From age 7 to 30, I was Darrin two all the way. This kid was a macho, red-blooded Dick Sargent devotee. I couldn’t stand Darrin one, Dick York, with his big ears, greasy hair, and constant whining. No sir, Dick Sargent was my man – so much smoother and more willing to roll with the punches. But then I got married and something strange happened. There was a change within me. My life had a new beginning. I could still hear the birds sing, but it was a different song. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but my love of Darrin 2 started going sour and like Timothy Leary two generations ago, I turned on to Darrin 1, tuned in, and dropped out. I saw the light and I had been reborn.

What the “h” is he talking about, you say? Bewitched ran for eight seasons from 1964 to 1972 and featured married couple Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) and Darrin Stephens (Dick York/Dick Sargent). Samantha was a witch who fell in love with mortal Darrin and decided to stop using her powers to please her husband and live a normal life. They got married and had a daughter, Tabatha, and a son, Adam. This all sounds like a happy story until Samantha’s mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead), also a witch, is thrown into the mix and never leaves, creating mix-ups and mayhem aplenty.

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The first of its kind, Airport set the standard for the disaster films of the 1970s. Films such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974), and my favorite – Rollercoaster (1977) collected A-list, B-list, and C-list movie stars and put them into some pretty crummy situations. But their pain is our pleasure; the films grossed a ton of money – Airport made over $100 million on a $10 million budget. Based on the novel by Arthur Hailey, Airport provides a cavalcade of Hollywood superstars – Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bissett, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Maureen Stapleton, and Barry Nelson.

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Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss star in Howard Hawks’ film Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964). This screwball comedy is a loose remake of Hawks’ earlier film hit Bringing Up Baby (1938), which starred Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. The plot for this film is relatively complicated for a comedy. Rock stars as Roger Willoughby, a salesman at Abercrombie & Fitch – your grandfather’s Abercrombie & Fitch of yore when you could buy a safari set-up of rifles, zebra skins, ammo, and tents. Roger is a celebrity in fishing circles, known for his bestselling book, “Fishing Made Simple.” He can tell customers the perfect times to fish, the right lures for all occasions, and the proper way to cast a line. But Roger is hiding a dirty secret – he hates fishing and can’t stand being around fish.

Paula Prentiss co-stars as Abigail Page – a sarcastic woman on the go. She meets up at Abercrombie & Fitch with her girlfriend, Easy, played by the amazingly beautiful Austrian, Maria Perschy. (Perschy later had less film success, landing the lead in the 1973 film House of Psychotic Women, which happens to be #21 in my Netflix queue.) In case you missed it, her character’s name is Easy. Since her character is pretty wooden throughout the movie, I guess you had to be there.

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Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) begins with a hastily prepared animation sequence set to the sonic stylings of children singing “Hooray for Santa Claus.” Once the songs ends, we are told by the newscaster for KID-TV that they have sent a news crew to the North Pole to interview Santa Claus. I got excited upon hearing this news, only to find out in the end credits that the role of Santa was played by someone named John Call, which incidentally was my stage name for a brief while in college. Andy Henderson, on location from KID-TV provides a tour of Santa’s Workshop (though really just a set built for the film) and a quick run-through of some hard-working bearded elves led by Winky. Santa appears to enjoy his pipe more than the Standards and Practices people may have liked, but he enjoyed it in spite of them.

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What do a dude ranch, a hidden treasure, and an Elvis-battling ninja have in common? Tickle Me! Elvis Presley’s 18th studio film takes us to a dude ranch in the American Southwest where Elvis is helping out. Like many men his age, he wants to earn enough dough so that he can join the rodeo circuit. However, his plans are quickly forgotten when he meets a beautiful girl who holds a treasure map left to her by her father. To find the hidden gold, they need to uncover clues in a ghost town. But before they do, they are horribly massacred. No, that can’t be right.

The songs in Tickle Me are rehashed from earlier albums and films. They aren’t anything special since Elvis pretty much gave up recording good music during the early to mid-1960s in favor of churning out 3 films a year. After all, Colonel Tom Parker‘s gambling habit wasn‘t going to pay for itself. Tickle Me includes songs such as It Feels So Right, (Such An) Easy Question, and Long Lonely Highway.

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Being a big fan of horror films and organ music, I present my film suggestions for your Halloween viewing pleasure.

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