CLOSEST EARLIEST
Topic: *CLOSEST EARLIEST
(and what to do in future)

Since we've not come up with a match to date, we should note the closest "match," tempered by earliest occurance. I say it's Live a Little, Love a Little (1967-68). Here is this site's entry for that film:

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STRONG BUT REFUTED

Live a Little, Love a Little APR 12 03
A definite YES NOV 29 03
But NO, Watched 08 17 04 (by me, currently CLOSEST EARLIEST.)
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Its original suggester was michael.will, with good detail and mis-en-scene (see this site's Greatest Hits). I watched it on a videotaped copy from TCM on their August 2004 Elvis day `cast.

Number one, what a pile of misogynist crap it was! Like a Beach Blanket movie with no charm. Anyway, about 55 minutes (55 minutes of hell!) into the movie, here's the operative dialogue:

[Party at rich publisher's house. Weird black box on bar.]

Elvis: [monotone cracker] What's that gadget, Mike?

Don Porter: [mellifluous, understatedly inflected] Looks impressive, doesn't it? That's my Nothing Box.

Elvis: Nothing Box?

Porter: Um-hm. Does absolutely nothing, but it's a great conversation piece."

Elvis uses it to start conversation with woman who wants a conversation started anyway, sings "A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action." Good tune, for post-Army Elvis movie.

Among our thoughts so far, the date is early (even by my lights). It has a question, an answer, a poetic qualifier. It refers to a McGuffin. It has Elvis. It has Gidget's TV dad. I call this a Level 2 match, with a good early date.

And I don't care if they say the exact lines a hundred more times in the balance of the movie, I ain't watching any more of it.

Meantime, here are more "Strong Not Refuted"s that need more work (prefer Watch, also Check Script if available, starred are extra-strong or sentimental faves):

*Bloodbath at the House of Death (plus other Kenny Everett stuff)

*Cash McCall

Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy (TV, also radio, also audio--I have somewhere, also book(s)--I have; currently checking personally). But note that the "original" TV series and the book (first one only?) has been REFUTED.

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy has been refuted, also one skit of the TV show. But maybe somewhere--

Office Space

Pulp Fiction (gak!)

Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, The TV
But see the entry for RFRP in Exceptional Cases.

*Santa Claus: The Movie

Saturday Night Live TV (Spade/Meadows 900-number sketch)

Star Trek TOS TV (Trouble With Tribbles ep, I have homemade audio tapes but they're 40 years
old and where did I put them?)

Star Trek TNG TV (see post August 15 2003, et al.)

Toys

*West Wing TV (Dead Irish Writers ep)

Slave on, Spartacus! (No, don't watch Spartacus!)