Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

I thought it was funny when someone suggested I was going to write this post about Across the Universe. Like I would own that dribble. When I talk about a cheesy movie, I'm talking about something that resembles muenster cheese being shoved up your nose. Yeah, that cheesy. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band "starred" Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. Now I say starred with quotations because it's hard to star in a movie that just dies from the instant it hits the screen.

Story: There's a real Sgt. Pepper and he has a Lonely Hearts Club Band. He's a WWI hero and their music keeps the town Heartland alive and prospering. Yeah, great start. Well, Sgt. Pepper dies in 1958, but he leaves to Billy Shears (Frampton) his musical legacy. With the help of the Hendersons (the Bee Gees), they become the second incarnation of the band. They get noticed by music execs in the City of Angels, and get lost in the mix of big city life. In Heartland, FVB tells Mean Mr. Mustard to steal Pepper's instruments and Heartland falls apart with crime, prostitution, and gambling.

Strawberry Fields, Shears' girlfriend from Heartland, leaves for the big city to get Shears and the Hendersons to come back home to save the town, but she finds Shears falling for Lucy (the girl with kaleidoscope eyes). Shears falls for Fields again, and the band find Mr. Mustard's van outside the studio, and are able to get back one of the instruments. Using the van, they get back the instruments from Mr. Maxwell and Father Sun. But before they can get the last instrument, the computer in the van breaks down. So the band decides to put on a benefit concert to save Heartland. The only problem is Mr. Mustard kidnaps Fields and steals the instruments again to give to FVB. The band follow Mustard to FVB, which we find out means Future Villain Band. The band gets the instruments back but not without the price of losing Fields. A funeral takes place but Shears feels he can't on and jumps from a tall building when Sgt. Pepper (Billy Preston) saves the day to stop Shears, turn Mustard and the villains of the movie into catholic priests and nuns, and bring back Fields with the energy/lightning from Pepper's fingers. In the end, a huge group of musicians, comedians, etc. sing us out to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)".

Yeah, it's that ugly of a story. The things that save it are the songs sung by the Bee Gees. The dated 1970s wardrobes, sets, and futuristic computers are awful and really make no sense. Okay, the whole movie doesn't make sense! Why is this even needed? Even the Bee Gees wanted to step away from this. I think this movie may have single-handedly killed disco. Why? Because disco tried to touch The Beatles' music, and it failed. Miserably.

I haven't seen Across the Universe, but I'm going to guess it's in the same vein as this. For some reason, it's like John Lennon said in "A Day in the Life": I just had to look. I can't turn away from it. Probably because I'm trying to figure out why they did this. So many famous actors, musicians, comedians: what did they have to gain from this?

And Billy Preston, the only "Beatle" in the film: why would you do it? Love your take on "Get Back" but you had to know this was a bomb. Were you desperate for money?

So yes, I own on DVD probably one of the worst movies of all-time, and yet I can't help but love it. It's so bad, it's something to watch. That's all I can say. See it once, and you're hooked.

Alright, next post is about the movie that started it all for The Beatles. Pretty simple clue, pretty cool movie. Later!

"Have you gone berserk? Can't you see that man is a ni?"

Sometimes you have a movie that you choose because you're in the mood for a particular genre, or sometimes it's because you haven't seen a particular film in a long time.  Or sometimes you watch a movie because the recent passing of an actor makes you want to watch any and every movie with him or her in it, no matter how small the part.  And that's how I came up with watching Blazing Saddles.

Although Dom DeLuise has passed away over a month ago, it still seems like he should be here, making even the tiniest part in a movie the stand-out performance.  And that's pretty hard to do in a film like this.  From the start, I could tell the SO was not into it.  Maybe it had to do with the use of the word "ni" in it.  Or maybe because it's just flat out funny!  Yes, there's a lot of use of the "ni" word, but somehow it reminds us of how stupid our ancestors were in the degrading term of an African-American, especially when he's the hero of the movie.

Anywho...

Simple plot, Hedy Lamarr (that's HEDLEY!)...

Sorry...Hedley Lamarr, the State Attorney General, needs land to continue building the railroad system in the old American West.  Of course, that land is located where Rock Ridge, a quaint little town of Johnsons (no joke, everyone there is a Johnson).  Hedley sends a gang of thugs to terrorize the town, killing the sheriff.  Well, Hedley suggests to the Governor that Bart, previously an enslaved railroad worker, should be the sheriff (knowing that the entire town would be opposed to the color of his skin).  Of course the town is up in arms over this, but soon they warm up to him when he saves the town from Hedley's thugs and Webster's dad (yes, that's Alex Karras who plays Mongo).  Bart also helps out Jim aka "The Waco Kid", an over-the-hill alcoholic who is still a sharpshooter but can't control his drinking or his shooting hand.  Together they try to control the chaos in the town.

But... Hedley plans one last attempt to get rid of the inhabitants of Rock Ridge by employing "rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists" into an ambush of the town.  With the help of the town of Rock Ridge and Bart's railroad buddies, they build an exact replica to fool Hedley's evil gang... and that's when all hell breaks loose, as the joke is released on all of us like a bunch of farting cowboys.

We are transported to a closed set in Hollywood, where Dom DeLuise is trying to get a bunch of flaming men (it's twue, it's twue) to do a dance number, when Hedley's gang and the people of Rock Ridge bust through the set!  WTF?!?  So the joke is this is a 1974 movie that takes place in 1874 with the characters' mindset from 1974... I know, it's crazy, but then again, it's Mel Brooks!  Of course Bart saves the day, defeating Hedey (that's Hedley!) and driving off into the sunset (in a limo...).

I love, Love, LOVE this movie.  Probably Mel Brooks' finest creation on film.  So many inside jokes, so much physical comedy, it has everything you want to make you laugh for a couple hours.  Clearly, it went over the SO's head (by a mile).  A movie that has Dom DeLuise, Gene Wilder, AND Harvey Korman cannot fail, and with so many quotable quotes, it's one of those movies that will always be funny.  So in the end, of course it's a keeper.  And thank you, Dom, for always being "on" even in the short time you were on screen and on Earth.  Later!