McNeil's Movie Korner

Welcome once again to the comforting environs of "McNeil's Movie Korner." Hi! Do you live in St. Louis and have a time machine? Then you may want to attend this thing McNeil found from earlier this year. It's an event at a place called "The Way Out Club" (!) and they showed Super 8 movies. You see, when McNeil and I were lads, you could check out Super 8 movies from the library - versions (severely abridged) of theatrical releases, which you could go home and project onto your wall from your little home projector. Barry B. remembers this, too. In fact, Barry B. and I both recall watching a Ben Turpin movie with a big pie fight in it. We tracked it down and aired it on our kids' show (the Rudy and GoGo World Famous Cartoon Show) once. As I am sure you know, Ben Turpin (pictured) was a comedian who was famous because there was something wrong with his eyes. That's what we used to call entertainment before your iPhones and gadgets and so on. I recall that in one part of the movie, Ben Turpin (or someone) was sitting with a collapsable top hat on his lap, and he would cause the collapsed hat to spring into its natural shape, using the popping-out crown as a method for launching pies into the faces of his enemies. Wow! Silent Ben Turpin movies. No wonder our kids' show was canceled - for too much awesomeness, that is! Now my childhood was not all fancy la-di-da like McNeil's, so I don't recall these Super 8 movies having sound. But look! The Way Out Club showed a fifteen-minute version of ANIMAL HOUSE, as well as McNeilian favorites such as THE RELUCTANT ASTRONAUT and one of the Matt Helm features starring Dean Martin. What horrible childhoods we had.