us is "esoterica" to more people than we would believe. I daresay that anyone who posts here regularly could easily name a hundred super-heroes and their secret identities without having to look them up. Heck, simply naming the members of the Avengers, Defenders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Justice League, Justice Society, Doom Patrol, Legion of Super-Heroes and Freedom Fighters that you could remember off the top of your head would probably get you over a hundred without you having to dredge your memory for the names of the Heroes of Lallor. I'm confident that there are several of us that could get up to two hundred if they wanted to.
I can easily imagine the following scenario:
Questioner: "What is the secret identity of the Green Lantern?"
One of Us: "Which Green Lantern? Alan Scott? Hal Jordan? John Stewart? Charlie Vicker? Guy Gardner? Kyle Rayner? Len Lewis? Jessica Cruz? Simon Baz? Jo Mullein? Tai Pham? Don't even get me started on the alien ones, we'd be here all day."
Joe Non-Fan: "What's a 'Green Lantern'?"
A "real-life" example of this sort of thing:
Nineteen (!) years ago, I went with my cousin and her husband to see the Peter Jackson re-make of King Kong. Afterwards, she allowed as how she had enjoyed the film, but that she had been surprised and saddened that "the monkey" had died at the end. I was astonished by this. I would've bet money that anyone of her age and background (largely the same as my own) would've known of Kong's fate by "cultural osmosis", even if they hadn't seen the 1933 film or its 1976 re-make. After that, I learned not to assume that what is "obvious" to me is necessarily "obvious" to someone else.
Replies
Looking for the 1962 movie, I discovered that there was an earlier movie, Doctor Syn (1937), 78 minutes, available in full on YouTube, which I'm currently watching.
Looking at the IMDB description of the 1962 movie, using the term Royal Crown and containing a character called Doctor Pepper, I half expected another called Coca Cola.
In the early 60s British terminology was still very polite. I’ll never forget that an article from one of the staid newspapers of the time said that a woman’s torso (just the torso) found in the river hadn’t been “interfered with,” as in “attacked.”
In the Western I'm reading now (written in America in 1936), the villain has kidnapped the hero's girlfriend in order to keep him from completing a government contract on time and makes two demands: not to trail him and to slow down work on the railroad. "If he disregards Number One," the villain says to his men, "[she] will be killed outright. If he pushes the contract through on time, she'll be returned to him, but as damaged goods."
Disney's Scarecrow of Romney Marsh is much better than Night Creatures. Patrick Mcgoohan is excellent in the dual role of the reverend and the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow is suprisingly creepy for a 1960's Disney TV show. Funny thing when I wanted to watch it last winter it was not available on Disney Plus, I found it on You Tube.
Alien (1979): An interesting observation.
ARTICLE
THE LONE RANGER (1956) & THE LONE RANGER AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1958):
I have known about these movies for some time, but watched them for the first time only this week. I liked the first one more than the second, but both are far better than the 1981 or the 2013 versions (as if that even needed to be said). The plots are more complex than can be resolved in a half hour episode, and the production really benefits from a movie (as opposed to a television show) budget. There are many familiar faces from the TV show in both movies (lots of "that guy" actors), plus the great Michael Ansara as "Angry Horse" in the first. I have a memory of an alternate TV theme song ("Six Texas Rangers - Alone on the Trail - Six Texas Rangers rode into an ambush, one lived to tell the tale"), but I can't find it anywhere online. The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold has a version of the song I rememeber, but it's a different arrangment and the lyrics are different. The first movie is filmed on location in Utah, the second in Arizona (13 miles away from where my mother-in-law lived). One of these days, I'm going to make a pilgrimage to the former site of the Iverson Movie Ranch and pay a visit to the rock in Chatsworth, Ca. where the opening of the TV show was filmed.
MOVIE VERSION
THE LONE RANGER (1956) & THE LONE RANGER AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1958)
If I were going to illustrate to some uninitiated soul what made Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels so impressive as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, I would simply show him these two films. For all the right reasons, including the higher production values you pointed out, Jeff, these two motion pictures demonstrate why these two men were the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Mr. Moore delivered the Ranger's high principles of justice and morality so sincerely and with such conviction that the viewer believed in them, too. Yet, Moore's Masked Man was not a Dudley Do-Right. The Ranger was well aware of the evil that men do and understood how even good men can falter, and he took that into account when dealing with people.
A few pages back, Jeff, you stated that you liked John Hart's performance during the two seasons he played the Lone Ranger. I have liked Mr. Hart's performances in other rôles---but not as the Masked Man. Hart was too wooden and his portrayal edged the Ranger too close to the melodramatically stalwart "Along Came Jones" heroes of the silent movie serials. As you pointed out, he wasn't popular with the other Lone Ranger viewers, either. In his autobiography, I Was That Masked Man (Taylor Trade, 1998), Clayton Moore stated that he did not know why Jack Wrather replaced him with Mr. Hart. Mr. Wrather assumed that it didn't matter who was behind the mask, but two seasons of sagging ratings informed him that the audience was more perceptive than he had realised, and Moore was asked back.
