Electric Dreams and Just Imagine: Two Quaint Science Fiction Comedies

In this entry, I'm going to look at two futuristic comedies made more amusing by the fact that they were so of their time. Sadly, neither of these movies are commonly available, but both can be found if you know where to look.

Electric Dreams, by Steve Barron, 1984

In the 1980's, the dawning age of home computers was all the rage. There are tons of classic movies from the era looking at this new technology, from Tron, to War Games, to Weird Science. For some reason, as time made classics of these films, Steve Barron's Electric Dreams fell by the wayside.

Electric Dreams follows Miles (Lenny Von Dohlen), a man who purchases a home computer to help him with his work as an architect. He gets way into his computer and buys all sorts of nonsensical add-ons, giving his computer control of all the appliances in his house. When he spills a bottle of champagne on the keyboard, the computer (of course) gains sentience (and amorousness). The computer, named Edgar, is voiced by Bud Cort. Things heat up when they both fall for the cute cellist next door (a young Virginia Madsen), and a jealous Edgar tries to woo her away by composing electronic songs for her and sabotaging Miles' life.

It's a very cheesy and VERY 80's movie, but I have a soft spot for stuff like this. There are a lot of clever scenes in it, and though it's not a great movie, it certainly has its moments. It has very good music, too. The score is by synthesizer wizard Giorgio Moroder, best known (by me, anyway) for producing a new wave version of Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis, and the soundtrack features songs by Jeff Lynne and Culture Club, among others.

Now I know I said Electric Dreams is not a great movie, but I would argue that in it's way, it's kind of an important movie. You see, director Steve Barron, who permanently has a place in my heart for directing the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, will probably be best remembered for directing some of the most important and groundbreaking music videos of the early MTV era. Michael Jackson's Billie Jean? That's his. A-ha's Take On Me? His too. Dire Straits' Money for Nothing, Thomas Dolby's She Blinded Me With Science... If you're a child of the 80's, you get the picture.

When Electric Dreams came out, it drew criticism for having a flashy, MTV-style look. The editing feels just like an 80's music video. Videos didn't yet have the respect and acceptance as an art form that they came to earn (due in no small part to Barron's work). Flash forward a decade and many of the most acclaimed movie directors were coming out of MTV, from David Fincher to Spike Jonze to Michel Gondry. Now Barron's editing technique is completely accepted and even internalized in the industry. Electric Dreams, though firmly dated by its tone and content as a movie from 1984, is, in a way, years ahead of its time.

Just Imagine, by David Butler, 1930

I'm genuinely surprised that Just Imagine is not officially available on DVD, or even to stream. It's a true curiosity of its time, one of only a few science fiction features to be released in the 1930's, and a musical, to boot.

Just Imagine takes a look at earth in the distant future of 1980(!), where people are named with numbers (this was five years before Social Security), the government chooses who a woman must marry (they're working on that now), and couples order their babies from vending machines (why not just have sex?). Fear not, some things are still the same. The cops are still Irish stereotypes.

Our hero is J-21 (John Garrick), a man who wishes to marry his sweetheart, LN-18 (Maureen O'Sullivan), but must find a way to distinguish himself before the judge chooses her other suitor, MT-3 (Kenneth Thomson), a rich, mean jerk. J-21's best friend, RT-42 tries to cheer him up by taking him to watch some scientists revive a man who had died in 1930, who they take under their wing. He takes the name Single 0, and is played by El Brendel, a vaudevillian whose schtick was playing a bumbling Swedish immigrant, which seems weird and totally random but probably made more sense in 1930, because he made a ton of movies. Together, in hopes that J-21 will gain the fame necessary to win LN-18, they make the first flight to Mars, where an adventure awaits them.

The futuristic world is gloriously ridiculous, with wonderful, top notch production design, but as this was a year into the Great Depression, most of the jokes are gentle pokes at the world of 1930. When Single 0 asks if Prohibition is still on, they tell him that the government is talking about legalizing wines and beers. His response: "They're still saying that?"

The musical numbers are a little lacking. None of the songs are about the future! They're all about the 1930's, or things the audience could relate to, I guess. They could have been a whole lot more clever. There's one song, no kidding, about how J-21 wants an old fashioned girl like his grandmother. While he sings this they cut to shots of LN-18 as a modern 1930's woman doing 1930's things. You know, like smoking cigarettes. There is one really cool musical number toward the end, with a bunch of sexy martian women dancing in worship of the huge martian god statue.

Just Imagine is certainly no Metropolis, but it's one of the few cinematic attempts to look into the future we have from that time. Though most of the movie consists of cute observations and sentimentality, beggars can't be choosers.

Grab Bag: Tunes of Glory, Another Woman, Underwater Love (Onna No Kappa)

Hey, I have another three reviews ready here, just thought I'd throw in a quick little disclaimer. In my third review, there is a photograph of a lady's BOTTOM. I know, scandalous, right? I just thought you should know that this entry is mildly NSFW (Not Safe For Work, for the internet lingo uninitiated), so don't go scrolling down when your boss is walking by, alright? You've been warned!

