Post by niecie on Aug 17, 2013 13:44:47 GMT -5
A favorite episode.
I'm a bit partial to the actor who plays Justice Chayne here, John Hoyt, mainly because he was in a favorite episode of The Twilight Zone in which (TZ SPOILERS!) he played an alien with three hands. Barney Phillips, from TNOT Thousand Eyes (blink and you'll miss him), was in the same TZ, as another alien, this one with three eyes.
Ok, TZ SPOILERS are done.
Silly question time: why are brandy snifters so large when you're only supposed to pour a small amount in? And watching Jim sip from his, it looks like the snifter is made so that you really can't take more than a small sip at a time without dumping the brandy all over yourself. (Which shows how much I know about brandy, right?)
I like Hoyt's acting job when Jim describes the 'gifts' the dead justices received, his tiny hesitations that tell Jim he's received the same sort of 'gift.'
Is that a Blind Justice figurine on Chayne's desk? How appropriate!
Btw, John Hoyt shows up again in fourth season's TNOT Plague; in color you can see how very blue his eyes are.
Chayne's foyer is one that shows up a LOT in WWW, such as in Glowing Corpse. The music box-style music is charming.
One of the puppet voices is done by Alan Sues who played one of the Dawson brothers in TNOT Fatal Trap but was probably best known from Laugh-In (and sadly, is no longer with us). I must admit I didn't recognize his voice until someone else pointed it out to me (and I wish I could remember who that was!).
I wonder who the kids watching the puppet show are. Some of them look familiar, but I don't place any of them.
The puppet representing Justice Chayne really looks a lot like him. Whoever made the puppets (in Real Life, I mean) did a GREAT job!
I'm not sure, but I think maybe the music that plays when the Vivid puppet shows up is also played later when the real Vivid shows up.
The Lloyd Bochner puppet is an excellent likeness also.
The judge puppet is jumping around so much, it nearly distracts the eye from noticing the gun that appears from behind the curtain. Nearly. (Hey, how many people are supposed to be back there operating that puppet show, anyway?)
Now how the puppet could really shoot straight enough to hit Jim, I'm not sure. I'm also not sure if a puppet suspended by strings, since its feet aren't firmly planted on the ground, would be able to fire something and have the projectile hit someone that far away from it. Dubious physics are dubious. (But I still enjoy the scene!)
And Jim, even though he's just been shot, manages to shoot straight enough in return to nail the Bochner puppet!
The eerie music over the opening credits really fits.
I like the repartee among Jim, Artie, and the doctor. Sounds like the three of them know each other very well.
I'm with Artie; I get a kick out of the design of the injector dart and how it uses physics to work. *grin*
Jim sounds rather like a profiler here, doesn't he, getting into the mind of the shooter, talking about how leaving the Bochner (or shooter) puppet behind would be like the shooter leaving part of himself behind.
Jim pulls another I'm-off-to-investigate-and-not-telling-anyone-where-I'm-going! thing here. How hard would it have been to say the name of the saloon to the judge? or to write Artie a note? (For that matter, the judge is soooo close to the thing Jim is holding, why doesn't he just take a peek at it? I would have out of simple curiosity, and my life hadn't just been endangered.)
Man, Jim, make an entrance! (The way he slams the door, I mean.)
Flirty Jim is flirty again. 'What's your pleasure?' perhaps isn't the wisest line for a girl to use around guys, especially in a saloon. (But I am very very fond of 'Wilbur' the waitress! Her wit is sooooo sharp.)
Tiny little puppet arm peeking out from behind the curtain!
Wilbur returns with Jim's drink, slams down the tray, slams down the drink itself, that swats his arm with her rag, spilling his drink. I love that part!
Big burly guys rising up and moving into position around the barroom; looks like it's time for a fight, doesn't it? *grin*
Double-fisted fisticuffs, taking out two guys at once!
After Jim takes out all those guys in the barroom, then darts behind the curtains and through the door, blocking it with the stack of barrels, watch when he then charges down the hall. He hits the wall and knocks the chimney off a lamp on the wall. And when they go to the new angle looking down the other hall, the chimney is missing from the lamp. Ok, yeah, tiny detail, but I like it.
