Cinematic Titanic and Childhood Memories
Friday night Chris and I went out together and I surprised him with tickets to the Cinematic Titanic show. Having been a longtime MST3K fan going back to my Minnesota days there was no question that seeing the live version would be something fun and special to do for what I was calling "date night" but what I'd secretly planned as an early birthday celebration for him.
Going into the show we had no idea what the movie was going to be. We overheard some others speculating that the film might have be one of the Samson "sword and sandals" movies. Sure enough, we were treated to Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World, an entertainingly awful 60s adventure story. One of the best parts of the live show was watching the actors' responses to how their different jokes succeeded or failed and the occasional ad-lib between them that cracked up one or the more of the other cast members. I laughed a lot and at some points had tears from laughing so hard. I highly recommend the live show for lovers of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 series.
Most of the way through the movie I had a realization: this movie was of my earliest memories. When I was very young, Kindergarten age or younger, I saw this movie on my family's black and white television. In my memory it was a Tarzan movie where Tarzan had to rescue a princess. I have a very strong memory of one particular scene in the movie where a female character is whipped for helping Samson escape. After she won't confess, the bad guy uses a feather to salt her wounds and she finally breaks. I remember that scene, asking my mom what the feather part was and the whole thing (tying up, beating, torturing a confession from someone) generally wigged me out. I've never forgotten that, even though I did forget the specifics of the movie. As a kid I missed all the jealous glaring and back-stabbing from the character I thought of as the "princess" and just remembered the part I perceived as her being punished for doing something good (helping "Tarzan" escape). I remembered her as being dressed in white-ish veils because I saw it on an old black and white tv, but it turns out the costume was a bright blue. We were still in the show when I was smacked with this realization and shared the story with Chris. Turns out that the actor in Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World had spent years running around in a loincloth through five Tarzan movies! Sure, he's running around in a RED loincloth as Samson but on my black and white tv I definitely missed this detail. Now my mistake of thinking this was a Tarzan movies all these ~35 years makes even more sense.
The evening was fun all by itself but being able to solve the "mystery" of my childhood "Tarzan" movie memory was an additional burst of coolness.
Going into the show we had no idea what the movie was going to be. We overheard some others speculating that the film might have be one of the Samson "sword and sandals" movies. Sure enough, we were treated to Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World, an entertainingly awful 60s adventure story. One of the best parts of the live show was watching the actors' responses to how their different jokes succeeded or failed and the occasional ad-lib between them that cracked up one or the more of the other cast members. I laughed a lot and at some points had tears from laughing so hard. I highly recommend the live show for lovers of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 series.
Most of the way through the movie I had a realization: this movie was of my earliest memories. When I was very young, Kindergarten age or younger, I saw this movie on my family's black and white television. In my memory it was a Tarzan movie where Tarzan had to rescue a princess. I have a very strong memory of one particular scene in the movie where a female character is whipped for helping Samson escape. After she won't confess, the bad guy uses a feather to salt her wounds and she finally breaks. I remember that scene, asking my mom what the feather part was and the whole thing (tying up, beating, torturing a confession from someone) generally wigged me out. I've never forgotten that, even though I did forget the specifics of the movie. As a kid I missed all the jealous glaring and back-stabbing from the character I thought of as the "princess" and just remembered the part I perceived as her being punished for doing something good (helping "Tarzan" escape). I remembered her as being dressed in white-ish veils because I saw it on an old black and white tv, but it turns out the costume was a bright blue. We were still in the show when I was smacked with this realization and shared the story with Chris. Turns out that the actor in Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World had spent years running around in a loincloth through five Tarzan movies! Sure, he's running around in a RED loincloth as Samson but on my black and white tv I definitely missed this detail. Now my mistake of thinking this was a Tarzan movies all these ~35 years makes even more sense.
The evening was fun all by itself but being able to solve the "mystery" of my childhood "Tarzan" movie memory was an additional burst of coolness.