Prince of Space

(Hero looks longingly up at a clock…or the sky…or something)
Tom (singing): Whe-er-er-er-ere is [insert Japanese word here]

The song Tom is singing is “Where is Love?” from Oliver!, a 1968 musical version of Oliver Twist. It was sung by Mark Lester, who played Oliver, and who ultimately fell into obscurity after making movies like Fahrenheit 451. In the “Where is Love” sequence, Oliver had just been thrown into the cellar and was looking longingly out of the window, which might explain Tom’s reference. The word Tom says in Japanese is, coincidentally, “love” but I don’t know how to spell it so I used the brackets. Oliver! starred Ron Moody and Oliver Reed. Oliver! went on to win Best Picture of 1968.


(a nice-looking Japanese woman runs out of the house after her little boy.)
Mike: It’s the Japanese Suzanne Pleshette.

Suzanne Pleshette was a ‘50’s and ‘60’s movie star who did look a little like the woman in this movie, except she was Caucasian. Although she’s equally famous for her part in “The Bob Newhart Show”, the movie I remember her most for is The Birds, where she played a schoolteacher who used to have a thing for Mitch and ultimately gets her eyes pecked out by homicidal birds. I liked Suzanne Pleshette’s character better than Tippi Hedrin’s, because Hedrin was too uppity and high-toned, while Pleshette was cool and easy-going…until she got her eyes pecked out. I never really understood that movie…


(Prince of Space flies between the giant alien’s legs [it’s not as perverted as it sounds)
Mike: Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?

The most famous line from The Graduate (and there are several: “One word: plastics” and “Elaine!” just to name two). Dustin Hoffman has just taken Anne Bancroft home from a party and finds her with her leg arched over a chair. Then he says the line in a very nerdy way (as only Dustin Hoffman knows how). This is a really good movie, very classic, and it has the famous ending with Benjamin (Hoffman) and Elaine (Katharine Ross) sitting doubtfully at the back of a bus (they do a whole bunch of stuff before then, so there’s a reason they’re uncertain). This shot kind of reminds me of the end of Georgy Girl, where Lynn Redgrave (also in a wedding dress) and James Mason sit uncertainly in the back of a car. She probably wished she’d stayed with Alan Bates. Anyway, Anne Bancroft (the “older woman”) was actually only six years older than Hoffman. Don’t be so surprised; this happens a lot in the movies. In North by Northwest, Cary Grant was actually only seven years younger than Jessica Royce Landis, who played his mother.


(shot of the leader of the Chicken Men of Krankor)
Mike: Ah, Mr. Bond. Bock.

Heh. Obviously a reference to the James Bond movies, specifically the one where the villain sits in a big chair with a white Persian cat in his lap (so, in this example, Blofeld, I guess), while James Bond is tied up or in some kind of death trap that never works, and says something like, “Ah, Mr. Bond. So you thought you could invade my secret lair in the Invisible Island of Paprika—45 degrees latitude, 23 longitude—and stop me from blowing up the United Nations with my death ray that I bought from the Russian black market? Well, we’ll see about that…wait…damn it…the death button doesn’t work.” You’d think it’d be easier to just shoot the guy. The first Bond movie (not the television movie, mind you), Dr. No, was released in 1962 and starred Sean Connery as Agent 007 and Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder, who’s some kind of shell diver. Besides having one of the coolest (if not the coolest) theme songs ever, the James Bond series also has some of the coolest titles out there, including You Only Live Twice, Tomorrow Never Dies, Diamonds are Forever, For Your Eyes Only, Live and Let Die, and The World is Not Enough. Oh, and it’s also got the coolest gadgets.