AlsExGal Reviews

The New Leave It to Beaver: A Farewell to Freddie (1986) Season 2, Episode 4

There's some LITB history in this episode

[7/10 · 12 May 2024]

Eddie gives his son, Freddie, 80 dollars to bet on "Grandma Moses", a broken-down horse that never wins. When Freddie spots the Cleaver children, upset because they don't have the 80 dollars they need to repair the window they broke in Mary Ellen's new car, Freddie generously gives them Eddie's money, because the horse never wins - except for this time, at 90 to one.

Eddie is so furious that he sends Freddie to military school to be with his other son Bomber. And then Eddie begins missing the boy. Complications ensue.

This episode hearkens back to the season one episode of LITB entitled "Broken Window" where Wally and the Beaver break the passenger window in the family car by playing baseball too close to the house. In that episode, Wally calls on Eddie to advise them as to what to do as they also did not have enough money to repair the window before their parents got home. Eddie, however, in that episode did not offer to pay for anything.

Both of Eddie Haskell's kids were portrayed by Ken Osmond's actual children, with his youngest son only occasionally showing up and oldest son Eric, as Freddie, being a regular member of the cast. Note that the slides Eddie is looking at when he begins to miss Freddie are actual slides taken of Ken Osmond and son Eric when Eric was a toddler.

The New Leave It to Beaver: Birth Announcement (1986) Season 2, Episode 11

Thus ends the longest pregnancy in TV history...

[7/10 · 12 May 2024]

... at least as far as I know, and if you count the LITB TV movie back in March 1983 where Mary Ellen first announced she was pregnant, but then in the epilogue June mentions the baby, a son was born. So there is some reworking of the plot in the series.

Mary Ellen thinks she is going into labor, but it turns out to be a false alarm, as Wally contends with a nurse with the disposition of a drill sergeant and the typing skills of a four year old as far as typing in insurance information. Back home they wait, and they wait, and then the day comes when Wally must go to court in a matter where Beaver is a witness. But he has a beeper now so she should be able to reach him at will.

Also Wally has brought Eddie Haskell in to keep watch over her, so what could go wrong? Watch and find out.

Overall this was a sweet humorous episode, with a few bits of old technology that made me realize how much time had passed. When was the last time you saw or even thought about a beeper?

Leave It to Beaver: Tenting Tonight (1958) Season 1, Episode 29

A simple but sweet episode

[7/10 · 12 May 2024]

Ward is sent to pick up Wally, Beaver, and their friends after they've been in the movies all day. It doesn't go well. It's basically a frustrating game of tag to get them all together in the lobby. Ward comes home short tempered, perhaps partially about that, but also about the fact that it was a beautiful Saturday and Wally and Beaver spent the entire day indoors watching less than uplifting fare. He promises to take them camping the following week to help get them out of doors. Eddie Haskell tells Wally it will be like it is at his house - His dad will promise something and then when the time comes, act like he never offered to do anything.

The weekend comes and Ward gets word that he must work the weekend, so he does end up having to postpone their promised outing. When he gets home he sees that the boys have pitched a tent in the backyard and are camping out there. It starts to rain in the middle of the night, so Ward leaves the backdoor open just in case they want to come inside, and they do come in for a few hours after the rain sends a river through their tent. It is his way of compromising between making them come in and giving them the freedom to come in, should they decide to do so.

The next day, Sunday, Eddie Haskell is incredulous that Ward did not make them come in during the pounding rainstorm. He then tries to turn it around as their dad not caring what they did. But Wally mentions to Beaver - Who do you think left the backdoor open? They realize that their dad tried to protect them without ruining their fun or completely overriding their perceived autonomy.

And let's not minimize the irony of being told by Eddie Haskell the importance of not being tardy to Sunday school!

Leave It to Beaver: Beaver's Long Night (1962) Season 5, Episode 18

Times sure have changed

[7/10 · 12 May 2024]

Ward and June are going to be away for the evening, and so is Wally. Previously Ward and June have said Beaver is old enough to stay home alone without a babysitter, so they feel somewhat obligated to give Beaver a try on his own. Plus Gilbert is coming over. What could go wrong?

Beaver and Gilbert sit down to a night of watching gangster movies. But it does take its toll, even on kids as old as them. Uknown to them, Wally has told Lumpy and Bill to come to his house and they'll drive over to a masquerade party together. As luck would have it, Lumpy and Bill are dressed as gangsters, and Lumpy even has on a grotesque looking mask. They are in an unfamiliar car, so Beaver doesn't recognize it. And they are just parked there, doing nothing. This begins to scare Gilbert and Beaver, thinking that maybe these are hoodlums who have come to the wrong house and are going to "rub them out" by mistake. They call the police - the right thing to do if you are scared of strangers parked in front of your house. And since neither Bill nor Lumpy have any ID on them and are illegally parked, the police haul them into the station. This does cause problems for Ward with his colleague and Lumpy's dad, Fred Rutherford.

