The Horse's Head

The Plot: Joan Blake (June Carlson) is a teenager whose parents have conflicting views on their daughter’s budding maturity; father Dan (George Eldridge) thinks Joan should go to dances and start dating boys, while mother Sarah (Lois Austin) wants to protect Joan’s virtue by refusing to acknowledge any of this. When Joan sneaks out of the house to go on a date with fast-talking new kid Jack Griffin (Bob Lowell), they end up at Lovers’ Lane doing something shameful off-screen. A month later, Joan learns that she’s pregnant with Jack’s baby, and that Jack has died in a plane crash. Worried about how her parents will react, Joan doesn’t know who to turn to. Ultimately, she confides in Mr. Blackburn (Hardie Albright), a teacher recently fired for talking about sex education in his class, who blames Mom and Dad for their children’s lack of knowledge and awareness. But all of this is just an excuse to show some very graphic sexual hygiene films, including multiple on-camera births!

Why It Matters: The NFR cites the film as “[t]he most successful sex-hygiene exploitation film of all time”, and an essay by film professor/exploitation expert Eric Schaefer is a tribute to the film’s producer,“America’s Fearless Young Showman” Kroger Babb.

But Does It Really?: This is definitely one of the NFR’s more bizarre entries. Not only is “Mom and Dad” the rare exploitation film on this list, it’s also representation of Kroger Babb, one of the more notorious and unabashed showmen in film history. Plus, thanks to the film’s frank and controversial discussion of pregnancy and venereal diseases, you’ll definitely learn something, so you have to give Kroger points for that. “Mom and Dad” has the unique qualities I’m looking for in an NFR title, and if you’re willing to stomach some of the sex ed footage in the film’s third act, it’s an unforgettable viewing experience.

Everybody Gets One: Howard “Kroger” Babb began his professional career as a sports writer before working as the publicity director for a theatrical circuit. In 1939, Babb joined Cox and Underwood, a production company specializing in roadshow presentations of exploitation films. Depending on which version you believe, Babb was either inspired to make “Mom and Dad” based on his experience promoting “Dust to Dust” (a Cox and Underwood acquisition about teen pregnancy), or after learning about high school girls in Burkburnett, Texas getting impregnated by officers from the nearby Sheppard Air Force Base. Either way, Babb founded his own production company (Hygienic Productions) and partnered with J. S. Jossey of Monogram Pictures to make “Mom and Dad” for as cheaply as possible. Among Babb’s shameless promotional tactics for “Mom and Dad” was having an advance team arrive into towns about to screen the movie and write letters of protest to local churches and clubs!

Wow, That’s Dated: Mainly all the euphemisms the film uses in lieu of actual scientific terms. It’s not sexual activity, it’s “student romances”. It’s not venereal disease, it’s “social disease”. And easily the most cringe-inducing, Joan’s not pregnant, she’s “in trouble”. Yikes.

• While the film does address such taboo subjects as underage sex and pregnancy, it’s all by implication. It’s a lot of people not finishing their sentences. “You mean she’s…”
• During its original theatrical run, “Mom and Dad” had an intermission in which “Famous Hygiene Commentator” Elliot Forbes would appear in person in the theater to lecture the audience on sex hygiene. In reality, “Elliott Forbes” was a local actor helping Hygiene Productions sell two books on the subject: “The Digest of Hygiene for Father and Son” and “The Digest of Hygiene for Mother and Daughter”. These books were edited by Mildred Horn, the film’s screenwriter and common-law partner of Kroger Babb. Man, it was a lot easier to con people back then. Side note: In at least one predominantly African-American theater that played “Mom and Dad”, the lecture was given by Jesse Owens, the former Olympic athlete who was attempting to diversify as his athletic offers started to dry up.
• The last third of “Mom and Dad” is definitely the hard sell, as Mr. Blackburn (now re-hired as the school’s sex education teacher) shows his students multiple educational shorts on the subject. We start off easy with an explanation of the female menstrual cycle (seen it) and how an ovum is fertilized by a sperm, but then “Mom and Dad” quickly becomes the second NFR title to feature an on-camera natural childbirth! It’s not as distressing as the one in “All My Babies”, but still tough to watch. This is followed by a second on-camera birth, this time via C-section. And just when you think it’s over, Mr. Blackburn shows another short graphically showcasing how syphilis and gonorrhea can destroy your body (including footage of both male and female sex organs effected by these diseases). “Mom and Dad” is in the “Pink Flamingos” category of NFR movies you shouldn’t watch right after a meal. It’s enough to make you choose celibacy (well…almost). 
• In the midst of my own difficulties viewing these sex ed films, I managed to laugh out loud when the narrator tells us that venereal diseases are studied by “technicians trained in the use of a microscope”. Did people in the ‘40s not know how easy it is to use a microscope?
• Apparently there were two versions of this film’s ending: Joan gives birth to the baby and either a) the baby is stillborn or b) the baby is given up for adoption. I think I got the stillborn ending, but it’s spoken of very vaguely so I can’t tell for sure. Incidentally, the doctor delivering the news to Joan’s family is played by Francis Ford, older brother of John Ford and director of fellow NFR film “Unmasked”.
• As Joan’s brother Dave thanks God for taking care of his sister, we dissolve to the final shot: an unidentified man at a desk addressing the camera and telling us to let the theater management know how much we enjoyed the film “by your applause”. [Shakes fist in air] Kroger!

