Post by niecie on Aug 16, 2013 15:12:10 GMT -5
This is one of my favorites. Well, it has Dr Loveless with his two main henchies still, Antoinette and Voltaire -- and Voltaire finally gets to talk! (I've been told that Robert Conrad insisted Voltaire speak in this one.)
It begins so very Dickensian, as if someone picked up Ebenezer Scrooge, redubbed him Jeremiah Ratch, and plunked him down in 1874's San Francisco. His clerk certainly comes across as a Bob Cratchitt type. I love that Ratch won't let anyone watch him work the combination for his safe, and also that he has a huge sheet with jingly bells on it so if anyone touches the safe, he knows it. Oh, and does anyone recognize Jeremiah Ratch here? That's Norman Fell, who would later play the landlord on Three's Company.
Now the business with the boys and the toys I find puzzling. I thought the girl was collecting money to help out poor children, yes, but I didn't think the children she had in mind were the boys with her. And I don't understand who the toys belong to. Are they from her grandfather's toy shop? If so, why doesn't she just give the toys to the kids? Why does someone else have to give her money first? (I have the same problem understanding those things where you click a link and a kid gets to eat today. If the group wants to feed the kids, why don't they just do so? Why do they have to pile guilt on others to give them the money first? Isn't charity supposed to be done quietly without tooting your own horn over how much you gave?)
But anyway...
The boys, btw, are very cute and very real, poking at each other and being rambunctious. (And I doubt if any of them chose one of the baby dolls...)
I like Our Heroes opening exchange:
'Since when have you been interested in toys?'
'Toys no, dolls yes.'
And Artie leans on the wall, figuring he'll be here a while. (He always looks great in that cape!)
Where did the kids find all that old produce to fling at Mr Ratch?
Priscilla wants to give Mr Ratch a toy, and that That Voice speaks up: 'Take mine, mister!' and in a hint of a Cockney accent, no less!
Once Ratch is sure the kid is giving him the toy, how he snatches it! And how careful the camera is in photographing the generous kid.
Ratch puts on a slight hint of softening, then yells at the kid.
Then Priscilla leads the boys away, leaving the generous kid standing with his back to the camera. And as the Dr Loveless theme music starts up, he turns around and tucks a stub of a cigar into his mouth. *grin* End of teaser!
I love reading the signs up in Ratch's shop, especially the one that says:
Jim and Artie remind Ratch that he's promised to loan the government five million dollars, and as soon as Artie says the amount, Ratch makes a noise as if he's going to have a heart attack.
Oh, and I love the expression on the clerk's face when Ratch catches him trying to sneak a peek as Ratch is opening the safe.
No one in the shop hears the music the toy soldiers are playing as they march down the counter? (Btw, that toy looks like it's made of anachronistic plastic. Just sayin'.)
The policeman: 'Workin' in this neighborhood, I've seen enough of them to know.' What, bombings??
But seriously, the bomb went off right in front of Jim and blew out the windows behind him, and he's not horribly hurt? Not that I want him to be horribly hurt, but my credulity is gettin' stretched again.
So what about the running boy makes Artie look so shocked? Does he recognize him?(Does he hear the Loveless music playing?) Or does he maybe recognize the satchel the kid is running off with?
A Loveless motto: 'You know better than to kill a man when he's not looking.'
Wonder why the money in the satchel is printed in Spanish? It seems to say 'El Estado de Chihuahua' -- Chihuahua state, a part of Mexico -- and definitely says 'Diez Pesos' -- ten pesos.
Jim wakes up in Priscilla's bed and seems to have not a mark on him. Yet Ratch was standing just as close to the bomb as Jim was, and everyone assumes the bomb killed Ratch, and when we finally see Ratch later on, he's all bandaged up like a mummy.
Priscilla's room is full of dolls.
Priscilla's line: 'You can let go now -- I think.'
Priscilla, wide-eyed: 'Do you feel strange too?'
Jim: 'I'm beginning to.'
Jesse White, what a politician!
So, the governor fetches Jim from Priscilla's house, they go outside into the night, and they leave the door of the house standing open behind them? With some mad bomber running around?
