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Speed
Freaks [film]
Unconscious
Motives of the Motion Picture Industry |
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Had Peter Arno drawn the Addams Family, they might have engaged in upper class tomfoolery similar to that of Hangdog Theater's Parlour Problems (Ontological). Renamed Pumpkin and Smedley, perhaps they'd engage a socially unskilled houseguest in an awkward game of Yahtzee, forcing him to conform to their bizarre and unspoken rules by means of raised eyebrows, withering glances, and placecard inscription contests. Pumpkin might try to seduce said houseguest with a fire-engine red teddy bear, then try biting his shirt, and, when all else failed, jamming his head between her breasts. Rose, their disturbingly smarmy, somewhat polymorphously perverse Jesus freak butler, might add to the confusion by making entrances at the worst possible moments in order to right the many chairs that had been toppled in the fracas. The houseguest might have to endure fencing matches with each member of the household, including a Wednesday-esque waif in a checkered dress. All of this would be tightly controlled, almost down to the eyelash, in a frenzied yet slightly self-conscious manner. The dialogue would be the verbal equivalent of dummy type, there to emphasize the choreography of the nonverbal communication. Arno wouldn't have created those lovable misfits, though, despite his highly amusing panels, Addams did, because he was a better cartoonist.
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