Ivanlandia is the flame, Jack Webb is the fuse, Dragnet ’68 is the bomb!

I'm not going to preach to the choir;
we all know that Jack Webb's late-1960s version of Dragnet is pure Nixonian madness-genius,
the highest entertainment possible.

But how could I explain this to someone who didn't grow up with Webb's
absurdist-conformist law & order melodrama as a childhood friend?
Here goes:
Imagine a man so square
that he has become hallucinatory,
with a rapid-fire delivery that can hypnotize you
better than a cobra,
who then, as producer-writer-director,
presents tableaus of losers in generic homes doing stupid, pathetic crimes
and being severely punished way out of proportion for them.
A sure-fire winner. I love this show.

THIS is a personal, artistic vision of what one man thinks the US should be, and how it should act.
The brilliant audacity!
(And to think that young John Landis had the temerity—or cojones!—
to ask Webb to play Dean Wormer in National Lampoon’s Animal House! Wow!)



Any episode about LSD or weed is a must-see, but “The Big Prophet” (often known as “Brother William”) is absolutely ESSENTIAL.
This is the episode where Sgt. Friday growls the now-infamous, “LSD is the bomb” speech:
"Marijuana is the flame, heroin is the fuse, LSD is the bomb.
So don't you try to equate liquor to marijuana, mister, not with me.
You may be able to sell that jazz to another pothead, but not to somebody who holds some sick kid's head while he vomits and wretches on a curbstone at four o’clock in the morning.
And when his legs get enough starch into them so he can stand up and empty his pockets, you can bet he'll have a stick or two of marijuana.
And you can double your money he'll turn up a sugar cube or a cap or two.
So don't you con me with your mind expansion slop.
I deal with kids every day.
I try to clean up the mess that people like you make out of 'em.
I'm the expert here, you're not."

And that’s fucking GENIUS! Yes!

Introducing the 47th Minute Project! Huzzah!

In the spirit of fun and games, the National Film Board of Ivanlandia begins the 47th Minute Project.

In other words, a “guess the movie” contest.

We’ll present the 47th minute of a film, and you try and guess the movie. Simple as duck soup!

Please leave your answer in the comments section.


Before we get started, some background:


Why the “47th Minute?”

The High Command of the United Provinces of Ivanlandia are all graduates of Pomona College of Claremont, California, United States of America, that’s why.

The “47” Phenomenon and Pomona are like some Burroughsian language virus: People leave Pomona with an unholy fascination with the number 47, and wind up spending the rest of their lives seeing it everywhere. (And sometimes they continue to spread the virus….)

“Forty-seven. You can’t escape it,” another Pomona grad once told me.

And neither will you. Heh, heh, heh…

Interestingly enough, today’s entry into the 47th Minute Project (photo below) was very popular at Pomona College, being shown quite regularly, I seem to remember. Getting baked and watching today’s entry in the 47th Minute Project was always a great way to start an evening of carousing. Have fun! (Answers will be revealed in the next 47th Minute Project.)




(BTW: This week’s featured film was actually borrowed from the personal DVD library of Otto Mannix…not that that clue is going to help you—but who’d a’thunk a right-winger like him would dig a flick like this!—Although personally, I feel this week’s entry into the 47th Minute Project is pretty easy…But it’s always nice to start these things off simple…)


[Mufti is not a mysterious democratic organization that welcomes all but a secretive fraternal subset inbreeding snobbery. New? Alpha? Fie! Boycott! Boycott! OK!]