The Screengrab : video of the day

Video of the Day: Lindsay Lohan's Screen Test

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:45:00 GMT

Oh, Lindsay Lohan, you drug-addled alcoholic bisexual nut. Hollywood loves you to pieces! But was there ever a time when you weren't several varieties of cuckoo-bananas? Why...yes!

Captured here in a screen test for her motion picture debut -- the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, made when she was a tender 11 years old -- Lindsay Lohan shows signs of being the adorable scamp we all fell in love with before the cut-rate Mexican pharmaceuticals got hold of her. She probably watches this late of an evening and cries., poor thing.

Video of the Day: "Dark Knight", Schmark Knight

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:45:00 GMT

While everyone sits around whingeing about whether or not the late Heath Ledger is going to win an Oscar for his portrayal of the Joker in Christopher Nolan's made-more-cheddar-than-Kraft The Dark Knight, we're all about honoring the past here at the Screengrab. And what better way to honor the past than to show the audition test that got Adam West and a classy young fella named Burton Gervis their gigs as Batman and Robin?

Just imagine if the runners-up, Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell, would have gotten the job! Uh...never mind.

Video of the Day: Bad Santa

Leonard Pierce — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:15:00 GMT

It's going to be a light posting week here at the Screengrab, as we all spend time with our loved ones and relations at this sacred time of year. However. we didn't want to leave you without at least one Video of the Day -- this one, a clip of one of the funniest scenes from our 12 Days of Christmas Marathon favorite, Bad Santa.

We know we end up asking one of Billy Bob Thornton's questions to at least one relative per year at the family gatherings. No, not "What's the house number?"

Related Posts:

Video of the Day: Drunk History

Video of the Day: Gremlins 2.5

Video of the Day: "Slumdog Millionaire" Goes Anti-Viral

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Back in the old days of the internet -- you know, around late 2007 or so -- the way video remixes worked was that some enterprising clever-boots with some editing software and a lot of time on his hands would create a deft blend of music and film that showed his particular fan passion in a new light. Nowadays, it's become just another professionally handled exercise in viral marketing (although, really, when you announce them ahead of time, how viral can they be? Bacteria don't issue press releases). That said, British-based AV specialists AddictiveTV -- whose 'viral' video remix of Iron Man can be seen below -- are better at it than most, and maintain the tone if not the spirit of the old-school remix.

It's just been announced that AddictiveTV, in the first such 'official' remix of its kind, will be handling an upcoming viral video remix for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire. While it would be a lot more exciting to follow this sort of thing if it weren't just advertising, if it's as skillfully done and gorgeous to look at as their previous work, well, watch this space...

Related Posts:

Trailer Review: Slumdog Millionaire

Who Spoils the Spoilers? Intimations and Possible Repercussions of the Post-Credits Iron Man Epilogue

Video of the Day: The Five-Minute "Star Wars" Holiday Special

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:30:00 GMT

This week is the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special. If you're one of the lucky ones who missed this made-for-TV abomination, it is widely believed to be not only the worst thing ever made with the name "Star Wars" attached, but the worst thing ever made of any kind. How bad is it? It's so bad that George Lucas -- the man who released the crawling, hideous thing that is Episode III: Revenge of the Sith to theaters worldwide -- yanked it from circulation so that it can only be seen in low-grade bootleg form. It's approximately two hours long, but it seems like it's about two months long -- which is why we're eternally grateful to the good forks at The Late Night Explosion for culling it down to an agonizing but survivable five minutes.

This version gives you tiny snippets of almost all the things that make the original Star Wars Holiday Special so mind-searingly awful -- the endless untranslated bellowing of Chewbacca's family, the wookie porn, the Jefferson Starship music video, the song by a coked-out Carrie Fisher, the interminable clowning by a disco-shirted Art Carney, the sight of Mark Hammill made up like Joel Grey in Cabaret, the Bea Arthur musical number -- but in brief enough doses that your brain doesn't immediately seize up and fall out of your ear the way it does when you have to watch the whole thing. Enjoy!

