The first recording today starts with the end of The Flintstones.
There’s a trail for Maestro. Plus a trail for Britain from Above.
Then, it’s another old live-action Disney film, The Cat from Outer Space. I say old, but it came out the year after Star Wars.
The spaceship model isn’t quite as good as the Star Wars models.
“Don’t see any hammer and sickle, do you, Colonel?” “Maybe it’s on the inside, General.” The army are so predictable.
Harry Morgan, Col. Potter on M*A*S*H plays General Stilton. His code name is Big Cheese.
Sandy Duncan plays Dr Elizabeth Bartlett, “head of thermal”.
Roddy McDowall plays Stallwood, who’s some kind of spy.
Ken Berry plays Frank, a scientist who befriends the eponymous cat.
The cat has a magic collar that lets him do all sort of things.
McLean Stevenson plays Link, a friend of Frank who bets a lot on sports. The cat is able to make his team win. Stevenson was also in M*A*S*H and in fact, when his character left the show he was replaced by Harry Morgan.
Why does their elevator have “Elevator” written on it?
Jake the cat needs Frank’s help to fix his spaceship. Frank’s able to use a collar to fly to the top of the ship.
Stallwood is spying on him.
Frank’s spotted and there’s a rather chaotic action sequence, with tanks and other vehicles crashing into buildings. Frank escapes with the help of Jake flying a motorcycle over the fence.
Frank and Jake need $120,000 to buy gold to fix the ship so they think putting a large bet on might raise that money. For that they need Link’s help, but he needs convincing that the cat really is speaking to him. Which they do by messing with his beer and flying him around.
Stallwood is spying again.
After an abortive attempt to bet on multiple football games, they go to the pool hall where the bookie works from, and manage to persuade him to offer odds on Elizabeth to win a pool game against the local hustler. “But if I didn’t have no principles, I’d say 100 to 1.” “Uh, suppose, suppose she gives Sarasota Slim 12 balls.” “What a sense of humor. 300 to 1.” “And the break.” “500 to 1.” “And blindfolded.” “What?” “Blindfolded.” “2000 to 1.” So he takes their bet, and Jake is able to preven the hustler sinking any balls, but also let Elizabeth sink all the balls with her break. I wonder why nobody was questioning the balls not moving according to the laws of motion.
Stilton discovers that Frank was working on the ship, and recently bought gold so he comes to arrest him. Jake is able to freeze them, and they steal his uniform so Frank and Jake can get into the base.
But Elizabeth is kidnapped by Stallwood’s boss, Olympus, who wants the secret of the cat’s ship and collar.
Link tells Frank that Elizabeth’s been taken. Jake decides he has to stay to help her, and sends the ship away on its own.
Olympus has Elizabeth on a helicopter, and takes off when the police come, so Frank and Jake have to chase it in a decrepit biplane, held aloft by Jake. Some of the shots here look like they were genuine aerial shots, which is fairly impressive.
They couldn’t afford to crash a helicopter though – just a shot of it diving below a hill.
The film ends with Jake becoming a citizen of the United States. And making the judge fly.
Media Centre Description: Disney comedy in which an alien cat, having crash-landed on Earth, must use his magical powers to raise 120,000 dollars in order to fix his spaceship. He quickly discovers his ability to predict sports results will enable him to get the cash. But interferences from the government authorities and a bumbling vet may just scupper his plans.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Monday 4th August 2008 11:18
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Monday 4th August 2008 11:20
After this there’s a trail for the Olympics, and a trail for Who Do You Think You Are?
There’s also a trail for The Tudors.
Then the recording ends with the start of Out of the Blue
The next recording today is Local Hero, Bill Forsyth’s beautiful follow-up to Gregory’s Girl.
Peter Riegert plays Macintyre, an executive at an oil company which wants to purchase a site on the Scottish coast for an oil refinery.
Burt Lancaster plays Felix Happer, the head of the organisation, who has something of an obsession with the night sky. He wants to have a comet named after him.
He has some kind of therapist whose job seems to be to insult him. This is a running gag.
A very young Peter Capaldi plays Olson, who works for the Aberdeen branch of the oil company, who’s assigned to help Macintyre.
