Escaping the Heat

I thought I set the alarm this morning...but I ended up oversleeping and just barely had time for breakfast and rushing out. Made it to work just in time. That was the worst thing that happened all morning. We were dead almost the entire time. I swept, pushed carts, and gathered the trash outside with no trouble whatsoever. It was glaringly sunny, hot and humid as heck, but a cool wind did help somewhat.

Needless to say, I hurried straight home and into the air conditioning after work. Watched the first episode of The Monkees while having lunch. Davy gets caught up in a "Royal Flush" when he rescues the Princess of Harmonica from drowning, and he and the other boys end up at her coronation to keep her Uncle Otto from preventing her ascension to the throne.

Switched to Vega$ next. Uncle Otto isn't the one trying to take over a kingdom. J.T Rodmore (Robert Reed) is "The Usurper" who somehow forces Philip Roth (Tony Curtis) to hand over his casino empire. Dan Tanna tries to find Roth and find out what's going on, but he's disappeared into thin air. Dan has to dodge the men following him to find Philip and help him regain control of his rightful position.

Spent the next few hours after that adding to the inventory. Did all of the H and I titles - the Broadway versions of Half a Sixpence and House of Flowers, the original casts for Hello Dolly, How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, and Into the Woods, I Do! I Do! with Mary Martin and Robert Preston, the Anglo-French Irma La Douce, High Button Shoes, and I Had a Ball with Buddy Hackett and Karen Morrow. Most of these were record store and thrift shop finds. I think How to Succeed and I Do! I Do! came from Abbie Road, but I'm not sure.

Broke for dinner and Match Game Syndicated at 7 PM. Brett found herself sitting between two then-hot TV favorites in the first episode, Bart Braverman and Robert Walden. Marcia Wallace ended up next to Bill Daily and spent the week trying to figure out his strange answers. Soap star Dawn Jeffory joins Fred Grandy, David Doyle, Bill, and a sassy Rita Moreno in the next show. Gene brings out cards from Tim Conway's show to explain why they were late getting started.

Finished the night with the last Matt Helm movie I hadn't watched at Tubi. The Ambushers are Ortega (Albert Salmi) and his hench people, who are after an experimental flying saucer-type vehicle that can only be driven by women. The pilot Sheila Sommers (Janice Rule) was found without her memory and frightened to death of any man...except for Matt Helm (Dean Martin), who worked with her before. They pose as a photographer and his wife to get the goods on Ortega and find that saucer.

This is by far the weakest of the four Matt Helm films. Not that the others were high art, but this one is not only ridiculous, the plot with the saucer is just plain dull. Neither Rule nor the villains are at all interesting, and Martin is sleepwalking through his role. Only the nifty psychedelic fashions and some good location shooting in Mexico have any merit. Only for the most ardent Martin or spy caper fans, or those who have seen one or more of the other films in this series.