THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE: Of Stolen Parents, Mechanical Queens, and Sherlock Holmes

The Great Mouse Detective (1986) – The 26th Walt Disney Animated Classic – Directed by Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, Dave Michener, and John Musker – Starring Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, Vincent Price, Susanne Pollatschek, Candy Candido, Alan Young, Frank Welker, and Basil Rathbone.

THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE is very well done animal analog film, where the main characters are all animals, but all clearly based on human characters. In this case, it’s Sherlock Holmes, re-done as a mouse-dominated story that takes place simultaneously with Holmes’ Victorian adventures.

Basil of Baker Street (Barrie Ingham) lives in the same house as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary Sherlock Holmes (voiced by clips of the legendary Holmes’ performer Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson, and is also a genius detective solving crimes for a free for anyone who comes to him with an interesting case to solve. This time around, it’s precious little Olivia Flaversham (Susanne Pollatschek) who arrives at his doorstop thanks to Major Doctor David Q. Dawson (Val Bettin). Olivia has witnessed her father’s kidnapping from his underground toy shop, and she’s come above ground to find the famous “Basil of Baker Street” to enlist his help in getting her dad back. Dawson (the Watson analog) agrees to help her find Basil, but he’s not yet connected with his future partner.

There’s a wonderful sense of happenstance in DETECTIVE that brings our protagonists together. Olivia doesn’t find Basil; instead, Dawson finds her, crying in the rain on the streets of London, then agrees to bring her to Baker Street, where Basil has no real interest in taking on her case until she reveals that her father was kidnapped by a bat that Basil recognizes as Fidget (Candy Candido), the lackey of Professor Ratigan (Vincent Price). Basil takes the case, but only because it dovetails with his long-term goals of catching his nemesis, which does add a nice, subtle layer of characterization to the detective’s character. He’s not a bad guy, but he sees a more communal picture than Olivia. For the young girl, her whole life is her father (her mother is dead) and so obviously getting him back is the only thing she can see. For Basil, however, it’s more important to stop Ratigan because of the damage the rat-who-doesn’t-like-to-be-called-a-rat can cause. It helps, of course, that Ratigan is his nemesis, and Basil is rather myopic when it comes to capturing him, so perhaps he and Olivia are more alike than it seems. It’s a nice character attribute (for us, not Olivia) that he does never quite get Olivia’s last name right, so why he’s not a bad guy, he’s not the most thoughtful guy, either.

DETECTIVE is a fast-moving 74 minutes; there’s little chance for anyone to catch their breath as the film rips towards its conclusion. In that regard, we can see DETECTIVE as a direct precursor to the Guy Ritchie Holmes films, which also don’t waste a ton of time with investigating.

One of the things that I really like about DETECTIVE but that I can see giving parents pause is the level of really terrifying evil at play. In the opening sequence, Olivia hides in a cupboard while her dad is viciously attacked and kidnapped by Fidget the bat. Now, as the film goes on, we see that Fidget is used a bit for comic relief, but we don’t know that in the opening sequence. We see a creepy dude in a cape who bursts into Flaversham’s shop as his scary face is shoved forward to dominate the frame. Poor little Olivia cowers in the cupboard while the fight is going on (her dad put her there) and then exits to find the shop in ruins and her dad missing. It’s scary stuff and could easily be a sequence lifted from a slasher film.

The film ups the ante later on in regards to horror when Ratigan orders a drunk mouse who called him a rat to be put to death by kitty cat. The massive, fat cat Felicia (Frank Welker) loves to eat mice at Ratigan’s request, and while DETECTIVE does not literally show the mouse being eaten, we see the mouse being dangled above Felicia’s mouth in shadow, and then we cut to the grossed out reaction of his fellow gangsters.

There’s even a scene in a human toy shop where the toys are used to provide the film with some added creepiness. None of this is to suggest that DETECTIVE is a horror movie, but merely to point out that beneath all of the humor derived from Basil getting Olivia’s name wrong and Dawson’s fumbling, and in addition to all of the running around action, there is a really dark underbelly here. The film teases Basil’s death and suggests that both Fidget and Ratigan die because they have fallen from great heights.

Ratigan’s goal is to replace the Queen of Mousedom with a lifelike replica that Olivia’s dad creates for him and then have himself appointed King. The plot is really just here to get all of the pieces moving, however, as the Queen plays no real role in the film until it’s time for her to be kidnapped.

There’s a few Sherlockian “great detective” moments but for the most part, THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE is more physical action than brilliant detection. It could be smarter and there could be more of a mystery but I’m not complaining. DETECTIVE doesn’t alter the landscape of animated movies, but it is a really engaging story. There’s not a lot of songs (and none of them memorable), so watching DETECTIVE might not fill your hunger for classic Disney, it’s still a highly enjoyable animated film.