Tunes of Glory, by Ronald Neame, 1960

Screen legends Alec Guinness and John Mills face off in a battle of wills in this story of two commanding officers vying for dominance and respect in a peacetime Scottish army regiment. Guinness plays Jock Sinclair, a tough-as-nails, frequently drunk major, who is beloved by his men. Mills is Lieutenant Colonel Barrow, assigned to take over the unit, and determined to whip the men into shape after the lax discipline of Sinclair's command. The two strong-willed commanders clash, ultimately leading to tragedy.

This is a powerful film, with a well written script and understated direction from Ronald Neame both serving to enhance the strong performances of its two leads. Guinness believed this to be one of his best performances, and he might have been right. Within all his big speeches and boisterous Scottish bluster, there is a much more subtle side to Guinness' character, that of a functional alcoholic. Jock Sinclair is pretty much always drinking and/or drunk, but Guinness doesn't telegraph it, it's just a part of who this man is. Mills has a tough role to play as well, having to make sympathetic a character that the audience is basically told not to like. He's not even doing anything wrong, but the men love Sinclair and don't respect Barrow. Ultimately, both characters are sympathetic and heartbreaking.

Tunes of Glory is an excellent military drama, and worth watching for the performances alone.

Another Woman, by Woody Allen, 1988

Like Alice, which I recently wrote about, Another Woman is one of the Woody Allen films I hadn't yet seen. It isn't one of his comedies, which, of course, I prefer, and that may have been a reason why I had never sought it out. Another Woman has an interesting premise: it's about Marion Post, a middle-aged woman (Gena Rowlands) who rents an apartment for the purpose of having the privacy to finish writing a book. She then discovers that she can overhear everything being said in the therapist's office next door. The patient's (Mia Farrow) fear that her life is empty resonates with Marion, and drives her to reevaluate her life.

I thought Another Woman was pretty solid, possibly one of Allen's more underrated films. I'm never as into his dramas as I am his comedies, but I thought this was a pretty well-made film. Rowlands does good work, and I also liked Gene Hackman as her husband's best friend that Marion missed her shot with. I see on Wikipedia that he drew heavily from Ingmar Bergman, a well that Allen has dipped into often in his career. Much to my shame, I haven't seen any Bergman films yet. Guess I should get on that, huh?

Underwater Love (Onna no Kappa), by Shinji Imaoka, 2011

Underwater Love may be among the strangest films I've seen: a Japanese pink musical fantasy about a girl who falls in love with a magical turtle man, with stunning cinematography by Christopher Doyle, perhaps best known as the cinematographer behind Wong Kar Wai's films. By the way, "Pink" films in Japan are sex movies.

It's about Asuka, a 35-year-old woman who works at a fish factory, engaged to its manager. When she finds a fish still alive, she rushes out to the nearby lake to return it to the water, where she encounters a Kappa, a legendary Japanese creature which is a turtle with a beak and a bare scalp that must never get too dry. If the turtle-with-a-beak part sounds familiar, I think it might be because Kappa are the basis for Koopas in the Super Mario Bros. games. I don't know that for sure, but I suspect. Anyway, this Kappa happens to have been one of Asuka's classmates in a past life, and his high school love for her lives on.

The movie gets crazier from there, with the Kappa getting a job at her plant, working his way into her life. When his motives are made clear, they journey into the marsh together to find a magical "anal pearl" that makes Asuka invisible to Death. There are also musical numbers where characters sing catchy songs by the German pop group Stereo Total, and dance hastily put together, but still charming, dance numbers. Underwater Love was shot in about a week on a tiny budget.

Now, the sex: I think they're really doin' it. I couldn't tell for 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure they were. The actors in the movie aren't glamorous, fake looking porn stars. They all look like normal, out-of-shape, everyday people. The scenes are (somewhat) tastefully shot, with no full frontal nudity. Well, besides the Kappa's gigantic fake rubber turtle dong, they make sure you get plenty of good looks at that. Yeesh. Anyway, I'm not really an adult movie kind of guy, so I'm glad to say that the musical numbers do outnumber the sex scenes.

I think we can safely file Underwater Love in the "NOT FOR EVERYBODY" category without encountering too much controversy. It's mainly for people like me, nerds who hear about some weird-ass foreign film on a weird-ass foreign film website, and decide that this is a film they HAVE TO SEE. It's nuts that stuff like this even exists, and I'm glad it does. The movie isn't great (not even sure it's very good), but it's quirky and charming and raunchy and even kind of sweet, and the beautiful cinematography elevates it from being just a cult curiosity into something resembling, well, legitimate art. This movie has screened at festivals!

Xanadu

Mostly, I like to watch good movies, or movies that I think I will like. Sometimes, I like to watch bad movies, too, but only the ones that still provide some kind of weird entertainment value to them. Surely you guys know what I'm talking about. So bad it's funny. I especially enjoy bad movies like Xanadu, bizarre artifacts from a forgotten time. Movies you can show somebody and say "See, Timmy? (His name is Timmy) This is what a bad idea looked like in 1980."