Modern-day virtue-signalers attack the show's depiction of Tonto. But that's based on anecdotal evidence and, admittedly, Tonto's broken English. If someone wants to give the Indian's grammar a downcheck, fine. But, otherwise, there is nothing to contemn. Tonto was intelligent, capable, resourceful, and more perceptive than almost everyone around him. And Jay Silverheels invested dignity and integrity in the character. Tonto was no "fetch my boots" underling. The relationship between him and the Lone Ranger was one of the most striking examples of friendship and loyalty you'll find on the big or small screen.
You've got me in the mood to watch those two films again, Jeff. I'll have to see if one of the Roku channels has them.
If I were going to illustrate to some unitiated soul what made Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels so impressive as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, I would simply show him these two films.
I have been trying to decide whether to show the first movie or the first three episodes of the TV series to my young niece and nephew to introduce them to the Lone Ranger if I ever have the opportunity. You've just tipped me toward the movie. One thing I noticed about the movie is that not a lot of time is spent releating the Ranger's "origin" story. (Tonto orally relates the story of Silver to another character, and the Ranger briefly summarizes his own origin.) That's where so many "recent" super-hero movies lose me; each reboot feels it necessary to recap the main character's origin in detail. Can't we just admit everyone is familiar with Superman and Batman and move on?
Mr. Moore delivered the Ranger's high principles of justice and morality so sincerely and with such conviction that the viewer believed in them, too.
He was like that IRL, too.
A few pages back, Jeff, you stated that you liked John Hart's performance during the two seasons he played the Lone Ranger.
I don't disagree with your assessment of the relative merits of John Hart vs. Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger. What I was getting at was that, had Hart assayed the role first, he would have been perfectly fine.
Mr. Wrather assumed that it didn't matter who was behind the mask...
His attitude is not unlike that of Martin Goodman toward Timely's characters.
The relationship between [Tonto] and the Lone Ranger was one of the most striking examples of friendship and loyalty you'll find on the big or small screen.
One thing that struck me while rewatching season three recently is the rapport between John Hart and Jay Silverheels.
You've got me in the mood to watch those two films again, Jeff. I'll have to see if one of the Roku channels has them.
Good luck fonding them and I hope you enjoy them. If you can't find them streaming, I bought the "two-fer" DVD off Amazon for eight bucks.
Back to John Hart...
I was no longer watching Happy Days when Fonzi met The Lone Ranger, but I do remember watching that particular episode. (Whether that was before or after he "jumped the shark" I don't know), I don't remember if I tuned in specifically because I knew in advance the Lone Ranger was going to be on it or I just happened to catch it, but I do remember being disappaointed that they cast John Hart rather than Clayton Moore.
While I was poking around YouTube I was excited to find this video of The Lone Ranger in St. Louis - 1980 because I was there! I I attended two of those shows: one in St. Ann (which is in St.Louis Country) and one in St. Charles (my hometown). Unfortunately, this footage is from neither of those shows. :(
Can't we just admit everyoine is familiar with Superman and Batman and move on?
Well, you'd think that was true ...
Last year my sister-in-law was visiting and it came up in conversation that she had never seen the 1989 Batman. So after dinner we popped it in. After a while, she said, "Why do they keep showing this Bruce Wayne guy? I want more Batman!"
Joan and I thought at first she was joking, but no, she was genuinely confused. I finally choked out "Because ... Bruce Wayne ... IS ... Batman."
And she said grumpily, "Well, how was I supposed to know that?"
So let's not jump to any conclusions. My SIL is an outlier in our community, but in her community (rural evangelical Alabama), she's probably the norm.
Wait... No, wait.... Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered by a criminal when he was a child.... He witnessed it.... He has zillions of dollars and the physique of a heavyweight.... I think you're right! I think that Bruce Wayne IS Batman!
It's a tricky business. As a group, we tend to know a lot about comics, and I think that we are in danger of forgetting that what is "common knowledge" to us is "esoterica" to more people than we would believe. I daresay that anyone who posts here regularly could easily name a hundred super-heroes and their secret identities without having to look them up. Heck, simply naming the members of the Avengers, Defenders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Justice League, Justice Society, Doom Patrol, Legion of Super-Heroes and Freedom Fighters that you could remember off the top of your head would probably get you over a hundred without you having to dredge your memory for the names of the Heroes of Lallor. I'm confident that there are several of us that could get up to two hundred if they wanted to.
I can easily imagine the following scenario:
Questioner: "What is the secret identity of the Green Lantern?"
One of Us: "Which Green Lantern? Alan Scott? Hal Jordan? John Stewart? Charlie Vicker? Guy Gardner? Kyle Rayner? Len Lewis? Jessica Cruz? Simon Baz? Jo Mullein? Tai Pham? Don't even get me started on the alien ones, we'd be here all day."
Joe Non-Fan: "What's a 'Green Lantern'?"
A "real-life" example of this sort of thing:
Nineteen (!) years ago, I went with my cousin and her husband to see the Peter Jackson re-make of King Kong. Afterwards, she allowed as how she had enjoyed the film, but that she had been surprised and saddened that "the monkey" had died at the end. I was astonished by this. I would've bet money that anyone of her age and background (largely the same as my own) would've known of Kong's fate by "cultural osmosis", even if they hadn't seen the 1933 film or its 1976 re-make. After that, I learned not to assume that what is "obvious" to me is necessarily "obvious" to someone else.
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