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Ask FlickChick: The Facts of Jaws, Best Halloween Pix & More
Robert Shaw courtesy Universal Video
Question: Someone told me there was a real Jaws guy. Were they messing with me? — Jake
FlickChick: I'm guessing someone told you Quint, the crusty old shark fisherman played by the late Robert Shaw in Jaws (1975), was based on a real person. And he or she was right: It's widely acknowledged that Peter Benchley modeled Quint on Brooklyn-born fisherman Frank Mundus, nicknamed the "Monster Man," and some accounts claim that the seed from which Jaws later sprang was planted when Benchley read a newspaper article about Mundus hauling in a huge great white shark off the coast of Long Island in the early 1960s.
Mundus says he took Benchley out on fishing trips and that Benchley was fascinated by the way he "harpooned huge sharks with lines attached to barrels to track the shark while it ran to exhaustion." But Benchley, who died in 2006 at the age of 64, never named Mundus — now in his early eighties — as his inspiration. In fact, he was known to actively deny it, a fact that apparently still rankles Mundus. "If he just would have thanked me," Mundus recently told the New York Times, "my business would have increased. Everything he wrote was true, except I didn’t get eaten by the big shark. I dragged him in." Mundus has his own website, has been the subject of at least two books, and cowrote his autobiography, Fifty Years a Hooker, with his wife Jeanette.
Mundus retired to Hawaii in the early 1990s but recently returned to Long Island at the behest of sibling shark buffs Sean and Brooks Paxton, who are trying to set up a reality show at New Line Television. In what can hardly help but strike many as a piercing irony, Monster Man Mundus, worried by dwindling populations and the ever-smaller sharks sportfishermen were pulling in, is now a vocal conservationist who encourages catch-and-release fishing.
Question: I was wondering if you could help me with a movie title. I watched it when I was in elementary school, which would have been in the '80s. In the movie there was a "monster" in the middle of a lake, and at the end they discovered that it was actually a crane that would get the air built up underneath it and lift up. — Julie
FlickChick: You saw The Quest/Frog Dreaming (1986), an Australian movie starring Henry Thomas, little Elliott of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Given the number of questions I get about it, it must have been shown regularly on TV in the 1980s. Though the film has never been released on DVD in the U.S., used videotapes aren't hard to find.
Question: I was recently listening to the song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" in its entirety and trying to figure out what it means. Do you know if this song was originally written for a movie? — Tracey
FlickChick: "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" was written by the legendary Broadway team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for the 1941 show Pal Joey, adapted from the novel by John O'Hara. It was made into the 1957 film starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. The song is about the bittersweet experience of being a worldly, experienced older woman thrown into an erotic tizzy by someone totally sexy and so the person you shouldn't be involved with. Hence:
"I'm wild again/Beguiled again/A simpering, whimpering child again/Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I"
and:
"Seen a lot/I mean I lot/But now I'm like sweet 17 a lot/Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I"
and:
"When he talks he is seeking/Words to get off his chest/Horizontally speaking/He's at his very best."
Oh yeah, that guy.
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" has been covered by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Rufus Wainwright.
Question: Which Halloween movies do you recommend watching before the Rob Zombie version hits theaters on Aug. 31? Thanks! — Jason
FlickChick: Halloween (1978). I think the rest of them are crap and believe me, I saw every blessed one. In theaters. When they opened. Some have moments, but really, it's all downhill after John Carpenter's original, which made me afraid of being alone in my own house when I didn't even live in a house — I grew up in an apartment. And I was in college.
Fan though I was and am of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Halloween is the nightmare-maker. I should also say that while I see no need whatsoever for a Halloween 1.5, if anyone had to make one, I'm thrilled it's http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/rob-zombie/184861">Rob Zombie, who knows and loves horror films with the passion of a true believer and whose The Devil's Rejects (2005) I consider the best 1970s horror film made 30 years after the fact.
Question: I have been stumped about an old black-and-white movie about an alien spacecraft found in a cave. The aliens inside looked like 3-foot grasshoppers that had been in pods; there was even a part where they watched a recording on the ship of the alien grasshoppers jumping around on their planet. The ship gave off some radioactive electricity; there was a giant alien head that the main male character rode a giant crane boom into, grounding it and dying in the process. Any ideas? — Mike H.