Jenny Seagrove plays Marina, an oceanographer particularly interested in the flora and fauna of the bay. She doesn’t know about the oil refinery. That’s comedian Rikki Fulton with her.
On the way to the town, they clip a rabbit on the road, and Mac decides to look after it.
Denis Lawson plays Gordon Urquhart, who greets Macintyre and Olson at the hotel and serves them breakfast. Then they meet him next door in his other role as a solicitor. “We tend to double-up on jobs around here I’m a taxi driver sometimes too.”
Macintyre thinks he might have difficulty persuading the town to sell up. Gordon, on the other hand, has got them all together, and everyone is looking forward to a big payday. “All I need just now is your OK to negotiate. I’ve got the Knox man on the hook. Just give me the time to land him in style. He’s got a bag full of money. All right. So stay calm and let me handle it. I need your patience and your faith. Trust me.” “Would they be wanting to buy a boat too, Mr. Urquhart?” “Gideon, if things go well, they’ll have to buy their own shirts back off us this time next week. Stay calm. Trust me.”
Macintyre is heading for the church, but the Reverend manages to meet him outside, so he doesn’t notice the stream of people leaving the church.
At dinner, Gordon serves casserole de lapin. Olson realises they’ve been eating rabbit. Their rabbit that Mac has been nursing. They get quite upset. Gordon’s wife Stella comes in. He says “They didn’t like the rabbit.” Olson says “Mac loved the rabbit. That’s just the point. It had a name. Two names.” For some reason, that’s a line that’s stayed with me in the many years since I first saw this film.
The locals are definitely dreaming of the high life. “Are you sure there are two L’s in dollar, Julian.” “Yes. And are there two G’s in bugger off?”
Olson meets Marina diving on the beach. “How’s the water? Cold?” “Not as cold as it should be. The North Atlantic Drift comes in here. That’s warmish water from the Caribbean. That’s why it’s special here. There’s stuff fetching up here all the way from the Bahamas.” “Oh, that’s a long way.” “You swim?” “Not that far.” She thinks that they’re there to build a marine laboratory there, not an oil refinery.
There’s a ceilidh, of course.
The band are named after an ingredient of nail polish remover.
Gordon joins in on the accordion. This struck a chord as my daughter is learning to play the accordion.
There’s a brief appearance from the start of Gregory’s Girl, John Gordon Sinclair.
Mac sees the northern lights, and calls Happer in excitement.
Happer is distracted from the call by his ‘therapist’ outside his window placing an insulting message.
The negotiations are thrown into doubt when it’s discovered that the beach is owned by Ben Knox (Fulton Mackay), who lives in a shack on the beach made of the hull of an old boat. They hadn’t figured that the beach was separate from the houses at the front. So now they have to persuade Ben that he should sell. Trouble is, he doesn’t seem too interested in moving, and money doesn’t seem to be a lure.
As the negotiations continue, it seems like the other townsfolk might start getting angry that their deal is in jeopardy.
As Gordon and Mac accompany him back to his shack for protection, they see a lot of the townsfolk heading down the beach. But there’s a light in the sky, coming closer. It’s a helicopter.
It’s Happer, who’s come to close the deal. Mac tells him everything they’ve tried. But when he mentions his name is Knox, and he has a telescope, Happer decides he should talk to him himself.
After a long conversation with Ben, Happer tells Mac that he thinks the refinery site was a mistake, and he wants to build an observatory. Olson suggests they could build a marine laboratory too.
So Macintyre is sent back to Houston to put the deal together while Happer and Olson stay there.
The last shot of the film is the village. And the phone in the phone box starts ringing.
Media Centre Description: Offbeat comedy about an American oil executive who travels to Scotland to buy up an entire village for a refinery site, but instead finds himself under the spell of the area and its inhabitants.
Recorded from Film4 on Monday 4th August 2008 18:53
The final recording today is an edited recording of Star Trek: The Next Generation – Half a Life.
Media Centre Description: Sci-fi drama series set aboard the USS Enterprise. Troi’s mother fights to stop her lover from participating in the ritual suicide mandated by his society.
Recorded from Virgin1 on Monday 4th August 2008 19:58
