Thanks
for checking out this week’s blog entry.
I had a great time last weekend in AC and didn’t part with too much
cash, so the Boss isn’t all that mad at me.
……………………………………..
What
with all this news and discussion of the doomed Malaysian airliner, I thought I
would re-arrange the schedule and take a look at plane disasters instead.
Of
course we’re talking about plane disasters that feature a blonde versus
brunette rivalry!!
Strange,
isn’t it that just a few weeks back I had posted the video clip of the gals
going at it in the galley area of an aircraft.
Not sure what movie that was, but it was a nice little scrap.
This
week’s focus though is certainly not an unknown movie, but a rather well-known
flick titled “Back from Eternity”. You
may have seen it before on Turner Classic Movies.
Yup,
that’s right, it’s a “Classic”, not some cheap, b-grade flick, but an
impressive RKO Radio picture from the 1950s that was a big box-office hit.
Synopsis, with a few minor
edits, stolen from Wikipedia:
"An aircraft is bound for
Boca Grande, somewhere in South America, making a pick-up stop in Central
America. The plane’s pilots are Bill Lonagan (Robert Ryan) and Joe Brooks
(Keith Andes); the passengers are: Jud Ellis (Gene Barry) who is escorting his
fiancé, Louise Melhorn (Phyllis Kirk); repentant political assassin Vasquel
(Rod Steiger) who is being transported back to the proper authorities by
detective Crimp (Fred Clark); mobster Pete Bostwick (Jesse White) is
accompanying a little boy named Tommy, whose father is Bostwick's boss; an
elderly couple, Professor and Mrs. Spanger (Cameron Prud'Homme and Beulah
Bondi), who are on a vacation; and jilted blonde bombshell Rena (Anita Ekberg),
on her way to a South American casino. During its flight, the aircraft encounters
severe turbulence when it enters a thunderstorm and a portable oxygen tank,
strapped down in the passenger cabin, becomes loose and crashes through one of
the fuselage doors. When Tommy gets out of his seat to investigate, the flight
attendant, Maria Alvarez (Adele Mara) rushes over and rescues him but is thrown
out of the aircraft when it pitches violently in the storm.
 |
| http://www.mediafire.com/watch/qv09stqwlllj2sp/Back_From_Eternity_I_Hear_Blondes_Do_Well_There.wmv |
When Lonagan notices that an
engine is losing oil pressure, he decides to make an emergency landing in the
jungle. The aircraft is damaged but is
still intact. After landing, Crimp tries to take charge of the group, but the other
passengers resist his efforts. During the argument about who should be in charge,
Crimp notices that his gun is missing. Vasquel reveals that he has it but
instead of handing it back to Crimp, he gives it to Lonagan who then assumes
command of the group. Subsequently, Lonagan gives the gun to Bostwick so that
he can hunt wild game. As the days pass
it becomes apparent that the jungle is filled with headhunters who have the
plane, crew, and passengers under observation. With no hope of rescue and
surrounded by danger, tensions, both personal and sexual among the crew and passengers,
begin to build. Louise, who is engaged to Ellis, begins to realize that he is a
self-centered coward and rejects his overtures. At the same time she finds
herself attracted to Joe, the resourceful and courageous co-pilot. Eventually, Louise
comes to believe that Rena is also attracted to Joe and in a moment of jealous
rage, she starts a fight her blonde rival. Joe notices the women fighting and
stops them. Louise suddenly realizes how foolish she was when Rena makes it
clear to her that is not interested in Joe. Later, Crimp steals the gun from
Bostwick and flees into the jungle. The next morning, Tommy also wanders off
into the jungle. He is soon found by Bostwick and Rena who also discover
Crimp’s headless body. Shortly after that discovery, the head hunters shoot
Bostwick dead by poison dart. By then, both Lonagan and Joe have repaired the
plane, but one engine is still not working properly. Because of that, they determine
that the only way the plane will make it over the mountains is to lighten it by
leaving behind all of its cargo and four of the passengers. With gun in hand,
Vasquel forcibly takes charge of the matter, and chooses those that will be
able to return to civilization. Because he is a condemned man, he decides to
stay behind. The elderly Spanger couple also decide to stay behind as they
realize that most of their lives are now behind them. Vasquel then announces
that Ellis will stay behind, meaning that Lonagan, Joe, Rena, Louise, and Tommy
are the only ones who will board the plane and escape. The others will stay
behind and face certain death from the head hunters. Ellis then tries to seize
the gun from Vasquel but is shot dead. The aircraft manages to take off,
dropping off a cliff and then narrowly clearing the mountains. With only two bullets
left in his gun, Vasquel shoots the Spanger couple and then prays for
forgiveness as he waits for his own death."
Pretty
intense plot, huh?
But
the real plot, for us here at bvb at least, is between Ekberg and every other
brunette but especially Phyllis Kirk.
The
movie opens with Ekberg gambling in a casino.
Not having any luck, she goes back to the casino manager’s quarters and
asks for more money; making it obvious to the viewer that clear that she is a
woman in the business of doing favors for cash.
