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byneddiedingo · 2 years ago

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Rudolf Klein-Rogge in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1933)

Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Karl Meixner, Oscar Berege Sr., Theodor Loos, Gustav Diessl, Wera Liessem, Rudolf Schündler, Jim Gérald, Oskar Höcker, Theo Lingen. Screenplay: Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou. Cinematography: Károly Vass, Fritz Arno Wagner. Art direction: Emil Hasler, Karl Vollbrecht. Film editing: Conrad von Molo, Lothar Wolff. Music: Hans Erdmann.

Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) hardly needed a sequel, but the director makes it worth our while by adding sound to the concoction. Take, for example, the segue from the tick ... tick ... tick of the timer on a bomb to the chip ... chip ... chip of someone removing the shell from a soft-boiled egg. It's a witty touch that not only eases tension with laughter, but also demonstrates the prevalence of the sinister in everyday life. Hitchcock, it is often noted, learned a great deal from Lang. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) is more of a felt presence than a visible one in this version, confined as he is to an insane asylum where he supposedly dies, only to haunt not only the inmate Hofmeister (Karl Meixner) but also, and especially, the head of the asylum, Prof. Baum (Oscar Beregi Sr.), who is compelled to carry out Mabuse's plans for world domination. As in the 1922 film, there is a doughty policeman, Commissioner Lohmann (Otto Wernicke), who is determined to foil Mabuse's nefarious plans. Wernicke, whose character Lang brought over from M ( 1931), is not as hunky as the earlier film's von Wenk (Bernhard Goetze), so Lang and screenwriter Thea von Harbou add to the mix a young leading man, Gustav Diessl, who plays Thomas Kent, an ex-con who escapes from Mabuse's snares to aid Lohmann in trapping Baum in his efforts to fulfill Mabuse's plot. It's extremely effective suspense hokum, not raised quite to the level of art the way the 1922 film was, but still a cut above the genre. As is usually noted, this was Lang's last film in Germany. It was suppressed by the Nazis, ostensibly because it suggested that the state could be overthrown by a group of people working together, but perhaps also because of its suggestion that world domination might not be such a good thing.

#The Testament of Dr. Mabuse #Fritz Lang #Rudolf Klein-Rogge

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papermoonloveslucy · 8 years ago

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Lucy and Bob Crane

S4;E22 ~ February 21, 1966

Synopsis

Actor Bob Crane opens a new account at the bank and asks Lucy out to dinner. When his new war film needs a stuntman, Mr. Mooney volunteers Iron Man Carmichael. Although she wants to appear demur to Crane, she takes the job.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney)

Mary Jane Croft (Mary Jane Lewis) does not appear in this episode.

Guest Cast

Bob Crane (Himself) was born in 1928 in Waterbury, Connecticut. After being a disc jockey for many years, he turned to acting at the age of 33. He is best known as the clever Colonel Hogan in the CBS POW camp sitcom “Hogan's Heroes” (1965-1971) which was filmed at Desilu Studios. In 1975 he starred in “The Bob Crane Show” which lasted only 13 episodes. In 1978 Crane was brutally murdered in a Scottsdale hotel room. His murder remains a mystery to this day. Crane's life and death were the subject of the 2002 film Auto Focus starring Greg Kinnear as Crane. This episode was Crane's only screen credit alongside Lucille Ball.

John Banner (Sergeant Schultz) was born in Vienna in 1910. He achieved television immortality for his portrayal of the Luftwaffe POW camp guard Sergeant Schultz in the TV series “Hogan's Heroes.” Ironically, Banner was a Jew and had been in a German concentration camp himself. Like Crane, he was in all 168 episodes of the series, the only two cast members to have that distinction. He also played the character in a sketch titled “Freddie's Heroes” on “The Red Skelton Hour” with Crane as Hogan. His catchphrase as Schultz was “I know nothing!” which he repeats in this episode of “The Lucy Show.” He died in his home city Vienna in 1973.

Oscar Beregi (Wolfgang Schmidt the Director) was a Hungarian-born actor who made a career out of playing foreign bad guys. He is most recognized for playing Eva Gabor's father on “Green Acres” despite being only a year older than her. Beregi did two episodes of “Hogan's Heroes” with Crane and Banner, in 1966 and 1970. This is his only appearance with Lucille Ball.

Beregi was probably cast for his resemblance to Werner Klemperer, who played Colonel Klink on “Hogan’s Heroes.” He also wore a monocle.

Larry Dean (Assistant Director) was a mime who specialized in playing a robot. He also did this on episodes of “Lost in Space” and “Bewitched.” He previously played the mechanical butler in Bigelow’s store window in “Lucy and the Ceramic Cat” (S3;E17). He returns to “The Lucy Show” in the next episode “Lucy and the Robot” (S4;E23).

Sid Gould (Sid, the Waiter) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all as background characters. He also did 40 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton.

Dale Van Sickel (German Soldier) was a Hollywood stunt man and actor whose career began in 1933. He appeared with Lucille Ball in the films Roberta (1935) and There Goes My Man (1937). He appeared in all three of the ‘Iron Man Carmichael’ episodes of “The Lucy Show.”

Joan Carey (Bank Customer, uncredited) was a frequent background performer on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show” where she eventually became Lucille Ball’s camera and lighting stand-in.

Other background performers play the bank customers, the diners at the restaurant, and the German soldiers.

This is the last episode of six written by Edmund Beloin and Henry Garson. This is also the last of the three 'Iron Man Carmichael' episodes they penned. The previous two were “Lucy the Stunt Man” (S4;E5) and “Lucy and the Return of Iron Man” (S4;E11).

