#denise nickerson

[collinsportmaine]

Violet Beauregarde (aka Denise Nickerson) action figure from Super7.

[paperstarzz]

Her 💕

[whatithinkaboutdarkshadows]

Episode 645: We'll go downstairs and be ourselves again

The ghost of the mysterious Quentin Collins has trapped children David Collins and Amy Jennings in a storeroom in the long-deserted west wing of the great house of Collinwood. Unable to open the door to the corridor, David and Amy have found another room hidden behind a panel in the storeroom. A room inside another room is often referred to as a “closet,” and this is the perfect soap opera…

[adamwatchesmovies]

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

In 2005, Tim Burton directed an adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was generally well-reviewed and made nearly $500 million at the box office. I’ll call it a good film. Watching 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, you can understand why someone felt like it could use a remake/the book needed to be adapted again. That said, the artistic decisions at the writing, musical, performance and tonal level accompany all of the weird “of the era” choices. Combined, they make this movie the kind that transcends the decades.

Poor, kind Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) lives in a small house with his mother (Diana Sowle) and his four grandparents. One day, legendary candy maker Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) announces he has hidden five golden tickets in his world-famous Wonka Bars. The children who find them will be allowed access to his mysterious factory and receive a lifetime supply of chocolate. As the world madly scrambles to find the golden tickets, Charlie continues to believe he has a chance of finding one too.

The premise implies it, but Charlie does eventually find one of the golden tickets and he invites his beloved Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) to join him on the factory tour. I’m still labeling this fact as a spoiler because it’s about a third to halfway through the movie before Charlie finds his golden ticket. A sizeable chunk of the running time is dedicated to showing our hero as kind, good-hearted and full of hope despite his circumstances, while the other people who find the tickets… are exactly who you think they would be. The film teases you and builds the anticipation. Charlie is poor. He has to scratch together the money needed to buy a single Wonka bar while some of his classmates open over a hundred. There’s a cruelty to the fact that any other year, a single bar for his birthday would be the most wonderful thing Charlie could’ve dreamed of but this year, the bar is a disappointment because it doesn't contain a shiny invitation. You want Charlie to see the inside of that factory because you like him and you know what it would mean to the boy. It’s equally important that he finds one because everyone else who's going doesn’t deserve to go like he does.

Until we get to the factory, director Mel Stuart frequently cuts to gags showing us the extent of the globe's Wonkamania. Scientists have developed machines to find tickets without opening the wrappers. As the worldwide supply begins to dry up, sealed boxes of Wonka bars are sold at auction houses for ridiculous sums. We even see a woman whose husband has been kidnapped hesitating to pay the ransom: her stash of Wonka bars.

Is it a surprise that the children who find the Golden Tickets are all loathsome in their own ways? There’s the gluttonous Augustus Gloop (Michael Böllner). He loves chocolate but just looking at him constantly stuffing his face makes you feel a little ill. Next is Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole). She got her ticket because her father bought millions of bars and dedicated the entire staff of his peanut factory to rip the packaging open until they found it. She's the definition of "spoiled". The last two children, chronic gum-chewer Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson), and television-obsessed Mike Teevee (Paris Themmen) are brats consumed by their bad habits. I guess there’s nothing THAT bad about chewing gum the way Violet does (though her obsession is pretty gross) or the way Mike obsesses over his shows (boy does his rotten attitude make him detestable, however) but they both give you a headache. There’s something pretty funny about the fact that some of these kids’ “deadly sins” are so juvenile and you’re happy to see all of them taught a lesson.

The odd thing about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is that there aren’t any character arcs. The bad children are taught lessons but in the process, they leave the factory tour and the movie. Charlie is already the person he’s meant to be so what the film does is introduce him and the world outside the factory, introduce the other children, then whittle down the cast as we explore the chocolate-making process and get to know Willy Wonka. That’s an unusual structure but it suits the film well. We anticipate the inevitable even before realizing their lessons come with musical numbers.

The competition for which piece of music is the best is fierce. Despite going on to become a hit after its rendition by Sammy Davis, Jr. and fitting in the movie perfectly, I don’t think The Candy Man is as memorable as (I've Got a) Golden Ticket but is the latter’s ability to stick in your mind due to the music & lyrics, or because of the scene that introduces it? The real contenders are Pure Imagination and the Oompa Loompa song, which gets my vote. It’s got an iconic melody, memorable lyrics and has the added bonus of being easy to expand upon or parody. It’s another reason to look forward to the bad kids misbehaving.