Express elevator, alllllllll the way down.
Man, just how far down under the tavern is the basement floor anyway??
Skull's underground lair is so very atmospheric, isn't it? The darkness broken by occasional spotlights -- very film noir. For all I know it was done to keep the budget on set dressing very low, but it is soooo effective and evocative! Also, even though this episode has no doubt some extremely colorful costumes, especially on the puppets -- Vivid's name, for example, plainly requires she wear a brightly colored dress -- this episode is one that is all the better for being in black&white and would not have worked quite so well in color. In my opinion.
Jim's echoing footsteps as he walks toward Skull's table set for two.
Bochner is so very suave.
Whoosh! as the butler descends into the scene.
The butler does a pretty good job, I think, of being stiff and puppet-like. And every so often the light catches on his strings. (And as I've said before somewhere or another, I find the portrayal of these steam-driven life-size puppets here in season one vastly superior to Dr Loveless' steam-driven life-size puppet Tiny over in season four.)
Ah, yes, here is Vivid's theme as she dances into view.
There is the question, isn't there, of how a ballerina puppet can do all those spins without hopelessly tangling her strings.
The actress does a great job with the blank stare!
And then as she and Jim are dancing, she spins under his arm as he holds her hand! And even that doesn't tangle her strings!
Snarky Jim quotes Genesis.
Hey, does Skull ever blink? (Why, yes, yes he does. But not often!)
The arrow the statue fires looks to me like it should go right over the President's head. But it's a pantomime anyway.
You do NOT kill the President while James is watching, not even in pantomime! Jim's face shows that he'd like to tear Skull to bits!
I like the soldiers' wobbliness when they first land.
Thank goodness the judge's memory is sound, even if Jim wasn't completely forthcoming about the frowsy tavern's name.
I LOVE the way Artie treats the sandwich board man! He he!
The bench in Skull's little world seems to be a life-size copy of the bench in the puppet play.
I think the bullet hole in the puppet was higher and to the side before?
Again, the jury here is finer, in my opinion, than the one in TNOT Miguelito's Revenge.
I like Bochner's smile as he says, 'The Court apologizes for its wholly unwarranted suspicions.'
Drunken Artie -- as ever, cute as a button! 'I'm a citizen, ain't I? I owe my taxes!' And his hands! He does such curious things with his hands when he's playing drunk!
But who is he referring to when he says, 'That's tellin' 'em, fat fellow!' Why does the writing insist on calling Artie fat? I wouldn't even call him stout.
If I cited every line Artie does in his drunk act here that I love, I would have to transcribe the whole scene. This isn't the only time he gives orders to the whole room while acting drunk (Pancho, TNOT Jack O'Diamonds, for example). And his silly business about ordering three drinks to avoid the terrible lag between drinks. And his switch from jolly drunk to maudlin drunk. Fascinating!
He invites -- at her behest -- 'Wilbur' to sit with him and clears his cloak off the chair by him for her to do so, only to find she's taken the other chair. *snerk*
And I LOVE Wilbur's reaction when Artie's voice switches from drunk to not-drunk!
I also love her reply when Artie asks her name: Wilbur. Naturally. And the sock she gives him! And the reference to the Empress Eugénie!
Splendid-id.
Another thing I love is how that one guy takes Artie by the arm, and Artie just slips sideways right out of the guy's grasp.
You know, when that caveman shows up and clubs Jim into one of the jury boxes, the impact makes a dent in the box.
Someone tosses Jim a knife! I like the use he puts it to. Instead of harming the puppet itself, he cuts some of its strings.
The 'Buffoon' (Skull's word, not mine) with his whip disturbs me, even more so when we at last see his face. I like how he shifts the whip from hand to hand behind his back. I don't know if that's an effective technique or not, but I like it.
Was the jury's verdict ever in doubt, considering who their master is? and the way they lift their thumbs and turn them down one by one, usually without their faces shifting in any way! (But Vivid doesn't turn her thumb down.)
The toy soldiers again.
