Memory Lane - 1970s..
Jan. 23rd, 2022 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. I finally figured out the name of this old adventure movie that I saw in 1976, as a kid. It had a scene in it where the characters were being eaten alive by mosquitos in the Florida Everglades, and took place in the 1800s, after the Civil War. For a long time, I thought I'd dreamed up this movie. I don't remember anything from it but the portion in the Everglades.
It's called Treasure of Matecumbe based on a 1961 novel by Robert Louis Taylor entitled The Journey to Matecumbe. It starred popular Disney child actor, Jimmy Doran, Billy Attmore, Joan Hackette, Robert Foxworth, Peter Ustinov, Vic Morrow, Robert Donqui, Dick Van Patten, and Jane Wyatt.
In post-Civil War Kentucky, young David Burnie (Johnny Doran) becomes the unexpected heir to the family secret: a map leading to buried treasure on the Florida isle of Matecumbe. The youth, joined by four fellow adventurers (Robert Foxworth, Joan Hackett, Peter Ustinov, Billy Attmore), begins his search for the treasure despite deadly interference by his late father's archenemy (Vic Morrow). The angry threat of a hurricane and the presence of hostile Indians set the mood for the frantic trek to the swampy site -- a destination that could provide untold wealth for the searchers ... or for their evil pursuers!
It's very politically incorrect in places - there's a disclaimer now in front of the film, about the racial and sexist depictions, and to look it up in the Disney archive for more information about it and why this was an incorrect representation. Yet still better than Song of the South, which Disney has pulled completely, and a scene in Fantasia that they completely re-filmed.
Parents need to know that Treasure of Matecumbe is a Disney adventure movie based on a 1961 novel, A Journey to Matecumbe, by Robert Lewis Taylor. There is a degree of threat throughout as main character Davie (Johnny Doran) and his friends are pursued by aggressive baddies. There are several gunfights -- including one death and a child firing a gun -- in the style of Western movies, but none show graphic injuries. Set in 1869, it includes some dated social concepts: A Black character is referred to as "the Black" while Native American characters are portrayed as mysterious and "otherly." The Ku Klux Klan try to hang a White man but are scared off when flaming bottles are thrown at them. There is some sexism in the form of patronizing behavior toward women, but the main female character, Miss Paxton (Joan Hackett), is feisty and self-assured. A creepy sacred burial ground and a dramatic thunderstorm scene might be scary to younger viewers. But there are positive themes of perseverance, courage, and friendship, and all is redeemed with the classic happy ending.
I saw it in the movie theater when I was about...eight years of age with friends. I don't think my parents took me to it, I saw it with my best pal at the time, Debbie Dipeso and her brothers, with her parents supervising, I think.
I could be wrong of course. We saw a lot of Disney films in the 1970s, they were kind of the go-to source for kid entertainment back then. Both live action and cartoon.
Kind of watching it at the moment - not that bad. It's on Disney +. They have all their movies on that (well except for Song of the South and the one's they are truly ashamed of, although Song of the South is not as bad as Gone with the Wind or other films of that period, which were released in the 1970s and 80s, and seen on television.)
The 20th Century films and television shows were rather problematic, and a lot of them don't hold up well. Actually most of them don't and problematic is an understatement. I see some of them now, and I think, oh god. I can't watch this. WTF? While back then, it was actually rather progressive.
Which is why it is important to look at things in the context of the time period. Judging the past is not very productive, we can learn from it, and try not to repeat it. I'd like Sarah Michelle Gellar's statement on Instagram this week: "I can't take back the past, I can only move forward."
In this film - a white boy and a black boy go on an adventure together, both are from Kentucky. Which back in the 1970s was actually kind of progressive. I mean you rarely saw diverse casts in these films back then.
It's okay, somewhere in the B range. Women are depicted in a poor light - which was kind of true of most Disney films up until roughly the 21st Century. Because White Men wrote and ran everything. That's changed a bit now.
2. As a child, around the age of 11 or 12? I had a huge crush on Ike Eisenmann. He played Tony in the Escape from Witch Mountain films in the 1970s, and was in Fantastic Journey with Roddy McDowel, along with various other films and television shows in the 1970s.
He's long since retired from film, and became a major vocal effects consultant, then a writer.
Here's the podcast on all the Witch Mountain films.. Ike Eisnemann interview on the Witch Mountain Films.
My childhood 1970s film/television boyfriend crushes were in no particular order?
* Kimba
* Cartoon Robin Hood (the fox)
* Tony in Escape and Return from Witch Mountain
* Apollo in BattleStar Galatica
* Mark in Battle of the Planets
* Davey Jones in The Monkeeys
* Luke then Han Solo in Star Wars
* Jack Wild in HnR PuffnStuff and Oliver
It's called Treasure of Matecumbe based on a 1961 novel by Robert Louis Taylor entitled The Journey to Matecumbe. It starred popular Disney child actor, Jimmy Doran, Billy Attmore, Joan Hackette, Robert Foxworth, Peter Ustinov, Vic Morrow, Robert Donqui, Dick Van Patten, and Jane Wyatt.
