Still more SCIENCE IN THE REEL WORLD:
DR EHRLICH’S MAGIC BULLET (1940): – a fitting tribute to the brilliance of Paul Ehrlich, and a fascinating example of studio manoeuvring under the Production Code.
POWDER TOWN (1942): – in which the worst fears of Eros the alien are justified…
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In other news, I have recovered, re-formatted and added screenshots to my review of Destination Moon (1950), and re-formatted The Flying Saucer (1950).
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#1 by Braineater on February 14, 2010 - 3:49 pm
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Oh boy. This brings back memories, this does. Not so much about the day-to-day life in a “powder town”, unfortunately, but plenty to do with “fish out of water” and revolutionizing the production of explosives. And it’s all grounded in reality, not Solaronite.
See, my father worked in munitions during WWII, at the Keystone Ordnance Plant. The stories he told about that time would have made a much better film than Powder Town seems to be.
Dad was a mostly self-taught engineer, who had attended Columbia University but had never bothered to graduate. He spent his time there doing the upperclassmen’s homework for them: that’s how he supported himself in NY during the Great Depression. By his junior year (which I guess would have been about 1931), he already knew what was waiting for him in the next year’s classes, so he just went out on his own.
During the War, he was put in charge of a bunch of 4-Fs who knew nothing about explosives, engineering or chemistry. There was no other place for these misfits in the war effort, so they sent them to this little insignificant TNT plant… and Dad was one of their managers-cum-babysitters. Collectively, they were the laughingstock of the industry.
But my Dad had been making explosives since he was a kid, brewing nitro-glycerine for the neighborhood school children in the little one-horse town of Glendale, California (which made him very popular among the kids, but substantially less so among the grown-ups). What’s more, he was annoyed that the whole munitions industry hadn’t modernized very much since WWI. So he tacked up a notice on the company bulletin board, stating his intention to triple a day’s output of explosives lines* — with no mishaps or loss of life.
Everybody laughed.
But Dad put together an assembly-line type process, using this gang of ex-shoe salesmen and other complete neophytes, ran them like clockwork, and not only met his goal but went wa-a-a-y beyond it. Somewhere I have a copy of that day’s production sheet, which the whole team signed, and a photo of the whole group together. It was a triumph.
The process worked so well that the bigwigs from all the other plants had to come and review the Keystone process, and all the 4-Fs got to laugh at them. During the tour, there was an “accident” involving a fire hose and some of the management types that had made life miserable for Dad’s team… if the Suits suspected it was something other than an accident, they had to keep their mouths shut. They had it coming.
Now don’t you think that would have made a better movie than Powder Town? Trouble is, I never thought to ask my Dad more details about life in a munitions plant while he was alive. It never occurred to me what a good story it was until after I couldn’t hear it any more…
* My memory is fuzzy here, but I seem to remember that a typical day’s output for the plant was 3 lines. I think Dad claimed they could do 10 lines (or maybe it was 12), but as I recall they ended up doing 19.
#2 by lyzard on February 14, 2010 - 4:22 pm
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Oy, fathers! Towards the end of his life mine got very much into the habit of saying, Oh, yes, I was present for that moment in history; didn’t I mention that before?, too. 🙂
Thanks, Will, that’s fascinating.
#3 by Braineater on February 14, 2010 - 4:44 pm
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Oy indeed. I bought him a hand-held tape recorder a couple of years before he died, but by that time it was a tad too late.
The trouble was, as my Dad entered his 90’s, he got a little tiny bit fuzzy about reality. I know the Keystone Ordnance story is true, and the details of that story never changed… but (f’r instance) when he started talking about his personal acquaintance with E.B. White — which I’d never heard a word about until that moment — I was so astonished I hadn’t the heart to ask my Mom if it were actually true. I still haven’t, come to think of it.
I have a horrible feeling that if I get to be as old as he was, my reality is going to blend in with all the movies I’ve watched. “C’mere, kid… lemme tell you about the time Ator and I fought lesbian vampires on the island of Matool…”
#4 by lyzard on February 14, 2010 - 4:59 pm
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We never had that issue; Dad was perfectly lucid. It was rather that he never used to talk about it at all; fifty years of silence, essentially. It was only over the last couple of years that he opened up. There’d be an article in the paper or a documentary on, and he’d suddenly come out with his version of the events. Nothing got him talking like an “official” account of how things happened!
#5 by The Rev. D.D. on February 17, 2010 - 11:11 am
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Ohboyohboyohboy…new SitRW.
If you were trying to sell us on that one about Dr. Ehrlich, well, mission accomplished on this end. These are out on DVD, yes?