In 1962, Beaver is somewhat chastised for overreacting. Today, the first thing you do with a kid that's staying home alone is to go over what to do in case of menacing strangers who show up and don't belong. If they called the police and did not open the door to investigate themselves they'd generally get a pat on the back.

Peck's Bad Boy (1934)

One last memorable role for Thomas Meighan

[6/10 · 12 May 2024]

Peck's Bad Boy, a Sol Lesser production released through Fox, is a picture whose outcome can be guessed at without too much effort and whose characters are more of the stock variety than genuine portraits, but it is an unpretentious effort and worth the required 68 minute investment.

Jackie Cooper does an acceptable job as the bad boy of the title, although he is never particularly naughty. Cooper has a habit over-reading his lines so that all the emotion is wrung out of them and the audience has no room to interpret what is left, and this makes him a somewhat obvious performer. Still, he brings a proper amount of energy and charm to the part without adopting the overbearing style of-well, certain other child actors of the time.

Thomas Meighan is the reason I watched the picture in the first place, and his performance is very good indeed. He and Cooper have a nice rapport, and in spite of having no children of his own he takes to the role of a father very kindly and memorably. His voice is perhaps 95% like I imagined it to be, neither too soft nor too gruff, a low tenor that complements his looks and personality quite well. Other latter-day reviews have commented on how tired he looks in the film, and while he does look somewhat older than in The Racket his energy is not much different than it ever was. Getting ants in his clothes is one of the worse indignities one of his screen characters ever suffered, and his reaction as he feels something odd while sitting in church is hilarious. This scene probably should have went on a bit longer to build up the comic effects.

Jackie Searl turns in a better performance than Cooper, whether because his was the superior talent or simply because nasty kids are always more fun to watch than the wholesome ones (cf. Bright Eyes and These Three). Searl gradually turns the character from a harmless nerd into a vicious usurper, and such a transformation is an impressive achievement for a 12 or 13-year-old. It's a pity that Searl never became a bigger star. The rest of the cast is generally good as well, particularly Howard and Heggie. Dorothy Peterson struck me as rather annoying, but I haven't seen enough of her work to know whether it was the performer or the character.

As to the quality of the picture overall, Peck's Bad Boy is one of many instances of a wicked step-family appearing to take over the rightful place of another relative, although since Bill is adopted Lily and Horace have no compunction about claiming what they feel is their place in the Peck home. It's odd that Henry doesn't see through their manipulation; he doesn't start to get it until his son runs away and he notices that Lily has swapped their bedrooms (Bill's was the larger and Horace had been eyeing it since he moved in). The plot is wrapped up rather quickly, and we might wonder how Lily and Horace are actually confronted. But even if this picture does not break outstandingly new ground, it does allow a great screen actor one last memorable role and a younger actor the chance to show what he could do--and should have done more of--as well.

Leave It to Beaver: Bachelor at Large (1962) Season 6, Episode 8

Eddie goes to the dogs

[9/10 · 12 May 2024]

Eddie Haskell makes high school headlines when he has a huge fight with his parents and as a result moves out and rents a room of his own. He makes it sound so glamorous to the other guys - He makes every night sound like a beach movie without the sand - He talks about how the joint is always jumping and the girls who live in the rooming house argue over who will cook for him. There's even talk of him putting in a phone.

All of this talk makes the Cleavers nervous - What if Wally gets upset at them sometime and just moves out? This bachelor pad fever may be contagious. But then Wally and Beaver have occasion to visit the rooming house where Eddie lives and see just how much reality diverges from the story he's been telling. Can Eddie Haskell be persuaded to return home without damaging his delicate pride? Watch and find out.

I'm surprised the guys wouldn't think back on all of the times Eddie has embellished the details of his own feats and not realize that this was, once again, one of those times. But it might have been a case of wishful thinking - Of wanting to live adventurously through Eddie without having to leave the safety of home themselves.

And just a thought on how housing prices have changed. When the news of Eddie first moving out first hits, Wally mentions that Eddie can afford to move out since he has a job after school and on weekends. Nobody disputes that statement. So in 1962 a teenager's part time job was sufficient to put a roof over their head. Today a full time job, often that of a college graduate, is not sufficient to pay rent. Plus, so many of the old style boarding houses have ceased to exist - partially due to stricter regulations and partly because it is hard to find tenants who won't trash a place.

