Mr. Mike's Mondo Video
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| Mr. Mike's Mondo Video | |
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| Directed by | Michael O'Donoghue |
| Written by | Michael O'Donoghue Mitch Glazer |
| Starring | Michael O'Donoghue Dan Aykroyd Bill Murray Gilda Radner |
| Cinematography | Barry Rebo |
| Editing by | Alan Miller |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | 1979 |
| Running time | 75 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video was a 1979 movie conceived by Saturday Night Live writer/featured player Michael O'Donoghue.
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Plot
Mondo Video was a spoof of the controversial 1962 documentary Mondo Cane, showing people doing weird stunts. The logo for this film copies the original Mondo Cane logo.[1] Many cast members of Saturday Night Live, including Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, Bill Murray, Don Novello and Gilda Radner appear. People who had previously hosted SNL, or would go on to host (such as Carrie Fisher, Margot Kidder and Teri Garr) made cameo appearances in this film. Others who appeared in the film include musicians Sid Vicious, Paul Shaffer, Root Boy Slim, and Klaus Nomi; model Patty Oja; actress Teri Garr; and writer Emily Prager.[citation needed]
The film is largely plotless; a series of vignettes linked together by interstitial pieces featuring Mr. Mike discussing how upsetting and odd the sequences were. He introduces some of the pieces via voice-over, and some open with no introduction.
Sequences include:
- Aykroyd displaying his webbed toes which he prodded with a screwdriver to prove they were not make-up
- A church that worships Jack Lord as the one true god
- A French restaurant that prides itself on how poorly it treats American patrons
- "Dream Sequence", a series of surreal film pieces bracketed by large light-up signs reading "Dream Sequence" and "End Dream Sequence" that tracked towards and away from the camera. One, called "cleavage", was a closeup of a hand working its way out from (what was implied to be) between a large pair of breasts, feeling around gently, realizing where it was, and working its way back in.
- The presentation of a classified government weapons project, "Laserbra 2000". This piece was the last of a triptych of sequences that chronicled the attempts to obtain said classified footage. In the first, the film (secreted in a violin case) was in fact someone's home movies; in the second, the violin case contained a violin. National Lampoon writer Brian McConnachie appears in the footage as a scientist.
History
It was originally produced on videotape as an NBC television special that would have aired in place of SNL during one of its live breaks. Because of some of the racier elements of the show, NBC declared it inappropriate for the network (in the wake of a ratings slump they experienced at the time) and promptly canceled it.[citation needed]
Shortly thereafter, independent studio New Line Cinema acquired the rights to Mondo Video, and converted the videotape master to 35mm film for theatrical release, along with a "very special" Mr. Bill Show, presented at the head of the film as a short subject.[citation needed]
The film would eventually be seen on television, albeit on pay cable; it would also show up on home video in the early 1980s.[citation needed]
In January 2009, it was released on DVD by Shout! Factory.[citation needed]
The original film featured Sid Vicious performing the classic song "My Way". On the home video release, the audio is muted before Sid begins singing. A crawl appears explaining that the owners of the song's copyright wouldn't permit audio of the performance to be included on the tape. "It wasn't a case of money," the crawl explains, "They wouldn't even discuss it."[citation needed] The sound returns when the performance switches to a heavy punk rock guitar riff, and Sid pulling out a gun, firing (presumably blanks) into the audience, flipping them the bird, and walking off.
The Vicious performance can be seen and heard, in its entirety, in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980).
References
External links
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