Xanadu is the only Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra Rollerskating Disco Musical Dance Showcase ever made, and for that reason, it is a unique jewel of crappiness that deserves our respect. We are never going to get another movie like this.

Kira (Olivia Newton-John) is one of the Greek Muses, released with her sisters from a painting on a building to go out and inspire. After dancing around, she runs into Sonny, an aspiring artist, who has all of the talent but none of the inspiration. At the start of the film, he is returning to his job at a company that paints album covers, after attempting and failing to embark on his own path. Not long after, he recognizes the same mysterious girl in a photograph that he is assigned to paint and decides to track her down.

I'm a little confused about the record album cover painting job. They already had photographs, why was he painting photoreal copies of them? Was there something I was missing?

Anyway, in his search for Kira, she guides him to Gene Kelly, playing a former song-and-dance man and club owner, also being inspired by the Muse. Together Sonny and Gene Kelly hatch a plan to open Xanadu, a new club that combines the Big Bands of the 1940's with the Rock and Roll Bands of the 1980's. And also roller skates. This is demonstrated in an painfully long dance musical number where a stage with a goofy rock band and a stage with a goofy Big Band combine and form SOMETHING ENTIRELY NEW!

So Sonny and Kira fall in love, but once the inspiration is given, she must move on. He follows her into the painting on the building, which is the most disappointing portrayal of Olympus in movie history and plead with Zeus and Hera to let her return.

It's ridiculous, I know. It's also totally innocent and in earnest, which is, in my mind, better than those bad movies that stink of cynicism and exploitation and making a buck. There were even a couple things about it that I genuinely liked. ELO was a good band, and there are one or two songs in there that I enjoyed, including the title song at the end. There's also a pretty great musical number, beautifully animated by the legendary Don Bluth. It reminded me a lot of the transformation sequences in The Sword in the Stone, which Bluth also worked on.

I felt the worst for Gene Kelly. The guy proves in the movie that he still has the skills. It's too bad that in his old age, he had to demonstrate his moves in a movie like this. They put him in some pretty embarrassing outfits and stuff. I hope he at least had fun and I'm not just projecting my embarrassment onto him.

So, I guess I could say that Xanadu is the best Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra Rollerskating Disco Musical Dance Showcase I've ever seen. I'm glad to have finally seen it, in the way that it's kind of a pop cultural touchstone. But it doesn't even come close to the level of amazing badness of another disco musical I know of: The Apple. If you are the type who enjoys watching shitty movies with your friends, skip right past Xanadu and watch The Apple. Xanadu is a curiosity at best. The Apple is a hilarious crime against humanity.

The Mikado

I hate reviewing movies released by the Criterion Collection, especially after I've watched all the special features. Besides the fact that I don't feel eloquent enough to discuss the film, I feel like I'm cheating, by parroting what I just learned. To avoid that, I'm going to keep this one short.

The Mikado came out in 1939, and is the only cinematic adaptation of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. It was co-produced by the very theatrical company that had been performing the pieces since the Victorian era.

Personally, I love Gilbert and Sullivan. I'm not a musical theatre guy, and I've never seen one of their plays live, but I would love to. Sullivan's melodies were and still are some of the catchiest and bounciest ever written, and Gilbert's lyrics are full of wit, satire, and wordplay.

The Mikado is probably their most famous operetta, featuring the well known song, "Three Little Maids from School". It's set in Japan, or rather, some weird British perspective of Japan that isn't really aiming for accuracy so much as caricature and exoticism. Characters have ridiculous names like "Yum Yum" and "Nanki Poo"and everybody is white. As funny and goofy as the tone is, it playfully explores dark themes such as suicide and execution, dictatorships and bureaucracy.

The film itself is good, but not great. It starts slow because they reduced the entire back story to a few title cards at the beginning and one opening scene. The hero, Nanki Poo, is played by Kenny Baker (unfortunately not the same one who played R2-D2), an American actor who sings in one of those awful 1940's radio crooner voices. I imagine the singing is better on stage for this character.

The rest of the actors, several of whom were veterans of the G&S theatrical company, are pretty great. The songs are fun and the story is witty, sharp, and satirical. The film was shot in Technicolor, which means it's pretty lush and vibrant. The set designs and costume designs are great. Lots of pink in this fantasy Japan.

The cinematography is practically non-existent. The director, Victor Schertzinger, rarely even goes in for close-ups. It has a very stage-y feel, like a larger, splashier version of the show as it was in the late 30's. As much as I want to see the real Mikado on stage, I'd also like to see a more cinematic version on screen, though I'm not even sure it would work.

Overall, I'm glad I saw The Mikado. It exposed me to a lot of great songs, and made me want to go to the theater more. I just wish they hadn't truncated it so much at the beginning, and I wish they had made it more cinematic. B