Safe in Hell (1931)

When you think of William Wellman you might not think of this one

[7/10 · 12 May 2024]

I've wanted to see Safe in Hell for a long time, thinking it was some kind of archetypal pre-Code experience, and it's tawdry enough but fatally slow. Dorothy Mackaill plays a woman who was left behind by her sailor boyfriend, turned to prostitution, and ends up killing a john she apparently had a bad experience with before the movie started. That's the first ten minutes or so, and it's pretty good. Then the sailor boyfriend, who gets over the prostitution and murder stuff pretty quickly, helps her escape and, making the same mistake with his not very strong-willed girlfriend a second time, plops her alone on a miserable little island with a group of exiled lowlifes who sit in rattan chairs all day ogling her.

This proves, ultimately if not convincingly, irresistible, and once she falls the second time, it's a short walk from there to being executed for a crime she didn't commit, and trying hard to keep the secret of her sorry end from her sailor boyfriend, who really needs to find a nice gal he can leave alone somewhere for five minutes without her killing somebody, regardless of the circumstances.

I think the island stuff was originally a play, in the far-east-sleaze mode of Kongo, Shanghai Gesture, etc., and if so I think there must have been more action in it than made it to the screen, because there's a lot of suggestion that something's going to happen, but not much actually does. Mackaill is all right, she's certainly attractive and doesn't object to a pre-Code wardrobe, but she doesn't make as strong an impression as, say, Barbara Stanwyck, who was evidently Wellman's first choice.

The strongest impression is made by Nina Mae McKinney and Clarence Muse as the hotel proprietors, who exude a warmth and conviviality in their scenes that seems to have come from a different movie (and suggests that the Hell of the island was brought there by its white visitors, not intrinsic to the place). McKinney, the wonderful star of the very early sound Hallelujah!, even gets to sing a song, in the only on-screen appearance of her MGM contract (loaned out to Warners). It makes you a wish for a very different movie about her character, rather than Mackaill's.

Nothing Sacred (1937)

strong, acidic antidote to Frank Capra's movies from around the same time.

[8/10 · 12 May 2024]

Here's why I love "Nothing Sacred": in many ways, it's a really strong, acidic antidote to Frank Capra's movies from around the same time. The common people of NS are mostly unseen, but they're clearly not shown as good, noble, taken-for-granted folks--they're presented as boobs, plain and simple. They get taken in by the whole Hazel Flagg scheme just as they might get taken in by Longfellow Deeds's awful poetry. They get manipulated not by powerful, cynical urbanites but ultimately by one of their own, a horse doctor from Vermont who in turn toys with major newspapers and Viennese doctors. The people from Hazel Flagg's small town are petty, snobbish, close-minded, and inclined to bite people on the leg for absolutely no reason. Of course, Walter Connolly and his ilk don't get off the hook entirely; his reaction at learning he's been had must be one of the great comic moments of the 30s.

I'm not a Capra-hater, I'm just not totally comfortable with his veneration of "common" people in some of his pictures. For all his skill with comedy and actors, by the time we get to "Meet John Doe" I find his approach really cloying, and I'm skeptical that it's a good idea to venerate anybody based on their social class alone, whatever it may be. (Although I have wondered what a meeting between Capra and Evelyn Waugh would be like). I don't have any argument with his work through 1934, I just find some of his later work to be philosophically problematic. And that's why it's good to watch NS from time to time!

Doctor Bull (1933)

Roger's best performance

[8/10 · 12 May 2024]

I've seen this before, but having watched it after becoming more familiar with the Rogers oeuvre, I became aware of just what a radical departure it was from the Rogers formula in previous and subsequent films. He usually plays one of two characterizations: the wise and beloved father-figure putting up with his flighty family, or the wise and beloved fool-osopher putting up with silly townsfolk.

But as Dr. Bull, Rogers shows a real dark side, not the least of which comes out when he inadvertently causes a typhoid epidemic by failing to inspect the water runoff from a construction camp upstream from the town. Rogers is the town's health officer and when the townspeople justifiably accuse him of dereliction of duty, his response is, "Who has time to run around inspecting water!". When attacked by the townsfolk for his role in this catastrophe, Bull lashes back at them with real venom, telling them they are unworthy of the medical services he's provided over a lifetime. So much for never meeting a man he didn't like.

Bull quells the epidemic (cheerfully testing a veterinary vaccine meant for cows on an adult, then administering it to children), but finally decides to make good on his threat and leaves town for good.

It's a great pre-code film which manages to work in references from the recently lifted Prohibition to pre-marital sex (Andy Devine forced into a shotgun marriage). IMO this is Rogers' best performance by far and shows that he really could act when paired with a great director.