Now, it's my own private theory that the reason the state of California is nearly bankrupt in this episode is because of Prof Bolt's use of the treasury as his private bank to buy up lots of art treasures for his museum back in Torture Chamber.
When Priscilla is sitting at her dressing table making the figurines kiss each other, you can see a dress hanging up on the door in her mirror. That's the same blue dress Lily wears in her opening scenes in Big Blast (and Priscilla herself wears it later on, when Jim shows up in her bedroom again after the second bombing).
The duet this time is 'On Top of Old Smoky.'
Priscilla is so taken with Dr Loveless!
I like how Voltaire makes a tunnel for the train to go under using his hand.
And when Loveless blows up the toy train, Antoinette instantly begins to clap.
John Crain has a marvelous train set-up, but his man Bailey is mighty dim.
The fight in Crain's foyer is fun, from the moment Jim slugs the guy through the small door in the big door, then yanks the carpet out from under him, to all the guys piled up in that little nook together, complete with jumps from partway up the staircase. But someone (wish I could remember who!) once pointed out to me that the fight is not really Jim against Bad Guys. If Crain had just had the manners to find out who was at the door instead of instantly ordering his man to get rid of him, there would have been no fight.
But it's WWW, so there has to be a fight!
And Crain still tells Jim to get out, until Jim identifies himself as being from the governor. Crain now shows that he's been expecting someone from the governor, so why on earth did he tell his men to get rid of whoever was at the door? Huh?
Crain's line about his bridges, how he just builds 'em and isn't responsible for what happens afterwards. Yeah... Nice...
Again a bomb goes off, and again Jim is closer to it than the guy it's targeted on, yet again Jim is unscathed and the other guy is supposedly killed and later shows up bandaged like a mummy. Stretch, little credulity, stretch hard!
Well, now we have Artie in disguise as an Italian opera singer. I like his characterization, his argument with the girl at the start and then how he silences her. Then the music pun, asking the piano player for a 'B, si?' The way Artie tosses his cloak right over the spinning roulette wheel, ruining that round of bets. Oh, and the song. Was that a real song or was Artie/Ross just making it up off the top of his head? Ross did speak Italian, I understand.
He sings and makes it clear to everyone but Bessie Bowen that he is soooo NOT an opera singer! He's full of pluck though, gotta give 'im that. Throws his hat, goes for that high note. Oh yeah!
Bessie's interior bay window was in Steel Assassin as well (and some other episodes, but I don't remember where).
Ah, his gleeful line about bringing culture and opera to this barbaric country! That's how to win friends and influence people, right?
(Notice he says 'The La Scala' -- that's a little joke someone slipped in there, because it's redundant. 'La' means 'the,' so he just said 'the the Scala.')
I think his exuberant 'I know the way!' must be a cultural reference, like in Poisonous Posey when they throw in lines such as 'Is it bigger than a bread box?' I just don't get the reference and wish I did.
Artie sure takes the right tack with Bessie, catching her interest, making her eyes light up.
So, Ratch is a loan shark, Crain is a builder of shoddy bridges, and Bessie runs a gambling den, but is she also supposed to be a madam? It's hard to tell.
Fidelio -- I think that's Beethoven's only opera, right?
Artie does a Gomez Addams, kissing Bessie all the way up the arm. And somewhere in the background, I can hear a song... well, I think of it as 'Love Me Tender' but I think it might also be 'Aura Lee'? It's playing on a tinny piano. You can hear it as he says, 'Bravo!' (which should, I think, be 'Brava' since he's saying it to a woman. But whatever.)
Artie is unfamiliar with the gramophone, yet he and Jim had one on the train in at least two previous episodes.
That line 'You like to see it snow in Donner Pass?' is so weird to me! And the way the girl who said it bats her eyes at Artie. (Actually, I think he nearly flirted with her earlier and caught himself, as she was pouring him the Madeira. Btw, is Madeira a good wine? The way Bessie wants him to have the Madeira instead of the 'cheap whiskey' makes me suspect she got it backwards, but what do I know!)