Fantastic Fest Review: Fanboys

Video of the Day: John Belushi's Screen Test

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:45:00 GMT

Closing in on what would have been John Belushi's 60th birthday, debates rage about whether he was really a brilliant comic whose career was cut tragically short before he had time to become great, or just a talented comedian who died before he had a chance to embarrass himself. We lean towards the former argument, and this clip gives you an idea why.

By the time this brief clip for what was then being called The Saturday Night Show was recorded, the then 26-year-old Belushi didn't have to try out for anything -- he was already a lock to make the cast. But it still captures him at the pinnacle of his clowning, mocking the whole idea of screen tests: he starts out doing a few absurd "warm-up" exercises, then goes on to riff a gross improvisation on live television, and heads into a goofy parody of Marlon Brandon's own screen test for The Godfather -- a movie that was then only a few years old.

Video of the Day: "Walter"

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:45:00 GMT

If you know the Screengrab, you know we like a good homemade trailer remix. And if you know the Screengrab, you also know that we like The Big Lebowski. So, if you know the Screengrab, you know it was just a matter of time before we got around to posting this thing:

Ron Kovic...Walter Sobchak. Coincidence? We think not.

Video of the Day: Requiem for a Day Off

Video of the Day: "Karate Kid III" After Dark

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:30:00 GMT

In the Screengrab's ongoing attempt to bring you the beautiful, the bold, and the bodacious in hard-to-find screen tests, we occasionally stumble upon something...odd. For example, here's a test reel from The Karate Kid III, where Daniel (Ralph Macchio) meets Snake (John Avildsen -- son of the movie's director, which will seem more shocking after you've seen the clip) for the first time. The dialogue was largely improvised, and we warn you, is not safe for work:

All we can tell you is, if the whole movie had been like that, we would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Related Posts:

Yesterday's Hits: The Karate Kid

Video of the Day: Lolita Screen Test

Video of the Day: SCORPIO!

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:45:00 GMT

Goodness knows, we hate arguing here at the Screengrab. And the last thing in the world I want to do is take issue with my esteemed colleague Scott Von Doviak's excellent work on the Top 007 James Bond Theme Songs (parts One and Two). But we're under a lot of pressure to produce here at Nerve.com, and I'm afraid that in his haste, Scott has forgotten the greatest James Bond theme of all!

What's that you say? That's not a real James Bond theme? It's just a parody? I'm making a mockery of the very concept of ranking the title songs from a long-running British spy movie franchise?

Fine. I didn't want to have to do this, but you forced my hand.

Video of the Day: Vote Bob

Video of the Day: Judo with Putin

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:00:00 GMT

How did we miss this in the last DVD Digest? Yesterday saw the debut of Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin, an instructional video featuring the Russian prime minister and former Olympic champion Yasuhiro Yamashita teaching the Japanese martial art to the nation's youth. We weren't able to get a copy of the video (lousy publicists), but here's some highlights from the AP:

If the oft-repeated truism that all the world's problems could be solved by getting all the leaders together and letting them fight it out, we'd all better start learning Russian as soon as possible. Worse still, Le Figaro reports that French president Nicolas Sarkozy has expressed interest in training with Putin! Senators McCain and Obama, we beseech you: stop arguing and start training.

Video of the Day: Vote Bob

Video of the Day: Drunk History

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Here is what Derek Waters' friends do: they get really, really drunk and make confused attempts to explain major events in U.S. history. Here is what Derek Waters does: he films it. Luckily for him, he also happens to know a few well-known actors, like Michael Cera, and he gets them to re-enact these blotto history lessons. And lucky for us, too, because the results are paralyzingly funny:

That's just the first edition, with Cera as Alexander (not George) Hamilton. Subsequent, and equally funny, editions have starred Jack Black as Ben Franklin and Danny McBride as George Washington. Collect 'em all!

