Forgotten Gems from the 70's: Chico and the Man

What's shakin' peoples and welcome to Day 3 of Forgotten Gems of the 70's Week.  I know it has been hard hitting action for the past 2 days so what say we move on in to some comedy instead?  No, we will not be taking in Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son or the ever racist All in the Family.  The goal of the week has been obscure or forgotten as the theme.  Mind you, I wouldn't mind seeing a little Sanford and Son though.  How about instead a crotchety Anglo Saxon running a battered down garage in East L.A. (barrio country for you whiteys) who is as about as tolerant of the Latino population as Archie Bunker but has a heart of gold as he hires Chico Rodriguez, a young and optimistic kid just looking for a job.  This is Chico and the Man.

Like the sign says...

Chico: Loo-king spoiler!









Curmudgeon Ed Brown (Jack Albertson of Run for Your Life, Changes, Justine, The Red Skelton Hour, Rabbit, Run, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory and The Fox and the Hound)  refuses to fit in the ever-changing East Los Angeles neighborhood and has managed to ostracize most of the residents around him that even his friends and family are stunned when their boy, former Vietnam Vet Chico (Freddie Prinze of The Million Dollar Rip-Off, Cher, Sammy and Company, Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Muhammad Ali and Joys) goes to Ed for a job.  Ed berates him and makes enough ethnic comments to make Archie Bunker send him a Christmas card every year but Chico sees that Ed is just alone and bitter being a widower.

Git out of mah garage you Ompa Loompahs!!

He sneaks in the middle of the night and...  no he does not deface or smash the place.  For crying out loud, people.  Don't jump the gun.  Chico tidies the place up and crashes in a van Ed had inside the garage.  Rather than blast him with a boomstick, call the cops or break out a baseball bat, Ed realizes this kid is a decent sort and the least he can do is give the kid a job.  Pestered by an old neighbor Louie (Scatman Crothers of Meet Me at the Fair, Porgy and Bess, The AristoCats, The Jungle Book,  Hong Kong Phooey, The Shootist, Silver Streak, Roots and The Transformers) who snickered about Ed helping us poor minorities and razzing him every chance.

This combo of grumpy old man and young happenin' kid is not a new formula by any means but literally the first TV series to set in a Mexican-American neighborhood and show the community's strengths and flaws without 60 black and whites and a bunch of kids on the hoods being patted down.  With a grand total of 88 episodes you would think this was a solid shoe-in for more seasons.

Now a few facts about the show.  While fighting a losing battle with depression coupled with new found fame and recognition, Freddie Prinze tragically took his own life with a gun leaving behind his cast mates, his wife Katherine Cochran and his infant son Freddie Prinze Jr.  Beloved by the likes of :Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis Jr., co-star Jack Robertson and Tony Orlando, the Prince of Comedy had passed away at age 22.  A vain attempt to continue out the fourth season ended in dark story arcs, characters that did not go over as well and the magic that was Jack and Freddie could not be duplicated.

I cut you good, old man!

Indiana Jones Week: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Welcome back readers to Day 2 of Indiana Jones Week and we will catch up with Dr. Jones in just a moment.  There are many how feel this next installment is goofy, racist and in general a waste of cinema.  Point of fact it is fairly racist, there are some quite silly moments but all in all, it is not a bad film.  Zombie Lake was a bad film.  With this in mind there are a few aspects to this movie that I found...distasteful but we shall soldier on.  This is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

DOWN IN FRONT, LADY!!!

Indiana Jones: Mola Ram! Prepare to meet Spoiler... in Hell!






Our story takes place a year before Raiders in 1935.  Why is that?  No clue at all but we are in Shanghai listening to a rendition of Cole Porter's Anything Goes on an elaborate sound stage and after witnessing its scope and depth it magically shrinks down to a center stage in a small night club.  PHYSICS!!!!   So Dr. Jones is at a table with Lao Che (Roy Chiao of Game of Death II, The Protector, Heart of a Dragon, Bloodsport and Dragons Forever) a mobster of ill repute wanting the remains of the Emperor Nurhachi when Lo Che pulls a double cross on Indy getting him to drink a poison, Indy takes Lao Che's singer/girlfriend Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw of Private Affairs, Internal Affairs, Black Rain, Love at Large, Space Camp and Due East) hostage and demands the antidote.

A big fight ensues, guns blazing, people panicking and Indy escapes with Willie out a window and they whisk themselves into a car chase gun battle with a 12 year old boy at the wheel, name of Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan of The Goonies, Together We Stand, Breathing Fire, Head of the Class and Encino Man).  Boarding a cargo plane out of Shanghai our trio have been left in a plane with no more fuel and it barreling down at the Himalayan Mountains.   Diving out of the plane in an inflatable raft clearly some 500 feet above, they all manage to stay in the boat, only to dive over a 600 foot high cliff, splash down some rapids and no one is worse for wear.  Screw you Physics!!!

Hi, we're collecting for the Red Cross.

Sloshing to shore in a small Indian Village, the local holy man explains to Indy that raiders from the long abandoned Pankot Palace has been stealing their children and claimed their sacred Sivalinga stone (stone given to by Shiva as example of the universe and comprised of diamond), the villagers believe to ward off evil and cease droughts.

Indy goes to investigate the palace, having Short Round and Willie tag along; which can only lead to more fight sequences, chases, gun battles and some sword choreographing.  Indy must battle an ancient and evil cult in order to save those enslaved to the cult's will.

Here are some facts about the film now.  This film was made a prequel so Nazis were not the villain every time around.   Kate Capshaw was cast as Indy's love interest because Lucas felt Indy needed a different  girl every film.  Health guru and fitness expert Jake Steinfeld ran Ford through a strict dietary and physical exercise program for him to bulk up for the role.  The irony is Ford had herniated his back during the fight scene with the Thuggee assassin in the bedroom, production was shut down until his operation was a success and a lot of the later fight scenes were handled by stuntman Vic Armstrong.

To give the Kali worshipers a greater terrifying presence, the writers added Aztec human sacrifice, European devil worship and Satanic themes to the film to pep it up.  Even with its level of blood, death scenes and gory effects this somehow stayed at a PG rating rather than a R.

North India refused to let Spielberg film in their region because they felt the script was racist and offensive,  the government demanded a rewrite and that they would oversee all changes.  Spielberg moved the production to Sri Lanka and used an fair amount of matte paintings and 1/16 scale models to create the mountain range.

The club in Shanghai was called Club Obi Wan.  Yes Lucas and Spielberg are nerds.

The Tropicana is proud to present: Legions of Hell!!!