Merry Christmas, Mr. Jiggs!

In 1986 I started working in the video retail business. Our company had three video rental stores and a popular mail-order business. That Christmas, the owner threw a lavish holiday party at a big restaurant in northeast Philadelphia. Paper invitations went out to all the employees featuring an artist's rendition of King Kong on top of the Empire State Building. At first I just figured it was symbolic of the thousands of classic movies we had in our catalogue. But as I and my fellow employees would soon find out, that great ape would make a personal appearance that none of us would ever forget. Following dinner and some short speeches by management, the entertainment for the evening had arrived. As we all sat at round tables digesting our Christmas feast, the doors to the ballroom swung open and in skated a chimpanzee wearing a tuxedo. We all did double-takes as the monkey named, Mr. Jiggs rolled across the floor doing tricks at the request of his trainer. Jiggs danced with a few frightened female employees and drank a can of Pepsi all to the audience's amusement. The monkey seemed old, but was actually only 26 years old. Following his performance, Mr. Jiggs saved his most impressive trick for those of us watching the trainer being paid by the company's owner. With only a nod from his master, Mr. Jiggs -still wearing his roller skates- threw his tux coat over his shoulder and grabbed his suitcase full of props and started to climb a set of stairs towards the exit. As we eagerly followed the chimp up the staircase, we watched the frightened customers stare with amazement at the site of the hardworking chimp rolling through the lobby. In the end Mr. Jiggs went to his trainer's car, openened the door, sat in the passenger seat and fastened his seatbelt. The trainer got in and drove away with the primate entertainer who I was convinced was actually a midget in a costume. But many years later I was surprised to learn that Mr. Jiggs was in fact a real chimpanzee, only he was a she. Mr. Jiggs came to the United States from Africa in 1965. With her front teeth pulled and an electric shock device under her clothing, she worked shows as an artificial human until her recent retirement. Sadly, Mr. Jiggs had passed away in July of 1995 at the age of 33, about half a chimp’s life expectancy. Jiggs was dropped off at a home for retired performing animals outside Los Angeles by her lifelong trainer and companion, who never came back. The cause of death was undetermined, but a worker for the sanctuary for chimps called it “a broken heart.” Once while watching late-night TV I saw one of those infomercials for a set of Ed Sullivan videos featuring clips from the famed variety program. To my surprise there was Mr. Jiggs and her trainer performing for Ed some of the same routines she had at our Christmas party. There was something nostalgic yet tragic about seeing the young chimp at the beginning of her showbiz career. I wondered if she had any idea where it would all end some 30 years later. Did she really feel a loss for a trainer who had shocked her into submission to make money from her novelty? Or was it the loss of a routine that had been part of her life for so long that she so missed. I supposed we'll never know.

Video on Demand, Part III

In 1962 Jackie Gleason made a a film for 20th Century Fox called GIGOT! ("Pronounced Gee-Go" so declared the film's poster.) Directed by Gene Kelly and written by Gleason, John Patrick and A.J. Russell, Gigot tells the story of a mute pauper in early twentieth century Paris. In what could have been dismissed as a vanity picture by a star at the top of his popularity, Gigot turns out to be one of Gleason's most endearing film performances. As a simple minded man with a great heart and a love for others, Gleason's naive Gigot becomes an easy target for the local villagers. A constant object of ridicule and a target for being taken advantage of, Gigot works as a janitor for next to nothing. Following a chance encounter with a Parisian streetwalker and her young daughter, Gigot shares what little he has with the ungrateful woman. At the heart of the film is Gigot's relationship with the little girl with whom he becomes fast friends. Gleason's portrayal is Chaplinesque in its use of pathos and humor, and the entire film is reminiscent of the silent era. In one scene after the little girl is seriously hurt and Gigot is unable to communicate with those who could help, he begins to strike himself out of frustration. Gleason the funny man becomes Gleason the great actor able to break your heart and make you feel his gut-wrenching frustration. I have never quite forgotten that scene. Gigot is a movie of simplistic beauty and and one that reaches its audience on so many levels. Gleason composed the film's soundtrack along with Mitchel Magne who was nominated for an Oscar for adapting Gleason's original music. Surprisingly Gleason was not nominated for any awards for his gentle, perceptive, and deeply profound work on the film. More amazingly the film has never enjoyed a VHS release and to this day is still not available on DVD. Occasionally the film pops up on late night TV and some cable channels. In 2004, William H. Macy remade the film for Cable TV updating it's story to a modern day big city in the USA. Re-titled The Wool Cap the remake benefited from Macy's insightful performance but gave in to the usual movie-of-the-week cliches that bogged the film down in the end. Like many fans of the original film, I first saw it as a child. It's tenderness and big-heart portrayal by Gleason would easily appeal to the children of today who could use a film like this for a change.