• Kroger Babb continued to produce and distribute movies for the next 25 years, although none of his later films ever equaled the success of “Mom and Dad”. Notable entries include “The Lawton Story” (about an Oklahoma town’s passion play), “One Too Many” (about alcoholism), and “She Shoulda Said No!” (which condemned marijuana a la “Reefer Madness”).

• Among the filmmakers influenced by “Mom and Dad” was John Waters, which…yeah I should’ve seen that coming.

December 28^th, 2004: The NFR cuts it really close and announces its Class of 2004 with only three days left in the year, bringing us to a grand total of 400 films! Having just finished watching all 25, let’s take a look back at the NFR Class of 2004:

• Lady Helen’s Escapade (1909): “fine if not outstanding, but it does a good job of representing Florence Lawrence”
• The Blue Bird (1918): “a very simple, charming fairy tale”, “visually appealing”
• Clash of the Wolves (1925): “a quick, harmless, fun adventure with Hollywood’s favorite German shepherd.”
• There It Is (1928): “[Charley] Bowers’ surreal style of silent comedy is quite unique”
• Pups Is Pups (1930): “An ‘Our Gang’ short should absolutely be on the National Film Registry, but this one?”
• A Bronx Morning (1931): “I’m always willing to give a pass to documentaries, short films, or avant-garde pieces by influential filmmakers, and ‘A Bronx Morning’ is all three!”
• Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936): “The whole short is, well, strong to the finish.”
• Swing Time (1936): “Fred [Astaire] & Ginger [Rogers] compliment each other beautifully on screen and they’re still fun to watch”
• Kannapolis, N.C. (1941): “[H. Lee] Waters’ footage paints a warm portrait of a small town in a way only film can.”
• Going My Way (1944): “a welcomed addition to the NFR, if not an absolute essential in film history.”
• D.O.A. (1950): “not without its flaws, but…just well known and respected enough that an argument could be made for its NFR inclusion.”
• Duck and Cover (1952): “easily the best known and most-watched of [the nuclear propaganda films].”
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954): “Can we just preserve the best 6 ^1/2 minutes of this film and pretend it was a short this whole time?”
• The Court Jester (1956): “isn’t as well remembered or celebrated as it once was, [but] I don’t begrudge one of [Danny] Kaye’s films making it onto the Registry.”
• Jailhouse Rock (1957): “not the best Elvis representation”.
• Ben-Hur (1959): “will always have the chariot race going for it, but the rest of the film can drag a bit.”
• The Nutty Professor (1963): “highlights the comic precision that Jerry Lewis brought us in front of and behind the camera.”
• Empire (1964): “stands out for its innovation and continued polarizing reception (‘Nothing happens!’)”
• OffOn (1968): “Well someone had to combine film and video, and shouldn’t that someone have a place in the NFR?”
• Enter the Dragon (1973): “Hats off to Bruce Lee for putting the ‘art’ in ‘martial arts’.”
• Eraserhead (1977): “Well that was the most disturbing 90 minutes of my life.”
• Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980): “a fun, informative slice (forgive me) of life, but is it really worthy of preservation ahead of ‘Grey Gardens’ and ‘Hoop Dreams’?”
• Daughters of the Dust (1991): “a unique look at a culture of America that tends to be ignored.”
• Unforgiven (1992): “a well crafted Western and worth at least one viewing.”
• Schindler’s List (1993): “another one of the ‘untouchables’ on this list.”