Artie finds the same little room. He tries the door and it doesn't open, but afterwards it slides open -- he was pushing it. I went back and looked to see how Jim opens it. He doesn't -- it's already open, then slides shut (on his arm) after he's inside. I guess the door slides shut whenever someone tries the doorknob on the door with the bricks in the window?
What I love here is how Jim says, 'Friend!' and slugs Artie right to the floor, and Artie instantly gets what Jim has in mind and goes right along with it. There's that telepathy our favorite agents share!
And having gotten the judge caught up in their little charade, they run off into the darkness, leaving one of the soldiers spinning in midair!
(I'm not entirely sure, but I think Ross was doing his own stunts here. I really not sure about the first punch, the one Artie takes, but when Artie goes to punch Jim, that looks pretty seamless, so I think Ross fake-punched Robert. And then when they grapple and Jim slings Artie into the knot of soldiers, I'm pretty sure that's Ross there too. I watched it several times; isn't research tedious?)
In all that darkness, they manage to come upon the steam pipes. I love their dialog here, especially about keeping the ocean up there. (And the fact that Artie the gadgeteer is carrying explosives on him, even in his best suit.)
Artie kisses the cut-off valves.
I always love the way Jim passes the rifle off to Artie, then runs and scales the bench to confront Skull. That's our Jim/Robert!
And the blank way Lloyd acts here. These actors did their puppet roles very well indeed.
Vivid makes for a great plot twist.
Ah, the real puppetmaster in his spider's web on high.
Ew! The spiral staircase wobbles as they climb it!
It always amazes me to think that somewhere under that make-up job is Lloyd Bochner!
And Vivid the plot twist once again.
So... much... steam!
Here's what I wonder about. The elevator goes straight up, doesn't it? So the tavern is directly above the undersea lair. Yet the explosion happens way out the window and doesn't affect the building Jim, Artie, and Vivid are standing in. (Doin' my credulity stretches again.)
And back to Justice Chayne's house for the tag. The puppet show is in progress again, and Alan Sues' voice is there again. And... the cute ending with Jim kissing the girl while Artie smiles from below -- only to have the curtain closed in his face.
I'm a bit partial to the actor who plays Justice Chayne here, John Hoyt, mainly because he was in a favorite episode of The Twilight Zone in which (TZ SPOILERS!) he played an alien with three hands. Barney Phillips, from TNOT Thousand Eyes (blink and you'll miss him), was in the same TZ, as another alien, this one with three eyes.
Ok, TZ SPOILERS are done.
Silly question time: why are brandy snifters so large when you're only supposed to pour a small amount in? And watching Jim sip from his, it looks like the snifter is made so that you really can't take more than a small sip at a time without dumping the brandy all over yourself. (Which shows how much I know about brandy, right?)
I like Hoyt's acting job when Jim describes the 'gifts' the dead justices received, his tiny hesitations that tell Jim he's received the same sort of 'gift.'
Is that a Blind Justice figurine on Chayne's desk? How appropriate!
Btw, John Hoyt shows up again in fourth season's TNOT Plague; in color you can see how very blue his eyes are.
Chayne's foyer is one that shows up a LOT in WWW, such as in Glowing Corpse. The music box-style music is charming.
One of the puppet voices is done by Alan Sues who played one of the Dawson brothers in TNOT Fatal Trap but was probably best known from Laugh-In (and sadly, is no longer with us). I must admit I didn't recognize his voice until someone else pointed it out to me (and I wish I could remember who that was!).
I wonder who the kids watching the puppet show are. Some of them look familiar, but I don't place any of them.
The puppet representing Justice Chayne really looks a lot like him. Whoever made the puppets (in Real Life, I mean) did a GREAT job!
I'm not sure, but I think maybe the music that plays when the Vivid puppet shows up is also played later when the real Vivid shows up.
The Lloyd Bochner puppet is an excellent likeness also.
The judge puppet is jumping around so much, it nearly distracts the eye from noticing the gun that appears from behind the curtain. Nearly. (Hey, how many people are supposed to be back there operating that puppet show, anyway?)
