609. The Skydivers (1963)

I can’t altogether disagree. I want to make note the variance of Season 6 was more volatile. Given episodes are favorites and the rest are decidedly all over the place. Literally. Same with the experiments. The films out there to be grabbed were Z-Grade over having much entertainment value and that too taxed the writers to overcome and the results are what we see.

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I don’t remember having a huge issue with the Season 7 Deep 13 stuff except in the one fateful ‘Clayton!’ episode. But I also don’t remember much else, except for the very extended and pointed moviemaking stuff, which I thought was good.

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The Rhino cassette.

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I generally don’t dig Dr. F as it is… But it’s rough going without frank.

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609 Promo.

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And I finally did it.

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This is my favorite Coleman Francis episode and it’s easy to see why. Great short, one of there best! Cheesy but watchable movie. This is easily the best of Coleman’s movies. It’s easy to get caught up in the love triangle plot. Plus there’s Skydiving, lots of it! My son is in the Air Force and I asked him about putting acid in someone’s parachute. He laughed and said, " yeah, that would be pretty low"!
The sex for sundries tune never fails to crack me up!

This was the first Coleman episode I saw and man was I taken! I just adore this one!

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The coffee and failed chemistry of the leads is what I walk away with. No urgency to the acting, an apathetic air to the scenes, and a pedestrian flavor to all that’s in it. You are so right. This is the most accessible and approachable of Coleman Francis’ films which definitely is saying something.

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Coleman didn’t do much right, but this movie almost, ALMOST, drags you in.

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And the music to this? Is it of help to the movie?

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I read somewhere that Anthony Cardoza was the guy you went too on a Coleman Francis movie to get something done. He seemed like a nice guy but wow, was he a boring actor.

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I actually like the music! Like the Del-Aires these guys were actually pretty good! The guitarist was talented!

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George Herman Ruth on guitar!

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WAY boring as an actor. He and a Ziplock bag held about as much charisma.

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Agreed! He left his personality at the door!

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I’m partial to the tunes too. You certainly taste the era in the song selection. The dancing succeeds better than the skydiving.

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Jimmy Bryant had talent! Mst found some obscure musicians. I also like The Beau Brummels and the band from Girl in Gold Boots (can’t remember their name). Not including The Band that played California lady. They sucked! :sweat_smile:

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The short is a pitch on the benefits of taking a shop class. While there’s nothing wrong with the intent, the way that one shop class student tries to wax poetic about his tools could be regarded as mildly creepy.

As for the feature, it’s the first (second chronologically) movie in the Coleman Francis Trilogy of Despair. This is probably the least incoherent of the bunch, as it has something that resembles a plot. Don’t let that get your hopes up, because it’s spiteful, low end soap opera shenanigans, full of pettiness and infidelity. You get the sense that the characters engage in skydiving to distract themselves from their bleak lives devoid of hope. The acting is uniformly terrible, as everyone speaks in a lifeless monotone. Checking the listings at IMDB, only a few of the people involved had significant acting careers, with several listing The Skydivers as their sole screen credit. Sad, really.

The host segments are a bit front loaded this time around. While the later sketches are perfectly fine, the disruption of Servo’s planetarium show and the swing choir competition are true gutbusting experiences that are hard to top

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Well, they had to give the boys something to watch while the girls were stuck watching the Home Economics short (as seen in Viking Women and the Sea Serpent).

But the “acid in the parachute” plot makes no sense and should not have worked.

I kind of like that Coleman Francis wrote in a cameo for himself and his entire family as the clueless people who accidentally arrive to watch the skydivers fall and then don’t know where to look for them.

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…I would have danced with the big lady.

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