Monday, July 1, 2013

Only now does it occur to me... SUPERMAN III

Only now does it occur to me...  oh, well allow me to explain.  I saw SUPERMAN III when I was kid, and while I successfully blocked most of it out, I definitely remembered sequences like "good Superman vs. evil Superman in the junkyard" and "villainous businesswoman transformed into robot" and "ski slope on top of skyscraper" and "Superman being a dick and ruining the Olympics."  You know, all the important stuff.  
Anyway, I decided (I don't know what got into me) to revisit this fine flick the other day, and was struck by the absolute lunacy of one scene in particular, so, here goes:  
Only now does it occur to me... that there is a scene in SUPERMAN III whereupon Richard Pryor, clad in a twenty-gallon foam cowboy hat, unveils a suitcase full of booze (including Kingsley Amis' favorite gin, Booth's)
and commences to get security guard Gavan O'Herlihy (the legendary reverse-mohawk'd villain Fraker from DEATH WISH 3) drunk as a skunk

so that he (Pryor) can hack into a computer and alter the orbit of a weather satellite so that he can ruin a crop of Columbian coffee because he's been blackmailed into doing so by Robert Vaughn who wants some petty revenge?!
And did I mention that all of this is accompanied by an instrumental version Roger Williams' Euro-pop-meets-country-western hit "They Won't Get Me," produced and synthesized by none other than sunglasses-wearing Italian madman Giorgio Moroder?  Madness, I tell you!

6 comments:

SFF said...

My gosh. That is madness Sean! Funny stuff. Smile of the day!

Sean Gill said...

Glad you enjoyed, SFF!

John Guedes said...

One memory that I could not block out from seeing this as a kid was Lorelei's cleavage! Holy smokes.

BTW, have you seen Gavan O'Herlihy lately? Check him out on IMDB I swear he looks just like Rutger Hauer.

Sean Gill said...

John,

Heh, in the case of Pamela Stephenson (Lorelei), I think art has apparently imitated life: there's a scene in SUPERMAN III where Lorelei is reading Kant's CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON behind closed doors, yet quickly hides it when Robert Vaughn returns; and I just discovered that she retired from acting in the late 80s and subsequently earned a doctorate in Psychology.

Also: agreed re: Gavan O'Herlihy. With his giant smile and weirdo acting choices in the 70s and 80s I used to think of him as somewhat akin to Gary Busey, but as of 2013, he's apparently gone full Rutger!

Chase said...

This is great!

Sean Gill said...

Chase,

Thanks for stopping by!