Jack Good Movies

Screenwriter John Good's rock & roll adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello is a real oddity and features some surprisingly good tunes. Set in the American Southwest, Othello is a wandering evangelist who happens onto Iago's remote commune. There he marries the lovely Desdemona much to the chagrin of Iago, who also loves her. The conniving commune leader then manages to quietly pressure Othello until murder and tragedy ensue. Songs include: "Othello", "Working on a Building," "Eat the Bread, Drink the Wine," "Book of Prophecy," "That's What God Said," "Chug a Lug," "Open Your Eyes," "Lust of the Blood," "Put Out the Light" and more. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One year after the cancellation of the TV series The Monkees, the "pre-fab four"-- Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, and Peter Tork -- reunited for the hour-long NBC musical special Thirty-Three and One-Third Revolutions Per Monkee. Written by Jack Good and Art Fisher (who also directed), the special was advertised as a "super-psychedelic" journey into the Monkees' history, with a demented sorceror chronicling the group from its beginnings to the present. Guest performers include Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis), the Clara Ward Singers), and Paul Arnold and the Moon Express. Given surprisingly little publicity by NBC, Thirty-Three and One-Third Revolutions Per Monkee originally aired on April 14, 1969, in the Monday night time slot normally occupied by Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Monkees head to England when Davy inherits the lavish estate of Sir Malcolm Kibbee. Upon arrival, the boys discover that they'll have to remain for five years, lest the estate fall into the grubby hands of family wastrel Lance Kibbee the Sot (Jack Good). Bernard Fox (The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched) appears as Sir Twiggley Topper Middle Bottom, while veteran character-actor Reginald Gardiner is seen as the butler. Song: "Star Collector". Written by Coslough Johnson, "Monkees Mind Their Manor" represents the directorial debut of Monkee Peter Tork, who uses his given name of Peter H. Thorkelson for this purpose. The episode originally aired on February 26, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hogan's newest "hero" is Freddy, a chimpanzee who wanders into camp after the nearby Hammelburg Zoo is bombed. Previously unable to smuggle radio components to the Underground, Hogan decides to use Freddy as his courier. The trick is to avoid arousing the suspicions of those two-legged primates Klink and Schultz. Written by Arthur Julian, "Monkey Business" made its original network appearance on March 23, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hans Conried guest stars as Major Bonacelli, a pacifistic Italian POW commandant. Assigned to study under Stalag 17's Col. Klink, Bonacelli would much sooner defect to Switzerland. Ordered to extract information from Bonacelli, Hogan tries to convince the major to work on behalf of the Allies by bribing him with LeBeau's mouth-watering pizza. Written by Arthur Julian, "The Pizza Parlor" first aired on February 11, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sixth of RKO's Fred Astaire -Ginger Rogers pairings of the 1930s, Swing Time starts off with bandleader Astaire getting cold feet on his wedding day. Astaire's bride-to-be Betty Furness will give him a second chance, providing he proves himself responsible enough to earn $25,000. Astaire naturally tries to avoid earning that amount once he falls in love with dance instructor Ginger Rogers. Numerous complications ensue, leading to the "second time's the charm" climax, with Ginger escaping her own wedding to wealthy Georges Metaxa in order to be reunited with Astaire. The film's most indelible image is that of Fred Astaire, immaculately attired in top hat and tails, hopping a freight car--a perfect encapsulation of the film's Depression-era cheekiness. The Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields score includes such standards-to-be as "Pick Yourself Up," "A Fine Romance," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Never Gonna Dance" and "Bojangles of Harlem." The peerless supporting cast of Swing Time includes Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore, and Landers Stevens, the actor-father of the film's director, George Stevens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The top-billed stars in the extravagant RKO musical Flying Down to Rio are Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond. Forget all that: this is the movie that first teamed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. We're supposed to care about the romantic triangle between aviator/bandleader Raymond, Brazilian heiress Del Rio and her wealthy fiance Raul Roulien, but the moment Fred and Ginger dance to a minute's worth of "The Carioca", the film is theirs forever. Other musical highlights include Rogers' opening piece "Music Makes Me" and tenor Roulien's lush rendition of "Orchids in the Moonlight". Then there's the title number. The plot has it that Del Rio' uncle has been prohibited from having a floor show at his lavish hotel because of a Rio city ordinance. Astaire and Raymond save the day by staging the climactic "Flying Down to Rio" number thousands of feet in the air, with hundreds of chorus girls shimmying and swaying while strapped to the wings of a fleet of airplanes. It is one of the most outrageously brilliant numbers in movie musical history, and one that never fails to incite a big round of applause from the audience--even audiences of the 1990s. Together with King Kong, Flying Down to Rio saved the fledgling RKO Radio studios from bankruptcy in 1933. The film was a smash everywhere it played, encouraging the studio to concoct future teamings of those two stalwart supporting players Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide