Clark J Holloway

Look, I'm a science geek. I get it. But this is a reality TV show. It's entertainment, not science. Looking to a reality TV show for real science would be like looking to a reality TV show to find a decent president. It just ain't happening.

Some of my fellow geeks and nerds are complaining that this show is bad science and promotes illegal fossil hunting. I'd say those are unfair complaints. Again, don't look to TV reality shows for science. If you don't find the show entertaining then don't watch it, but there's little point in complaining that the show isn't something that it wasn't intended to be. And the fact is that the fossil hunting on this show is perfectly legal in the jurisdictions where the show was filmed. The fossil hunters are land owners hunting on their own land, or have the permission of the land owners to hunt fossils. There's nothing illegal going on that I can see.

The more general complaint is that the commercialization of fossils is harmful to science. But the fact is that if these land owners and hunters weren't looking for these fossils they'd erode to dust within fairly short order. The fossils being found on the show are already partially exposed to the elements or are near the surface, and the reason they're being found is because the land is rapidly eroding and uncovering them. If they aren't dug up by someone they'll soon be lost to science anyway.

The Society for Vertebrate Paleontology has written a letter to the Discovery Channel complaining about commercialized fossil hunting in general, and about this show in particular because the cast lacks diversity (there are only a few women and one possible person of color featured on the show) and some of the show's promotional material included reference to a felon who has been convicted of fossil theft.

I'm as sensitive to diversity as the next liberal geek, but just how many women or people of color own ranch land in Montana, Wyoming, or South Dakota who are also interested in fossil hunting as a means of making a living? Keeping the show within legal bounds appears to be the limiting factor on diversity, not any conscious decision on the part of the Discovery Channel. And so far I've seen no actual mention of the felon they were complaining about in the show, so maybe the letter from the SVP had some positive impact.

My advice is to watch the show if you're interested in amateur fossil hunting. Avoid it if the lack of real science turns you off (and please avoid voting reality TV show stars into high political office). But remember that if these guys weren't digging these fossils up no one else would, and they'd be lost to both erosion and science.

A competent, albeit strictly one-sided, retelling of Napoleon's Hundred Days, though the attempts at rousing the audience's sympathy for the tragic figure of Napoleon are rather transparent. The film betrays its stage bound origins at times, but Gustaf Gründgens gives a suitably oily performance as the effete Fouché and the battle scenes are excitingly photographed.

German actor Werner Krauss, perhaps better known today as Dr. Caligari in the 1920 silent horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, had played Napoleon once before on film in Napoleon auf St. Helena (1929) and gives a fairly convincing performance here. He bears a strong resemblance to the more corpulent Emperor during his later days, and his portrayal of Napoleon's distress over the separation from his son is certainly moving.

ARE WE CIVILIZED? stands as a fairly obvious anti-Nazi propaganda piece, but it is surprising pertinent in its warnings about the dangers of people surrendering their civil rights in this post 9-11 world. Perhaps its greatest failing is that its message is somewhat diminished by the nature of the historical events and personages used to describe mankind's progress towards civilization. The film seems to want to have it both ways: while great leaders advance civilization, the persistence of the people while suffering under the rule of dangerous warlords advances civilization as well. Under this theory, the extraordinary suffering humanity will soon endure through the upcoming Second World War could almost be seen as a good thing.

Although perhaps not one of Tulio's best films, and made on a rather modest budget, Vihtori ja Klaara is nonetheless a very amusing take on cartoonist George McManus's comic creation. The plot, such as it is, revolves around Vihtori's clandestine involvement with an attractive and rather worldly young woman named Ritva, who is planning to marry boxing champion and garage owner Klasu Tullari, son of Vihtori's friend Tomi, and their interactions with daughter Vappu and her fiancé, Peter von Schaslick, a mechanic in Klasu's garage, under the nose of the threatening and suspicious Klaara, with lazy son Nisse acting as a rather sardonic Greek chorus.

The film makes hilarious use of a number of situations and set-ups taken directly from McManus's comic strips, opening with the sound of crashing crockery as Klaara attempts to coerce a reluctant Vihtori into accompanying her to the opera. Vihtori's carousing and late nights out with the boys, Klaara's penchant for wielding an over-sized rolling pin, Vihtori's hair-raising descent down knotted bed sheets from an upper-story apartment, Klaara's piano playing and atrocious singing, and Vihtori's humiliation by the neighborhood kids while walking Klaara's minuscule dog, Pipi, are all faithfully recreated from gags first portrayed in McManus's strip.