But the manager has other ideas, namely that she’s not worth the
trouble, so he smacks her around and tells her to get out, specifically head
out to South America and work as a bar girl in a casino he has connections
with. What’s interesting about this
scene is that the manager is entertaining a couple of brunette showgirls when
Ekberg arrives in his room. The tension
between her and one of the tall, leggy brunettes is palpable and when Ekberg
lights a cigarette she literally blows smoke in the face of one of the dark
haired gals. For her part, even though
she is a tall woman who is presumably equipped with the strong, powerful legs
of a dancer the brunette doesn’t dare tangle with the blonde-haired
Amazon. Nice scene.
 |
| http://www.mediafire.com/watch/l9ueu01uwwlum5k/Back_From_Eternity_Well,_Excuse_Me!.wmv |
Later,
as she is waiting to board the flight she is attracted to the well dressed,
dark haired Ellis who is also waiting, in this case for his dark haired
fiancée, Louise. Ellis, ever the gentleman, lights a cigarette for Rena (didn’t
people back in the 1950s know that smoking was bad for you? Guess not!) just as Louise arrives.
Naturally,
Louise gets jealous and there’s a scene where Rena bumps into her, adding to
the tension.
Later
in the movie the plane stops at a way point to pick up more passengers and both
crew and passengers disembark. When the
little blonde boy starts wandering around aimlessly, Louise rescues him. But the blonde haired Rena has a motherly
instinct for the blonde boy and tries to wean him away from the brunette. Louise
will have none of it and tells Rena to get lost, so to speak.
 |
| http://www.mediafire.com/watch/eftc0gbtoj1f480/Back_From_Eternity_He'll_Stay_With_Us,_Thank_You.wmv |
As
the movie moves along it becomes abundantly clear that Ellis is not only a first
class shithead but a coward as well. In response, Louise begins to distance
herself from him. Simultaneously she is attracted
to the co-pilot, Joe Brooks. For his part, Joe is courageous, smart,
resourceful, honest and hard working.
He’s also blonde and loaded with muscles. Not surprisingly, the blonde
Rena is also attracted to Joe and makes a move for him and that sets up the
battle between her and Louise.
 |
| http://www.mediafire.com/watch/8pln78wu3bckafz/Back_From_Eternity_You_Mean_Joe.wmv |
Now
the truth is it’s a disappointing fight that doesn’t have a decisive ending as
it’s broken up by Joe while the two women are struggling with each other in the
water.
Worse,
the two ladies realize how foolish they are and become friends.
That
sucks, doesn’t it?
Still,
between the nice build up and the little wrestling match, it’s a good piece of
the blonde vs. brunette rivalry.
 |
| http://www.mediafire.com/watch/0rk61ce47uidw72/Back_From_Eternity_I_Think_it's_Love.wmv |
As
icing on the cake, later in the movie when Barry tries to screw his now unwilling
fiancée, Joe comes to her rescue. Face to face, toe to toe, the black haired
Barry and the blonde co-pilot almost come to blows but Barry
realizes he’s no match for the powerfully built blonde studmuffin, and backs down.
Well,
that’s it. A great fucking movie all the
way around even if the fight itself was a bit lame.
In
researching the movie I discovered a Louelle Parson’s column that discussed
Tommy’s affection for Ekberg on the movie set.
Apparently given the choice between brunette Kirk and blonde Ekberg,
little blonde haired Tommy knew which gal’s lap to jump on between film takes.
Smart
kid.
What
with all the chit chat about terrorists, I figure this is also a good time to
pull up the video from the 1977 movie “The Night They Took Miss Beautiful”
starring Sherree North and Victoria Principal.
 |
| http://www.mediafire.com/watch/0fxslo9drmzdbvy/The_Night_They_Took_Miss_Beautiful.mp4 |
As
described by Ed Stips’ “MovieTVCatfightAlert” (on Yahoo Groups)
“Sheree
North battled Victoria Principal in the made for television flick The Night
They Took Miss Beautiful (1977). Ms. Principal portrays an Israeli agent while
Ms. North plays a merciless terrorist. Their lively bout on a beach features
judo, wrestling and choking. North secures an unfair advantage by throwing a
handful of sand in the Principal's face,
but gets her comeuppance when one of the beauty contestants a third
party intervenes and ends the fight by knocking her out. The quality of the
North-Principal showdown is solidly above average.”
The
blonde, blue-eyed North was a tough, athletic gal who began professionally
dancing at the age of 10. She had quite
a set of legs, all muscle, of course!
The brown haired, dark eyed Principal was no slouch either, she starred
in a number of exercise films in the 1970s and 80s. In pretty good shape, I’d say. Winner?
Coin toss is my guess. Whoever
wanted it more, although since North was 18 years older than Principal, I’d go
with youth.
As
far as the Leader Board goes, the Ekberg vs. Kirk wrestling match is scored as
a draw although I’m sure Anita Ekberg would make short work of Phyllis Kirk had
they fought for real. I was tempted to
list Ekberg as the “bad blonde” but she really turned out to be a, at least, a
quasi-good girl in the movie, so that would be unfair.
As
for the North-Principal fight, the wicked blonde clearly kicked the brunette’s
ass.
Oh
well.
------------------------------------------------------------------
This
week’s last item also involves violence on an airplane, this time between a
couple of stewardesses.
You
do remember stews don’t you? They were
the good looking gals who pushed food and beverage carts up and down the aisles
while wearing miniskirts and heels.
For
reasons never fully explained to the public, stews, at least on U.S. domestic
airlines, were eventually replaced by a thing called “flight attendants” who
were older ladies wearing pantsuits.
Many of them look like Hillary Clinton.Rumor is that some foreign airline companies, especially those based in Asia still have good looking stews.
In
this **delightful** cartoon by Glen Eneg (?) a blonde and a brunette stew
battle each other for the affections of the plane’s captain. In this story, the brunette is definitely the
bad girl! Fortunately she gets her ass
beat by the blonde. I don’t know about
you, but this cartoon works for me, big time and I added the results to the
Leader Board.
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