One addendum – there is a delicious story of how the film’s title angered the filmmakers. Based on the Basil of Baker Street books by NNN, Disney executives decided that title was “too British” for American audiences and changed the film’s title to THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE near the end of production. According to the Los Angeles Times, a inter-office memo was written that took a dig at the marketing department:

A mystery’s afoot in the animation department at Disney, and it’s going to take a moustermind to solve it. What we shall call “The Case of the Impertinent Memo” began when Disney’s marketing department invited the animation department to suggest new titles for “Basil of Baker Street,” an animated feature about a famous crime-fighting mouse. [...] The animators think the title is as imaginative as retitling “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” as “Seven Little Men Help a Girl.” In fact, one day in February, a memo appeared on the animation department bulletin board announcing that the studio had renamed all of its animated classics. First on the list was “Seven Little Men Help a Girl.”

And here’s the full list of the animation department’s dig at the marketing department’s renaming DETECTIVE reprinted in the LA Times:

“The Wooden Boy Who Became Real”
“Color and Music”
“The Wonderful Elephant Who Could Really Fly”
“The Little Deer Who Grew Up”
“The Girl With the See-Through Shoes”
“The Girl in the Imaginary World”
“The Amazing Flying Children”
“Two Dogs Fall in Love”
“The Girl Who Seemed to Die”
“Puppies Taken Away”
“The Boy Who Would Be King”
“A Boy, a Bear and a Big Black Cat”
“Two Mice Save a Girl”
“The Evil Bonehead”

I’m pretty sure PUPPIES TAKEN AWAY is in development as a Liam Neeson movie.

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My latest book, STUFFED ANIMALS FOR HIRE: THE CHRISTMAS OPERATION is now available for purchase in PAPERBACK and KINDLE formats.

SAFH is a kid’s espionage novella, but it’s also a tribute to the television shows I watched as a kid: The A-Team, Magnum PI, Knight Rider, Hardcastle and McCormack, Riptide, Dukes of Hazzard and generally any show where Post and Carpenter did the music. Recommended age? If you let your kid watch superhero cartoons or Knight Rider reruns, SAFH should be age appropriate.

Here’s the back cover description:

Jurgen the Gorilla. Throne the Lion. Bronze the Golden Eagle. Ray the Brown Bear. Bottle the Dolphin. Dev the Lynxwoman. 3 the Triceratops. Ptera the Pterodactyl.

These eight stuffed animals make up the Return Squadron. For seven months they have worked together to return disconnected stuffed animals home. But now … on their final mission, the Return Squadron seek to steal the legendary Map of Everything.

Before Christmas morning arrives, three of the Squadron will turn traitor, four will be stranded, and one will never see another Christmas.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN: And Dracula and the Wolf Man, Too

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) – Directed by Charles Barton – Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert, Jane Randolph, and the voice of Vincent Price.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN is a completely delightful movie that sees our comedic duo embroiled in a monster story that goes very, very, very light on the horror and very, very heavy on the comedy. In truth, there are no scary moments in ACMF, though the film derives a good deal of humor from Costello being afraid of the monsters that he keeps happening to see and Abbott keeps happening not to see.

Chick Young (Abbott) and Wilbur Smith (Costello) are working as baggage clerks and they get a frantic phone call from London; Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) calls to tell them that two packages are due to arrive for “McDougal’s House of Horrors” and that they are not to deliver those packages; before he can properly make his case, however, the full moon comes out and he turns into the Wolfman. McDougal shows up and Chick and Wilbur sign the two massive packages over to him and then deliver them to his House of Horrors.

What’s impressive about ACMF is that there’s a real story here, and Abbott and Costello use the situations presented by the story to do their comedy bits. There’s a lot of “falling package” jokes here at the beginning, as Wilbur’s romantic interest Sandra (Lenore Aubert) has a bunch of packages that tumble down on him, and then Wilbur gets on top of one of McDougal’s crates and nearly tumbles down, but the bits enhance rather than detract from the narrative.

Chick and Wilbur bring the two crates to McDougal’s House of Horrors and there’s an extended bit with Wilbur seeing Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange) and Chick not seeing them that’s really effectively done. The scene is humorous more than laugh-out loud funny, but it works because the chemistry between Abbott and Costello is so good that they take simple bits and get the best out of them.

The real joy in ACMF is all of the interaction between Abbott, Costello, Lugosi, and Chaney, Jr. (Glenn Strange plays Frankenstein’s Monster because Boris Karloff didn’t want in on the shenanigans.) All four of the men are total professionals, and Lugosi and Chaney Jr. blend their talents seamlessly with the two comedians.

