TIKI CULTURE

Matt Helm in The Silencers, 1966 - Mod Movie Monday at Tiki Lounge Talk

Matt Helm, The Silencers 1966

First, I’d like to thank the team at GOOGLE for helping with a potential attack. They identified a possible hacking threat, notified me immediately, removed my site from their search listings to protect others (you) very quickly. As soon as I was able to make sure the site was clean the re-instated my search engine rankings within a few days. Thanks Google!

The Silencers starring Dean Martin as Matt Helm, Daliah Lavi and  Stella Stevens.

Watch out, Derek Flint. Move over Austin Powers. And take a back seat, James Bond - Matt Helm is on the case!

When the cold war was at its peak and spy thrillers were taking the place of westerns and war movies, America answered the 007 call with a few good men - one of the best being Matt Helm, a suave, lady-loving swinger who could catch the bad guys, snap some great photos and make love to the girl in the same scene.

This series of movies gives us a fantabulous peak at the styles, cars, furnishing and hot chicks of the swingin’ ’60s. The movies are combination thriller-comedies, with the main lean towards funny. With Dean Martin at the helm (as Helm), you get that groovin’ mix of humor, sex appeal and crooning.

Stella Stevens and Dean Martin

This particular flick, one of my favorites, features a 1960s beauty named Daliah Lavi who’s got the right curves in the right places and a sexy accent that will make you melt. Stella Stevens drops in with her crazy figure too. And there’s an all-too-short cameo by the beautiful Cid Charise, dancing her way through a sultry nightclub scene (she sings too, but apparently it’s not her voice - she’s dubbed by a then very young Vicky Carr.)

While 007 sported an Aston-Martin, Matt Helm had himself a good, solid American car - a 1965 Mercury Parklane Station Wagon - of course his was modified somewhat by Chuck Barris…The car now resides at the Volo Hollywood Car Museum in Volo, Illinois. Leave it to Dean Martin to make a station wagon kool, huh?

Since Dino’s favorite drink was the Martini, set yourself up with a pitcher before the show starts. Martin also loved Italian cuisine, so go with that for your dinner and a movie. Maybe a nice Penne ala Vodka with grilled chicken and zucchini. And make sure you watch it with someone who looks like Stella Stevens, you know, for full effect.

-Tiki Chris reporting from behind the Tiki Bar.
Tiki Lounge Talk - The Tiki Culture blog for Retro Kats & Swingin’ Kittens

The Girl Can’t Help It, 1956 - Mod Movie Monday at TLT

What do you get when you mix sexy Miss Jane Mansfield with a dozen early Rock ’n’ Roll legends? You get

The Girl Can’t Help It, 1956

Starring Jane Mansfield, Tom Ewell and Edmund O’Brian.

The plot is simple but fun: Old gangster wants to make his ‘girlfriend’ a star, but she can’t sing a note. So he hires a press agent, Tom Ewell (the luckiest man in Hollywood at the time by the way) to force her fame. Since she stinks at singing traditional music, they give Rock ’n’ roll a try.

This kookie movie features some of the most famous & koolest Rockers from the 50s, actually performing in the movie in glorious widescreen color. The list includes:

Famous photo of Sophia Loren and Jane Mansfield

• Little Richard
• Nino Tempo
• Johnny Olenn
• Eddie Fontaine
• The Chuckles
• Abbey Lincoln
• Gene Vincent
• Eddie Cochran
• Ray Anthony & His Orchestra
• The Treniers
• Fats Domino
• The Platters
• Freddy Bell & The Bell-Boys

Plus a haunting, unforgettable version of Cry Me A River by Julie London.

Add to that some kool cars, and Jane Mansfield wearing some of the tightest clothes ever built and you’ve got a winner. This movie pretty much proves she gave Marilyn a run for the money. Such a drag that she died so young. At least we’ve got the film.