• Speaking of favorite TV shows, several Class of 2004 write-ups reference “Mystery Science Theater 3000”, which inspired me to choose the show as the topic of my ninth anniversary post. On a related note, both “D.O.A.” and “Duck and Cover” have been parodied by Rifftrax.
• Another runner in my write-ups: two instances of me bemoaning the Academy Awards’ lack of a Best Stunt Design Oscar category, which we’re finally getting in 2028. I can’t prove that my grumbling made it happen, but I can’t not prove it either.
• When the Library of Congress announced the NFR Class of 2004, “Meet the Fockers” was number one at the weekend box office. Other notable films in theaters at the time include “The Aviator”, “National Treasure”, “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, and very recent NFR inductee “The Incredibles”.
• Favorite of my own subtitles: Great Scot!, Jay and Silent Job, Not Your Father’s Father, A Nuclear and Present Danger, Kaye Turn, King in the Clink, Jerry & Hyde, and David Lynch’s Adventures in Babysitting. And if my “Unforgiven” subtitle – Old West Action – seems odd, here’s a hint: It’s an anagram. Definitely the first and last time I use one of those for the blog. 
• Shoutout to my beloved Knights of the NFR, who were responsible for getting “Lady Helen’s Escapade” digitized and available online. Thanks to them, I was able to watch all 25 films from the Class of 2004. Okay fine, 24 and ^1/8th of the Class of 2004. I will finish you one day, “Empire”!
• And continuing my own inability to satisfactorily conclude these “Year in Review” posts: I’ll follow the lesson I learned from “Clash of the Wolves” and end this post with puppies! Look at all these puppies! You can’t tell that this ending is anticlimactic because puppies!

The Plot: The throne of England has been usurped by King Roderick the Tyrant (Cecil Parker) over its rightful ruler, a baby with a royal birthmark on his posterior. The baby is being kept safe by the Black Fox (Edward Ashley) and his band of rebels, including Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye), the group’s minstrel who longs to fight alongside the Black Fox. While on a mission to protect the baby with the Maid Jean (Glynis Johns), Hubert and Jean hatch a plan for Hubert to infiltrate the castle posing as the king’s new court jester. There’s plenty of obstacles in Hubert’s path, including a battle with the villainous Lord Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone), but all of this is secondary to the comedic antics of Danny Kaye. Also there’s something about a pellet with the poison in a chalice with a…a flagon from…a vessel…we’ll come back to that.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up for “The Court Jester” isn’t very celebratory of the film, with the only superlatives going to the “lilting” songs and Basil Rathbone being his “reliably swashbuckling self”. The write-up also describes Danny Kaye as “mercurial”, which I guess in this context means lively and quick rather than the more negative definitions I associate with the word.

But Does It Really?: “The Court Jester” is on the NFR as representation of Danny Kaye, who while all but forgotten today, was one of the most beloved entertainers of the 20^th century. As for the film itself, it’s funny in places, but the entertainment value primarily relies on how much you enjoy Kaye’s schtick, especially his penchant for complicated tongue-twisters. For me, it all wore thin after awhile, and not helped by how many unnecessary plot points and musical numbers are packed into this movie. While “The Court Jester” isn’t as well remembered or celebrated as it once was, I don’t begrudge one of Kaye’s films making it onto the Registry.