“C’mere, kid… lemme tell you about the time Ator and I fought lesbian vampires on the island of Matool…”
HOLY CRAP someone get BW a budget!! (And make sure he throws a giant monster in there somewhere too.)
#6 by lyzard on February 17, 2010 - 5:24 pm
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Rev, as far as I can tell, Dr Ehrlich is only available through the Warners Archive Collection, or whatever it’s called; you’d know better than I if those discs are available to rent. It played TCM here (obviously).
#7 by supersonic on February 17, 2010 - 7:40 pm
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So, have you ever blown up your own lab?
If not, why not?
#8 by lyzard on February 17, 2010 - 8:36 pm
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Dammit, man! – I’m a biologist, not a chemist! (Or a physicist.) It’s a lot harder to blow things up with DNA.
(Although I did once leave something running I shouldn’t have, and jerked awake at 3.00 am convinced I’d burnt the building down. An early morning dash in proved me wrong, fortunately.)
#9 by The Rev. D.D. on February 17, 2010 - 9:03 pm
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Wait a minute…are you suggesting I do my own research, rather than do it for me and provide me with what I want to know like usual???
And no lab explosions!?
Madam, just what kind of scientist are you?
(Have there been any lab animals running rampant in your lab? Killer mutants? Cloned prehistoric monsters eating people?)
I caught The Dam Busters on TCM once; I guess I missed this one. Now I am sad.
#10 by lyzard on February 17, 2010 - 9:32 pm
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Yes, astonishing as it may seem, I don’t know everything that’s available to rent in the US – gasp!!
The rats got out once – does that count? (Nothing says “science” like three people in a panic shrieking, “SHUT THE DOOR! SHUT THE DOOR! SHUT THE DOOR!”) Oh – and when I was at uni the antechinus made a break for it, too. Speedy little so-and-sos.
#11 by Read MacGuirtose on February 18, 2010 - 12:51 am
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Bizarre… I was curious what an “antechinus” was, so I went ahead and Googled it… and found that the link to the Wikipedia article was the purple color that indicates that I’d recently visited it. Now I’m wondering what else it was lately that motivated me to read up on antechinuses. (Whatever it was, the information apparently didn’t stick…)
(Ah, okay, wait, apparently I got there from the page on quolls—and I do sort of vaguely remember at some point recently running across a mention of a quoll, and wondering what that was…)
#12 by supersonic on February 18, 2010 - 10:28 am
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Couldn’t you at least manage an “explosion” of room-filling bacterial growth?
Antechinuses, eh… hm, they look just like rats. Does that mean you can experiment on them just like rats? Presumably they’re better adapted for an Australian being-experimented-on environment due to being adapted to living upside down.
#13 by The Rev. D.D. on February 18, 2010 - 10:41 am
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AWWW, ANTECHINever mind.
I’d go with “AWWWW MOUSEY!!” but my left brain is vetoing that because I know damn well that’s not what it is.
I still want to know how you don’t know everything I want to know, Ms. Scientist. That’s supposed to be your job!
Feh. Feh, I say!
(I’m strongly considering tossing a “Bah!” in there too.)
#14 by lyzard on February 18, 2010 - 3:30 pm
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No, no! Say “feh” to me if you must, not not “bah”!
(And at the risk of attracting another “bah”, I’m tempted to reiterate that knowing what Netflix keeps in stock is not precisely within my purview! 🙂 )
Supes – no, we certainly did NOT use the antechinus like that!! We were centre for marsupial research and were simply trying to understand their rather bizarre biology. In the wild, the females survive and raise young and age and mate again, but each generation of males only lasts as long as the mating season, during which they, um, burn themselves out. Put simply, they get so worked up and overheated that they fry their immune systems. In the wild they will either die or fall to predators because they’re too weak to run, but in captivity they can be nursed through it and survive. There was a lot of interest in this at the time, aside from just the zoological aspect, because the biology involved seemed to an extent to mimic the pattern of AIDS, and people were trying to understand how the antechinus’ immune system was able to recover, given the chance.
(And I hope you’re impressed with the way I took the high road over that ‘upside-down’ crack…)
#15 by The Rev. D.D. on February 19, 2010 - 9:01 am
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But you’re supposed to know everything about everything! Don’t tell me the movies lied to me again…
I think my “Bah!” is going to go to the movies. My “Feh”s will suffice for you for now, I suppose.
What else have you done besides marsupial research, or is that your main body of work? (If you’re willing to tell us, that is.) I’ve suspected you were in the zoological/biological field(s), but always wondered what exactly you worked on.
#16 by lyzard on February 20, 2010 - 10:38 pm
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My marsupial work was while I was at university; I did a portion of my honours degree on the photoperiodicity of reproduction in tammar wallabies. After that, it was mostly oncological research.
