Poseidon Quickies: Captain Underpants!

Well, it's been a rather eventful couple of weeks, good and bad. Thus, I haven't been as active with the blog as I might like. I had a birthday on the 19th (which is always a signal that this site is older, too. We're now entering its 16th year!) So there was plenty going on socially, believe it or not. Then came the Labor Day holiday with an array of things to keep me occupied. But we all know... I typically dabble in Poseidon's Underworld during downtime at work! Thing was, I suddenly developed a system issue here in which I couldn't properly manage any pdfs or jpgs! I could create pics, but couldn't move them or even delete them. Consider for a moment the stress I felt knowing that my desktop had all sorts of photos on it of the sort I tend to gather for this blog...! LOL I finally, finally got this situation rectified late yesterday (and still have my job, too.) This was meant to be a very brief post that ought to have gone up long ago, but was delayed due to this technical issue. And, no, it is NOT about the character depicted above-right. Ha ha! You'll see soon enough what the title refers to. 

I think you're all aware that I am often on the lookout for semi-obscure, unusual fare to feature here. And I love vintage TV-movies. And I also like watching movies which take place at circuses because often there are men in tights flouncing around! Well... The tights department was quite a let-down when I happened upon When the Circus Came to Town (1981), but it wound up having other virtues. (I found this on Tubi, and a nice print of it can be viewed free-with-occasional-ads right here.) 

The movie kicks off with a graveside funeral in Savannah, Georgia.

There we meet lonely spinster Elizabeth Montgomery, who is burying her father who'd been ill for some time while she served as his caregiver. Before that, she'd served as her mother's caregiver as well. So right about now, she's ready for a change.

Right on cue comes the Duke Royal Circus, parading through town. Christopher Plummer (who you'll remember forever as Captain Von Trapp of 1965's The Sound of Music.) His parade and Montgomery's funeral procession cross paths and suddenly she feels she might have found what she's looking for in order to stir the pot of her utterly stagnant life.

She manages to track Plummer down and arrives at his trailer looking for a job. Any job. And we aren't sure what, if anything, he has on behind that cardboard box. 

 

Giving his boots a shine, and looking over this plain, dour woman, he is far from impressed. 

There are two potential openings he might be able to offer, reluctantly. (Since she doesn't want to perform in front of a crowd, the options become fewer by the second!)

Plummer, clearly unworried about appearing in his tighty-whities in front of Montgomery, emerges from behind the box and heads over to a clothing rack. 

See? This is the Captain Underpants I'm talking about. Ha ha! Plummer was about 52 at the time of filming and still had a trim build. 

I can honestly say that the last thing I expected to see when I pulled up this movie, was Captain Von Trapp in some skimpy underpants. 

Back in 1969, Plummer had shown off a lot of skin in The Royal Hunt of the Sun. 

As an Incan emperor, he was compelled to shave his chest completely for the part (opposite Robert Shaw as Pizarro.) 

Fun as it was to see him almost in the altogether, he also was compelled to speak only in unusual bird-like chirps, which definitely turned down the sex appeal. 

This lobby card from 1966's Triple Cross (opposite Romy Schneider) shows the level of chest hair he usually possessed. 

By the time of this movie, he had his hair back in place, but trimmed up more than he'd displayed it in 1966. 

Anyway, he proceeds to finish dressing and as the camera zooms in on him zipping up the fly on his jeans, this action also doesn't go unnoticed by the repressed Montgomery!

The vagabond-like, hard-living Plummer really doesn't need this headache, but Montgomery is persistent. 

He takes her on a tour of the circus, trying to see where she might fit in, but she continues to avoid anything showy or daring. In the end, she's hired to clean the cages of the animals!

It still beats her dreary life back home, so she's happy as a clam. However, he takes virtually no interest in her at all. Here, he sports a jaunty hat that recalls one he wore in Music, though this one is even more eye-catching because it has feathers in the brim!

What I love about this The Sound of Music wardrobe test is the care that went into setting a mood. A table of vintage props was set up in silhouette, knowing that Plummer would be wearing this hat in night scenes such as the concert and the convent cemetery! 

Back to our story, Montgomery is tired of going unnoticed and heads into a town for some new clothing and a different hairdo, adding more makeup as well. 

It works! Pretty soon the two of them are taking long walks and conversing on a deeper level. 

His li'l hat is pluming and she is blooming!

Now in the meantime, the acrobatic act in the circus is embroiled in a continuous shouting match. Montgomery, who's now beginning to find her voice, tells the sole female of the act what she thinks. (I didn't say there weren't tights in this film, I just felt they were disappointing...)

See what I mean, Vern? This troupe seems a mite over the hill and out of shape to me. 

In case you didn't recognize her, the female contingent of the acrobatic troupe is played by one Gretchen Wyler. With apologies to her fans, and I'm sure there are some out there, I have always found Wyler to be hammy and unduly self-important. But maybe Glenn Close could play here in something sometime and finally get an Oscar? LOL

Circumstances arise in which Wyler is no longer part of the act and so Mr. Chesthair lands upon the brilliant idea of installing the once-meek Montgomery in her place!

By the time of the next town, the standard arrival parade has one new member in it. Incidentally, I had to chuckle over the guy in the black swimtrunks. He's the mysterious and exotic "Tattooed Man" of the circus...!! I see that much ink nowadays on a typical afternoon at my local water park!