FlickChick: Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth (1968). The alien grasshoppers are discovered in a subway station — Hobbs End — that's undergoing renovation, and the ship is at first mistaken for an unexploded World War II bomb, not an uncommon occurrence in London more than 20 years after the end of WWII. The film is in color and there's no movie-within-the-movie of the aliens' hive life on their planet; what you're seeing is a psychic link established by modern-day scientist Barbara Shelley (of Hammer films fame). But you've got the gist. This was the third U.K. sci-fi feature built around the exploits of rocket scientist Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy in the first two, Anthony Quayle in the third), following the melancholy Quatermass Experiment/The Creeping Unknown (1955) and the excoriating Quatermass II/Enemy from Space (1957). I highly recommend all three, though the bleak, relentless cynicism of Quatermass II makes it my favorite.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks on the Movie Talk vodcast!
Hear Maitland on the weekly podcast TV Guide Talk!
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Aug 16, 2007 12:09 AM
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I agree 100% with Maitland on her Quatermass ratings.
However, I have to diverge on the Halloween suggestions. Yes, the original is the best. And far superior to any of the others.
Buuuuut... if you need more Michael, then Halloween II is kinda fun. Look, it's got Michael. It's got Jamie Lee. It's got Donald. It's more like an action film than a horror movie. It's got some really bad secondary characters.
Then wrap things up with H20. Yes, it has problems. But it's really not too bad for a post-Scream slasher.
Halloween IV is not awful (high praise, huh?). It's kinda fun. The best sequel besides Part II and H20.
The rest are, as Maitland says, crap IMNSHO.
Dare I put in a good word for Halloween III? Not really, but if you've seen all the others, you really should endure it once.
Actually, I wouldn't even watch the Halloween movies before the potential Zombie disaster hits the big screen (please don't screw it up, Rob!). I'd rather go for a marathon of holiday-themed slashers (and there are so many)... perhaps:
Black Christmas (1974)
My Bloody Valentine
Silent Night, Deadly Night or Christmas Evil (go Santa, go!)
Home for the Holidays (1972--if you can find it!)
Fiday the 13th Part 2 (OK, not a holiday but close enough)
April Fool's Day (my favorite of this list so I'd watch it last)
That's how I'd ramp things up. Too bad the new Halloween doesn't open on Halloween!
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Aug 16, 2007 2:05 AM
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Maitland: Although I greatly admire your knowledge of all things film-related, I must tell you that it was the late Robert Shaw who portrayed Quint, not Robert Ryan. Sorry.
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Aug 16, 2007 5:58 AM
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"Halloween" really is a classic (and I don't throw that word around often). It's one of a handful of movies that I can watch often and still enjoy. Even though I know what's going to happen and when, it still thrills and chills me.
I think I'm one of a small group of defenders of "Halloween III." I will go to my grave believing that it's bad rep is due to its not being a Michael-centric entry like the other movies in the series. Instead of being enjoyed for what it is, it's dismissed for what it's not. It's by no means a great movie, but it has its moments as a fun, creepy show.
achyfakey, you mentioned Home for the Holidays. Are you referring to the made-for-TV movie with Sally Field and Julie Harris? If so, I agree with you. I saw that one years ago on the late show, and it has stuck with me. I've seen it available on VHS. Maybe you can find it in an old video store along side a copy of "Night of the Creeps."
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Aug 16, 2007 6:10 AM
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Maitland, I too was in college when I saw "Halloween" for the first time but it was not in the theater but on TV. It was the night before Halloween and I was babysitting two sleeping children in a big dark house in New Orleans. Talk about the perfect atmosphere for watching this movie! Halfway through, I called my best friend and made her stay on the line while I watched the rest of the movie. 
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Aug 16, 2007 9:29 AM
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Jay -- thanks for catching my inexcusable error. And in the first sentence, yet. It was absolutely Robert Shaw, not Ryan, who played Quint. If I may revert to my religious upbringing for a moment, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
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Aug 16, 2007 9:55 AM
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BlueEyedSara: All I can say is wow. New Orleans + big house + night before Halloween -- you are an inspiration to babysitters everywhere.
My creepiest babysitting experience was in a rambling apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Very big, lots of corners, lots of old-apartment noises. I was filling in at the last minute for a friend, and not even a close friend; it seems to me parents were a little less high-strung back then about leaving their kids with strangers. I only saw the kids briefly -- they were being tucked in when I got there -- but they were the absolute, positive, palest kids I have ever seen: You could see every vein through their skin. One was named Wing. They had a very cute, very tiny marmelade colored kitten.
