Classic Films - Episode 6

We get two this week for the price of one. Since the last film was such a depressing topic, we needed a healthy dose of humor to remind us that there are good things in life too. The first film on today’s menu is “Raising Arizona” starring a true master of insanity Nicolas Cage and the ever-funny Helen Hunt.

So to understand this film well you have to know a little bit about the directors. The Coen Brothers are one of those directorial teams that have created a bunch of great films from “The Big Lebowski” to “Oh Brother Where art Thou.” They are quite the film scholars so their films often make sly references to older movies and genre tropes. Their films are a but strange and not for everybody. I hated their film “Fargo” but mostly from the exaggerated Minnesota accents and the repetitive “Ja” that’s in every single line but I can forgive them for being eccentric since I’ve generally enjoyed their other films.

“Raising Arizona” is one of the Coen brothers’ earlier movies and it follows an unsuccessful robber named Hi who keeps trying to stick up gas stations using empty guns because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He falls in love with the police photographer, which is cutely shown through a series of arrests in which they spend a minute or two talking each time. Each scene is shown in a montage generally skipping the long periods in between where Hi serves his time for his crime. Finally, Hi gives up crime and proposes to Ed and they settle down to live the typical American family life.

A small problem arises when the couple discover that they can’t have children. They then hatch a ridiculous plan to steal a baby from a local unfinished furniture store owner who had quintuplets because his wife used fertility drugs. Hi and Ed steal a baby and through a series of mishaps involving a couple of Hi’s old convict buddies and a bounty hunter, Hi and Ed realize that they shouldn’t have taken the child and return him. While the two initially talk about divorce, the film ends with them in bed and Hi has a dream in which we see their future as a loving old couple surrounded by a large family of children and grandkids. It’s a hopeful ending to an otherwise silly journey.

The film follows an old comedy genre called the screwball, which was really popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This genre typically followed a married couple who split up and then through a series of unlikely events would rekindle their love with one another. Sometimes the couple aren’t married and just fall in love but they are almost always opposites of one another. One is poor, the other rich. One is educated, the other isn’t. And so forth. In “Raising Arizona” Hi breaks the law, while Ed upholds it.

Screwballs are also marked by witty dialog particularly between the two romantic interests. There are loads of just ridiculous conversations in “Raising Arizona.” At one point Hi’s criminal friends show up and Ed asks them if they broke out of prison. They respond by saying that they released themselves of their own recognizance because they felt the correctional institution no longer had anything to offer them. When Hi and Ed welcome Nathan Jr., the stolen baby, into their home Hi points to the TV and says, “That there’s the television. No more than two hours a day either educational or football so you don’t ruin your appreciation for the finer things.”

Lastly, screwball comedies are most well-known for absurd situations and events. Possibly, the best scene in the film occurs when Hi, frustrated at his attempts to live properly, holds up a convenience store to get diapers. Ed sees him and drives away leaving Hi alone with an unloaded gun, police sirens blaring, and a pack of Huggies. What follows is a hilarious sequence in which Hi is chased throughout the suburbs and a grocery store by some gun-happy police, a pack of dogs, and a vindictive shopkeeper with a shotgun. All the while, Hi is trying to keep his grip on the diapers.

Screwball comedies were popular during a time when the institution of marriage was under severe question as states were legalizing divorce. People felt that the bed-rock of the family unit was under attack but screwballs emerged as hopeful reminders that marriage can withstand rocky patches. Some great screwballs of the past include “It Happened One Night,” “His Girl Friday,” and “Bringing Up Baby.” “Raising Arizona” is a nice tribute to a forgotten genre but it’s also a funny movie on its own. My kids really enjoyed it. While I don’t think they were as interested with the film’s presentations of the American family dream as I was, they liked the silly sequences and the slapstick humor.

Our second film for today is “Brain Donors.” What can be said about this film except that it’s sheer lunacy. Our cast of characters include Flakfizer, an ambulance-chasing lawyer/con man played by John Toturro, a cab driver named Rocco played by comedian Mel Smith, and a handy-man named Jacques played by Bob Nelson. These three nutballs hatch a plan to start a ballet company in order to scam a wealthy widow by fulfilling her dead husband’s last wish. What results is a zany series with the slapstick comedy of the Three Stooges and fast-talking verbal humor of the Marx brothers.

“Brain Donors” came out in 1992 and was produced by the Zucker brothers whose other comedies include “Airplane!” and “Ruthless People.” I missed it in the theaters but that’s not surprising since the studio pulled the film after initial screenings performed poorly. After renting the movie, it quickly moved into one of my favorite comedies. However, it’s sort of an odd duck and will either make you snort with laughter or the puns will make you groan.

My 10-year old couldn’t stop laughing. He greatly enjoyed the finale of the film in which our three intrepid heroes purposefully ruin a ballet performance in order to win back their ballet company. For the most part, the film is pretty dumb. The villains are your stereotypical greedy lawyer and a stuck-up bully of a ballet dancer. There’s a side-plot involving a “nice” ballerina and her boyfriend that seems sort of tacked on. The wealthy dowager is a fool whose opinion and goals sway with every gentle breeze. She allows Flakfizer to mock her publically and generally forgets important things within moments because it would be inconvenient for the plot.

However, there’s a lot to enjoy about “Brain Donors.” There’s some wonderfully silly lines. Flakfizer flirts with the widow by saying he can’t wait to take her on a Carribbean cruise where they can watch the old Jamaican moon. “Why the old Jamaican will be mooning us, I have no idea,” he remarks. This is an obvious nod to Groucho Mark’s classic joke about shooting an elephant in his pajamas and then wondering why the elephant was wearing his pajamas.

After our trio breaks into a hospital by pretending to be doctors, they are arrested and we are treated to a bunch of gags as one of the characters has to empty his pockets and he just keeps dumping random stuff on the desk including a rubber snake, a fire extinguisher, and a bicycle pump. It’s over the top but really that’s the point of these films. The characters break social norms and the laws of nature and they do it joyfully. They set fire to a woman’s hat. They play basketball on a ballet stage. They jump out windows to pick flowers. It’s a bunch of nonsense. One of my son’s favorite scenes involved the greedy lawyer shouting, “This is nonsense,” to which Flakfizer responds, “You’re wrong. This is nonsense.” He then points to Jacques who starts imitating a monkey and then eats a candle.

Some of the humor is a bit adult. Flakfizer casually comments that “Two’s company and three’s an adult movie.” However, the slapstick jokes are well-suited for a young child’s sense of humor. In order to annoy the ballet jerk, the main characters have a few dozen pizzas and a singing lobster delivered to his dressing room. I was paying attention to the potty humor this time around and was surprised at how little there actually was of it. I think my kids were able to get more of the jokes in “Brain Donors” than “Raising Arizona” but they still laughed at them both. It was a fun night of guffaws and absurdity.