Began a cloudy, wet morning with breakfast and What's My Line? I had enough time before I left to catch the first guest of the day, who stumped the panelists...and me, as I'd missed her signing in. She turned out to be a teacher of breathing postures. Soupy Sales was her fairly amused model for her breathing exercises in a very funny sketch.
It was showering very lightly when I arrived at work, and would continue to shower lightly on and off all morning. I alternated between gathering carts and shelving candy; swept the store around noon. By the time crowds started coming, I was on my way out.
Had lunch as soon as I got home. Ate and read my new Match Game 101 book while watching Dick Tracy. Dick (Warren Beatty) is a tough-guy cop in a colorful city under siege by some of the most grotesque gangsters this side of the funny pages. He's really after Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino), the new head of all the rackets in town. His girl Tess Trueheart (Glenn Headly) wishes he'd take a desk job and have more time for her. He chases down an orphan who calls himself the Kid (Charlie Korsmo) and may have witnessed several gangland killings. Big Boy's moll Breathless Mahoney (Madonna) will give them information, if Tracy shows more interest in her than just as a witness. Things come to a head on New Year's Eve, when a faceless entity kills corrupt District Attorney John Fletcher (Dick Van Dyke) and frames Tracy, then kidnaps Tess and leaves her in Big Boy's basement. It's up to Tracy and the Kid to solve the mystery, rescue Tess, and stop this Blank menace, before they both end up in a pair of cement shoes.
The eye candy alone makes this one worth checking out. An all-star cast is decked out in primary colors and running around massive sets straight out of a 1930's comic book. Pacino and Madonna walk away with the movie as the head gangster determined to stick it to Tracy and build his empire and the singer who wishes Tracy would see her as more than a gangster's girl. Great score by Danny Elfman and songs by Stephan Sondheim too, including the Oscar-winning "Sooner or Later" for Madonna. Absolutely worth checking out if you love Tracy, the cast, or the stylized action movies of the early 90's.
Worked on writing for a while after the movie ended...and as the rain ended and the sun came out. Nipsey, Bill, and Charles eventually pass out. When Charles awakens in the morning, he peeks in and assumes the ladies are sleeping. Nipsey goes up to check on them...and gets quite a surprise when he learns that they're awake, and have been all night.
Broke for dinner at 6. Watched episodes of Match Game on Buzzr as I ate leftover ham and macaroni salad with kale-spinach salad. Gary Burgoff of MASH replaces his former acting teacher Charles Nelson Reilly, who was on Broadway directing a play, in these two 1975 episodes. Bubbly blonde Elaine Joyce got her first crack at the Head-to-Head bonus round in the first episode, while Gene fends off more cracks about his fashion sense in the second.
Hit the bath after I ate. Oooh, I so needed that. I looked over cake decorating books for ideas for New Year's cakes while listening to a smooth jazz CD and enjoying the warm water. It was so relaxing after a busy couple of weeks.
Finished the night with The Absent-Minded Professor on Disney Plus. This 1961 comedy was an old favorite that I watched a lot on The Disney Channel as a child. Professor Braniard (Fred MacMurray) of Medfield College accidentally invents "flubber," a high-bouncing rubber that'll allow anyone who wears it or holds it to leap so high, they appear to be flying. He melts it onto the shoes of the college's basketball team and uses it to allow his Model T Ford to fly. He wants to sell it to the US government, but the college's wealthy owner Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn) wants it for his own gain. Braniard's fiancee Betsy (Nancy Olsen) wishes he'd actually remember their weddings - he's forgotten three times. She encourages the attentions of a snooty philosophy professor (Elliott Reid) to make Braniard jealous. Not to mention, Alonzo is upset because Braniard flunked his son Bill (Tommy Kirk) and won't give the college more time to pay back loans. Braniard has to get his discovery to the government, bring prestige to Medfield, and show what flubber can really do...before Hawk gets it out from under him.
If you love the goofy Disney comedies of the 50's, 60's, and 70's, this is one of the better ones. There's some surprisingly decent special effects for the time, especially the boys bouncing off the walls at the basketball game. MacMurrary's having a lot of fun as the forgetful scientist who is so busy thinking of ways to improve mankind, he neglects the woman in his life, and Wynn's equally enjoying himself as the obnoxious businessman who thinks he's found his way to easy riches in Braniard's invention. Definitely worth checking out if you love the Disney family comedies of the era or the cast.
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