Oh, yeah, why was Tom Ewell the luckiest man in Hollywood in the 1950s? Simple. Love scenes with Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch in 1955, love scenes with Jane Mansfield in The Girl Can’t Help It in 1956. Ya dig?

- Tiki Chris reporting from behind the Tiki Bar with a Mai Tai in one hand and an Easter Egg in the other

Mod (Retro) Movie Monday: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, 2004

Sky Captain

Direct from the Tiki Blog - When I started Mod Movie Mondays, I said they might not always be mod, and they might not always be old. Here’s a flick that will have anyone into Art Deco, retro-30’s style and the sci-fi future of yesteryear drooling.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, 2004

Beautifully created Art Deco sets inspired by the work of Norman Bel Geddes (of 1930s World’s Fairs fame) transport you back to an alternative history, a 1930s New York where retro-futuristic technology co-exists with fat-fendered cars, where ray guns are real and Nazis are more interested in flying luxury airships than conquering the world. So if Nazis aren’t the nemises in this pre-WW2 adventure, who is? An evil scientist, of course, played by Sir Lawrence Olivier (yes, he was long dead at the time this movie was made - they made fantastic use of B&W archive footage!)

Sky Captain is an airplane pilot who flies a modified P-40 fighter (it not only flies, it’s a submarine). His mission is to protect the world, basically, from anyone who tries to crack things up. When a small army of giant iron robots lands in the Big Apple and start tearing things apart, Sky Captain swoops in. The story progresses from there in a 1930s comic book-style and takes him to exotic lands like Shangri La.

But enough about the story, time to talk about why this flick is being featured here. As I said, the sets are incredible - works of art in every scene. And almost none of it was real - this was one of the first full-length movies to be filmed almost entirely in front of a blue screen, with all of the sets digitally sequenced in. Some sets came from actual photographs, some from vintage art, and the rest were created electronically just for the film. What this translates into is a work of art on a moving canvas living behind the action of the actors. If you like the retro life, you will wish you lived in this movie.

Since the action takes place mainly in 1930s New York of the Future, I’d suggest a retro-futuristic dinner and drinks. Try a deli style sandwich platter of corned beef, roast beef, Swiss or Havarti cheese, and coleslaw on marble rye, served up on your favorite Jetsons-style dishes with a side of waffle fries. For dessert, Dove chocolate ice cream banana splits in Art Deco, blimp-shaped bowls. And for the drinks - Highballs, Slow Gin Fizzes, and of course, Manhattans, served in your finest futuristic stemware.

-Tiki Chris Pinto for Tiki Lounge Talk, South Florida’s Swingin’ Scene for Retro Hipsters and Tiki Lovers

The Groove Tube, 1974 - Mod Movie Monday at The Tiki Blog

One of the craziest, funniest, raunchiest movies of all time, the first major motion picture ever to use the sketch comedy format made famous by Saturday Night Live and Second City TV, here’s this week’s Mod Movie Monday Feature

The Groove Tube, 1974

Starring Ken Shapiro, Chevy Chase, Richard Beltzer and ensemble.

In the 60s and early 70s modern ’sketch’ comedy was still new, and Channel One Theater in New York was one of the groups pioneering this off-beat sort of comedy. From that was born The Groove Tube, written and directed by Ken Shapiro of Channel One.

As always I won’t give anything away, but I can give you a basic idea of what you’re going to see. The viewer is to believe they are not watching a movie, but TV in a world where nudity, adult themes, far-out trips, cursing and unbound comedy is uncensored. After the opening credits (which spoofs 2001-A Space Odyssey and features music by Curtis Mayfield) the viewer seems to be watching a TV that someone else is controlling…changing stations, watching commercials, etc. (much like Robot Chicken does today (except with real people instead of toys)). (wow, that’s a (lot of) brackets!) Each sketch is a full commercial or part of a TV show, and include such greats as Koko the Clown, Brown-25 from The Uranus Corporation,  a commercial for “Geritan”, Chevy Chase singing “I’m looking over a four leaf clover”, and “Channel One Evening News.”

