Review of Clash by Night (1952) by Jerome W — 09 Sep 2006

[size=3]Months ago, I saw a Japanese anime on Cartoon Network called "Super Milk-Chan". It was a surreal comedy about a tempermental five-year-old superhero who takes orders from a president who looks like a relative of Zippy The Pinhead. The drawing looked more like something out of a kid's storybook than the usual anime stuff. It tried to be different but it didn't really work. It was more odd than funny. I found out that the Adult Swim versions were edited, so I put the DVD version in my Netflix queue. I got the first disc yesterday but I really didn't expect much. [/size].

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[size=3] Wrong again.[/size].

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[size=3]I laughed myself sick over this stuff. The uncensored Milk Chan has the heroine cussing up a storm and the English writing and dubbing is a lot more manic than the other version. That added edge pushes this over the top in the best way. The show has farting robots, divorcing cockroaches, a president so dumb he launches a nuclear missle on himself when he isn't boasting about his sexual prowess, money bearing the likeness of the Olsen Twins, truly demented work. The DVD even includes some behind-the-scenes humor from the English language cast as they record the dialogue. [/size].

[size=3] This is a rare time when Adult Swim has to make do with a PG version of anything. The real "Super Milk Chan" is brilliant.[/size].

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[size=3] I had another pleasant surprise yesterday. Milos Forman's first American film, "Taking Off" miraculously showed up on the Sundance Channel. This was released in 1971 and was part of the wave of experimental "youth" films that proliferated in Hollywood in the wake of "Easy Rider''s success. The main story followed a suburban couple, with Buck Henry as the husband, looking for their missing daughter, but there was also a running thread of young people singing at an audition for, I suppose, some kind of stage show. I was watching this and wondering if any unknowns who later became famous were in the picture, whne all of a sudden who shows up singing a folksong but Kathy Bates! She was listed as "Bobo Bates" in the credits but it was definitely her. Except for her face being a little thinner she looked the same as she does today. [/size].

[size=3] That was only the first act. The next singer was easily recognizable. It was Carly Simon, singing the heck out of some dope song that I don't think ever showed up on any of her records. This would have been about the time her first record came out so seeing her seemed logical once you thought about it. [/size].