Everybody Gets One: Hailing from Brooklyn, David Daniel Kaminsky worked a number of odd jobs before serving as an emcee in the Catskills, where he started going by the stage name Danny Kaye. A vaudeville stint led to his breakout role in the Broadway musical “Lady in the Dark”, in which he performed his first patter song: “Tschaikowsky (and Other Russians)”. Kaye’s film career took off in the 1940s under contract with Samuel Goldwyn, with such films as “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “Hans Christian Andersen”. “The Court Jester” was part of Kaye’s contract with Paramount, as was “White Christmas”, which finally made the NFR last week! Additionally, this film was Kaye’s second collaboration with Norman Panama & Melvin Frank, two former Bob Hope writers who had recently made the leap to directing and producing.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nominations for “The Court Jester”, though Danny Kaye did get a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy, losing to Cantinflas in “Around the World in 80 Days”. Although Kaye never received an Oscar nomination in his entire film career, he won two special achievement Oscars: an Honorary Oscar in 1954 “for his unique talents”, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award in 1981. 

• At this point in Basil Rathbone’s career, he was primarily a stage actor, and when a film did come along it was a thankless supporting part like in this or “The Magic Sword”. And while we’re here: Keep sucking in that gut, Rathbone.
• There isn’t a lot of information on British character actor Cecil Parker, so instead let’s focus on the actor playing his daughter Gwendolyn: Dame Angela Lansbury! It’s always nice seeing Angie pop up on this list, but I don’t appreciate how many of her NFR entries are a waste of her immense talents. For every “Manchurian Candidate”, there’s a “Court Jester” or “National Velvet”.
• Kaye’s first in-movie number is “Outfox the Fox”, which also prominently features…[deep exhale] Hermine’s Midgets. Unfortunate billing aside, this is the most people with dwarfism I’ve seen in a single NFR entry since “The Wizard of Oz”, so that’s a positive, right?

• Glynis Johns gets the best entrance in this movie, swinging from a vine in the forest to greet the Black Fox. Knowing Johns for most of my life solely as Mrs. Banks, it’s fun to see her play a much more active part here as the woman doing all the actual work. My one grouse, she’s Danny Kaye’s love interest in this? It’s not even the 12-year age gap that bothers me so much as it is watching Danny Kaye do a love scene.
• As I settled in with this movie and its overall vibe, I realized that “The Court Jester” is one of the last “general entertainment” kind of films that dominated in the 1940s, when all Hollywood movies had to appeal to a wide audience in a “something for everyone” kind of way. By 1956 this type of filmmaking wasn’t dead, but it was certainly dying. American film was starting to get more sophisticated in the 1950s, with comedies dealing more with modern issues rather than the old “Let’s put [name of comedian] in a [name of film genre]” template.
• Showing up early on as the real court jester is…John Carradine? Given his stature in the industry, I assumed Carradine would have a bigger part: at the very least a return in the third act for some kind of “that man is an imposter, I’m the real jester” type deal. But nope: He shows up for one scene, gets knocked out by Glynis Johns, and that’s a wrap for John Carradine. 
• Hey hey hey, Danny, it’s 1956: you leave the foreign gibberish to Sid Caesar.

• Apparently this is the movie where the exchange “Get it?” “Got it.” “Good.” originated from. I mean, it had to come from somewhere, and it gets repeated enough here that I could see how people picked it up.

• Also making a welcome appearance in this movie: Mildred Natwick! I just watched “Barefoot in the Park” for the first time, so it was nice to see Natwick pop up here as Griselda, the kingdom’s resident witch. It’s not much of a part, but at least she’s allowed to be funny. 

• So Hubert changes in and out of Griselda’s hypnosis when anyone snaps their fingers? Even himself? That’s a hell of a design flaw. I can see why Griselda’s on the chopping block. Side note: Hollywood Reporter film critic Jack C. Moffitt claimed in his review that the hypnotism bit in this film was stolen from a routine he had written for 1937’s “Mountain Music” with Bob Burns and Martha Raye (though Moffitt did admit he stole that bit from a similar one in Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights”).

• “The Maladjusted Jester” isn’t the pivotal showcase it’s intended to be, but Kaye’s good with a tongue twister, I have to give him that. Shout out to the song’s lyricist: writer Sylvia Fine, aka Mrs. Danny Kaye.

• Another big centerpiece that fell flat for me is the knighting ceremony, when Hubert is caught up in the knights’ drill routine. The knights are played by members of the Jackson Michigan Zouave Drill Team, who had recently performed their close-order drill formations on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and were cashing in on their 15 minutes of fame with their appearance here.