Lugosi’s Dracula is the film’s bad guy; he’s partnered with Sandra, who’s been seducing Wilbur in order to cut out his brain and stick it in the Monster’s head. Dracula wants a Monster who’s easier to control, so they’ve selected Wilbur because, well, he’s easier to control. Dracula puts him under a couple times with his mesmerizing eyes superpower. There’s a running gag where Chick can’t believe that beautiful women like Sandra first, and Joan (Jane Randolph) second prefer Wilbur’s company to his own. Chick is insulted because he thinks the women find Wilbur more appealing, but really it’s because the two women think they can manipulate him into getting what they want easier than they could with Chick.

Lugosi is a total pro, giving everything in every scene; his charisma is so strong that he almost doesn’t need his powers to hypnotize people into doing what he wants.

Chaney gets to be the voice of concern in the film, and he displays a real somber earnestness as Larry Talbot, whose constantly trying to stop Dracula from using the Monster. Wilbur semi-believes him and Chick doesn’t believe him at all, but when Chick’s eyes are opened at a costume ball, he’s all in. Wilbur and Joan are hypnotized and captured, and Chick and Talbot work together to get them back.

The final act sees all of our players embroiled in the big climax. It’s a really wonderfully conceived and executed sequence by director Charles Barton. There’s plenty of deaths: Sandra is killed by the Monster, and when Dracula turns into a bat, the Wolf Man snares him and they both tumble to their deaths in the rocky water below. Chick and Wilbur flee in a boat, while Stevens (a scientist working for Sandra) and Joan set the pier on fire, engulfing and then apparently killing the Monster.

As Chick and Wilbur flee across the water, they hear the voice of the Invisible Man (Vincent Price), sending the two friends into the water and leaving us with the menacing sound of Vincent Price laughing.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN offers a whole lot of story in its 83 minutes and it never disappoints. I suppose if you want your Universal horror monsters to be scary, ACMF isn’t the film for you, but as a final act for these characters, this film is a gentle, but appropriate farewell.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959): Arsenic on the Rocks

House on Haunted Hill (1959) – Directed by William Castle – Starring Vincent Price, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook, Carol Ohmart, Alan Marshal, and Julie Mitchum.

Horror Month at the Anxiety starts with HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, a film I chose primarily because 1. it was available to stream on Netflix, and 2. it stars Vincent Price. After a Western Month that saw me looking at not one Clint Eastwood, Sergio Leone, John Ford, or John Wayne movie, I wanted to start with something from one of the actors or directors most associated with the genre.

And that really meant only one person: Vincent Price.

William Castle’s HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is a perfect place to start Horror Month, if for no other reason than it shows exactly what has happened to the genre in the last 50 years. This is a movie built on tension and unease more than simple shock and slash. The result is a film that takes a while to get going but the final act of the film more than makes up for it.

Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) invites five people to spend the night with him and his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) at a haunted house, and anyone who stays the night gets $10,000. (Ah, $10,000. Don’t you love the ’50s?) We’re introduced to the characters in a classic roll call as they sit in the back of cars on their way to the house. Price narrates their introductions, giving us a little clue about each: Nora (Carolyn Craig) supports her whole family on the pay she makes being a secretary at one of Loren’s companies, Lance the pilot (Richard Long), Watson (Elisha Cook), who actually owns the property but wants nothing to do with it because his brother and sister-in-law were murdered there, Dr. Trent (Alan Marshal), a shrink, and Ruth (Julie Mitchum), a newspaper columnist with a gambling problem.

Loren pretty much tells you right at the start who’s going to be the ultimate bad guy here, as Dr. Trent both doesn’t need the money and Loren questions his motives.

Once everyone gets to the house the film kinda spins in neutral for a bit. Loren and Annabelle are a toxic couple – she keeps insisting she doesn’t want anything to do with this party and he keeps insisting the party is for her and she will attend. Annabelle is Loren’s fourth wife and she lets him know she has no intention of him getting to number five; she’s already tried to kill him once, and she lets him know if she could get away with it, she’d do it again.

Annabelle is quickly killed by hanging and her body is lain to rest.

The movie largely focuses on the adventures of Nora and Lance. They go exploring and are visited by a ghost that turns out to be the housekeeper. Nora is the target by the haunted house time and again and as the story progresses, accusations begin flying. HOUSE does a solid job playing with Loren’s innocence or guilt. Price is completely fantastic throughout HOUSE, playing both the manipulator and victim. As the ghouls start flying and tensions are at their peak (with Winston always around to ratchet things up with his nervous nature), Loren reveals that he’s known the score all along: Trent and Annabelle were secretly plotting to have him killed. Trent shoots him but Loren filled their guns with blanks and uses the acid pool in the basement to have a large, marionette skeleton steer his wife into the acid.

It’s a truly fantastic conclusion, with Loren revealed as the guy pulling the strings and playing the angles all along. When he’s discovered in the basement, he calmly states that he’s ready for the lay to decide his guilt or innocence, knowing what’s happened here is too unbelievable to have blame placed at his feet.

Slow beginning but a powerful conclusion makes HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL a film well worth watching.