Wednesday, October 21, 2020

DR. HENRYK SAVAARD’S HAIR-RAISING HOME RUN, BLOODCURDLING AT-VAMPIRE-BAT, FIELD OF SCREAMS BASEBALL-HORROR MOVIE QUIZ (with a dugout assist from Savaard’s sinister sidekick, Doc Roberts)



“You got your horror movie in my baseball movie!” “Well, you got baseball movie in my horror movie!”

No guarantees that this latest SLIFR University quiz will be as sweet and tasty as a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but at least the calorie count is a lot more agreeable. The newest quiz, coming midway through the fall semester, is online learning at its very best, as every SLIFR quiz has been since the first one back in 2005—we were socially distanced before social distancing was… well, not cool exactly, but certainly government mandated.

And to celebrate both the onset of Halloween next weekend and the ongoing drama that is the Los Angeles Dodgers-Tampa Bay Rays 2020 World Series, we’ve enlisted one of SLIFR’s most distinguished and perhaps most demented senior staff professors, the estimable and pretty goddamn angry Dr. Henryk Savaard, the most honored and unstable head of our not-exactly-world-renowned Metaphysics department, to administer this new quiz, a mix of baseball movie inquiries, horror movie inquiries and a jigger or two of real-life horror as well.

And since Dr. Savaard, as esteemed an intelligence as there is (at least that’s what you tell him to his face, if you know what’s good for ya), doesn’t know a foul tip from a fungo bat, we’ve enlisted Savaard’s top teaching assistant, the up-and-coming Doc Dave Roberts, to help administer the sporting section of this latest educational endeavor.

So onward and hopefully upward with our congenially edifying distraction.

There are only two suggestions, as always: 

Be as verbose as you like, remembering that the staff always favors the lengthier response.

If you choose to answer the questions in the comments section below, please copy and paste the questions as well as the answers do readers can more easily reference what insipid query you are responding to. Try to do the same if you choose to answer on the FB page or, if you still have one, your own blog.

And that’s it. Without further hesitation, trepidation or aggravation, let us pick up our #2 Eberhard Fabers and get started!

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1) Ricky Vaughan or Nuke LaLoosh? (question courtesy of our main Maine monster, Patrick Robbins)

2) Best moment in the Friday the 13th film series.

3) Henry Hull or Oliver Reed?

4) What is the last movie you saw in a theater?

5) Best movie casting for a real-life baseball player, or best casting of a real-life baseball player in a movie.

6) D.B. Sweeney or Ray Liotta?

7) Given that the fear factor in 2020 is already alarmingly high, is there a film or a genre which you would hesitate to revisit right now?

8) The Natural (1984)-- yes or no?

9) Peter Cushing or Colin Clive?

10) What’s the lamest water-cooler hit you can think of? Of course, define “lamest” however you will, but for “water-cooler hit” Dr. Savaard is thinking about something zeitgeist-y, something everyone was talking about the weekend it opened and beyond, something everyone seemingly had to see—The Other Side of Midnight residing at #1 in 1977 for two weeks is not what the professor has in mind.

11) Greatest single performance in horror movie history.

12) Ingrid Pitt or the Collinson Twins?

13) Name one lesser-known horror film that you think everyone should see. State your reason.

14) Do the same for an underseen or underappreciated baseball movie.

15) William Bendix or Leslie Nielsen?

16) Would you go back to a theater this weekend if one reopened near you?

17) Your favorite horror movie TV show/host, either running currently or one from the past.

18) The Sentinel (1977)—yes or no?

19) Second-favorite Ron Shelton movie.

20) Disclaimer warnings attached to  broadcasts of films like Gone With the Wind and Blazing Saddles-- yes or no?

21) In the World Series of baseball movies, who are your NL and AL champs?

22) What was the last horror film you saw?

23) Geena Davis or Tatum O’Neal?

24) AMC is now renting theaters for $100 - $350, promising a more “private,” catered party-movie experience. What do you like or dislike about this idea? 

25) Name the scariest performance in a baseball movie.

26) Second-favorite Jack Arnold movie.

27) What would be the top five films of 2020 you’ve seen so far?

28) What are your top three pandemic-restricted movie viewing experiences so far in this... unusual year?

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12 comments:

Peter Nellhaus said...

1) Ricky Vaughan or Nuke LaLoosh? (question courtesy of our main Maine monster, Patrick Robbins) Ricky.

2) Best moment in the Friday the 13th film series. I've only seen "Freddy vs. Jason", and can't remember a thing.

3) Henry Hull or Oliver Reed? Oliver Reed. As close as we'll get to Marlon Brando as a werewolf.