• Like I said before, there is too much plot going on around here. I haven’t even mentioned Gwendolyn’s betrothal to Sir Griswold, or Hubert being mistaken for an assassin: there’s just no time, and none of it really matters. A lighthearted comedy like this should only have the bare minimum of plot points taking you from joke to joke, but the ratio is way off here. The film’s second act suffers the most due to serving as set-up for the third act’s big jousting tournament.
• One thing I will say about Sir Griswold: he’s played by Robert Middleton, who also narrated “Duck and Cover“!
• As a former ‘90s kid, you cannot have characters in a movie repeatedly say the phrase “mortal combat” without me either shouting it back or saying “Finish him” and/or “Fatality”.
• We finally arrive at the film’s most famous bit: Hubert trying to remember that “The pellet with the poison’s in the chalice from the palace and the vessel with the pestle is the brew that is true.” It goes on for awhile, but admittedly it’s pretty funny, especially when the “flagon with the dragon” is thrown in and Hubert’s confusion spreads to other characters. Side note: This is the film’s second instance of alleged comedy plagiarism, with many critics noting the similarity between this bit and one from Bob Hope’s “Never Say Die (“There’s a cross on the muzzle on the pistol with a bullet…”). Like the aforementioned “Mountain Music”, “Never Say Die” also stars Martha Raye. Is she the Kevin Bacon-esque center of the comedy bit universe?

• We got a lot of plotlines trying to get resolved during the film’s chaotic third act, but in the middle of it we get the film’s other highlight: the swordfight between Hubert and Lord Ravenhurst. This is a good time to mention that all three of Basil Rathbone’s NFR movies feature him in a climactic swordfight with our hero. Is this why we haven’t gotten a Rathbone “Sherlock Holmes” movie on the NFR yet?

• Ah yes the classic NFR movie that ends with our hero flashing part of an infant’s rear end. How did this get past the censors?

• Danny Kaye’s film career was wrapping up when “The Court Jester” was released, but he continued to be a welcomed presence on TV, including on his own variety show in the 1960s (with “Life Could Not Better Be” as its opening theme). Beyond his career in entertainment, Kaye’s most impactful work was his nearly 40 year association with UNICEF as their “ambassador-at-large”. Danny Kaye died in 1987 at age 76, with Sylvia Fine passing four years later at age 78.

Finally! After the NFR saw its shadow last December and declared six more weeks of winter, it has finally returned to give us 25 new inductees, bringing the total number of NFR movies to 925. Here in chronological order is the Class of 2025…or 2026, we’ll get back to that in a bit. As always, movies marked with * are ones nominated by me this round, and movies marked with + are ones I have nominated in previous years.

• The Tramp and the Dog (1896)
• The Oath of the Sword (1914)
• The Maid of McMillan (1916)
• The Lady (1925)
• Sparrows (1926)
• Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926)
• White Christmas (1954)+
• High Society (1956)
• Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
• Say Amen, Somebody (1982)
• The Thing (1982)
• The Big Chill (1983)
• The Karate Kid (1984)+
• Glory (1989)
• Philadelphia (1993)
• Before Sunrise (1995)
• Clueless (1995)+
• The Truman Show (1998)*
• Frida (2002)+
• The Hours (2002)
• The Incredibles (2004)*
• The Wrecking Crew (2008)
• Inception (2010)*
• The Loving Story (2011)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

And finally: As some of you may know, the National Film Preservation Act is currently set to expire at the end of FY26. Given the current unstable political climate, I genuinely have no idea whether or not the NFR will get renewed, but I’m trying to stay optimistic (again, emphasis on “trying”). All we have control over now is letting our voices be heard. If you feel so inclined, reach out to your House representative and find out which way they plan to vote (heck, call your Senator too, see what they can do about it). If that’s not your style, I encourage you to submit your NFR nomination ballot early this year. That way, the Library of Congress has the numbers to support their case for renewal (let’s see if we can crack 8,000 nominated movies this year!). As for me, I’m gonna keep cranking out these posts, and with any luck my last post in December will be about the Class of 2026 and movie #950.

