Abbeyr4

I have read various accounts of the premise of Coronet Blue and how the pilot episode opens. There are two details I vividly remember differently and was wondering if anyone else noted them as I did. Most interesting is the origin of the series title. Some websites state Frank Converse's character climbs out of the water himself and mumbles only two words: "Coronet Blue" - hence, the title. I watched the pilot episode the night it first aired on television. Specifically, he was pulled from the water by other people, and unconscious at that. The people go through his pockets looking for identification, but the only thing he has on him is a matchbook with a design of a blue coronet (crown) on the outside of it. Doesn't anyone else remember that detail?

Well I guess everyone should have at least one "head" movie in their collection. I liked it on VHS, not sure if I would shell out the bucks for a DVD edition, unless it had some deleted scenes or outtakes, which I am not sure are available. Stacy Keach pretty much lowered his standards to appear in this movie and yet he was perfect for the role of the drug unit commander. There were some classic scenes: Cheech lying on a ladder acting like he was swimming; a drug interdiction helicopter hovering a nude beach; a tortilla starting a fire right in front of an unsuspecting blind musician friend. These are all sight gags, but with a "pot" movie, what else do you expect? "Gone With The Wind"? Most of the movie is more stupid than funny, but at the time they were hilarious. The best scenes in the movie involve a restaurant haunted by "night" people. The only part of the movie I didn't care for was the ending, which was rather abrupt. All in all, a good escape to the 60s and 70s.

Not only do I have the regular version on VHS, I have the "extra footage" version with 20 minutes never before released. My only complaint about the movie is I can't find an "extra" footage version on DVD, only the regular length one. Classic genius, with all the 50s and early 60s comedians, male and female, doing their thing. Hilarious. Stupid slapstick that still holds up to this day. Even my teen aged daughter likes to watch it with her friends, and she likes nothing from the 50s! You really have to watch carefully in case you miss a famous actor making a brief appearance. Like the 3 Stooges running up to the scene of a fire, they are on screen for only a few seconds. Or Jerry Lewis, running over Spencer Tracy's hat. It adds to the movie that so many comics worked together, large parts and small, to create this masterpiece. I had forgotten about the "drive-in movie" inspired "intermission" which was shown when the movie was first released. It is also a throwback to an earlier time when this kind of movie could entertain for a full evening. I hope the studio digitally remasters and re-releases the full-length director's cut on DVD.