Edging ever so slightly out of her shell, Montgomery is encouraged by her compatriots to smile and wave to the crowds. 

Then the moment comes when her intensive, but brief, rehearsals are put to the test before a live audience. (Are ya getting these hideous depictions of circus costumes?! I'll take Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis in Trapeze, 1956, instead, please!)

Now fully divested of her dishwater dull existence as a caregiver to sickly parents, Montgomery is vibrant, confident and alive. 

And Plummer does take note. 

"You show me your big top and I'll show you mine..."

"This really may be the greatest show on earth...!"

Lovely as it all is, there are decisions to be made. 

Seemingly in line to try everything but sticking her head in a lion's mouth, Montgomery has graduated to being a clown! 

And Plummer has things to deal with, also. He's suffering money issues with the circus and he's also got a long-suffering gal pal (played by Eileen Brennan) who is reaching her limit. So it's not all peanuts and popcorn. 

The End!

::::Additional Info::::

This is rather off topic, but seeing as we're heading into year 16, I thought I'd share. A little over a week ago, a longtime friend of mine texted me to see if I might like to go see The Poseidon Adventure (1972) on the big screen... Uh -- YES! I had never seen the movie which gave this site its title (and, before that, my internet chat room handle) in this manner before. I only had to wait nearly 50 years to finally have this happen...! (I say nearly 50 because I didn't even know about the movie until the mid-1970s.)

A small local network of movie theaters had decided to hold special screenings of many of the 1970s disaster genre's most prized offerings! August was close to being over (dammit!) before I was aware.

 

I took this photo right before the movie began. It was a wondrous experience to see the S.S. Poseidon capsize on a large theater screen. And, though I unfortunately missed many of the other flicks that were brought out for this event, I have the joy this evening of going to see The Towering Inferno (1974) on the same big screen! That one I did see in theaters as a goggle-eyed 6 year-old, but it will be terrific to see it this way again after more than half a century has passed. Just the notion that I'll get to see Faye's gown billowing across a large movie screen has me rattled already! LOL Till next time. 

Fond Farewell: Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye...

Handsome Captain Von Trapp.

"The Captain is gone..." said a text from a friend of mine last week. While Christopher Plummer was 91, and no one would perhaps express shock when someone passes at that age, it was still a heart-tugging moment, for he was one of our lifetime favorites. We did a full-on tribute to him more than ten years ago (can it be?!) right here for those who wish to know more about him. But he proved that a lot can happen in ten years, even if you are 81 at the start of them! Considering he has that lengthy tribute here already, we will not repeat ourselves with a complete run-down of his life and career, but I do have some further pictures to share and what better time to do so than right now? 

Canadian-born Plummer was the premier Shakespearean actor of his generation, having played all the major roles of The Bard before he was 30. Seen here, he essays MacBeth, Richard III and Henry V.

Here he is in character as Benedick of Much Ado About Nothing. All these kings, princes and lords would grant him an aura of cool, regal authority which ultimately made him perfect for portraying the austere, dignified Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

Several actors were considered for the part, but, though he was in actuality a skosh too young for it, he wound up being the perfect person to inhabit the man who was scarily imperious and yet charmingly vulnerable underneath.

The movie's staggering success (and its legions of devoted fans) got under Plummer's skin for quite some time, but eventually he began to appreciate the craftsmanship and the quality of it.

He certainly cut a dashing figure in his costumes.

I love this photo of him with Eleanor Parker as Baroness Schraeder. They made on super elegant couple, even if they were not to be.

He and Julie Andrews generated incredible chemistry and really made the love story aspect of the movie come to life. One gets the feeling that, despite the on-set of war, those two had one really fine honeymoon before having to rush home to the kids!

One of my other favorite roles of his, a vastly underrated one, is as the deranged Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964.)

In projects like Oedipus the King (1968), with Lilli Palmer as his mother (and wife!), we got a glimpse of what lay underneath his buttoned-up Austrian suits.

But never more so than in 1969's The Royal Hunt of the Sun.

Despite having his singing dubbed by Bill Lee in Music, Plummer did go on to star in and win a Tony for the musical Cyrano in 1973. He copped another Tony later for his one-man show Barrymore.

Plummer was principally a motion picture and stage actor with only occasional visits to television. When he costarred in the miniseries Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers (married to Jean Peters, but canoodling with Joan Collins, not the world's worst position to be in!), he won an Emmy. He would proceed to balance his career with further TV work including a role in The Thorn Birds.

Fans of The Sound of Music were delighted when he and Andrews reunited for live TV presentation of the play On Golden Pond in 2001. The project got mixed reviews (and many folks didn't think of these two as somewhat feeble old folks regardless of their chronological age.)

In my initial tribute to Mr. Plummer, he'd finally achieved an Oscar nomination after toiling away in the movies for half a century! Not long after that, he was nominated again and won! This time for Beginners (2010), in which he played the father of Ewan MacGregor who comes out as gay late in life. He was the oldest winner ever of a competitive Academy Award at 82. Then at age 88, he became the oldest ever nominee for acting when he was nominated for All the Money in the World (2017.) What with working on TV in 1953 and with a movie in the can for 2021 release, his career on screen nearly spanned 70 years! He died of complications from a fall on February 5th at age 91.

We enjoy watching the inventive, creative and versatile Mr. Plummer in everything, but to us he is indelibly the exquisitely debonair Captain Von Trapp. As such, we give a heartfelt, "So long, farewell..."