#17 by The Rev. D.D. on February 21, 2010 - 1:10 pm
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Oncology…is that tumors and similar such masses?
Is your research still related to marsupials? If not, what led to what seems to be a bit of a switch of focus (unless that’s what you’d always planned to go into)?
#18 by lyzard on February 21, 2010 - 2:54 pm
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Uh, that would be that thing called “the job market”, dearie. The skills transfer; you just have to go where the money is.
Not very romantic, I know. This would be another thing that the movies don’t get quite right.
(Yes: oncology = cancer medicine.)
#19 by The Rev. D.D. on February 21, 2010 - 9:18 pm
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Cool, that med terminology class I had to take is paying off! 😀
Hopefully you enjoy the work, even if it’s not your first choice. I understand that sort of thinking; I went back to school for similar reasons.
Damn those lying movies! Bah! BAH I SAY!!!
You DO at least have a basement laboratory, right? It doesn’t have to have the conical flasks of mysterious, possibly bubbling colored fluids or a Jacob’s ladder, but at least tell me you’ve got the lab! Leave me a little light in this cold, dark world, I beg of you!
#20 by lyzard on February 21, 2010 - 10:02 pm
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A basement laboratory? Oh, sure! That’s where I keep my army of remote-controlled, flesh-eating zombies, which one day I’m—
Well, perhaps we’ll leave it there.
#21 by The Rev. D.D. on February 22, 2010 - 8:59 am
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I remember you mentioning the basement full of remote-controlled zombies, but I wasn’t sure if it was a lab or just a storage area.
I feel better now. A world without basement laboratories….well, it’s just not a world I want to live in. Thank you for making my Monday a little brighter. 😀
#22 by The Rev. D.D. on May 21, 2010 - 11:36 pm
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And finally, months later, I have seen Dr. Ehrlich thanks to TCM and a timely heads-up from Ms. Kingsley.
Once again, I tip my imaginary hat to her, for bringing a fine movie to my attention that I no doubt would have otherwise never made an effort to see, simply because it’s not what I usually look for in movies. Which is stupid, because science is so fascinating to me, and yet I might never have looked twice at something like this if she hadn’t given it such a glowing review.
Her word should be enough, but if it wasn’t for some crazy reason, I definitely recommend it as well.
Random thoughts:
Without knowing it was Edward G. Robinson, I don’t think I would ever had guessed it was him. He truly gives a wonderful performance. Despite it being lightly sketched, the love and affection he and Ruth Gordon display for each other is a delight. My favorite moment for them is at the piano after he presents their ticket to Egypt; it made me say, “AWWWWWW, they’re so CUTE!!” (Then a few minutes later, I repeated it when he and von Behring reconcile at the trial with tears in their eyes, but anyway.) Not a poor performance anywhere, really, although I admit I was distracted by the appropriations committee. I kept waiting for that short guy to start rambling on about how the old country knows all about werewolves and crossing himself.
Even seeing it coming, that suicide is a shocker.
The dinner party got my biggest laughs. I was SO happy that one of the guests fiddled with his monocle during that series of shocked close-ups after Ehrlich told them all what he was working on. I also love how he says it so matter-of-factly and keeps eating his soup.
This movie made me want to throw up my hands and cry, “Science — is — GOOD!!!” at least twice. I think that aspect along is unique enough to make it worth a watch; the movie’s high quality just adds to the experience.
#23 by lyzard on May 22, 2010 - 4:48 pm
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BEHOLD THE POWER OF NAGGING.
Yes, you’ve put your finger on it, Rev: DEMB is one of the few films out there to start with the assumption that science means well…
The two things I love about the dinner party scene are the calm way our hostess repeats THAT word – a great lady, indeed – and the end of it, when the camera pulls back from the two of them to show… 🙂
Anyway, after all that, I’m very glad you liked it!
#24 by The Rev. D.D. on May 24, 2010 - 7:02 am
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Yes, it might even be more powerful than the power of cheese.
(You probably didn’t get that ad campaign, did you?)
Yeah, that pullback was a good laugh too. I liked him scribbling on the tablecloth, and his wife tries to stop him, but the hostess is too interested to care.
I’m very glad you convinced me to see it with your words! I will have to hunt up the DVD sometime, because I will definitely want to see it again.
#25 by maggiesmith on May 12, 2022 - 3:45 pm
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I would have sworn under oath that the young man at the beginning of DEMB commits suicide by jumping in front of a tram. I ‘remember’ it very clearly. So I was quite surprised when I saw it again and he actually cuts his throat in the dressing room. It must be the Mandela Effect.