Poor Devil

Poor Devil ~ This failed TV pilot/made for TV movie is one I have been trying to locate for a while. I saw it a couple times as a kid and then never again, until recently I discovered it on YouTube. From 1973, Poor Devil stars Sammy Davis Jr. as a devil named Sammy. Sentenced to the furnace room of Hell, he's just trying to catch a break and get promoted, you know, up to a good devil position like buying souls.

In this case, the client is Jack Klugman, in his "Odd Couple" prime, trying to get revenge on his boss. He plays a similarly never promoted junior accountant who's just been overlooked after spending twenty-five years working at a department store in San Francisco. Frustrated, he finally says he'd sell his soul to get even with his superior. Along comes Sammy.

Klugman is always good, even as the nebbishy wimp he plays here. Sammy fills his scenes with class and enthusiasm, and sharp duds. This is the early seventies after all and everyone is dressed to the nines, especially in Hell, which is run like a corporate office (all in Satanic reds) that would make Don Draper proud. Christopher Lee rounds out the cast as the mod young Lucifer. The real standout of this flick however is Adam West as Klugman's slimy boss. This anti-Batman role was probably the template for Gary Cole's Bill Lumbergh from Office Space. Yeah, he's that big of a jerk.

Klugman's plan for revenge is to empty the department store the night before the biggest shopping day of the year - December 23rd. Yeah, this is also one of those Christmas movies that happens at Christmas but it's not really a Christmas movie. Yeah, I know, a Christmas movie with devils. I can definitely understand why NBC didn't pick it up as a series.

While it's hopelessly dated, but in a good way, and unfortunately slow in some places... I found that it still holds up. It was simple, but I enjoyed the flick. Catch it on YouTube if you get a chance.

Quickies 9-7-2009

Extract ~ I really wanted to like this one, being such a big fan of Mike Judge’s Office Space, but no suck luck. This might have been good or maybe just looked good on paper, but on the screen this is a loser. Ben Affleck is interesting in the way he used to be in Kevin Smith movies but then he blows it by referencing himself as a character. This doesn’t work, but man, I wish it did.

Dark Manhattan/Underworld ~ This double DVD features two 1930s urban melodramas with all African-American casts. The second is better than the first, but together a great time capsule of the time and an underrated gem.

The Hole Story ~ A wannabe TV producer trying to sell his pilot manufactures a story where there is none. A great concept poorly executed, but worth a look.

The Inglorious Bastards ~ Also known as Deadly Mission and G.I. Joe, it should be known that the only thing this flick has in common with the new Quentin Tarantino film besides a similar title is that it occurs in Nazi-occupied France. Other than that this is just a pretty typical 1970s war movie about guys on a mission – in a DVD extra Tarantino even explains that for him and his friends, the term ‘inglorious bastards’ always means ‘guys on a mission.’ In fact, the DVD extra with Tarantino talking with this film’s director Enzo Castellari is probably more fun and more engaging than the movie itself.

Bohica: The Devil’s Film-Maker ~ I just bet this looked a whole lot better on paper than it does on the screen. And the music, a rip-off of the “Kolchak the Night Stalker” theme, is like a never-ending circle of Hell itself. That’s the real horror of this low-budget horror/comedy.

Office Killer

DILBERT FROM HELL

A Video Review of "Office Killer"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

It’s like an evil twin to Haiku Tunnel or Office Space in that it’s just as hilarious as those films but in retrospect I think it’s supposed to be a horror movie. Whatever. It actually works as both.

Carol Kane (Simka of "Taxi") plays Dorine, a mousy proofreader who has been downsized and then accidentally electrocutes the office computer guy (David Thornton who distractingly looks just like Jimmy Fallon’s similar character from "Saturday Night Live"). Once she gets a taste of killing she proceeds to off the rest of the office staff.


When not absorbed in her work and job Dorine takes care of her ailing mother. Her performance here is disturbingly close to that of Bruce Davison’s in the classic Willard or Scott Jacoby’s in Bad Ronald. Carol Kane is highly underrated.

Molly Ringwold (always a pleasure to see she’s still doing movies), Michael Imperioli (nice to see him outside "The Sopranos") and Jeanne Tripplehorn (Rene Russo’s perennial stunt double) round out an impressive cast.

Now I’m sure anyone who works or has worked in Cubicle Hell is cheering Dorine on. Me too. It’s a delicious road to murder and wish fulfillment. See it but try not to live it… unless you’re sure you won’t get caught.