How could she leave us with this lunatic?

Seinfeld

2.5: The Jacket

The Premise

Jerry buys an expensive suede jacket with a pink and white striped lining. He wears it to a dinner date with Elaine’s intimidating father.

Observational

It’s a shame that, in the words of Jason Alexander, Lawrence Tierney was a “total nut job”, as his disposition put paid to any future appearances of Elaine’s father. His portrayal of Alton Benes is palpably menacing and, because he plays it dead straight, he ensures the laughs elicited from George and Jerry’s terrified predicament are even greater.

Not that it sounds as if Tierney could have played it for laughs if he’d wanted to. A renowned bruiser, he was known for his confrontational attitude; he caused young Quentin Tarantino problems on the set of the following year’s Reservoir Dogs. On Seinfeld he reportedly stole a butcher’s knife from the kitchen set, but returned it after Jerry (inadvisably perhaps) confronted him over he was concealing upon his person.

Alton Benes is a force of bristling masculine aggression, so naturally he and George get on like a house on fire. George’s “staunch heterosexuality” is under scrutiny as soon as he comes on singing “Master of the House” from Les Miserables(“Pipe down, chorus boy,” instructs Alton). He’s earlier informed Jerry his jacket is “fabulous” (Elaine: Dad thinks George is gay). When Alton dismisses his recent novel (“Drivel!”), George just makes matters worse by agreeing with everything he says (“Maybe some parts”). With Elaine failing to show, George and Jerry take shelter in the men’s room (“How could she leave us with this lunatic?”) and when she does eventually arrive they’re beyond desperate (“We’re dying here!”) Alton is even looking to pick a fight over the choice of restaurant (“You’re not afraid of a little spice, are you?”)

This episode may be more linear than the previous two (you couldn’t really call the jacket a separate plot strand since Jerry is a constant in both), but structurally it’s very satisfying and the resolution is perfectly formed (gruff Alton refuses to be seen with Jerry wearing his jacket stripy lining out, so the suede is ruined in a snow shower). This is very much Jerry and George’s show, though. Elaine gets a great entrance, showing off her physical dexterity as she recounts Kramer’s offer of a lift (and stealing away Jerry’s urge to recount the traumas theyhave suffered), but she barely says a word to her father.

Kramer, always on the look out for something for nothing, ends up with both Jerry’s old leather jacketand his ruined suede one (“I’m going to do something about this lining”).

We’re also treated to an early classic coda, as Alton drives home and finds himself involuntarily singing “Master of the House” (as George notes earlier, “It just comes out. I have no control over it”).

Quotable

Jerry: Frankly, I prefer the company of nitwits.

Elaine: So that’s why we’re not together any more.

Kramer: That’s more you than you’ve ever been.

George: What am I, Bud Abbot? What did you call me idiot for?

Alton Benes: I don’t need anybody to tell me it’s going to rain.

Alton Benes: We had a funny guy with us in Korea. A tail gunner. They blew his brains out all over the Pacific. There’s nothing funny about that.

Verdict:

Comments

Oh, you got me right in the pantaloons, partner.

The Party (1968) (SPOILERS) Blake Edwards’ semi-improvisational reunion with Peter Sellers is now probably best known for – I was going to use an elephant-in-the-room gag, but at least one person already went there – Sellers’ “brown face”. And it isn’t a decision one can really defend, even by citing The Party ’s influence on Bollywood. Satyajit Ray had also reportedly been considering working with Sellers… and then he saw the film. One can only assume he’d missed similar performances in The Millionairess and The Road to Hong Kong ; in the latter case, entirely understandable, if not advisable. Nevertheless, for all the flagrant stereotyping, Sellers’ bungling Hrundi V Bakshi is a very likeable character, and indeed, it’s the piece’s good-natured, soft centre – his fledgling romance with Claudine Longet’s Michele – that sees The Party through in spite of its patchy, hit-and-miss quality.

I never strangled a chicken in my life!

Rope (1948) (SPOILERS) Rope doesn’t initially appear to have been one of the most venerated of Hitchcocks, but it has gone through something of a rehabilitation over the years, certainly since it came back into circulation during the 80s. I’ve always rated it highly; yes, the seams of it being, essentially, a formal experiment on the director’s part, are evident, but it’s also an expert piece of writing that uses our immediate knowledge of the crime to create tension throughout; what we/the killers know is juxtaposed with the polite dinner party they’ve thrown in order to wallow in their superiority.

They'll think I've lost control again and put it all down to evolution.