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

With the release of Superman Returns this summer, I had anticipated devoting an entire post to reviewing the film on this blog. But after seeing the new Bryan Singer film this month, I had decided to pass. You must understand that I saw the original 1978 film, Superman: The Movie 22 times in the theaters. Most of those viewings were at the Fox Movie Theater in center city Philadelphia. The Fox was one of the last true big-screen movie palaces in Philadelphia. It was torn down only three years after Superman played there. I was 12 years old and had never seen a film on a big-screen like that. The Fox had one of those old Cinemascope screens that projected a 70mm print film larger than it did on a average movie theater screen. I was blown away by the film. I was not a comic book fan, and my only prior knowledge of Superman was the old 50s TV series starring George Reeves. When I sat down in the Fox theater on December 24, 1978, and saw those opening credits zoom out across the screen I was in awe. Coupled with that marvelous John Williams score blasting away in Dolby Digital sound, I thought I had died and gone to movie heaven. The film was of an epic-like proportion. Stars like Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Glenn Ford, Trevor Howard, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Margot Kidder and of course a newcomer named Christopher Reeve, created a fantasy world that truly captured the imagination of my 12 year old mind. The film's director, Richard Donner had one word that described his take on the material he was bringing to the screen: verisimilitude. The film's tag line on all the posters read "You'll believe a man can fly!" And Donner's insistence on verisimilitude -making the story seem as real as possible no matter how unbelievable- had payed off. Bryan Singer who brought us X-Men to the big-screen tried to recapture that same Donner-like quality in his film Superman Returns. Early scenes in the film capture the hometown feel of Clark Kent's Kansas boyhood as did Donner back in '78, and the first big super rescue of Lois Lane from a crashing plane is a nice homage to the original film's helicopter sequence. But as Superman Returns drags along it gets bogged down in dark, almost depressing sequences that resemble today's brooding comic book heroes and not the upbeat Superman that Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created. It certainly beats Superman III and IV, less successful sequels that all but buried the franchise over 20 years ago. Which brings us to this postings title: Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. While Donner was making the original Superman film, his original budget doubled from 22 million to 44 million. Donner had actually filmed 80 percent of the film's sequel in hopes of releasing it the following year. When Superman: The Movie premiered in December of 1978, the film's blockbuster success was to be enjoyed by all but Donner. Donner and producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind had clashed over budget and direction of the film's sequel and Donner was replaced by Richard Lester who had directed the profitable Three Musketeer films for the Salkinds. Lester who was quoted saying that he did not want to do "the David Lean thing"(referring to Donner's original take on the material) ended up reshooting much of the film adding a more slapstick comic book style of humor. About 30 percent of what Donner shot ended up in the theatrical version of the film released in America in 1981, but combined with the Lester footage the movie at times seemed disjointed. Although Superman II was successful, fans of the original were upset and always hoped of a reissue of Donner's original sequel. Some of the footage shot by Donner that was not in the final cut of the film had been added for network television showings and reconstructed in bootlegs available online. But not all of the original Donner work was available. Due to a court case between Marlon Brando and the Salkinds an original opening sequence shot by Donner for the sequel had been locked away in a London vault. Rumors had persisted for years that a cut by Donner had existed with over 70 percent of the unused scenes. And now Warner Brothers has announced that it will be available towards the end of the year as part of the new Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition on DVD. In a press release issued by Warner Brothers it claims that Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is the "first time" a director has been allowed to go back and reconstruct his work on a film he was fired off of. Although when Donner was asked recently about the project he replied..."They're doing it. I'm not doing it. They're doing it. Michael Thau, who used to be my assistant and is a good little editor - [said that] there were so many requests to Warner Brothers to see my cut that he went to them and they authorized it. He's been working for about four or five months now getting all the negatives and cuts out of England. A lot of it's been destroyed, a lot of it wasn't kept. But everything that he was able to [get], he said it will probably be about 70 percent my footage." So for those of us fans or fanatics who have been hoping for this for over a quarter of a century, mark your calanders for a November 28 release date. Also a four-disc Superman: The Movie will include two versions of the film: The 1978 theatrical original and the 2001 director's cut.

Richard Donner Movies