There’s a lot to say about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Visually, it’s not as slick as it could be and there are times when it’s so strange (that scary tunnel ride) that you can understand why someone said “We should try this again”. The thing is, the strange choices aren’t bugs; they’re features. Yes, it is occasionally unexpectedly weird/scary but if the movie was nothing but sweet songs and bright-eyed children learning nice lessons, it wouldn’t be any fun. The moments when Willy Wonka is a little bit nasty towards his bratty guests mirrors the way you feel about them. The release of 2023's Wonka only makes the film's evergreen quality more apparent. (November 29, 2024)

[doloresdisparue]

"It's a shame the production didn't treat her well and she never wanted to talk about it, even as an adult." ???source omg??? Ive obsessively searched about the musical and have heard nothing about this! I had no idea she was being mistreated...

Well first of all she was originally understudy for 15 year old Annette Ferra who quit over being spontaneously told she would have to be in a nude stocking on stage when they decided to re-stage a scene. Meaning they wanted her to be entire nude in a somewhat see-through mesh bodysuit. This does happen in Musicals but is ENTIRELY inappropriate to spring on an actor spontaneously or EVER ask of a child. Ferra/her team refused and was essentially fired over that. She tells the story herself on "The Lolita Podcast". I'm not sure if they kept the exact staging for Boston but it sounds like they did. That Nickerson never wanted to talk about it as an adult I know from one of the people leading the development of the revival musical who is an expert on Alan Jay Lerner and researched the show in detail. We talked personally so the only source I have is my own Zoom recording. But given what Ferra has said there was obviously no care for the child actors or their comfort.

It was also just a WILDLY chaotic production and given what I know form my own experience working on Broadway type shows 12 hour days and constant rewrites DURING rehearsal would have been the norm and probably not fun or appropriate. And I know one of the original producers (not the writer or director) was one of the typical creeps who wanted to normalise the story and did the whole "we need to find a child actress who is SEXY so everyone can understand why humbert would bang her since she has titties" and while he was obviously overruled with Nickerson just the fact that a guy like that was there and had any control in the production doesn't bode well either.

[loveboatinsanity]

[cinemacentral666]

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Movie #1,135 • FRIDAY WILDCARD

I will be taking a break from double posting on Mondays and Fridays in September to give myself a slight breather as I'll be on the road for much of the end of August and won't be able to take in my usual glut of cinema. This one is the lone exception as I watched it recently with my daughter after we finished the original Roald Dahl book.

For starters, it absolutely still holds up and really its only flaw is that Gene Wilder isn't in the movie until halfway through. This both heightens his appearance/role but it also makes the opening 45 minutes a tad boring by comparison.

I hadn't realized until this rewatch that Roald Dahl also penned the screenplay and briefly worked as a screenwriter as in the 60s, even penning two James Bond adaptations (for You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). Interestingly enough he wound up disowning the final film version of Willy Wonka both because of deviations made in the production and ultimately placing too much of the emphasis on Wonka instead of Charlie (and that's obvious in the title change). But, that being said, it truly is Wilder in the titular role that makes this movie work. Visually, it is definitely fun if not dated but none of it works without his performance at the center. It's as hilarious as it is completely bizarre. Wilder presents an affect that is uncanny, almost creepy at times, but constantly engrossing. It's the rare execution that is both perfect and impossible to explain.

And not to disagree with the master Dahl, but I found most of the deviations of the original story to be mostly positive changes, especially the ending, which is a bit more complicated the book but actually strengthens the character of Charlie as well as the moral implications. The book just kind of ends with him getting the factory and I think the final twist in the film is the better conclusion.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[moviehealthcommunity]

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

This is a Movie Health Community evaluation. It is intended to inform people of potential health hazards in movies and does not reflect the quality of the film itself. The information presented here has not been reviewed by any medical professionals.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory has a few scenes with cameras flashing infrequently. One late scene involves some sudden, very bright lights. When a boat enters a tunnel, there are lights that rapidly change colors, similar to strobe lights. This effect ends when the announcement is made that the boat ride is over.

All of the camera work in this film is either stationary or very smooth. The final scene of the movie depicts flight high above a city.

Flashing Lights: 4/10. Motion Sickness: 1/10.

TRIGGER WARNING: There is some disturbing imagery during the tunnel sequence, including a chicken having its head chopped off with no indication if it's previously alive or dead. Claustrophobic viewers may be disturbed by a scene of crowding in a small room, and by one of a child stuck inside a tight pipe.