Time Bandits (1981) (SPOILERS) Terry Gilliam had co-directed previously, and his solo debut had visual flourish on its side, but it was with Time Bandits that Gilliam the auteur was born. The first part of his Trilogy of Imagination, it remains a dazzling work – as well as being one of his most successful – rich in theme and overflowing with ideas while resolutely aimed at a wide (family, if you like) audience. Indeed, most impressive about Time Bandits is that there’s no evidence of self-censoring here, of attempting to make it fit a certain formula, format or palatable template.

I'm an old ruin, but she certainly brings my pulse up a beat or two.

The Paradine Case (1947) (SPOILERS) Hitchcock wasn’t very positive about The Paradine Case , his second collaboration with Gregory Peck, but I think he’s a little harsh on a picture that, if it doesn’t quite come together dramatically, nevertheless maintains interest on the basis of its skewed take on the courtroom drama. Peck’s defence counsel falls for his client, Alida Valli’s accused (of murder), while wife Ann Todd wilts dependably and masochistically on the side-lines.

You must have hopes, wishes, dreams.

Brazil (1985) (SPOILERS) Terry Gilliam didn’t consider Brazil the embodiment of a totalitarian nightmare it is often labelled as. His 1984½ (one of the film’s Fellini-riffing working titles) was “ the Nineteen Eighty-Four for 1984 ”, in contrast to Michael Anderson’s Nineteen Eighty-Four from 1948. This despite Gilliam famously boasting never to have read the Orwell’s novel: “ The thing that intrigues me about certain books is that you know them even though you’ve never read them. I guess the images are archetypal ”. Or as Pauline Kael observed, Brazil is to Nineteen Eighty-Four as “ if you’d just heard about it over the years and it had seeped into your visual imagination ”. Gilliam’s suffocating system isn’t unflinchingly cruel and malevolently intolerant of individuality; it is, in his vision of a nightmare “future”, one of evils spawned by the mechanisms of an out-of-control behemoth: a self-perpetuating bureaucracy. And yet, that is not really, despite how indulgently and glee

Miss Livingstone, I presume.

Stage Fright (1950) (SPOILERS) This one has traditionally taken a bit of a bruising, for committing a cardinal crime – lying to the audience. More specifically, lying via a flashback, through which it is implicitly assumed the truth is always relayed. As Richard Schickel commented, though, the egregiousness of the action depends largely on whether you see it as a flaw or a brilliant act of daring: an innovation. I don’t think it’s quite that – not in Stage Fright ’s case anyway; the plot is too ordinary – but I do think it’s a picture that rewards revisiting knowing the twist, since there’s much else to enjoy it for besides.

A herbal enema should fix you up.

Never Say Never Again (1983) (SPOILERS) There are plenty of sub-par Bond s in the official (Eon) franchise, several of them even weaker than this opportunistic remake of Thunderball , but they do still feel like Bond movies. Never Say Never Again , despite – or possibly because he’s part of it – featuring the much-vaunted, title-referencing return of the Sean Connery to the lead role, only ever feels like a cheap imitation. And yet, reputedly, it cost more than the same year’s Rog outing Octopussy .

Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know, if you ripped the fronts off houses, you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it?

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) (SPOILERS) I’m not sure you could really classify Shadow of a Doubt as underrated, as some have. Not when it’s widely reported as Hitchcock’s favourite of his films. Underseen might be a more apt sobriquet, since it rarely trips off the lips in the manner of his best-known pictures. Regardless of the best way to categorise it, it’s very easy to see why the director should have been so quick to recognise Shadow of a Doubt 's qualities, even if some of those qualities are somewhat atypical.

I don’t like fighting at all. I try not to do too much of it.

Cuba (1979) (SPOILERS) Cuba -based movies don’t have a great track record at the box office, unless Bad Boys II counts. I guess The Godfather Part II does qualify. Steven Soderbergh , who could later speak to box office bombs revolving around Castro’s revolution, called Richard Lester’s Cuba fascinating but flawed. Which is generous of him.

I think you’re some kind of deviated prevert.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) (SPOILERS) Kubrick’s masterpiece satire of mutually-assured destruction. Or is it? Not the masterpiece bit, because that’s a given. Rather, is all it’s really about the threat of nuclear holocaust? While that’s obviously quite sufficient, all the director’s films are suggested to have, in popular alt-readings, something else going on under the hood, be it exposing the ways of Elite paedophilia ( Lolita , Eyes Wide Shut ), MKUltra programming ( A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket ), transhumanism and the threat of imminent AI overlords ( 2001: A Space Odyssey ), and most of the aforementioned and more besides (the all-purpose smorgasbord that is The Shining ). Even Barry Lyndon has been posited to exist in a post-reset-history world. Could Kubrick be talking about something else as well in Dr. Strangelove ?

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