Hands Up! (1926)

Lots of sight gags in this film

[7/10 · 12 May 2024]

With all the work of the major silent comedians so readily available, it's easy to forget about the other, less-known clowns whose work isn't as easy to find. Raymond Griffith falls under this category, because so much of his work is lost, and what does survive isn't that easy to see.

What struck me immediately was the endless parade of sight gags in the film. The opening scene with Abraham Lincoln meeting with his cabinet set up a serious tone that is delightfully contrasted in the very next scene, when Ray Griffith rides up to visit General Lee. The sight gags begin immediately, and in this scene reminded me of similar battlefield gags in DUCK SOUP (shells flying through the window, etc). Thankfully, the rest of the film kept up the ingenuity and clever gags found in this scene. Griffith himself is a very fun performer to watch. His characterization of the unruffled gentleman in the silk hat played very well against the overall zaniness of the film. I would really enjoy seeing more of his work. Mack Swain, always great, turned in a memorable supporting appearance here.

The length of the film is perfect for a comedy. It's one thing that pre-WWII comedies had as a major advantage-that they could end after 60 or 70 minutes and not have to hang on a lot of exposition and plot wrap-up for the mandatory 90 minute-plus running time of today.

Leave It to Beaver: Larry Hides Out (1960) Season 3, Episode 15

Beaver's bathroom - a familiar hideout

[7/10 · 11 May 2024]

Larry Mondello has Beaver over to his house, and he gives Beaver a guided tour of his sister's room complete with a reading from her diary. But Mrs. Mondello catches Larry in the act and reads Larry the riot act in front of Beaver. As a result, Larry runs away from home. He calls Beaver and tells him he is running away to Mexico, but apparently there is some kind of compromise reached where Larry agrees to hide out in Beaver's bathroom.

Wally learns about this arrangement after the fact, and for some reason he decides to help Beaver hide Larry. This seems out of character for the usually level-headed Wally. In the meantime, Mrs. Mondello has phoned the Cleavers about the situation and told them to be on the lookout for Larry. How long can Larry successfully hideout in Beaver's bathroom? Beaver and Wally's alligator managed to hide there long enough to reach one foot in length. So I'd say watch and find out.

Poor Larry and his dysfunctional home. His father is only rarely - actually twice - spotted. The rest of the time he's elsewhere on business. And even with her son a runaway, Mrs. Mondello has time to complain about her daughter being unmarried, as though that is the cause of all of her problems, even with Larry. It can't be easy having her as a mom.

There's no Eddie Haskell sighting this week, but Wally does discuss him second hand as the planner of this Saturday's activities. He asks Wally to join him over at the high school gym to watch the girls try out for cheerleader because Eddie says that when the girls don't make the squad they will become hysterical and cry. Whether it is that Eddie enjoys watching people fail or he thinks he can swoop in and be a shoulder to cry on for some vulnerable girl is not stated. It would be typical Eddie for it to be the former, and it would be rather creepy for it to be the latter.

Leave It to Beaver: School Sweater (1960) Season 3, Episode 23

Wally is put upon by a predatory female

[8/10 · 11 May 2024]

Wally comes home from his basketball game without his sweater. The next day his parents notice its absence and demand he bring it back home with him that afternoon. The problem is that a girl, Frances, asked Wally for it saying she was cold, and now she's stalling giving it back. What Wally doesn't know is that she is using that sweater as proof to her friends that Wally is crazy about her when, in fact, he hardly knows her.

That night Ward and June are out shopping and stop in for a soda. At the counter, there is Frances, wearing Wally's jacket and telling her friends about Wally's amorous advances. Ward, and especially June, are horrified, thinking that Wally is lying about his jacket because what the girl is saying is true. When Wally is confronted with the truth of the situation he charges out of the house to go to Frances' house and retrieve his jacket. In a scene reminiscent of The Quiet Man, Eddie and Beaver run out after him, anxious to witness the dust up. How will this work out? Watch and find out.

It's not that Frances isn't pretty, it's just that she's using deception to take advantage that gets to Wally. Over the years, Wally seems a bit naive and passive when it comes to girls, and he can afford to be because he is quite the chick magnet.

Leave It to Beaver: Wally's Weekend Job (1961) Season 5, Episode 6

We should all have bosses as kind and diplomatic as Mr. Gibson

[9/10 · 11 May 2024]

Wally gets a weekend job working at Mr. Gibson's soda fountain at the local soda shop. Eddie Haskell is jealous, not because he wants a job, but because it's one more way for his father to unfavorably compare him to Wally - that Wally has a weekend job and he does not. On top of that the high school girls go to the soda fountain just to get an eyeful of Wally in his work outfit and swoon over him.