Video of the Day: When Woody Met Billy

Video of the Day: Gremlins 2.5

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT

One of the most memorable scenes in Gremlins 2 -- the underrated followup to the '80s classic that's only recently found the audience for its subversive satire -- is a cleverly done meta-joke where the marauding creatures actually take over the projection booth and insert themselves into the movie. (For the home video release, they broke the videotape and wreaked havoc until stopped by a piece of John Wayne footage.)

In this delightful little YouTube fan film, Sacha Feiner projects the gag forward 18 years, into the digital age -- both literally (with his digital manipulation of the monster footage) and figuratively (with the conceit adapted to the digital On-Demand era).

Related Posts:

Video of the Day: The New Batman Movie?

Video of the Day: 'Requiem for a Day Off'

Video of the Day: The New Batman Movie?

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Admittedly, it ain't Christopher Nolan. But in a cleverly conceived -- and surprisingly watchable -- example of what YouTube is capable of delivering, filmmaker Andre Perkowski brings us Silent Shadow of the Bat-Man, a detourned collage film made up up of found footage and scenes snipped from some of the same old silent movies that influenced Batman's creators, Bill Finger and Bob Kane, in designing the character, including The Bat, The Man Who Laughs and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

A happy-go-lucky approach to copyright issues ensures you won't be seeing this in the theaters anytime soon, but in addtion to writing original music for the Silent Shadow of the Bat-Man experiment, Perkowski has already shot three more chapters of a projected six-piece series, all made with the same detourning approach and all available on YouTube.

Video of the Day: Sharon Stone Bares All For Paul Verhoeven

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:45:00 GMT

Okay, well, maybe not all -- she'd save that for the actual movie. But this is Stone's initial screen test for her most notorious role, as ice-cold killer Catherine Trammell in 1992's Basic Instinct. At the time this footage was shot, Sharon Stone was still considered one of Hollywood's hottest bombshells instead of one of Hollywood's biggest kooks, and Paul Verhoeven, still three years away from Showgirls, was still a subversive genius.

Ah, '90s nostalgia! Unfortunately, we weren't able to locate a similar clip of Stone staring intently at Michael Caton-Jones in preparation for Basic Instinct 2. You can thank us later.

Video of the Day: Hitchcock in Hitchcock

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Strange as it may seem, Brian De Palma is not the most slavish imitator of Alfred Hitchcock in the movie business today. That title now belongs to M. Night Shyamalan, who has long since proved that anything Hitchcock could do, he could do bigger -- and worse. His twist endings are more predictable and disappointing; his plots are more pulpish and implausible; his thrills are sparser and fewer between; and even his cameos are more pompous and alienating than Hitch could ever have dreamed. Of course, where Hitchcock could never hope to equal Shyamalan's groundbreaking work in his own movies of annoying and distracting the viewer, what he lacked in chutzpah, he compensated for in sheer volume. Hitch appeared in some two dozen of his own films, including these 14 from the Hitchcock Collection DVD set.

Too bad this one doesn't contain Hitchcock's cleverly carried off cameo in Lifeboat. M. Night Shyamalan may be an egomaniac, but even he's not ballsy enough to give himself a cameo in a movie entirely set in a damaged life raft floating aimlessly around the Atlantic Ocean.

Video of the Day: Morgan Freeman as DJ Mel Mounds

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:45:00 GMT

As long as we've got Morgan Freeman on the brain, we decided to treat you to a Video of the Day starring the man himself -- and a truly monstrous 1970s 'fro -- as severely funky DJ Mel Mounds, introducing "The Jelly Belly", that hot new dance number by the Short Circus.

Morgan Freeman's appearances on Sesame Street are among my fondest, and wierdest, childhood memories, and few are wierder than this one. Check out young Irene Cara getting down as a member of the Short Circus, and Rita Moreno -- herself an Oscar winner -- boogying her culo off to the heavy sounds of DJ Mel. Myself, I'm just waiting for DJ Shadow or some other enterprising hip-hop producer to come out with a dope remix of "My Mellow Fellow Turned Out Yellow"...