I like Artie calling her by a nickname, Bessamia.
Boomies! And Bessie says something about that crazy little man, so she knows something about Loveless! But what is she yelling about spaghetti sauce? (Or whatever the word was.)
As they run into the hall, Artie pulls the door shut behind them and then it opens again to let the blast out.
Jim is in Priscilla's room again. I know how he got there the first time, but who brought him there this time? And she's wearing that blue dress now.
Jim picks the right spot in the floor to stand on, and Priscilla looks like she had no clue there was a trapdoor in her bedroom floor.
The Act Two freeze frame: Loveless with his microphone, Jim on his back, and Voltaire's foot on Jim's chest.
Loveless runs to get a bola, and he also has a penny farthing in the shop. And a Raggedy Ann, possibly Andy as well. Priscilla had a Raggedy Ann upstairs.
And Priscilla runs into the middle of the fight and yells at Jim for trying to hurt Voltaire!
And her parting shot at Jim: 'I don't think I want to kiss you anymore!'
Well, as an Artie fan, I love the scene with him and Bessie on the stairs. That's his cloak she's wrapped up in. I especially love the baritone joke.
I think the song he sings here is a short version of the one he sang earlier.
When Loveless says 'Bad boys must stay bad!' the camera cuts to Jim and Voltaire, and Voltaire nods solemnly.
Loveless pats the clown after locking Jim inside it: 'Nighty-night!'
Artie's mannerisms are so different while he's being the Italian singer. Even the way he holds the gun looks different.
Ah, Bessie! She touches things she shouldn't touch, she shrieks loudly, she really should never have a gun in her hand, and when she's given a job (watch the door), she only lets Artie know someone's coming less than a second before they arrive. Oh, and when he helps her down out of the window, she wants to get romantic! Yep, the perfect companion.
Oh, and she has quite an outfit for going breaking-and-entering. A slinky dress that stays up by sheer willpower, feather boa, and check out the earrings!
(Don't get me wrong; I do like Bessie. She is gutsy when she needs to be, and her shrieking during the ultimate fight scene as she clobbers Loveless' minions with stuffed toy animals probably deafened several of the guys.)
What do you know! Loveless wasn't lying about having Ratch and Crain tied up in another room! And Artie's eyes light up as he starts to inspect the mechanism they're being held in. That's our gadgeteer.
(Ok, to me, this is a very Doctor Who-ish scene, what with Artie essentially telling Bessie he'll explain later, and then he even says 'Fantastic!' -- the Ninth Doctor's catch-phrase.)
Fast-acting acid.
Jim charges out of the giant clown and rolls that big thing -- what is it, anyway? -- right into the line of fire and saves the governor! Artie takes out the guy holding the gun on him by hitting him with a toy, and Bessie seems to have the same plan.
Great fight scene! Have some marbles, guys.
And Voltaire is Johnny-on-the-spot to help the good doctor escape (wonder where Antoinette is?), and I guess that's some sort of gas the carriage is spewing to keep Jim & Artie from following. (Love Jim's run there!)
The end dialog in the tag really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. How is Bessie sure everyone's on their side now? (I presume she means everyone's on the side of her, Ratch, and Crain.) And how exactly did Jim save the glorious state of California? Because Crain said they'd get the whole Barbary Coast to pitch in? Ten of the fifteen million dollars are gone, so how can they be sure they'll acquire the entire ten million the governor said they would need?
And the governor's line encouraging Priscilla to thank Jim is -- I'm sorry -- just weird, if not a touch creepy. Ok, so is her line about Jim winding her up!
Um... how exactly does Artie turn on the merry-go-round? It looks like he twists the horse's ear, but then the ear doesn't look like it can twist.
I do like how, right before the freeze frame, Bessie cuddles up to Artie and slips her arm around his neck, apparently about to kiss him.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in here that comes across as unintentionally comical and I know I had lots of questions and objections -- but I still consider this one of my favorite episodes, mainly because of Loveless being in it, and with Antoinette and Voltaire still at his side. Also, Voltaire talks, Loveless and Antoinette sing. The fights are fun to watch, Artie's disguise is so over-the-top. And well, yeah!