So, I pulled a book off the shelf in the living room: Peter Straub's The Haunting of Julia. It's a ghost story -- I haven't read it since (nor have I seen the movie, which is supposed to be good -- but at the time it seriously creeped me out. The kitten parked itself on my lap; it was annoying that it kept snuffling around the crook of my arm, but it was so little and adorable that I let it stay.
I read the book straight through, flinching at every sound. But the capper is that when I finally got up and dislodged the kitten, there was blood on my arm -- cute kitten had actually broken the skin.
To recap: Dark house, pallid children, vampire kitty. Couldn't make it up.
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Aug 16, 2007 10:16 AM
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Great Jaws question and follow-up response. Thank you
I so enjoy that movie and the music still gives me the creeps. I had to wait until I was older to see (parents said no, too young) Jaws. My boyfriend took me to the $1.00 theatre and believe me I practically crawled all over him (I don't think he minded) when Quint slid into the shark's wide open mouth. He chewed him like gum.
I didn't attempt to see Halloween or any of its Ween-lets
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Aug 16, 2007 11:15 AM
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smellykelly:
Yup. Sally Field (and Julie Harris and Walter Brennan). Pitchfork. Made-for-TV. That's the one!
The problem with finding it is you'd have to pay over $20 for a used VHS on Amazon. And it's a fun flick... not worth that much though. And I don't even own a VCR any more! If it was on DVD, you could Netflix it... maybe in time.
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Aug 16, 2007 12:12 PM
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Monster Man Mundus, worried by dwindling populations and the ever-smaller sharks sportfishermen were pulling in, is now a vocal conservationist who encourages catch-and-release fishing.
There was a documentary on the Discovery Channel (?) where Mundus was taken out on the ocean in several different "great white hot spots" and was shown how and why sharks attack. It was very interesting and a bit emotional for Mr. Mundus. He seemed to really regret catching and killing all of those sharks!
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Aug 16, 2007 12:40 PM
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Jason, you should probably check out The Monster Squad as a bit of comedy relief from the other films that have been suggested for your pre-Hallowe'en [Zombie-style] viewing.
It features cool takes on the five most prominent Universal monsters [Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, the Werewolf, The Gillman and The Mummy] in a non-Universal film about a "Monster Club" made up of a bunch of kids who discover monsters are real and have to save the world.
It's a mix of quirky humour, suspense and a few good scares, proportionately similar to what Joss Whedon strove to achieve with Buffy the Vampire Slayer [the movie] half a decade later [but unlike Joss' movie, The Monster Squad wasn't sabotaged by a studio that didn't get it - they just couldn't figure out how to market it].
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Aug 16, 2007 2:17 PM
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I grew up with Vampires, Werewolves, and Frankenstein. I still love to be frightened by them if the movie is well done. Halloween was a shock when I saw it in theatre all those years ago. I still consider it one of the scariest movies of all time. If I want monsters I love Alien, if I want supernatural give me a good ghost story like The Others. I don't like slasher movies most of the time. Halloween fits into many places and is unique in many ways as well. My favorite part about it is the smart, strong protagonist played by Jamie Lee Curtis so brilliantly.
I just watched the movie Perfume last night. I found myself wondering why they made the movie look so incredible authentic, seeming to spare little expense, for such a wretched script. Even not liking standard slasher fair, it might have helped Perfume.
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Aug 16, 2007 2:50 PM
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I can't believe someone mentioned My Bloody Valentine! That was the first teen slasher movie I saw in a theater. Good times.
I much more prefer to be scared/startled than grossed out, so for me Halloween still remains one of the best horror movies of all time. But then again I'm a big fan of the '79 Dracula and '82 Cat People....
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Aug 17, 2007 7:22 AM
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Halloween!! My alltime favorite movie! And the music!! JC made the Piano Frightening!! How could they! The next thing you know they'll be re-making other John Carpenter Classics like The Thing and Escape From New York.....Oooooooooooopppppssss!!
Hey Achyfakey-How about a little Happy Birthday to Me action for your movie Marathon night?
From what I have heard, here's hoping that they turn one the fake trailers in Grindhouse, Thanksgiving, into reality!! I know, I know-I really should have shown GH some support at the box office!!!
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Aug 17, 2007 8:05 AM
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Enough of the same old junk, more murders, monster guy gets away to come back another day.
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Aug 17, 2007 8:25 AM
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