Episode 1011-
Horrors of Spider Island
Movie
Summary: Large, rectangular
Gary, lovely assistant Georgia, and slightly less lovely
assistant Mike audition dancers for a trip to Singapore.
This takes up approximately the first two-thirds of the
movie, and culminates in the labored explanation of a joke:
when Gary likes a dancer, he crosses his legs; when he
doesn't, he uncrosses them. That's how Georgia knows his
answers, without Gary even saying anything, and that's why
Mike was confused. (Did I say joke?)
Anyway, after several months of that scene Gary wings off to
Singapore with dancers May, Gladys, Doreen, Linda, Nellie,
the frightening Babs, and Georgia, and before you can say
Jack Robinson, provided you say it very slowly, they crash
into the ocean and wash ashore on an island. Gary carries
the dancers ashore, actually, and assumes his natural role
as pompous male, as the dancers run around murmuring -- all
except Georgia, who what with her efficiency and general air
of competence is just damn lucky she's not a man. They all
run across a cabin, and there they find a dead fellow in a
spider web! So maybe there are some spiders in this thing,
after all! But isn't it almost over?
No, it's not. Pay attention. The dead guy is Professor
Green, and a quick reference to uranium in his diary is all
the explanation we ever receive for the confusing events
about to unfold. All move in to his cabin, and the dancers
begin disrobing, writhing, taking showers, and rubbing their
hands across Gary's crotch. Caught by Georgia while kissing
a dancer, Gary stalks off and is attacked by a large puppet
spider.
Let's speed this up. The women go out looking for Gary,
can't find him. Two sailors, Joe and Bob, show up to pick up
Professor Green, and you can imagine their chagrin when they
find, instead of the professor, a cabin full of exotic
dancers. There follows a couple days of drinking and sex, as
they await a ship's arrival; there's some vague disagreement
between Joe and Bob about Bob's dismissive attitude toward
women, which offends Joe since he's taken with Ann (from
Minnesota!) Gary reappears, apparently now a spider although
he's just a guy in slacks, and kills Bob and Bob's special
honey Gladys, and the women all get torches and chase Gary
into a swamp and the ship comes. The end.
So, are the big spiders because of the uranium? Is Gary's
transformation into whatever caused by the uranium? Just
what exactly are the horrors of this place? Does anyone
know? Hello?
Prologue: Crow has a syndicated newspapers column,
inspired by Larry King's pointless ramblings in USA Today:
"I give Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a B+!"
Segment One: The Castle is gone -- actually, it's just
moved, to a suburban setting somewhere: Pearl is tired of
shelling out fifty bucks a year for Bobo's license. Brain
Guy's crabby about all the work, but Bobo likes his huge new
tag. He barks at the neighbor's dogs, though.
Segment
Two: Mike gets stuck in a web,
like the professor in a movie; Crow and Servo made it and
are delighted with the big bug they catch for dinner. A huge
spider threatens Mike, though. Do the 'bots care? No.
Sometimes you have to wonder about those guys.
Segment Three: Mike, his feet on the desk like Gary,
auditions all in the castle, who (of course) buy into it
immediately. Bobo tries soft shoe; Brain Guy dons a wig and
imitates a steamy scene from Flash Dance; Pearl tries a
ballet and falls over.
Segment Four: Crow: "So Mike, if you're a woman and you're
in a plane crash, you instantly become languid, helpless,
sex- starved, and you murmur a lot?" They test the premise
-- turns out you do.
Segment Five: Mike becomes an unconvincing spider; all share
a way-too-hearty laugh when it turns out he's planning to
make a braunschweiger melt, just like the 'bots. Pearl and
company are moving the castle back, and are at a truck stop,
where Bobo discovers a machine purveying individually
wrapped balloons.
Stinger: The plane plummeting, the dancers screaming.
Reflections: We
learned, I forget just how, that this movie was a
cooperative effort between Germany (West Germany, I assume)
and Yugoslavia in the early 1960s. Believe me, I tried like
the dickens to provide a joke about the Marshall Plan --
that this was how our U.S. tax money was being used by the
good people of Europe, as they attempted to rebuild their
economies, and such. To all you Marshall Plan fans out
there, I'm sorry.
The weekend after we finished this, I was consumed by
curiosity and used all my Frequent Flyer miles to fly to
Singapore -- it sounded like such a swinging town! And I was
not disappointed. I hooked up with Babs, of course, and we
had a great time, and then she decided to fly back to the
States with me -- and that's when tragedy struck. We
crashed, and I had to depend on Babs to carry me ashore on
an island, and take care of me, with her commanding manner.
We're still there, in fact, me and Babs. You get used to it
after a while. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing going on.
-- Paul Chaplin.
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