Now how the puppet could really shoot straight enough to hit Jim, I'm not sure. I'm also not sure if a puppet suspended by strings, since its feet aren't firmly planted on the ground, would be able to fire something and have the projectile hit someone that far away from it. Dubious physics are dubious. (But I still enjoy the scene!)
And Jim, even though he's just been shot, manages to shoot straight enough in return to nail the Bochner puppet!
The eerie music over the opening credits really fits.
I like the repartee among Jim, Artie, and the doctor. Sounds like the three of them know each other very well.
I'm with Artie; I get a kick out of the design of the injector dart and how it uses physics to work. *grin*
Jim sounds rather like a profiler here, doesn't he, getting into the mind of the shooter, talking about how leaving the Bochner (or shooter) puppet behind would be like the shooter leaving part of himself behind.
Jim pulls another I'm-off-to-investigate-and-not-telling-anyone-where-I'm-going! thing here. How hard would it have been to say the name of the saloon to the judge? or to write Artie a note? (For that matter, the judge is soooo close to the thing Jim is holding, why doesn't he just take a peek at it? I would have out of simple curiosity, and my life hadn't just been endangered.)
Man, Jim, make an entrance! (The way he slams the door, I mean.)
Flirty Jim is flirty again. 'What's your pleasure?' perhaps isn't the wisest line for a girl to use around guys, especially in a saloon. (But I am very very fond of 'Wilbur' the waitress! Her wit is sooooo sharp.)
Tiny little puppet arm peeking out from behind the curtain!
Wilbur returns with Jim's drink, slams down the tray, slams down the drink itself, that swats his arm with her rag, spilling his drink. I love that part!
Big burly guys rising up and moving into position around the barroom; looks like it's time for a fight, doesn't it? *grin*
Double-fisted fisticuffs, taking out two guys at once!
After Jim takes out all those guys in the barroom, then darts behind the curtains and through the door, blocking it with the stack of barrels, watch when he then charges down the hall. He hits the wall and knocks the chimney off a lamp on the wall. And when they go to the new angle looking down the other hall, the chimney is missing from the lamp. Ok, yeah, tiny detail, but I like it.
Express elevator, alllllllll the way down.
Man, just how far down under the tavern is the basement floor anyway??
Skull's underground lair is so very atmospheric, isn't it? The darkness broken by occasional spotlights -- very film noir. For all I know it was done to keep the budget on set dressing very low, but it is soooo effective and evocative! Also, even though this episode has no doubt some extremely colorful costumes, especially on the puppets -- Vivid's name, for example, plainly requires she wear a brightly colored dress -- this episode is one that is all the better for being in black&white and would not have worked quite so well in color. In my opinion.
Jim's echoing footsteps as he walks toward Skull's table set for two.
Bochner is so very suave.
Whoosh! as the butler descends into the scene.
The butler does a pretty good job, I think, of being stiff and puppet-like. And every so often the light catches on his strings. (And as I've said before somewhere or another, I find the portrayal of these steam-driven life-size puppets here in season one vastly superior to Dr Loveless' steam-driven life-size puppet Tiny over in season four.)
Ah, yes, here is Vivid's theme as she dances into view.
There is the question, isn't there, of how a ballerina puppet can do all those spins without hopelessly tangling her strings.
The actress does a great job with the blank stare!
And then as she and Jim are dancing, she spins under his arm as he holds her hand! And even that doesn't tangle her strings!
Snarky Jim quotes Genesis.
Hey, does Skull ever blink? (Why, yes, yes he does. But not often!)
The arrow the statue fires looks to me like it should go right over the President's head. But it's a pantomime anyway.
You do NOT kill the President while James is watching, not even in pantomime! Jim's face shows that he'd like to tear Skull to bits!
I like the soldiers' wobbliness when they first land.
Thank goodness the judge's memory is sound, even if Jim wasn't completely forthcoming about the frowsy tavern's name.
I LOVE the way Artie treats the sandwich board man! He he!
The bench in Skull's little world seems to be a life-size copy of the bench in the puppet play.
I think the bullet hole in the puppet was higher and to the side before?
Again, the jury here is finer, in my opinion, than the one in TNOT Miguelito's Revenge.
