Dang! Part II: Split Second

Credit: RKO Pictures

                                        
                                              Dang! Part II: Split Second

                                                                 by

                                                                    Jay Agan

      Early sixties. Don't know why I bothered with a flick like this (I must have been 10 or 11 then.). It wasn't a cartoon, war, or monster movie. It did have an old west ghost town & that must have been what kept me watching Split Second. The story took place in an "A-bomb" test area (Maybe I was hoping for a war movie.).

      These cons bust out of prison & hide out on a nuke range, planning to take off just before blast time (The authorities wouldn't think of looking there!). Complicating matters are some hostages taken along the way. Don't know how I was able to patiently wade through the drama & commercials but I did.

      The last minute warnings go off & the baddies "git to goin'" while the protagonists duck into an old mine. Taking a wrong turn, the crooks & the moll find themselves at the base of the bomb tower. After some screaming & tire squealing they backtrack through the ghost town & the bomb goes off.

       The special effects crew did an admirable job. The town gets flattened & .....

      Car is spun into the air, womans' scream cut off in mid pitch, cut to mushroom cloud.

      Yes. That's right! Dang!

      You have to see this movie to know what I mean.

                                              Article copyright © 4-17-2011 Jay Agan

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Dr. Strangelove: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Annihilation

   

              Dr. Strangelove: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Annihilation

                                                                 by

                                                                    Jay Agan

       Somewhere in the 90s.

      The Ohio Theatre was going to have a showing of  Stanley Kubricks', Dr. Strangelove that Sunday night. Alright! DS on the big screen. Had to see it. So I get off work, grab a parking space under the Statehouse & go in. Waiting for the flick to start, I look around & notice something familiar about the other patrons.

      This takes a little telling. I had seen Strangelove back in '88 at the Columbus Museum of  "Art" on a much smaller screen. The other attendees were of the "smart" set. You know. "Hipsters", parlor pinks, cocktail commies, etc. Needless to say, I was laughing along with them though for different reasons.

      It was pretty much the same at the Ohio Theater except for one notable exception. Col. Jack D. Rippers' (Sterling Hayden) rant at Capt. Mandrake (Peter Sellers) about flouridation. I remember the '88 audience getting quite a giggle over that one. The threat of flouridation was stock in trade of the whacky right wing back then. So I was pretty much prepared for the "morally annointed" to break up  over it this time around.

      "Great. Here it comes," I thought.

      Weird. Only a muted chuckle here & there, more of a reflex action being suppressed. The vast majority of the attendees were quiet. Even attentive. What the......?

       It was the only "bad" part of an enjoyable viewing experience. I pondered it for days.

      A couple regular customers at work clued me in after telling them about it: Between then & "now", government health studies found flouride to be a carcinogen. Guess Col. Ripper wasn't as much a whack job as originally thought. From commie plot to health hazzard. Who'd a thunk it?

                                                   Article copyright © Jay Agan

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