Related Posts:

Video of the Day: Marvel -- the Crummy Years

Video of the Day: When Woody Met Billy

Video of the Day: Sharon Tate's Screen Test

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:45:00 GMT

Yes, kids, once upon a time, Sharon Tate was a real live actress, and not just Charlie Manson's most famous victim, or Roman Polanski's second-biggest reason to be bummed out.

Here's proof, in the form of her screen test for the utterly deranged Valley of the Dolls -- a movie so nuts that Roger Ebert wrote a parody sequel to it that was actually less crazy than the original. Dig her reading of that last line...

Video of the Day: "The Shining", Channel Four Style

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:30:00 GMT

This month is Kubrick Month on the UK's Channel Four, and in honor of the late director (who did much of his best work in England), their advertising department has created a rather impressive way to introduce viewers to him: by literally putting them in the director's chair.

Channel Four took great pains to recreate the backstage feel of The Shining: aside from the near-perfect duplication of the Outlook Hotel, the network hired actors who highly resemble Kubrick's 1980 cast and crew, produced mock-ups of the props and equipment, and chose to do the promo as a continuous tracking shot in duplication of some of the movie's most memorable scenes.

Video of the Day: "Requiem for a Day Off"

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Trailer mash-ups -- the selective editing of movie previews, usually to give them an entirely different tone or feel with the judicious use of music -- have practically become a cottage industry on YouTube. Here's one of our favorites.

If nothing else, this clever little bit of editing shows how close, especially in the range and intensity of emotion required from the actors, comedy is to tragedy...

Video of the Day: Ellen Page's Screen Test from "Juno"

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

So, we don't know if you've heard of this Ellen Page kid. Rumor around the Screengrab water cooler is that she's gonna be big. We're talking Nancy McKeon big. Maybe even bigger! As you may recall, America's favorite wise-ass teenager starred in a little movie called Juno a few yoinks back:

As the clip indicates, Page — who already seemed preternaturally assured in front of the camera in the problematic Hard Candy — took to the role of Juno right from the jump, imbuing even script read-throughs with a great deal of maturity and poise. Will her performance in Smart People be as winning? Stay tuned, girl-geek fans...

Video of the Day: Everybody's All-American

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:45:00 GMT

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl opens this Friday. Based on the disturbingly popular American Girl line of dolls, it tells the story of an adorable, plucky, scrappy young girl (played by the adorable, plucky, scrappy Abigail Breslin) who has amazing adventures and triumphs over adversity depsite living during the Great Depression. It's being pitched as part of a new wave of films that hope to make the metroplex a safe place for preadolescent girls; we can only applaud the effort, seeing as for the last 30 years, the joint has been corrupted by the likes of this guy.

That's Steven Prince, the subject of a little-seen Martin Scorsese documentary called American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince. During the filming of Taxi Driver, Scorsese and Mardik Martin ran across the repulsively charismatic Prince -- a hustler, gunrunner, and drug dealer with a talent for spinning wild stories -- and were so taken by him that they not only made the documentary, but cast him in the film as the gun dealer who sells Travis Bickle his pieces. If the story sounds familiar, it's because a young Quentin Tarantino saw him tell it in American Boy and, er, appropriated it for a memorable scene in Pulp Fiction.

Scorsese Passes the Baton to Demme on Bob Marley Documentary

Video of the Day: PTA vs. Mike Figgis

Video of the Day: Vote Bob

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:45:00 GMT

With Barack Obama finally assuming the position of Democratic candidate for President of the United States, that means campaign season has begun in earnest. And you know what that means, fellow Americans: tons and tons of negative campaign ads! Here's one of our favorites from the big screen:

Eerily reminiscent of the "Who do YOU want answering the phone when terror comes calling" ad of a few months ago, ain't it? And say, whatever happened to that Bob Roberts guy? Now there was a politician you could really believe in.

