It's Howdy Doody Time

(Stop that.)

The movie review is split into two sections because Netflix have opened a new office in Little Rock, and while they have such oddities as The Seventh Seal and The Prisoner (Disc 1), they didn't have a copy of Carry on Dick, which will arrive Friday from Northern Rhodesia. On with the shew!

Det Sjunde inseglet
Released: 1957
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Inga Gill

A knight returning from the crusades meets Death along the shores of Norway. Challenging the Oldest Friend to a game of Chess, the knight wagers that if he should win, Death will leave him alone, but if he should loose, the knight and all his friends should come immediately with death. The story procedes from there through a world confused by and wracked with Plague, a dark and frightening mondus medium ævum full of human misery and great faces. A blacksmith is involved. Eventually (as of course he should) the knight looses, but not before he makes sure that his actor-friends (named, completely at random, "Mary" and "Joseph") escape Death's notice. Rightfully a classic, especially in the way Death is portrayed and constantly returns.

The Prisoner (Disc 1)
Episodes: "The Arrival" and "The Chimes of Big Ben" (Alt)
Airdates: 1 October 1967; 8 October 1967
Director: Don Chaffey (both episodes)
Starring: Patrick McGoohan, Angelo Muscat, Peter Swanwick, Michael Miller, Christopher Benjamin, Leo McKern

From Six of One:
"Patrick McGoohan plays a man who resigns from a top secret position and is abducted from his London home. He finds himself in a beautiful village where everything is bright and cheerful - the people, their clothes, the buildings, the flowers. But despite this rosey exterior, the village serves a sinister purpose. People are forcibly brought there in order to have their valuable knowledge protected or extracted. Village residents are assigned a number - the Prisoner is Number Six. Chief interrogator and administrator is Number Two, but he isn't the boss - an unseen Number One is the boss."

In these episodes, we are introduced to Number Six, The Villiage, the Number Two system, and Number Six's continued need to escape his prison. We are also led to believe that The Village is in the Baltic, despite its realtively quiet seas and calm weather.

Overall, it's been pretty interesting so far. Continuity errors, especially between exterior and close-up shots, are rampant, and the sound is occasionally off, giving it the quality of a William Shatner monologue. ("Oh, come off it, Number Six, surely you can't escape from The Village.") The stories are pretty interesting, if mildly familiar, and I look forward to more of the show.

And that's it. Goodbye for now. Keep your teeth clean.

Lemming, Lemming, Lemming of the BDA. . .