The script was dated January 4, 1966, and was originally titled “There's No Business Like the Iron Man Business.” The action described in the above page varies significantly from the final edit.

“Hogan's Heroes” was filmed at Desilu Studios. Interiors were done at Desilu Culver City and exteriors at what was known as '40 Acre Lot.' During its six year run, “Lucy Show” cast that appeared on “Hogan's Heroes” included Doris Singleton, Parley Baer, Kathleen Freeman, Lou Krugman, Hans Conreid, and George DeNormand.

Both Lucille Ball and Bob Crane were nominated for 1966 Emmy Awards. She lost to Mary Tyler Moore (“The Dick Van Dyke Show”) and he lost to Dick Van Dyke. “Hogan's Heroes” was nominated for Best Comedy Series (“The Lucy Show” was not) but again lost to “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

Lucy has a new responsibility at the bank running a huge, loud punch-card driven computer. After the computer sprays shredded paper in Mr. Mooney's face, Lucy is re-assigned to ‘new accounts’ and must move her things from one desk in the lobby to another.

Previously, Lucy's desk was in Mr. Mooney's office. In addition to the punch card machine, her new location features a painting titled “The Half Way House” (1848) by English painter William Shayer.

Instead of entrance applause, Crane gets applause when Lucy recognizes him and says his name.

Although Crane was essentially playing himself on this episode, for the purposes of creating a flirtation with Lucy, Crane is single. In reality he was married to Anne Terezian, with whom he had three children. They divorced in 1970.

Lucy says Crane is his favorite solider since Captain Kangaroo. “Captain Kangaroo” was a children’s television series that aired weekday mornings on CBS from October 1955 to December 1984. Captain Kangaroo was previously mentioned in “Chris’s New Year’s Eve Party” (S1;E14) and “Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman to Sing” (S2;E18).

Bob Crane knows the work of Iron Man Carmichael, having seen him in the movie Bad Day at Laredo. This is a direct reference to “Lucy the Stunt Man” (S4;E5) although the cowboy movie had no title during the episode. Mr. Mooney references Lucy as Iron Man being shot out of a canon, a direct reference to the big stunt Lucy did in “Lucy and the Return of Iron Man” (S4;E11), a pirate movie that was also untitled.

Lucy: “If a man like Bob Crane thinks I'm shy and demur, then I'm going to be just as shy and demur as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”

Mr. Mooney: “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm? You are more like The Unthinkable Molly Brown!”

Mr. Mooney is making a pun on the 1960 stage musical and the 1964 film The Unsinkable Molly Brown, about Margaret Brown who survived the sinking of the Titanic. The Broadway production ran at the same time as Wildcat starring Lucille Ball. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is the title of a 1903 children’s novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Randall and her two stern aunts in a village in Maine. The hallmark of Rebecca’s character was her cheerful optimism in the face of adversity. Mr. Mooney previously mentioned the book / character in “Lucy and the Winter Sports” (S3;E3).

Lucy lives at the Glenhall Apartments. This is the first time in 22 episodes that the complex has been named. Crane says he owns a home on 993 Elm in Beverly Hills. This would be about a mile from where Lucille Ball actually lived on Roxbury Drive.

New depositors to the bank get a calendar, a piggy bank, a pen wiper, a pencil sharpener, and a little speedy electric shoe polisher!

When Mr. Mooney asks Schmidt if he has ever heard of Iron Man Carmichael, Schmidt replies “Has Huntley ever heard of Brinkley?” Newscasters Chet Huntley (1911-1974) and David Brinkley (1920-2003) were co-hosts of the NBC evening news show “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” from 1956 to 1970.

In return for getting Iron Man Carmichael for Crane's new film, Mr. Mooney is given the part of General Van Plump. The movie is a World War One epic with Crane playing the lead as an American aviator. John Banner's cameo as Sergeant Schultz is handled by Crane saying: “Schultz! You're in the wrong war!”

For their dinner date, Lucy wears a powder blue garden party dress, matching gloves, and wide-brimmed hat. She resembles Little Bo Peep more than Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She says her perfume is called ‘Breath of Daisy Dew.’

As Iron Man Carmichael Lucy crashes through the ceiling hanging from her parachute strings. Lucille Ball will repeat this stunt in “Lucy, the Skydiver,” a 1970 episode of “Here's Lucy.”

With Lucy / Iron Man hanging in the air and Bob Crane is turning on a wheel, Mr. Mooney / General Von Plump and the German soldiers do a bit of the “Schnitzelbank,” a German call and repeat song or chant (Mr. Mooney speaks it). It is similar in structure to the American song “Must Be Santa” by Mitch Miller. William Frawley (Fred Mertz) performed an English version of this song in the 1942 World War II propaganda musical The Yankee Doodler. A version without lyrics was played by the Swiss Band that rescued the Ricardos and the Mertzes from the avalanche in “Lucy in the Swiss Alps” (ILL S5;E21).

Callbacks!

Playing a German solider give Lucy the chance to be the misfit who does the opposite of the formation and what the commander says. She first did this in “Lucy and the Military Academy” (S2;E10) and then again as one of the doormen in “Lucy Goes to a Hollywood Premiere” (S4;E20).

Lucy hanging in air with the broom is visually reminiscent of when Lucy Ricardo played the Witch in “Little Ricky's School Pageant” (ILL S6;E10).

Blooper Alerts

The nautical restaurant is really Lucy's apartment re-dressed with different walls. This is obvious from the two steps up in the back and the green wall-to-wall carpet, identical to those found in Lucy's flat at the Glenhall Apartments.

“Lucy and Bob Crane” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

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