It begins so very Dickensian, as if someone picked up Ebenezer Scrooge, redubbed him Jeremiah Ratch, and plunked him down in 1874's San Francisco. His clerk certainly comes across as a Bob Cratchitt type. I love that Ratch won't let anyone watch him work the combination for his safe, and also that he has a huge sheet with jingly bells on it so if anyone touches the safe, he knows it. Oh, and does anyone recognize Jeremiah Ratch here? That's Norman Fell, who would later play the landlord on Three's Company.
Now the business with the boys and the toys I find puzzling. I thought the girl was collecting money to help out poor children, yes, but I didn't think the children she had in mind were the boys with her. And I don't understand who the toys belong to. Are they from her grandfather's toy shop? If so, why doesn't she just give the toys to the kids? Why does someone else have to give her money first? (I have the same problem understanding those things where you click a link and a kid gets to eat today. If the group wants to feed the kids, why don't they just do so? Why do they have to pile guilt on others to give them the money first? Isn't charity supposed to be done quietly without tooting your own horn over how much you gave?)
But anyway...
The boys, btw, are very cute and very real, poking at each other and being rambunctious. (And I doubt if any of them chose one of the baby dolls...)
I like Our Heroes opening exchange:
'Since when have you been interested in toys?'
'Toys no, dolls yes.'
And Artie leans on the wall, figuring he'll be here a while. (He always looks great in that cape!)
Where did the kids find all that old produce to fling at Mr Ratch?
Priscilla wants to give Mr Ratch a toy, and that That Voice speaks up: 'Take mine, mister!' and in a hint of a Cockney accent, no less!
Once Ratch is sure the kid is giving him the toy, how he snatches it! And how careful the camera is in photographing the generous kid.
Ratch puts on a slight hint of softening, then yells at the kid.
Then Priscilla leads the boys away, leaving the generous kid standing with his back to the camera. And as the Dr Loveless theme music starts up, he turns around and tucks a stub of a cigar into his mouth. *grin* End of teaser!
I love reading the signs up in Ratch's shop, especially the one that says:
WE LOAN MONEY ON ANYTHING
BUT Your Mother-in-Law
BUT Your Mother-in-Law
Jim and Artie remind Ratch that he's promised to loan the government five million dollars, and as soon as Artie says the amount, Ratch makes a noise as if he's going to have a heart attack.
Oh, and I love the expression on the clerk's face when Ratch catches him trying to sneak a peek as Ratch is opening the safe.
No one in the shop hears the music the toy soldiers are playing as they march down the counter? (Btw, that toy looks like it's made of anachronistic plastic. Just sayin'.)
The policeman: 'Workin' in this neighborhood, I've seen enough of them to know.' What, bombings??
But seriously, the bomb went off right in front of Jim and blew out the windows behind him, and he's not horribly hurt? Not that I want him to be horribly hurt, but my credulity is gettin' stretched again.
So what about the running boy makes Artie look so shocked? Does he recognize him?
A Loveless motto: 'You know better than to kill a man when he's not looking.'
Wonder why the money in the satchel is printed in Spanish? It seems to say 'El Estado de Chihuahua' -- Chihuahua state, a part of Mexico -- and definitely says 'Diez Pesos' -- ten pesos.
Jim wakes up in Priscilla's bed and seems to have not a mark on him. Yet Ratch was standing just as close to the bomb as Jim was, and everyone assumes the bomb killed Ratch, and when we finally see Ratch later on, he's all bandaged up like a mummy.
Priscilla's room is full of dolls.
Priscilla's line: 'You can let go now -- I think.'
Priscilla, wide-eyed: 'Do you feel strange too?'
Jim: 'I'm beginning to.'
Jesse White, what a politician!
So, the governor fetches Jim from Priscilla's house, they go outside into the night, and they leave the door of the house standing open behind them? With some mad bomber running around?