Eddie and Lumpy show up at the soda fountain one day and harass Wally at work, asking him for a complete listing of the kinds of ice cream and sandwiches that are offered there. Mr. Gibson sees what is going on and tells Eddie that before he orders he needs to pay up the fifty cents he owes him from the last time he was there. After that, Eddie doesn't have enough money to order anything and is showed up in front of the giggling high school girls a few seats down.

So Eddie plots his revenge - Through a fake phone call he sets up Wally to get caught at Mary Ellen's pajama party, where her dad has threatened to unceremoniously throw out any boy who would dare show up. Wally is just there to deliver ice cream and knows nothing about the party. Watch and find out how this works out.

Besides the main story of Eddie hating it when he is shown up to be a braggart and striking out in an underhanded way, there are some other good scenes, such as when Beaver and his two friends come to the soda shop thinking that they can get their ice cream on the house since Wally is Beaver's brother. Then there are June and Ward not wanting to mob Wally with family his first day on the job and deciding to wait a day instead.

Leave It to Beaver: Wally's Present (1959) Season 2, Episode 14

What a shame to be exposed as less generous than Eddie Haskell

[8/10 · 11 May 2024]

Wally's birthday is coming up and he has decided he wants to celebrate by going to the diner to eat hamburgers with Eddie, and most likely meet up with some girls and then go on to the movies. Obviously, the girls are central to his plans, so Beaver is not invited.

Beaver has been saving up for a very nice camera to give to Wally for his birthday, but once in the store, at the urging of Larry Mondello, he instead spends the vast majority of his money for a bow and arrow set for himself and buys Wally a token of a gift - a cheap paddle ball. Larry told Beaver to do this because he is hoping to play with the bow and arrow set too, but he succeeds by reminding Beaver about how Wally excluded him from his plans.

Once home, Beaver learns that Wally has changed his plans to be hamburgers and gifts at home and then the movies with Eddie and with Beaver now invited to all of this. Beaver feels about two feet tall, especially when it comes time to open the gifts and Wally receives a nice watch from his parents and a nifty microscope from Eddie Haskell. How will this all turn out? Watch and find out.

This is one of the few times where Eddie does not misbehave during the entire episode, even buying Wally a very nice birthday gift. This was probably done to give Beaver's selfishness maximum effect, and it worked. As for Larry Mondello - He often talks about a much older married brother and an older sister with whom his mother finds constant fault as she is not very attractive and also unmarried. So Larry is obviously the rather overlooked child of his parents' middle age, and thus doesn't have much guidance. This seems to be why he gives Beaver so much bad advice. Not an excuse but an explanation of sorts.

Leave It to Beaver: The Book Report (1963) Season 6, Episode 30

The film referenced in the episode actually does exist

[8/10 · 11 May 2024]

Beaver has a book report on "The Three Musketeers" due in two days. And even with this date looming, Ward has to command Beaver to drop his weekend plans and stay at home and read that book. Gilbert tempts Beaver with an alternative - the movie "The Three Musketeers" will be on TV on Sunday night at 8PM. It's not that Beaver isn't tempted by this, but his family being home would make this impossible. No doubt they would figure what he's doing - substituting watching the movie for reading the book.

But then, suddenly, both his parents and Wally have plans for Sunday night. With Beaver having an impossible amount of material yet to read, he gives in, watches the movie, and writes the book report based on the film. He gets about three sentences into his report the next day, before Mrs. Rayburn lets him know that the jig is up. Watch and find out how this concludes.

The film mentioned in the episode actually does exist. "The Three Musketeers" (1939) was a musical comedy misfire by Fox starring Don Ameche and the Ritz Brothers. The latter are an acquired taste. I would expect somebody Beaver's age, about to enter high school, to figure out that this plan would not work just by having read a couple of chapters of the book, seeing the ad for the movie, and having just a modicum of common sense. And what was Gilbert's motive for having Beaver go this disastrous route? It was too late to salvage the weekend. At least Larry Mondello usually had selfishness as a motive when he sent Beaver down the wrong path. Here, Gilbert is displaying an almost Eddie Haskell level of destruction for destruction's sake by giving his "friend" such bad advice.

Leave It to Beaver: Wally's Election (1960) Season 3, Episode 19

Wally and politics mix like oil and water

[7/10 · 8 May 2024]

Eddie Haskell nominates Wally for president of the sophomore high school class. Wally is very upset about this turn of events, always preferring to keep a low profile and let his actions speak for themselves. He is so upset that he almost murders June's coconut cake, but she stops him in time. Wally tells his parents that he really doesn't want to run for this office, and they both seem OK with that.