4) What is the last movie you saw in a theater? "Parasite B & W"

5) Best movie casting for a real-life baseball player, or best casting of a real-life baseball player in a movie. Jim Bouton in "The Long Goodbye"

6) D.B. Sweeney or Ray Liotta? Liotta

7) Given that the fear factor in 2020 is already alarmingly high, is there a film or a genre which you would hesitate to revisit right now? No interest in films about a dystopian future.

8) The Natural (1984)-- yes or no? Hell, no. I read the novel. Malamud was betrayed with a Hollywood happy ending.

9) Peter Cushing or Colin Clive? Cushing, Cushing.

10) What’s the lamest water-cooler hit you can think of? Of course, define “lamest” however you will, but for “water-cooler hit” Dr. Savaard is thinking about something zeitgeist-y, something everyone was talking about the weekend it opened and beyond, something everyone seemingly had to see—The Other Side of Midnight residing at #1 in 1977 for two weeks is not what the professor has in mind. I've wiped those bad memories from my mind.

11) Greatest single performance in horror movie history. Else Lanchester in "Bride of Frankenstein".

12) Ingrid Pitt or the Collinson Twins? Pitt, also because of her notable life as a concentration camp survivor. She knew true horror.

13) Name one lesser-known horror film that you think everyone should see. State your reason. "Mujer Lobo" by Argentine filmmaker Tamae Garateguy. (2014) Contemporary horror and female revenge in Buenos Aries. Very violent and transgressive. On DVD. I was able to see it streaming on Shudder.

14) Do the same for an underseen or underappreciated baseball movie. "Kano" a three hour movie about about a Taiwanese baseball team in 1931, when the country was under Japanese rule.

15) William Bendix or Leslie Nielsen? Bendix.

16) Would you go back to a theater this weekend if one reopened near you? It has reopened and I ain't going.

17) Your favorite horror movie TV show/host, either running currently or one from the past. Elvira.

18) The Sentinel (1977)—yes or no? When bad movies happen to good people - no.

19) Second-favorite Ron Shelton movie. "White Men can't Jump"

Peter Nellhaus said...

20) Disclaimer warnings attached to broadcasts of films like Gone With the Wind and Blazing Saddles-- yes or no? no.

21) In the World Series of baseball movies, who are your NL and AL champs? Neither. I'll go with "Bingo Long" and the Negro League.

22) What was the last horror film you saw? "The Son of Dr. Jekyll" which hardly qualifies.

23) Geena Davis or Tatum O’Neal? Tatum for "Bad News Bears". But one time in the mid-Eighties, I walked by Geena Davis purely by chance at the Denver Film Festival when everything was crammed in a small AMC multiplex. Yes, she was stunningly gorgeous in real life.


24) AMC is now renting theaters for $100 - $350, promising a more “private,” catered party-movie experience. What do you like or dislike about this idea? It could be fun, but for myself, I physically can't sit through most films without a short break.

25) Name the scariest performance in a baseball movie. Karl Malden in "Fear Strikes Out".

26) Second-favorite Jack Arnold movie. "incredible Shrinking Man"

27) What would be the top five films of 2020 you’ve seen so far? The only 2020 films I've seen so far that I really liked were "My Prince Edward", the debut film by Hong Kong filmmaker Norris Wong, and Alice Wu's "The Half of It" (Netflix)

28) What are your top three pandemic-restricted movie viewing experiences so far in this... unusual year? Supporting my local non-profit theater through virtual cinema. I'm about to cover the Denver Film Festival which will be entirely online except for three films shown at a specially created drive-in. Getting more pleasure out of older films than newer releases, even those by filmmakers I usually like.

Larry Aydlette said...

4) What is the last movie you saw in a theater?
Birds of Prey. Not exactly proud of it, but what can you do?

5) Best movie casting for a real-life baseball player, or best casting of a real-life baseball player in a movie.
Please. You know it's Jim Bouton in The Long Goodbye.

6) D.B. Sweeney or Ray Liotta?
I dream that Liotta turns into Henry Hill in the middle of Field of Dreams and whacks everybody in that sappy-ass movie.

8) The Natural (1984)-- yes or no?
No.

9) Peter Cushing or Colin Clive?
As Spinal Tap says, "The bigger the Cushing, the sweeter the..."

11) Greatest single performance in horror movie history.
To me, it's a tie between Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. and Margaret Hamilton in The Wizard of Oz.

14) Do the same for an underseen or underappreciated baseball movie.
For The Love of the Game.

16) Would you go back to a theater this weekend if one reopened near you?
NO

18) The Sentinel (1977)—yes or no?
Yes.