Video of the Day: Over Time (2006, Oury Atlan, Thibault Berland and Damien Ferrie)

Paul Clark — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

One newly-released DVD I neglected to mention in Tuesday’s DVD Digest was Paramount’s The Animation Show 3. A yearly program of shorts presented by Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt, The Animation Show 3 played in a number of theatres in the United States last spring, and included such memorable shorts as Run Wrake’s Rabbit and Hertzfeldt’s masterful Everything Will Be OK. Many of the same shorts that played in theatres are also on the DVD, but one notable omission for the home audience is Oury Atlan, Thibault Berland and Damien Ferrie’s Over Time. A tribute to the life and work of Jim Henson, Over Time is a beautiful work, one that somehow manages to be simultaneously eerie and moving in a way that might make Tim Burton envious. But why take my word for it? Here, through the magic of YouTube, is Over Time.

Videos of the Day: Coffy vs. Foxy Brown

Paul Clark — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT

As I wrote previously, Professor Brian O’Blivion’s All-New Flesh for Memorial Day Film (and TV) Quiz is now in full swing at Dennis Cozzalio’s blog Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. And while many of you have no doubt completed Professor O’Blivion’s exam in a timely manner, I also realize that some (including yours truly) may be taking longer to finish. No doubt some of you are having trouble with some of the questions, and could probably use a bit of a refresher course for some of them.

One I’ve had a bit of a problem with was one of Dennis’ infamous comparison questions, this one relating to two of Pam Grier’s most famous roles. Yes, I was confounded by four simple words: “Foxy Brown or Coffy?” Now, I love me some Pam Grier, but it’s just been so long since I’ve watched either of these that I had some trouble distinguishing between them, and I’d imagine I’m not the only one having trouble. So I did a little research into the question and decided to share my findings with you, for the benefit of all those having trouble.

First, the similarities. Both films are directed by Jack Hill and feature, along with Grier, the one and only Sid Haig. And both films star Grier as a badass who sets out to clean up the streets as revenge for harm done to someone close to her. However, in Coffy the wronged party is her sister, whereas in Foxy Brown it’s her boyfriend who’s the victim. Likewise, in Coffy she’s a nurse, whereas Foxy Brown doesn’t elaborate on her daytime career. And finally, Coffy is one of Quentin Tarantino’s all-time favorite films, whereas Foxy Brown costars Huggy Bear.

Does that help any? If not, check out the trailers. Maybe that’ll do the trick. First, Coffy:

And now, Foxy Brown:

As far as trailers go, Foxy Brown wins hands down- it’s funnier, funkier, and just a blast to watch, while Coffy’s is more conventional and kind of bland. And if there’s one thing Pam Grier could never be, it’s bland. Anyway, I’m still a little unsure of how I’ll answer the question (maybe I’ll be a smartass and answer with “Black Mama, White Mama”), but either way, I’m looking forward to revisiting some blaxploitation classics in the near future.

Video of the Day: Gettin' Stupid with "Get Smart"

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:45:00 GMT

With Steve Carrell's big-screen remake of the classic small-screen comedy Get Smart only a few weeks away, this might be a good time to look back at the original series. After all, it was the cool, clipped professionalism of Don Adams that made the original show such a success.

Er, well, maybe not. Luckily, the show reached the pinnacle of its popularity right around the same time that interest in bloopers peaked, so we're left with this. They're the bonus materials of the pre-DVD era!

Video of the Day: Rusty's Learning to Listen Part 8

Paul Clark — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:30:00 GMT

You Elizabethtown fans out there may have noticed that in my review of the film earlier today that I failed to mention what may be the film’s best scene. This wasn’t an accident- I simply figured, why describe it when I could just as easily show it? That’s right, boys and girls. Here’s the full-length version of the educational video “Rusty’s Learning to Listen Part 8,” presented here through the magic of YouTube. Personally, I think it plays better in the context of the movie, but you can’t help but love how it more or less turns into the Cameron Crowe version of Zabriskie Point in the last minute. Enjoy!

Video of the Day: Marvel -- The Crummy Years

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:30:00 GMT

We're not too cool to admit it: what with all the Marvel Films pictures coming out, and the Iron Man movie being so universally well-recieved, and the movie franchise taking a smart, fan-friendly approach to continuity and all, we here at the Screengrab are actually starting to get a bit nostalgic for the days when comic book adaptations really, really sucked.

