DESTRUCTIBLE PASSINGS - Jack Cardiff

It is with overwhelming sadness that the The Flying Maciste Brothers report the death of director/cinematographer Jack Cardiff, OBE, B.S.C..

Not only was Cardiff an early pioneer of Technicolor cinematography in the UK --

-- not only was he responsible for the unfathomably ravishing photography on such films as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's hallucinatory triptych:

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946)
(aka STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN)

BLACK NARCISSUS (1947)

and

THE RED SHOES (1948)

-- Richard Fleischer's striking THE VIKINGS (1958) --

-- Arthur Lubin's other-worldly PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN --

-- and John Huston's very down-to-earth THE AFRICAN QUEEN (both 1951) --

-- not only did he direct such enjoyable and disparate entertainments such as:

MY GEISHA

and

THE LION (both 1962)

and

YOUNG CASSIDY
(taking over directing from John Ford in 1965)

-- the jazzy, fever-dream erotic masterpiece GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (1968) --

(aka NAKED UNDER LEATHER)

-- and the quintessential mad botanist sci-fi horror film, THE MUTATIONS (1973) --

(aka THE FREAKMAKER)

-- Jack Cardiff was also a man who was never afraid to kill a dummy.

DESTRUCTIBLE MAN will be paying tribute to Jack Cardiff in the coming days with the in-depth examination of the dummy-deaths in three of his most extraordinary films as director:

DARK OF THE SUN
(aka THE MERCENARIES, 1968)

THE LIQUIDATOR (1966)

THE LONG SHIPS (1963)

R.I.P. Jack Cardiff

18 September 1914 - 22 April 2009

This death was of no dummy.

post © Howard S. Berger & Kevin Marr

Staplerfahrer Klaus - Der erste Arbeitstag (Stefan Prehn & Jörg Wagner, 2000)/Will You Be Here Tomorrow? (Educational Resources, Inc., 1998)

Comedy or Conscience?

Dummy-deaths in comedies are a shoe-in for big laughs. It's a fact. Confirmed.
Think of the basic equations:

a) person + injury = a giggle

b) person + injury x dummy-for-human substitution + insinuation of death = shocked hilarity

Tried and true.

Comedies that utilize this math always tend to be funny, but their success also tends to pervert the impact of the application of the same formulas in dramatic films. Herein lies today's lesson.

Let us illustrate with these two examples: the first being a send-up of a series of "safety in the workplace" educationals that aired in the 1990's on German television. It is entitled "Staplerfahrer Klaus - Der erste Arbeitstag" or "Forklift Driver Klaus".

This is our example of dummy-death in comedy.



Very funny, ja? Das ist so.

Now, let's take a gander at the real deal. This was made (and is still commonly shown) for safety awareness purposes at industrial work sites. It is entitled "Will You Be Here Tomorrow?"

This is not a comedy.



A remarkable phenomenon. "Will You Be Here Tomorrow?" may actually be as funny, if not funnier than "Forklift Driver Klaus". Is this because of an innate human instinct to defend one's nerves from trauma when confronted with atrocity by instantly mocking the action with laughter? Or is it a matter of dummy-for-human death substitutions simply being universally funny despite the context of its placement?

The answer resides within you...

post © Howard S. Berger & Kevin Marr
Photo: Ray Massey/Stone/Getty Images

Far From The Madding Crowd (John Schlesinger, 1967)

...out like a lamb!

What a difference a month makes! March certainly did come in like a lion -- and so did a handful of bloggers dedicated to the challenge of impromptu animal dummy-death analysis/critique for our DESTRUCTIBLE BLOG-A-THON.1!

And so, to prove we are no April Fools, The Flying Maciste Brothers welcome Springtime and bid 'adieu' to Winter with this humble offering -- multitudes of prostheticized lambs to the slaughter with this sequence from the Nicholas Roeg-lensed adaptation of Thomas Hardy's FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD.

Alan Bates plays Gabriel Oak, a farmer whose Border Collie (in this sequence) is a little something more than mischievous. Director Schlesinger --

-- known best for the once-upon-a-time X-rated MIDNIGHT COWBOY -- ingeniously employs clever day-for-night photography, shrewd staging of camera and beast, and impeccably designed sheep dummies substituted for the real veal (meat-centric poetic license) right at the crucial moments to concoct a wonderfully satisfying substitutional stew.



CLOSE INSPECTION

Later in the story, farm owner Bathsheba Everdene -- played by the eternally gorgeous Julie Christie -- encounters sheep problems of her own. To prevent all of her flock from dying of bloat, she asks the services of Oak who knows instantly what to do. Schlesinger knows what to do as well -- namely, to put that surplus of facsimilia of our lanolin-drenched friends back into use!



CLOSE INSPECTION


Waste not want not!

post © Howard S. Berger & Kevin Marr