Now, it's my own private theory that the reason the state of California is nearly bankrupt in this episode is because of Prof Bolt's use of the treasury as his private bank to buy up lots of art treasures for his museum back in Torture Chamber.
When Priscilla is sitting at her dressing table making the figurines kiss each other, you can see a dress hanging up on the door in her mirror. That's the same blue dress Lily wears in her opening scenes in Big Blast (and Priscilla herself wears it later on, when Jim shows up in her bedroom again after the second bombing).
The duet this time is 'On Top of Old Smoky.'
Priscilla is so taken with Dr Loveless!
I like how Voltaire makes a tunnel for the train to go under using his hand.
And when Loveless blows up the toy train, Antoinette instantly begins to clap.
John Crain has a marvelous train set-up, but his man Bailey is mighty dim.
The fight in Crain's foyer is fun, from the moment Jim slugs the guy through the small door in the big door, then yanks the carpet out from under him, to all the guys piled up in that little nook together, complete with jumps from partway up the staircase. But someone (wish I could remember who!) once pointed out to me that the fight is not really Jim against Bad Guys. If Crain had just had the manners to find out who was at the door instead of instantly ordering his man to get rid of him, there would have been no fight.
But it's WWW, so there has to be a fight!
And Crain still tells Jim to get out, until Jim identifies himself as being from the governor. Crain now shows that he's been expecting someone from the governor, so why on earth did he tell his men to get rid of whoever was at the door? Huh?
Crain's line about his bridges, how he just builds 'em and isn't responsible for what happens afterwards. Yeah... Nice...
Again a bomb goes off, and again Jim is closer to it than the guy it's targeted on, yet again Jim is unscathed and the other guy is supposedly killed and later shows up bandaged like a mummy. Stretch, little credulity, stretch hard!
Well, now we have Artie in disguise as an Italian opera singer. I like his characterization, his argument with the girl at the start and then how he silences her. Then the music pun, asking the piano player for a 'B, si?' The way Artie tosses his cloak right over the spinning roulette wheel, ruining that round of bets. Oh, and the song. Was that a real song or was Artie/Ross just making it up off the top of his head? Ross did speak Italian, I understand.
He sings and makes it clear to everyone but Bessie Bowen that he is soooo NOT an opera singer! He's full of pluck though, gotta give 'im that. Throws his hat, goes for that high note. Oh yeah!
Bessie's interior bay window was in Steel Assassin as well (and some other episodes, but I don't remember where).
Ah, his gleeful line about bringing culture and opera to this barbaric country! That's how to win friends and influence people, right?
(Notice he says 'The La Scala' -- that's a little joke someone slipped in there, because it's redundant. 'La' means 'the,' so he just said 'the the Scala.')
I think his exuberant 'I know the way!' must be a cultural reference, like in Poisonous Posey when they throw in lines such as 'Is it bigger than a bread box?' I just don't get the reference and wish I did.
Artie sure takes the right tack with Bessie, catching her interest, making her eyes light up.
So, Ratch is a loan shark, Crain is a builder of shoddy bridges, and Bessie runs a gambling den, but is she also supposed to be a madam? It's hard to tell.
Fidelio -- I think that's Beethoven's only opera, right?
Artie does a Gomez Addams, kissing Bessie all the way up the arm. And somewhere in the background, I can hear a song... well, I think of it as 'Love Me Tender' but I think it might also be 'Aura Lee'? It's playing on a tinny piano. You can hear it as he says, 'Bravo!' (which should, I think, be 'Brava' since he's saying it to a woman. But whatever.)
Artie is unfamiliar with the gramophone, yet he and Jim had one on the train in at least two previous episodes.
That line 'You like to see it snow in Donner Pass?' is so weird to me! And the way the girl who said it bats her eyes at Artie. (Actually, I think he nearly flirted with her earlier and caught himself, as she was pouring him the Madeira. Btw, is Madeira a good wine? The way Bessie wants him to have the Madeira instead of the 'cheap whiskey' makes me suspect she got it backwards, but what do I know!)
I like Artie calling her by a nickname, Bessamia.