Although Shapiro played the anchor on the Evening News, the skit and its tagline, ‘Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow,’ were taken along to Saturday Night Live with Chevy Chase, and live on today as Weekend Update.

This movie pulled out all the stops, using full-frontal nudity, drug use, prostitution, and silliness in a truly funny way. I also believe this was the first and only time a grown man in a suit, hat and brief case danced through the streets of New York singing “Just me, Just You” and lived to tell about it.

Seriously, this movie is funny as hell. I waited 25 years to see it and wasn’t disappointed. Back in 1975, when it was playing at the Towne-4 movie theater next to the Searstown Mall in Pleasantville, NJ, my family wanted to see it. The TV commercials made it look like a straight-up comedy (without the raunchiness), and the newspaper ad showed it as being rated “G” (it’s actually rated R). When we got to the movies, and I still remember this clearly, the pretty young girl at the ticket counter told my my parents “Aw, you don’t want to take him in there”, to which they said, “But it’s rated G”, to which she replied, “Oh no, sorry about that. The paste up guy at the newspaper didn’t do the ad right and the “R” slipped off the ad, if you look at the paper again you’ll see the “R” overlapping the ad under it.” How about that, huh? So I didn’t get to see it. Considering I was 7, it’s probably a good thing.

It wasn’t until the early 2000’s when I finally found the DVD available on the internet that I was able to see it. I gotta tell you, even after 35 years it still is funny, and has some shock value.

This is some pretty low-brow comedy so for a drink & snacks I’d say cheap beer and chips all the way. Miller High Life and Doritos would be very 70s. If you’re not a beer drinker, then Jack on the rocks, and Herrs potato chips. Some New Yawk style pizza too. Watch it by the glow of a Lava Lamp and a Spencer’s Gifts fiber-optic tree for full effect, man. Yeah.

-Tiki Chris for Tiki Lounge Talk

Tiki Blog Mod Movie Monday - Make Mine Music, 1946

Ok, this flick goes back a few years, but I wouldn’t be true to my Tiki-Retro Blog’s reason for being if I didn’t include one of my favorite old-time movies…

Make Mine Music, Walt Disney, 1946

In the spirit of Fantasia, this is a collection of “shorts”…5 to 10 minute sequences animated to music. Sort of Music Videos from the era when everyday people enjoyed jazz and classical music.

And as far as Mod goes…vibrant colors, a singing whale, and jazz combo let by a dancing clarinet through a surreal dream…done up years before LSD was invented.

The “Movie” features music by Nelson Eddie, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman, The Andrews Sisters and more, and tells musical tale from Peter and the Wolf to an Operatic Whale named Willie.

But there are two main reasons I dig this flick…and they’re both by Benny Goodman. “All the Cats Join In” is as hep as it gets, swinging the long version of Goodman’s tune with crazy bobby-soxers cartooning it around the house, malt shop and streets. It’s very clever, with the characters and backdrops being drawn as the action progresses. The music is hot and swings perfectly with the comedy of the animation.

“After You’ve Gone” features the Benny Goodman Quartet, with Teddy Wilson, Cozy Cole, and Sid Wiess. This has a special place in my heart…The first time I saw this cartoon was when it was played during a 1985 PBS salute to Goodman…which happened to be his last televised performance before his death. I video taped the show and watched the cartoon over and over, not just for the incredible and surrealistic animation (who wouldn’t love a clarinet dancing around in the clouds with disembodied fingers dancing like legs on a piano keyboard), but for the absolutely unbelievable facility of Goodman’s playing on this number. I asked everyone I knew, young and old, and in 1985 no one could remember where this toon came from. 16 years later, the internet finally gave up the secrets. Here it is, “After You’ve Gone” by Benny Goodman from “Make Mine Music”

and “All the Cats Join In”…a caracature