In post-Civil War Kentucky, young David Burnie (Johnny Doran) becomes the unexpected heir to the family secret: a map leading to buried treasure on the Florida isle of Matecumbe. The youth, joined by four fellow adventurers (Robert Foxworth, Joan Hackett, Peter Ustinov, Billy Attmore), begins his search for the treasure despite deadly interference by his late father's archenemy (Vic Morrow). The angry threat of a hurricane and the presence of hostile Indians set the mood for the frantic trek to the swampy site -- a destination that could provide untold wealth for the searchers ... or for their evil pursuers!
It's very politically incorrect in places - there's a disclaimer now in front of the film, about the racial and sexist depictions, and to look it up in the Disney archive for more information about it and why this was an incorrect representation. Yet still better than Song of the South, which Disney has pulled completely, and a scene in Fantasia that they completely re-filmed.
Parents need to know that Treasure of Matecumbe is a Disney adventure movie based on a 1961 novel, A Journey to Matecumbe, by Robert Lewis Taylor. There is a degree of threat throughout as main character Davie (Johnny Doran) and his friends are pursued by aggressive baddies. There are several gunfights -- including one death and a child firing a gun -- in the style of Western movies, but none show graphic injuries. Set in 1869, it includes some dated social concepts: A Black character is referred to as "the Black" while Native American characters are portrayed as mysterious and "otherly." The Ku Klux Klan try to hang a White man but are scared off when flaming bottles are thrown at them. There is some sexism in the form of patronizing behavior toward women, but the main female character, Miss Paxton (Joan Hackett), is feisty and self-assured. A creepy sacred burial ground and a dramatic thunderstorm scene might be scary to younger viewers. But there are positive themes of perseverance, courage, and friendship, and all is redeemed with the classic happy ending.
I saw it in the movie theater when I was about...eight years of age with friends. I don't think my parents took me to it, I saw it with my best pal at the time, Debbie Dipeso and her brothers, with her parents supervising, I think.
I could be wrong of course. We saw a lot of Disney films in the 1970s, they were kind of the go-to source for kid entertainment back then. Both live action and cartoon.
Kind of watching it at the moment - not that bad. It's on Disney +. They have all their movies on that (well except for Song of the South and the one's they are truly ashamed of, although Song of the South is not as bad as Gone with the Wind or other films of that period, which were released in the 1970s and 80s, and seen on television.)
The 20th Century films and television shows were rather problematic, and a lot of them don't hold up well. Actually most of them don't and problematic is an understatement. I see some of them now, and I think, oh god. I can't watch this. WTF? While back then, it was actually rather progressive.
Which is why it is important to look at things in the context of the time period. Judging the past is not very productive, we can learn from it, and try not to repeat it. I'd like Sarah Michelle Gellar's statement on Instagram this week: "I can't take back the past, I can only move forward."
In this film - a white boy and a black boy go on an adventure together, both are from Kentucky. Which back in the 1970s was actually kind of progressive. I mean you rarely saw diverse casts in these films back then.
It's okay, somewhere in the B range. Women are depicted in a poor light - which was kind of true of most Disney films up until roughly the 21st Century. Because White Men wrote and ran everything. That's changed a bit now.
2. As a child, around the age of 11 or 12? I had a huge crush on Ike Eisenmann. He played Tony in the Escape from Witch Mountain films in the 1970s, and was in Fantastic Journey with Roddy McDowel, along with various other films and television shows in the 1970s.
He's long since retired from film, and became a major vocal effects consultant, then a writer.
Here's the podcast on all the Witch Mountain films.. Ike Eisnemann interview on the Witch Mountain Films.
My childhood 1970s film/television boyfriend crushes were in no particular order?
* Kimba
* Cartoon Robin Hood (the fox)
* Tony in Escape and Return from Witch Mountain
* Apollo in BattleStar Galatica
* Mark in Battle of the Planets
* Davey Jones in The Monkeeys
* Luke then Han Solo in Star Wars
* Jack Wild in HnR PuffnStuff and Oliver
no subject
Date: 2022-01-24 06:05 pm (UTC)I was curious about Battle of the Planets and I'd never heard of it before (I looked it up on Wikipedia).
no subject
Date: 2022-01-24 06:24 pm (UTC)Disney + has all these films. Also lots of documentaries. I was watching a documentary on the Sherman brother song-writing team (they wrote Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and most of the score for the Disney films from the 1960s-1970s. Including the theme park songs, such as the earworm It's a Small World After All.") The brothers did not like each other and did not get along, which is both reassuring and kind of hilarious.
Battle of the Planets was rebooted/morphed into Voltron. So you probably know it as Voltron. Most people do. I watched the early 1980s version of it on Saturday mornings.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-25 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-25 06:31 pm (UTC)