Image ID: a promotional poster for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

[perfettamentechic]

10 luglio … ricordiamo …

10 luglio … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2019: Denise Nickerson, è stata un’attrice statunitense, famosa per aver interpretato il personaggio di Violet Beauregarde nel film Willy Wonka e la fabbrica di cioccolato del 1971. (n. 1957) 2019: Valentina Cortese, è stata una delle attrici di punta del cinema italiano degli anni quaranta.  (n. 1923) 2015: Omar Sharif, (Omar El-Sherif) nato Michel Dimitri Chalhoub, attore e giocatore di bridge…

[gameofthunder66]

'The Majorettes' (1987) film

-watched 6/7/2023- 2 stars- on Tubi (free)

[collinsportmaine]

WOW! Violet Beauregarde (aka Amy Jennings) action figure!!!

[paperstarzz]

I bought ‘I Want It Now’ memoir a couple months ago and it was a fantastic read. I am now equipped to be 20% more annoying about wwatcf to my friends. Needless to say this picture has been living rent free in my brain since then. I wish I could see a color version someday, but for now this will have to do 🥰

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[whatithinkaboutdarkshadows]

I don't know why this didn't post automatically when the post went live yesterday at 4 PM.

[doloresdisparue]

For people who haven't seen her... visually Nickerson was pretty perfect I think, especially because Stage productions are more forgiving when it comes to age, it's much easier to have actors look younger than they are. She was the only Dolly ever cast who actually had brown hair and a fringe and she looked almost younger with how big her eyes were.

She was definitely the closest to Nabokov's visual reference of Catherine Demongeot in "Zazie"

It's a shame the production didn't treat her well and she never wanted to talk about it, even as an adult. Just hearing the recording her performance was phenomenal and I wish there was a video of it preserved.

All this under the usual disclaimer that like OP I don't support casting kids in this role and Nickerson never should have been on that stage (especially with how the show was staged in 71) despite her talent. We have more than enough short, skinny adults.

You're quite critical about Dominique playing Dolores (so justifiably so), I'm curious on how you feel about Denise nickerson who played Dolores in the musical? Considering she was 13, I think she was somewhat of a close fit for dolly

I am not critical of Dominique herself, she was just a kid. I am critical about EVERYONE who casted her and sexualized her.

As for Denise Nickerson...I think that is better. I never forget someone in the youtube comment section saying she sounds too young. Well, God forbid we remind people what Lolita is about.

Of course, I don't want a child actress for Dolores anyways...Still, physically, the closest thing to 12 year old Dolores would actually be a girl of 10, with her being in fact much shorter than girls her age and all that.

[pamithebunterfly2007]

I was looking through the page of Violet from The Roald Dahl fandom until I notice this:

So here are are few What Ifs I had with this being here:

What if Both CATCF and The Witches take in the same place? Like sure these two books made into movies are part of the Roald Dahl universe but what if every book takes place IN that universe

What if The Grand High Witch finds out that Violet was there? well Violet is a child and in the book, either she could be living in a apartment building or she’s talking about a flashback where she’s at a hotel during the summer where she . . . . . . . did this . . . . (What she did was kind of gross tho cuz book Violet is gross no offense) and Sure The Grand High Witch could tell that it was Violet who done this. Well her and her family left the hotel and sure the Grand High Witch and her army of witches are plotting revenge on her. Cuz they hate children.

What if Violet was turn into a mouse instead of a giant bloated blueberry? Imagine in an alternate world if Violet was caught by The Witches, the Witch will give her gum laced with Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker potion, since Violet love gum so much, she takes it, Sure that only ONE drop, Violet will turn into a mouse in 1 hour, 2 drop equals 30 minutes into transformation, and 3 drops, will turn Violet into a mouse right away! And there you go, If the whole Violet transforming into a big blueberry and the entire blueberry inflation kink didn’t happen, It will be that now Violet was turned into a little mouse, The Entire Infamous Blueberry kink that only deviantart people can get aroused with wouldn’t exist at all.

Also if you don’t believe me here’s the link:

Also what are your thoughts?

[violin100]

Got my second Violet Figure from Super 7: My collection is somewhat complete in terms of Violet.

I finally got my second Violet figure. It came in yesterday, while I am nursing my tailbone. I have a cyst that grew back, and it's hard and uncomfortable to sit and walk.

So, I have a plushie, a funko pop, a card from a casino game, and now these two figures from Super7, plus an autograph picture signed by Denise Nickerson, and an Inflated Aunt Marge pin. Definitely check out Super 7 and Spirit Halloween. If you want the funko pops, check Amazon, eBay, and Mercari. If you want your Inflated Comedy pop figure, I will be soon taking a list of orders once I get my LLC going at full steam. I will hopefully be announcing that soon.