Then Fred Rutherford comes over and talks to Ward about how his son Clarence (Lumpy) is running too, and that maybe Clarence just has better leadership qualities than Wally. Now that this has become an issue of fatherly pride, Ward strongly encourages Wally to really run for the office and tells him how to go about it. All of his advice just presents itself in Wally as being unauthentic and a turn-off. Eddie thinks this new improved aggressive Wally is great, but then Eddie is so unauthentic I doubt he could spot authenticity if his life depended on it. Who will win the election? Watch and find out.

Even before election day comes, Ward thinks that maybe he has created a monster in Wally. There is a humorous scene between Ward and June when Wally first tells his parents of his nomination. June says she thinks Wally would be a good president because he is so cute. Ward replies that we don't want to start electing our presidents based on charm and looks. Oh, Ward, just you wait!

Leave It to Beaver: The Lost Watch (1958) Season 2, Episode 5

A show about a watch that's hard to watch

[7/10 · 8 May 2024]

Beaver and Larry go watch "the big kids" play baseball. The fellows all pile their wallets, jackets, and watches on Beaver for him to watch while they play. After everybody has gathered their stuff, after the game, Lumpy asks for his watch from Beaver, but Beaver doesn't have it. Lumpy threatens to thrash him or even call the police if his fifteen dollar watch is not returned. All through the next few days this giant fellow menaces the boy. He calls him at home and threatens him, he jumps out behind shrubbery on Beaver's way to school and threatens him. It's all quite hard to watch him bully Beaver, who is convinced he lost this expensive watch.

Beaver feels like he can't tell his parents because of the talk around the house about watching things in your trust and not losing stuff. But then Beaver tries to cash a savings bond his aunt got him so that he can buy Lumpy a new watch and taking the bond gets the attention of Beaver's parents. Ward is livid about what's happened, but Clarence/Lumpy is also the son of his business partner, Fred Rutherford, and so Ward needs to proceed cautiously.

Lumpy Rutherford was initially introduced as a guy two years older than Wally and Eddie, often a bully, less so to Wally as Wally began to get a growth spurt. But he must have been left back a couple of times because at the end of the series the three are graduating together. Lumpy transitions to the not too bright, sometime partner in crime to Eddie Haskell, and the three - Wally, Eddie, and Lumpy are pretty much the three musketeers by graduation.

Leave It to Beaver: The Broken Window (1958) Season 1, Episode 25

Wally and Beaver look for advice from an odd source

[7/10 · 8 May 2024]

Wally and Beaver break a window one day when playing ball too close to the house. In fact it's one of the other boys who breaks the window, but they all scatter after the window breaks and leave Wally and Beaver holding the bag. Ward gets the window fixed, but lectures them about how close they were playing, and they promise to not play that close again.

But then the next day they are going to play ball elsewhere when Beaver asks Wally to pitch just one ball to him while they are close to the garage, and they hear the sound of breaking glass - It's the passenger window of the family car. Ward and June are out house hunting, so the boys have some time. Then Wally does a weird thing - He calls Eddie Haskell for advice! Eddie's advice is to roll down the car window and then plead ignorance when the window is inevitably raised. That is what the boys decide to do when they can't raise the money to fix the window before their parents get home. How will this work out? Watch and find out.

This was early in Eddie Haskell's tenure, and even the following year Wally would never listen to advice from Eddie. Beaver would until he got a little older because Eddie offered such tempting shortcuts to problems.

Leave It to Beaver: Beaver and Chuey (1958) Season 2, Episode 4

The international language of children

[7/10 · 7 May 2024]

Beaver has a new friend from South America who only speaks Spanish - Chuey, obviously a nickname. He's been coming over to the house a lot and he and Beaver seem to understand one another to some degree, at least enough to play together.

But then Eddie gets a dastardly idea - He's taking high school Spanish and what good is a new talent as far as Eddie is concerned if you can't cause trouble with it. He goes to Beaver and teaches Beaver a phrase in Spanish that Eddie tells him means "You are a swell guy." But it actually means "You have the face of a pig". Chuey runs home crying. Beaver doesn't know what he did, and his parents are baffled too. Soon Chuey's parents arrive - also only Spanish speakers - and they are upset about their son, but don't know how to verbally convey what they are wanting to say in English. Can anybody break through this barrier and solve the mystery? Watch and find out.

It really is funny watching the parents try to wrangle what little of the other person's language they know in order to communicate. June asks Chuey's mom if she would like some tea, Chuey's mom says yes, your house is lovely. June asks Chuey's mom to have a seat on the "mesa" (table). Confused, she figures out she means "chair" and on it goes.

LITB didn't have many episodes on multiculturism, mainly because the USA was a pretty homogeneous place in the late 50s and early 60s. But this was a pretty good episode on the international language of children, and on how they are often quick to forgive one another.