19) Second-favorite Ron Shelton movie.
Cobb? Maybe Tin Cup.

22) What was the last horror film you saw?
Dracula Has Risen From The Grave.

27) What would be the top five films of 2020 you’ve seen so far?
Da Five Bloods; Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band; Bacarau; David Byrne: American Utopia; The Vast of Night.

Robert C Cumbow said...

1. Ricky Vaughan or Nuke LaLoosh?
YES
2. Best moment in the FRIDAY THE 13th film series.
NO
3. Henry Hull or Oliver Reed?
YES
4. What is the last movie you saw in a theater?
1917
5. Best movie casting for a real-life baseball player, or best
casting of a real-life baseball player in a movie.
JIM BOUTON, THE LONG GOODBYE, 1973
6. D.B. Sweeney or Ray Liotta?
NO
7. Given that the fear factor in 2020 is already alarmingly high, is there a film or a genre which you would hesitate to revisit right now?
NOT SO FAR
8. THE NATURAL (1984)-- yes or no?
YES
9. Peter Cushing or Colin Clive?
YES
10. What’s the lamest water-cooler hit you can think of? Of course, define “lamest” however you will, but for “water-cooler hit” Dr. Savaard is thinking about something zeitgeist-y, something everyone was talking about the weekend it opened and beyond, something everyone seemingly had to see—THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT residing at #1 in 1977 for two weeks is not what the professor has in mind.
THE SHAPE OF WATER Terribly overrated film that added nothing to Jack Arnold's Creature trilogy--well, a little sex, I guess--and a hideous waste of the talent of Michael Shannon; redeemed if at all only by Richard Jenkins
11. Greatest single performance in horror movie history.
ANTHONY PERKINS in PSYCHO, if you consider PSYCHO a horror movie. If you don’t (and I don’t), take your pick: Mia Farrow in ROSEMARY’S BABY or Samantha Egger in THE BROOD. And for greatest DOUBLE performance in horror movie history, Dafoe and Malkovich in SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE
12. Ingrid Pitt or the Collinson Twins?
PITT
13. Name one lesser-known horror film that you think everyone should see. State your reason.
THE LEECH WOMAN (1960). Reasons: Edward Dein, director, smart, seriously underrated (see also CURSE OF THE UNDEAD and SHACK OUT ON 101); crisp black and white; a combination medical horror / jungle movie / serial killer thriller with a strong proto-feminist dialectic; a delightful performance from Coleen Gray, and a bonus treat of a performance from the always watchable Gloria Talbott.
14. Do the same for an underseen or underappreciated baseball movie.
THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS AND MOTOR KINGS, John Badham, 1976. Engaging, sometimes funny, sometimes scary, always affecting and honest; unjustly forgotten
15. William Bendix or Leslie Nielsen?
NIELSEN
16. Would you go back to a theater this weekend if one reopened near you?
ONE DID, AND NO
17. Your favorite horror movie TV show/host, either running currently or one from the past.
Gotta be John Zacherley
18. THE SENTINEL (1977)—yes or no?
NO
19. Second-favorite Ron Shelton movie.
WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP
20. Disclaimer warnings attached to broadcasts of films like GONE WITH THE WIND or BLAZING SADDLES-- yes or no?
NO
21. In the World Series of baseball movies, who are your NL and AL champs?
BULL DURHAM and MAJOR LEAGUE
22. What was the last horror film you saw?
New? THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020) Old-timer I re-watched? THE LEECH WOMAN
23. Geena Davis or Tatum O’Neal?
DAVIS
24. AMC is now renting theaters for $100 - $350, promising a more “private,” catered party-movie experience. What do you like or dislike about this idea? (https://flip.it/UO-WIw)
MY HEART GOES OUT TO THEATRE OWNERS, BUT THIS IS NO TIME FOR ANYONE TO BE GOING TO A THEATRE NO MATTER WHAT THE DEAL IS
25. Name the scariest performance in a baseball movie.
TED ROSS in THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS AND MOTOR KINGS
26. Second-favorite Jack Arnold movie.
MAN IN THE SHADOW (but if you were looking for a horror movie, then probably MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS)
27. What would be your top five films of 2020 that you’ve seen so far?
FIRST COW and THE INVISIBLE MAN are the only 2020 films I’ve seen so far that I’d put on a “Best” list.
28. What are your top three pandemic-restricted movie viewing experiences so far in this blighted year?
The Kino restoration of MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM; the Criterion release of BEAU TRAVAIL; the long-awaited return of THE GREY FOX

STinG said...