Not that they don't suck now, at least on occasion. It's just that now, when a superhero movie sucks, it sucks in a big, expensive, ambitious, spectacular way. Back in the day, they sucked because they were made by hacks who spent about eight dollars on the whole production and farmed out most of the work to their nephew who used to work in a group home. Don't believe us? Take this, Robert Downey Jr., you smarmy sophisticated so-and-so:

Did Downey ever make you think he was a cool exec with a heart of steel? Okay, yeah, maybe. But check this shit out, Mr. Ed "I'm the GOOD Hulk" Norton:

Uh huh, yeah, you know it! Ain't he un-glamorays? Uh, sure! I guess so! Take that, Mr. Too Cool for School! And don't think we've forgotten you, Mr. Yet To Be Announced Star of the 2011 Captain America Movie:

ALL THOSE WHO CHOSE TO OPPOSE HIS SHIELD MUST YIELD! That's right, we said it! What? WHAT?

Video of the Day: When Woody Met Billy

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:45:00 GMT

We've been picking on Woody Allen a lot lately -- and with good cause -- so we thought that for our Video of the Day, we'd give the poor guy a break and take you back to the golden days of the 1960s, when he was actually funny. Here's a real treat: on a talk show (in front of a live audience, no less!), Woody interviews evangelical legend Billy Graham. What's astonishing isn't how good the Wood-Man is, getting off hilarious on-the-spot lines (asked what his greatest sin was, he confesses "I had impure thoughts about Art Linkletter"); after all, this was his heyday. What's really surprising is how good Graham is -- he never strays from his righteous path, but he manages to give as good as he gets, joshing around with Woody and even knocking off a zinger: when Woody says that as soon as he's rich enough, he'll have his parents put in a home, Graham slyly responds, "Good! I hope it's in a home with you."

BONUS: Here's part 2 of the interview:

Video of the Day: Time Piece (1965, Jim Henson)

Paul Clark — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Tomorrow marks the 18th anniversary of the sudden, tragic death of the great Jim Henson, a name I trust needs no introduction. Ever since I was young, Henson was something of a hero of mine, and of all the pieces I’ve written for Screengrab to date, the one I’m most still proud of is a Henson tribute I penned on the occasion of last spring’s Jim Henson Legacy touring retrospective. Here’s a small portion of what I wrote at the time:

”Henson wasn’t simply a popular children’s entertainer, but a major artist as well, one whose innovations are still being used by effects artists to this day. It’s exceedingly rare for someone to be both brilliant and beloved — but Henson pulled it off magnificently.”

I toyed with the idea of posting a classic Muppets clip, but since I figure many of you know them more or less by heart, I’ve decided instead to spotlight one of Henson’s most famous non-Muppets projects, his Oscar-nominated 1965 short Time Piece. I think it stands as a testament to the breadth of Henson’s gifts, and an example of how much more there was to him than the Muppets. Enjoy!

Video of the Day: A Beer With Basil

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Our own Scott Von Doviak's recent post about Hollywood celebrities doing pandering commercials in Japan sent me scrambling to YouTube to find a thematically equivalent entry for our Video of the Day, only with my own delightfully distinctive retro twist. Of course, movie stars doing cheap commercial endorsements is nothing new; it's been happening since at least 1895, when the star of Louis Lumièr's classic Le Jardinier et le petit espiègle did a spot for Tussaud's Nev-R-Clog Hoses. So it's not as if we were particularly shocked to see Hollywood's greatest Sherlock Holmes, the ever-elegant Basil Rathbone, doing a commercial for a crummy Midwestern light beer brewery.

What did surprise us was how it appears that the dignified, patrician Rathbone appears to swill down a rather heroic portion of his sponsor's wares while recording the bumpers for this afternoon movie showcase. We're not sure exactly what flick he was presenting, but at one point, he says "I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have", and all you can think is, well, Basil old man, if I'd had nine beers too, I'd probably be enjoying any damn thing they put in front of me.