The Plot: Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’Brien) walks into a police station to report a murder…his own! We flashback to a few days earlier; Bigelow is a successful accountant and notary public in Banning, California. On a whim, Bigelow flies up to San Francisco for some R&R and ends up going to a local nightclub with some newfound friends. The next morning, Bigelow wakes up to what he thinks is a hangover, but a trip to the doctor reveals he ingested a “luminous toxin” with no known antidote and only 24 hours to live! With the help of his faithful secretary Paula (Pamela Britton), Bigelow retraces his steps to determine who would want to poison him and why. Will Bigelow find his killer, or will he end up…Dead On Arrival?

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “fast-paced and suspenseful”, saluting O’Brien’s performance and praising the film for being “more cynical than the average film noir”.

But Does It Really?: “D.O.A.” is not without its flaws, but if you’re willing to go along with it, it’s still watchable over 75 years later. We have plenty of B movies on the Registry (including another one starring Edmond O’Brien), but “D.O.A.” is just well known and respected enough that an argument could be made for its NFR inclusion. Plus it’s got on-location footage of downtown L.A.; hardcore cinephiles eat up L.A. footage like catnip. Slightest of passes for “D.O.A.” on the “N.F.R.”

Everybody Gets One: Hailing from what was then Austria-Hungary (now Poland), Rudolph Maté quickly rose the ranks to become a prominent cinematographer in Europe, most notably for Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc”. A move to Hollywood in the mid-1930s saw Maté serve as cinematographer for a number of NFR titles, including “Dodsworth” and “Gilda”. During production of 1947’s “It Had to Be You”, Maté started taking over directorial duties from Don Hartman (I’m not sure why), earning a co-directing credit. “D.O.A.” was Maté’s third film as a director, following his first solo effort, fellow noir title “The Dark Past”.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nominations for “D.O.A.”, but many of the film’s major creatives had brushes with the Academy. Rudolph Maté received five Oscar nominations throughout his career for his cinematography (including for “The Pride of the Yankees”), Edmond O’Brien went on to win Best Supporting Actor for “The Barefoot Contessa”, and screenwriters Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse took home Oscars as part of the “Pillow Talk” writing team.

• After watching him oscillate between lead roles in the B pictures and supporting roles in the A pictures, I consider Edmond O’Brien the Avis of leading men: He’s not number one, but he tries harder. Also, “D.O.A.” continues a weird trend in NFR films where Edmond O’Brien’s character’s occupation is something mundane, yet always leads to adventure and danger. He’s an accountant and notary public here, a life insurance investigator in “The Killers”, and a US Treasury agent in “White Heat”. What’s next, a renegade patent examiner?
• One of the film’s major attributes, especially for its time, is on-location footage of both San Francisco and Los Angeles. As a former resident of San Francisco, I love seeing this old footage of the city back in the ‘50s. One question: What was Market Week? It looks like a busy celebration in this movie that brings in lots of out-of-towners. I remember Farmers Market on Embarcadero, and I remember Fleet Week, but I don’t recall Market Week.
• This is one of those movies that is so of its time, this post could just be one long “Wow, That’s Dated” segment. Movies in the late ‘40s/early ‘50s had a different vibe to them. I can’t quite articulate it, but it was just a completely different way of living than we’re used to now. Everything was just fancier, from how people interacted with each other to the overall aesthetics. It’s a little like watching “The Twilight Zone”.
• Perhaps the film’s most dated moment: a musical interlude with those jive-crazy Fishermen. The scene is entertaining, but it begs the question: Why are the shortest movies always the ones with the most padding?