Boomies! And Bessie says something about that crazy little man, so she knows something about Loveless! But what is she yelling about spaghetti sauce? (Or whatever the word was.)
As they run into the hall, Artie pulls the door shut behind them and then it opens again to let the blast out.
Jim is in Priscilla's room again. I know how he got there the first time, but who brought him there this time? And she's wearing that blue dress now.
Jim picks the right spot in the floor to stand on, and Priscilla looks like she had no clue there was a trapdoor in her bedroom floor.
The Act Two freeze frame: Loveless with his microphone, Jim on his back, and Voltaire's foot on Jim's chest.
Loveless runs to get a bola, and he also has a penny farthing in the shop. And a Raggedy Ann, possibly Andy as well. Priscilla had a Raggedy Ann upstairs.
And Priscilla runs into the middle of the fight and yells at Jim for trying to hurt Voltaire!
And her parting shot at Jim: 'I don't think I want to kiss you anymore!'
Well, as an Artie fan, I love the scene with him and Bessie on the stairs. That's his cloak she's wrapped up in. I especially love the baritone joke.
I think the song he sings here is a short version of the one he sang earlier.
When Loveless says 'Bad boys must stay bad!' the camera cuts to Jim and Voltaire, and Voltaire nods solemnly.
Loveless pats the clown after locking Jim inside it: 'Nighty-night!'
Artie's mannerisms are so different while he's being the Italian singer. Even the way he holds the gun looks different.
Ah, Bessie! She touches things she shouldn't touch, she shrieks loudly, she really should never have a gun in her hand, and when she's given a job (watch the door), she only lets Artie know someone's coming less than a second before they arrive. Oh, and when he helps her down out of the window, she wants to get romantic! Yep, the perfect companion.
Oh, and she has quite an outfit for going breaking-and-entering. A slinky dress that stays up by sheer willpower, feather boa, and check out the earrings!
(Don't get me wrong; I do like Bessie. She is gutsy when she needs to be, and her shrieking during the ultimate fight scene as she clobbers Loveless' minions with stuffed toy animals probably deafened several of the guys.)
What do you know! Loveless wasn't lying about having Ratch and Crain tied up in another room! And Artie's eyes light up as he starts to inspect the mechanism they're being held in. That's our gadgeteer.
(Ok, to me, this is a very Doctor Who-ish scene, what with Artie essentially telling Bessie he'll explain later, and then he even says 'Fantastic!' -- the Ninth Doctor's catch-phrase.)
Fast-acting acid.
Jim charges out of the giant clown and rolls that big thing -- what is it, anyway? -- right into the line of fire and saves the governor! Artie takes out the guy holding the gun on him by hitting him with a toy, and Bessie seems to have the same plan.
Great fight scene! Have some marbles, guys.
And Voltaire is Johnny-on-the-spot to help the good doctor escape (wonder where Antoinette is?), and I guess that's some sort of gas the carriage is spewing to keep Jim & Artie from following. (Love Jim's run there!)
The end dialog in the tag really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. How is Bessie sure everyone's on their side now? (I presume she means everyone's on the side of her, Ratch, and Crain.) And how exactly did Jim save the glorious state of California? Because Crain said they'd get the whole Barbary Coast to pitch in? Ten of the fifteen million dollars are gone, so how can they be sure they'll acquire the entire ten million the governor said they would need?
And the governor's line encouraging Priscilla to thank Jim is -- I'm sorry -- just weird, if not a touch creepy. Ok, so is her line about Jim winding her up!
Um... how exactly does Artie turn on the merry-go-round? It looks like he twists the horse's ear, but then the ear doesn't look like it can twist.
I do like how, right before the freeze frame, Bessie cuddles up to Artie and slips her arm around his neck, apparently about to kiss him.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in here that comes across as unintentionally comical and I know I had lots of questions and objections -- but I still consider this one of my favorite episodes, mainly because of Loveless being in it, and with Antoinette and Voltaire still at his side. Also, Voltaire talks, Loveless and Antoinette sing. The fights are fun to watch, Artie's disguise is so over-the-top. And well, yeah!