I like Bochner's smile as he says, 'The Court apologizes for its wholly unwarranted suspicions.'
Drunken Artie -- as ever, cute as a button! 'I'm a citizen, ain't I? I owe my taxes!' And his hands! He does such curious things with his hands when he's playing drunk!
But who is he referring to when he says, 'That's tellin' 'em, fat fellow!' Why does the writing insist on calling Artie fat? I wouldn't even call him stout.
If I cited every line Artie does in his drunk act here that I love, I would have to transcribe the whole scene. This isn't the only time he gives orders to the whole room while acting drunk (Pancho, TNOT Jack O'Diamonds, for example). And his silly business about ordering three drinks to avoid the terrible lag between drinks. And his switch from jolly drunk to maudlin drunk. Fascinating!
He invites -- at her behest -- 'Wilbur' to sit with him and clears his cloak off the chair by him for her to do so, only to find she's taken the other chair. *snerk*
And I LOVE Wilbur's reaction when Artie's voice switches from drunk to not-drunk!
I also love her reply when Artie asks her name: Wilbur. Naturally. And the sock she gives him! And the reference to the Empress Eugénie!
Splendid-id.
Another thing I love is how that one guy takes Artie by the arm, and Artie just slips sideways right out of the guy's grasp.
You know, when that caveman shows up and clubs Jim into one of the jury boxes, the impact makes a dent in the box.
Someone tosses Jim a knife! I like the use he puts it to. Instead of harming the puppet itself, he cuts some of its strings.
The 'Buffoon' (Skull's word, not mine) with his whip disturbs me, even more so when we at last see his face. I like how he shifts the whip from hand to hand behind his back. I don't know if that's an effective technique or not, but I like it.
Was the jury's verdict ever in doubt, considering who their master is? and the way they lift their thumbs and turn them down one by one, usually without their faces shifting in any way! (But Vivid doesn't turn her thumb down.)
The toy soldiers again.
Artie finds the same little room. He tries the door and it doesn't open, but afterwards it slides open -- he was pushing it. I went back and looked to see how Jim opens it. He doesn't -- it's already open, then slides shut (on his arm) after he's inside. I guess the door slides shut whenever someone tries the doorknob on the door with the bricks in the window?
What I love here is how Jim says, 'Friend!' and slugs Artie right to the floor, and Artie instantly gets what Jim has in mind and goes right along with it. There's that telepathy our favorite agents share!
And having gotten the judge caught up in their little charade, they run off into the darkness, leaving one of the soldiers spinning in midair!
(I'm not entirely sure, but I think Ross was doing his own stunts here. I really not sure about the first punch, the one Artie takes, but when Artie goes to punch Jim, that looks pretty seamless, so I think Ross fake-punched Robert. And then when they grapple and Jim slings Artie into the knot of soldiers, I'm pretty sure that's Ross there too. I watched it several times; isn't research tedious?)
In all that darkness, they manage to come upon the steam pipes. I love their dialog here, especially about keeping the ocean up there. (And the fact that Artie the gadgeteer is carrying explosives on him, even in his best suit.)
Artie kisses the cut-off valves.
I always love the way Jim passes the rifle off to Artie, then runs and scales the bench to confront Skull. That's our Jim/Robert!
And the blank way Lloyd acts here. These actors did their puppet roles very well indeed.
Vivid makes for a great plot twist.
Ah, the real puppetmaster in his spider's web on high.
Ew! The spiral staircase wobbles as they climb it!
It always amazes me to think that somewhere under that make-up job is Lloyd Bochner!
And Vivid the plot twist once again.
So... much... steam!
Here's what I wonder about. The elevator goes straight up, doesn't it? So the tavern is directly above the undersea lair. Yet the explosion happens way out the window and doesn't affect the building Jim, Artie, and Vivid are standing in. (Doin' my credulity stretches again.)
And back to Justice Chayne's house for the tag. The puppet show is in progress again, and Alan Sues' voice is there again. And... the cute ending with Jim kissing the girl while Artie smiles from below -- only to have the curtain closed in his face.