• Easily the most unrealistic part of this movie: Bigelow just hopping onto a cable car. Where’s your Clipper Card? Speaking of San Francisco, that’s Grace Cathedral on Sacramento Street that Frank walks by on his way to the doctor. It’s a beautiful view, but that also means Frank just walked up the steepest, longest staircase I’ve ever endured. He should be a puddle of sweat by now. And while he’s there, there’s a really good Tiki bar about a block away. He should check that out before he dies.
• Bigelow gets two different sets of poison tests from two different doctors? I hope his health insurance covers all of this. On a related note, the doctor Bigelow gets his second opinion from is played by Frank Gerstle, a craggy-faced character actor who has made a few appearances throughout the NFR. I know him best for a film of his that got the “MST3K” treatment, playing a much less helpful doctor in “The Atomic Brain”.
• I don’t have much to say about Pamela Britton’s work as Paula, other than she does okay with the limited role of “girl Friday”/pseudo-love interest. Britton’s filmography is scarce (she worked primarily on the stage), but she got her due in the ‘60s with a regular role on “My Favorite Martian”.
• Another very unrealistic story beat: Flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles is not that easy. Maybe back then, but definitely not now. I imagine airports back then were like taxi stands: a row of planes just lined up waiting for passengers to hop in. “Fly me to L.A. my good man, and step on it!”
• Halliday’s secretary is played by Beverly Campbell, who shortly after this film would revert back to her maiden name, Beverly Garland, and find success on TV, most notably on “My Three Sons”. And hey, she’s got an “MST3K” connection, too! Garland pops up in both “Gunslinger” and “It Conquered the World”.
• Like I said, cinephiles love when L.A. plays itself in a movie (Hell, there’s a whole movie about it). As we venture into downtown L.A., you’ll notice several shots prominently featuring the Million Dollar Theater, one of the earliest movie houses in the U.S. – built by no less than Sid Grauman. At the time of filming “D.O.A.”, the Million Dollar Theater was owned by Harry Popkin, also known as…the producer of “D.O.A.”!
• As the plot points start to pile-up on each other in the second half, I started asking, “Am I supposed to be following any of this?” This movie is 90 percent MacGuffins, with Bigelow following each new lead until something else gets his attention. Is this film moving too fast or am I moving too slow?
• Shoutout to Luther Adler as Majak, the man who may be behind all of this…or not. Adler was primarily a stage actor, and was one of the original members of the Group Theater along with his sister, Stella Adler. “D.O.A.” was one of only a handful of films Adler appeared in, but as a testament to his clout in the acting world, he gets third billing in this movie for essentially one scene. Either that or he had a great agent.
• What the hell is going on with Majak’s henchman Chester? Neville Brand is giving an unhinged performance that, while entertaining, is throwing the movie out of whack (similar to Dennis Weaver in “Touch of Evil”). And why does he keep talking in the third person? Is he George Costanza? Chester’s gettin’ upset! Side note: Neville Brand gives us our third “MST3K” connection…well sorta: He’s in “Angels Revenge” but his scenes were all cut for the “MST3K” version.
• As Frank and Paula have their dramatic scene on a street corner professing their love for each other, all I could think was “Get out of the streets! They are trying to kill you!” They couldn’t hear me though because, ya know, it’s a movie.
• The scene where Majak and his men hunt down Bigelow on a bus is probably why L.A. doesn’t have reliable public transit anymore.
• The film’s ending wraps everything up a little too quickly, but we get a reprieve of that weird “swirling toilet” flashback thing! And to top it all off, after “The End” we get a disclaimer attributed to Technical Adviser Edward F. Dunne, M.D.: “The medical facts in this motion picture are authentic. Luminous toxin is a descriptive term for an actual poison.” What is happening!?

• “D.O.A.” is one of three NFR titles to be overdubbed by the short-lived ‘80s TV show “Mad Movies” (the others are “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Night of the Living Dead”). The writers decided that Edmond O’Brien looks like Desi Arnaz, so the whole episode is an extended “I Love Lucy” parody. I think the O’Brien/Arnaz connection is a stretch, but it’s always great finding an excuse to reference “Mad Movies” on this blog.

• On a related note: “D.O.A.” recently received another parody commentary track, this time courtesy of Bridget Nelson and Mary Jo Pehl at Rifftrax. Clearly I am not the only person who felt the need to make fun of this movie.

• Another advent of the film’s public domain status is its frequent remakes and/or movies that can steal heavily from “D.O.A.” without paying anyone, most notably a 1988 remake with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. Among the others, I saw the 2006 pseudo-remake “Crank” years ago. It has elements of “D.O.A.” mixed with “Speed” and is…well it’s awful, there’s no two ways around it. And somehow there’s a sequel?