What I’m watching: A very funny man and a basketcaseDate: 4/19/2018 What I’m watching? Great comedy, a completely crazy low budget horror film and a grueling story set in the War of 1812.
On DVD: The Very Best of Victor Borge
The Danish musician and comedian Victor Borge was a staple on radio in the 1940s and made a very successful transition to television in the 1950s, a medium in which his talents were much in demand, up until his death in 2000 at the age of 91.
Borge also had a very successful career as a concert performer and guest conductor.
Classic television comedy, up until the advent of home video and now streaming, has been often difficult to see and even now there is much from TV from the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s that is fairly unattainable.
PBS has done all of us a favor who remembers Borge by issuing two jammed-packed editions of Borge’s comedy with more than 16 hours of performances. The second volume also has an audio CD called ‘The Two Sides of Victor Borge.”
Borge essentially used the conventions of classical music and formal performance for the basis of his comedy. Like fellow musician turned comedian, Spike Jones, he was a brilliant musician himself.
He came from an age when classical music performances were more part of the entertainment landscape then they are today. Concerts were more part of radio and then later even commercial television.
Borge could use the music itself as the jokes, as well as slapstick bits such as falling off the piano stool or playing a piece off-tune only to find the sheet music was upside down.
Another of his greatest bits, which didn’t involve music, was his sound effects for punctuation. Borge assigned both a hand gesture and sound to each punctuation mark and would read something with the performance. It was a scream.
These two collections give people the opportunity to rediscover or discover this incredibly talented person. If you enjoy inventive comedy or classical music, you need to have these in your collection.
On Blu-ray: Mohawk
Dark Sky Films has released this period film set in New York during the War of 1812 and while it isn’t exactly a horror film – the genre for which Dark Sky is best known – is it a film that deals with horror of the man-made kind.
The film’s prologue sets up the narrative: native tribes such as the Mohawk are being pressured to take sides during the War of 1812. The British want them as allies, while the Americans hope they either remain neutral or side with them. In a community in rural upstate new York, a young Mohawk man Calvin Two Rivers, (played by Justin Rain) after being convinced by a British friend, takes the British side and kills a number of Americans in a nearby settlement against the wishes of tribal elders.
The Americans respond by sending out a group of soldiers to capture him for a trial, but things go horribly bad in the woods. Canadian actress Kaniehtiio Horn is Okwaho, the film’s central character who is apparently a lover to both Calvin and the British man with whom she is on the run.
As the natives are pursued, the confrontations with the Americans are both bloody and costly. Rather than heeding the voices of his men about turning around, he urges them on with the jingoistic language of that time. Eventually there is a logical conclusion with a final fight that is anticipated by the viewer.
Director and writer Ted Geoghegan does a lot with very little. His story has been written to fit his budget, which is a smart move, and most of the film takes place in the forest, saving money on sets.
Geoghegan allows the suspense to grow in his story punctuating it with moments of violence that, within the film, are logical. The performances, especially Horn’s, are strong and resonate.
The story could have used a bit more clarity to describe the relationship between the characters and at times the racist pronouncements by the American commander come across as forced. Those who don’t care for gore might also find the film a bit difficult to watch.
Having said that, I found “Mohawk” to be an original film set during a time that is singular for movies – quick, how many films you can name happening during the War of 1812?
Basketcase
What kind of low budget motion picture would be the subject of a loving restoration by New York City’s Museum of Modern Art? Well, “Basketcase,” the quirky 1982-horror comedy by writer and director Frank Hennelotter would be an answer to that question.
Arrive Video is releasing the highly successful film – it has two sequels – in a Blu-Ray edition packed with new extras.
Hennelotter is a very interesting filmmaker and “Basketcase” was his first feature. It is a loving tribute to the New York City of the 1980s before the reformation of Times Square.
The film tells the story of a young man, Duane (played by Kevin Van Hentenryck) who is in the city for the first time. He is carrying around a large wicker laundry basket with him and we learn he and the person in the basket – his twin brother – have a mission. They are determined to find the team of doctors who separated them and kill them.
Got that?
It’s a wild concept and Hennelotter makes the most of it through his very small budget. At times the film is clearly played for laughs, but there moments of queasy horror as well.
The two sequels are played much more for laughs, but the first film is determined to leave an impression and it does. This is a film for fairly hardcore horror fans
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