Nice, I've actually been running through ALL your past quizzes on my blog to get through the COVID drain so it's awesome to have one where I don't have to pretend it's 2005 or whatever...

My answers are on this link: https://moviemotorbreath.wordpress.com/2020/10/26/dr-henryk-savaards-hair-raising-home-run-bloodcurdling-at-vampire-bat-field-of-screams-baseball-horror-movie-quiz-with-a-dugout-assist-from-savaards-sinister-sidekick-doc-robert/

Josh said...

My answers can be found here: http://moviebot.blogspot.com/2020/10/dr-henryk-savaards-hair-raising-slifr.html

Mark said...

Thanks for posting, I always love doing these, and I appreciate the extra distraction whilst in some form of lockdown. My answers are here:

https://kaedrin.com/weblog/2020/10/dr-henryk-savaards-hair-raising-home-run-bloodcurdling-at-vampire-bat-field-of-screams-baseball-horror-movie-quiz-with-a-dugout-assist-from-savaards-sinister-sidekick-doc-roberts/

Mythical Monkey said...

A link to my answers

https://mythicalmonkey.blogspot.com/2020/10/sergio-leones-dr-henryk-savaards-hair.html

Bill Wolfe said...

I don't know horror movies. Which is too bad, because I love these quizzes. For "an underseen or underappreciated baseball movie," I'll nominate a made-for-HBO charmer from 1987 called Long Gone. The story of the Tampico Stogies, a Class D minor league team in Florida, circa 1957, it stars William L. Petersen as the grizzled former phenom who never made it to the Bigs, Larry Riley as Joe Louis Brown (who says he's Jose Luis Brown from Venezuela, because Jackie Robinson hasn't quite carried the day yet in Tampico), and Virginia Madsen as the mellifluously named Dixie Lee Boxx. Directed by Martin Davidson, who also made The Heart of Dixie, another underappreciated movie set in the same era in the American South.

I'd also mention Elmer the Great, a Joe E. Brown movie from 1932 directed by Mervin LeRoy and written by Ring Lardner, it lets us see the Cubs old spring training facility on Catalina Island, owned by Old Man Wrigley. It also has this semi-shocking response from Brown to his manager's asking him if he needed to warm up: "Warm up? Hell, I ain't been cool since February!"

Bill Wolfe said...

Shoot - I realize I can answer this one, too:

What are your top three pandemic-restricted movie viewing experiences so far in this... unusual year?

1.) Outside of Jackie Brown, I've never been a huge Tarantino fan. His anti-Ford diatribe irritated me and his collaboration (in both the business and historical sense) with Weinstein was creepy (and cast his moralizing about Ford in an even more dubious light). So I was surprised in the best way at how much I love Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. (Although I refuse to use the silly ellipsis.) I've seen it four times and I'd watch it again tomorrow. The best work I've seen from both DiCaprio and Pitt - especially from Pitt - this joins my person Films Set in L.A. Hall of Fame, which includes Kid Auto Races, Safety Last, Kiss Me Deadly, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Mike's Murder, Inserts, The Long Goodbye, and Night of the Comet, among many others.

2.) Perry Mason. It got off to a shaky start, working too hard to prove it was showing every possible element from The Dark Underbelly (TM) of the City of Angels (it reminded me of Pauline Kael's comment that the makers of a certain movie must have had a checklist). But around the third episode it found its footing and got better and better. The re-creation of 1920 Los Angeles was remarkable and several of the performances were stand-outs - particularly Juliet Rylance as Della Street and John Lithgow as washed up lawyer as E.B. Jonathan (a clever reference to the Jonathan Club, I presume). The scenes with the Aimee Semple McPherson-type character are shaky - Hollywood writers almost never know how to write about religion - but otherwise this was a real pleasure.

3.) The Man in the High Castle. Never read the book, don't want to, so I was not expecting to be totally wrapped up in this series. I can't explain why, but watching this was somehow comforting during the long election campaign. I guess if these characters could endure, and resist, the Reich in America, I could hang in there against Trump.

Beveridge D. Spenser said...

My blue book answers are on my site at https://coolbev.blogspot.com/2020/11/horror-strikes-out.html. I actually had one baseball-related answer. Most of them just reiterate that I know nothing about baseball or baseball movies. (I've seen Bull Durham, and that's about it.)

le0pard13 said...

Woohoo! I'm only tardy by a little over a month. That's at least progress ;-)

As usual, have posted by answers on Ye Olde Blog (which publishes on Monday, November 30th): https://wp.me/pR4QP-coZ

Hope you and yours stay safe, Dennis.