Vihtori ja Klaara has just been released on DVD in Finland, and has English subtitles, but you'll probably need a DVD player that can play European discs if you plan on adding it to your collection.

*** SPOILERS ***

The Duke of Mantell, who prefers to be known as Dennis, meets and is smitten with Jiggs' and Maggie's daughter, Ellen, at a society swimming party. This inflames Maggie's social pretensions, so when Dennis sends Ellen flowers with a note saying that he and his society friends will visit the next day for tea, Maggie complains to Jiggs about the shabby apartment they're living in. To impress the visitors, Maggie rents expensive furniture and convinces Dinty and Annie Moore to pose as servants. While out walking Maggie's dog, Fifi, Jiggs gets dirty helping a man who has fallen into an open manhole (only to throw the guy back in upon learning that he is a rolling pin manufacturer).

Jiggs returns to the apartment while the tea party is underway. Maggie and Ellen are embarrassed by his dishevelled appearance, and dismiss him as another servant. As Dennis is leaving, Ellen denies his good-natured guess that Jiggs is really her father, and Jiggs overhears. Dennis sees through Ellen's denial, but Jiggs backs up her story. To save Maggie and Ellen from future embarrassment, Jiggs buys a Long Island mansion.

In their new home, Maggie receives etiquette lessons from her effeminate social secretary, Oswald. While Maggie, Ellen and Oswald entertain Dennis at dinner, Jiggs, Dinty, and Annie enjoy an evening watching showgirls at the Blackbird Cafe. That night, Jiggs dreams of one of the showgirls, but is horrified that he may have committed an indiscretion when he awakens in his room the next morning to find Oswald in the bed next to his.

Later, Jiggs hopes to throw a party for Ellen's birthday, but is disappointed when Ellen, fearing embarrassment, asks him not to attend. At the party, Annie Moore shows up and scandalizes Maggie with her coarse ways, and Oswald convinces her to do something about it. Maggie storms up to Jiggs's room and tells him that she's had enough, they'll have to separate. Jiggs is despondent, and contemplates suicide. Meanwhile, Ellen confesses to Dennis that Jiggs is really her father, and Dennis, pleased that she has overcome her pretensions, places an engagement ring on her finger.

Kicked out of the party by Maggie, Annie comes upon Jiggs preparing to shoot himself. She convinces him to fake his death and teach Maggie a lesson. Notified by the maid that Jiggs is going to kill himself, Maggie rushes to his prostrate body, overcome with despair. When Jiggs reveals that he is still alive, Maggie beans him with a hammer.

Although the film is a pleasant enough adaptation of McManus's comic strip, and has some hilarious comedy set-pieces, it wasn't particularly successful at the box office, and was dismissed by Photoplay magazine's reviewer as "rolling-pin humor."

Jiggs, Maggie, and daughter Nora head west to the town of Gower Gulch after Maggie inherits a gold mine from Grandpa MacGillacuddy. Maggie's search for her grandfather's gold (assisted somewhat ineffectually by the old man's ghost), is opposed by outlaw Snake Bite Carter, who is acting under the direction of the Big Boss. Meanwhile, Jiggs sends a telegram to Dinty Moore that results in something of a gold rush by the old gang, and Dinty tags along to take possession of Gower Gulch's abandoned saloon. Nora is wooed by Snake Bite's kid brother, Bob Carter, who also turns out to be working for the Big Boss. The film takes a surprise turn at the end when the identity of the Big Boss is revealed. Not a great film, but an amusing burlesque of western movies that should appeal to fans of the classic comic strip.

Sadly, this film marked the end of the Monogram series, as Joe Yule died of a heart attack shortly after shooting was completed.

Jiggs is tricked by Maggie and her unscrupulous high society friends, the Kremishaws, into getting the gang down at Dinty Moore's tavern to sign a petition to close the joint down and, what's worse, to take the pledge against drinking alcohol. Meanwhile, the Kremishaw's oily son, Junior, attempts to woo daughter Nora, much to Maggie's delight, though Nora prefers the company of Dinty's nephew, Danny, an aspiring architect. The plot is paper-thin, but serves admirably in allowing the actors to play out some of George McManus's favorite gags from the strip. Jiggs sings a chorus of "Corned Beef and Cabbage," and George McManus has a recurring cameo that lets him deliver the film's closing line. Not a great film, but one that should appeal to fans of the classic comic strip.