The New Leave It to Beaver: Thanksgiving Day (1984) Season 1, Episode 2

Will the Cleavers all be together on Thanksgiving?

[7/10 · 6 May 2024]

This second episode of the sequel series Still the Beaver aired the night before actual Thanksgiving Day 1984.

Beaver's oldest son, Kipp, wants to accept a friend's invitation to go to his Thanksgiving, with a major plus being that the friend has a hot tub! Beaver thinks that families should be together on Thanksgiving Day, but ultimately he lets Kipp make his own decision, hoping Kipp will come around to see it his way on his own. Kipp doesn't have to wait long to learn that lesson, because his friend's mother disinvites him - although in as nice a way as possible - because she -like Kipp's dad - thinks this day is a family affair.

Kipp ends up learning the value of being with family on special occasions from, of all people, Eddie Haskell, in a scene reminiscent of one of the several times when Eddie opened up to Kipp's dad, Beaver, back when both were kids.

This episode features a nice touch of Wally coordinating a surprise visit by the Cleavers' Aunt Gloria (presumably the late Ward Cleaver's sister), played in a cameo appearance by the real-life sister of Hugh Beaumont, Gloria Beaumont Rusman. Ms. Rusman was not an actress, and according to this website this is her only acting "credit". Hugh Beaumont died in 1982, and the LITB reunion movie made in 1983 showed Ward Cleaver, Beaumont's character, as having died in 1977.

The New Leave It to Beaver: See You in Court (1987) Season 3, Episode 8

Disorder in the court

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

Wally and Mary Ellen are overworked and cranky, so Beaver, Lumpy, and Eddie decide to chip in and send them on a vacation to Key West. The mistake Lumpy and Beaver make is allowing Eddie to make all of the arrangements. He goes to a cut-rate travel agent (remember travel agents?) and books a trip that only costs the money that Beaver and Lumpy are pitching in.

Later, when Wally and Mary Ellen go to get on their flight they find it has been cancelled. The travel agent refuses to make good on the cancelled trip. To keep the agent from saying how much was actually paid for the flight, in which case Wally and Beaver would find out Eddie shorted them, Eddie socks the travel agent. Now Eddie is going to court for assault.

The scene in the courtroom is funny, but what type of court is this anyways? Civil or criminal? Because what would normally be the prosecuting attorney in a criminal case seems to be an attorney working for the travel agent, which would make it civil court. How will all of this work out? Watch and find out.

The Boob (1926)

A David and Goliath tale during prohibition

[6/10 · 5 May 2024]

There's a minor subgenre of silents in which a small town full of country folks somehow supports a lavish speakeasy filled with hundreds of folks in tuxedos, until the country folks toss them out. This has some connection to 1920s reality, as little towns comfortably in the sticks suddenly found themselves a short drive from a big city by car, and easily corrupted by big city money; places like Cicero and Calumet City, Illinois became wholly owned subsidiaries of the Chicago mob, and even Southern Wisconsin, for instance, is dotted with roadhouses and "inns" boasting "Al Capone slept and gambled here." You rarely if ever see the big city in movies like The Country Flapper, Delicious Little Devil, The Strong Man or The Boob; the tuxedo-wearing swells seem to generate spontaneously at night, like mushrooms.

The Boob is one of these tales and it suggests that by 1926, the subgenre was familiar enough that it could be kidded and caricatured along the way; the movie is full of broad, humor as well as a special effects dream sequence that seems to have walked straight in out of Winsor McCay's Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend. George K. Arthur is The Boob, Peter Good, whose girl May has fallen for the big city swell who runs the speakeasy (which, speaking of lavish, was apparently a redressed Ben-Hur set!).

After an old-timer teaches him the rudiments of being a rootin-tootin' gunslinger, he sets out after the speakeasy and its owner like Bill Hart in Hell's Hinges, and in a farcical manner reminiscent of The Strong Man, he does bring it down, if not exactly as he planned. If you doubt that The Strong Man was the model, note that Joan Crawford turns up in the decidedly thankless, if at least impressively feminist, role of a big city law enforcement agent whose bestowal of approval on Arthur helps him eventually win May over.

The New Leave It to Beaver: Murder in Mayfield (1987) Season 2, Episode 23

a boy and his imagination

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

Previously, Wally took it upon himself to restructure Eddie's finances in the wake of the Pizza Palace disaster. Now Eddie has bought a pool table with the money that was to go to the bank for his next payment on his restructured loan. At the same time, Beaver's youngest son, Oliver, who always has the active imagination, fancies himself a secret agent and everything as being some kind of plot or crime in progress that only he can halt.

Oliver has a heart-to-heart discussion about this with his dad in the famous Cleaver den, but yet his imagination still runs away with him. At the same time, Eddie finds a life insurance policy that Gert has taken out on herself, hidden under the floor boards of their house. These two things - Eddie needing money and not wanting to sell the pool table to get it, and Oliver letting his imagination run away with him, has Oliver believing Eddie is planning to kill his wife for the insurance money. Complications ensue.

Eddie says some pretty horrible things about his wife - things that possibly wouldn't land so well today. What in the 80s seemed clueless, today sounds pretty creepy. Again, Wally turns out to be a better friend than Eddie deserves, and yet he seems to not know that.

The New Leave It to Beaver (1983–1989)

It has a real regard for the history of the original show

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

This look at the extended Cleaver clan and their friends had one season on Disney from 1984-1985 and three seasons on TBS from 1986 until 1989. It got things right in the sense that it had a high regard for the history of the original show upon which in was based - Leave It To Beaver, which ran from 1957-1963 and followed the exploits of Beaver and older brother Wally Cleaver.

The only thing to happen in 1983 was one TV movie, "Still The Beaver" which aired in March 1983. There are some understandable inconsistencies between the movie and the series that premiered in 1984. First, the movie has Wally and his high school sweetheart Mary Ellen Rogers marrying in their thirties and dealing with infertility as they attempt to start a family. In the series they suddenly have a tween daughter like they have been married some 15 years. In the movie, June, widowed for several years, tells Beaver at the end of the film that she is moving to a condo and is selling him the Cleaver house at a reduced price. In the series, June still lives in the Cleaver home and never mentions moving.

Beaver, now divorced, has two sons that live with him in his childhood home, with all of them pretty much being abandoned by Beaver's ex who is going to veterinary school in Italy. Beaver's oldest son, Kip, has a friendship with Eddie Haskell's oldest son, Freddie, that somewhat mirrors Wally's teen friendship with Eddie.

Eddie Haskell, still portrayed by Ken Osmond, is still the rascal he was in the original show, still with the obvious insincere flattery. Except now Eddie is married with two children, the oldest being portrayed by Ken Osmond's actual oldest son, Eric. Eddie being such the manipulator causes problems in his marriage and in his business, and yet Wally is still his best friend in spite of the lapses in Eddie's character and judgment. Likewise, Frank Bank still plays Lumpy Rutherford, with a tween daughter who is good friends with Wally's daughter.

The humor holds up forty odd years later, just like the humor holds up on the original LITB show 65 years later. This is mainly true because the emphasis is on relationships and the importance of family, and that never really changes.

Some of the episodes, at least for the first couple of seasons, are available on youtube, although they are seemingly duped from old VHS tapes and thus the video is rather fuzzy. If you are used to blu ray quality, you'll need to adjust your expectations in that regard.

Leave It to Beaver: Captain Jack (1957) Season 1, Episode 2

Ward owes Minerva an apology!

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

Wally and Beaver order a Florida alligator from an ad in a magazine. When they pick him up at the post office, they are disappointed to see that he is only a few inches long and feel like they were had. Because of his small size, they are able to sneak him into the house and hide him in their bathroom without their parents knowing about this. But when he won't eat the insects they catch for him, they decide to consult "Captain Jack" a caretaker at a local alligator farm.

The alligator grows to a foot in length, so the boys move him to a tub in the basement that is never used, but when the housekeeper Minerva goes down there to hang out wash to dry because it is raining, she runs back upstairs screaming that there is a monster in the basement. Ward takes the fact that she is seeing monsters and that some of his brandy is missing (the boys are using it as an alligator appetite stimulant) as proof that Minerva is drinking on the job and fires her. I certainly hope Ward gave her an apology, some severance pay, and letter of recommendation after the truth came out. Minerva is never seen or heard from on LITB again.

In these early episodes, all through the first season, there's much more playful banter between Ward and June. They always talk, but the conversation is much more serious in later seasons.

The end has something happening that the writers just forget all about the following week - the appearance of a puppy that Ward and June have gotten for the boys. Earlier in the episode, Ward said that if the boys demonstrated some responsibility, then they could have a discussion about a pet. Probably raising an alligator in captivity from a few inches to a foot long proved that responsibility. However the dog is never seen or mentioned on LITB again. Perhaps he went to live with Minerva?

Interesting factoid - This was supposed to be the first episode of the series, but it was delayed as the censors had a problem with an actual toilet being shown on TV! Thus was the state of censorship in the 1950s. Only when the producers agreed to only allow the toilet tank to be shown, which is where the boys were keeping their alligator, was the episode given the green light.