William Demarest

Bracken's portrayal of Norval as a nervous Nellie adds to the film's comedic appeal as he navigates the chaos with a mix of determination and bewilderment.

The supporting cast, including William Demarest as Trudy's gruff father and Diana Lynn as her wisecracking sister Emmy, adds depth and humour to the story.

Demarest's portrayal of the town constable, who is both protective and exasperated by his daughters, provides some of the film's most memorable moments.

Sturgis' script is filled with rapid-fire dialogue and slapstick humour, making The Miracle of Morgan's Creek a quintessential screwball comedy.

Tonight, the Ballyhoo is going to be tackling some World War II propaganda again, but not just any World War II propaganda.

Yes, films from the golden age of Hollywood could have... typical, standard stand against the Nazis fair, but do they involve Humphrey Bogart, Bill Demarest, Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason, and a plot surrounding a specific kind of cheesecake from a very specific type of bakery that leads into uncovering a Nazi plot within the United States? No, because there's only one movie that has all those things and so much more.

It's the Vincent Sherman 1942 comedy comedy gold classic all through the night.

So see the show and stay behind for a discussion to delight the earbuds.

I buy tickets to the policeman's ball.

every year um and just kind of like you know i might not you know i might operate kind of outside the law but i'm not like you right right and yeah that and then probably the fight scene at the very end but otherwise yeah you just you've got you could take out the fifth column aspect of it and it's just any it's any sort of like noir get to the bottom of the conspiracy uh there just happens to be nazis in this one

yeah well you're also forgetting when sunshine played by bill demarest uh throws that axe at hitler's at the portrait why don't you stay yeah because

that's about the only thing you know the couple you get a couple swastikas you get a portrait of hitler and a portrait of i think there's one of himmel in there as well at this orguring one of the two in that same scene um

So we have not yet gotten to the big W or whatever they're going after.

exactly exactly so uh yeah this is uh it's exciting because i've seen this movie many many many times in its entirety and in hunks and in clips so i know it pretty well and to see it through the eyes of someone who has never seen it that's sort of what the basis of this show was when we started it so this week's movie is it's a mad mad mad mad world directed by Stanley Kramer and written by British authors William and Tanya Rose.

It has Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters, Phil Silvers, Don Knotts, Dorothy Provine, Dick Shawn, Terry Thomas, Edie Adams, Jimmy Durante, and just about everyone else in Hollywood.

It was released by United Artists in 1963, although there are several edits floating around that you can grab.

And then a furniture truck driver, Lenny Pike, played by Jonathan Winters in a moving truck.

And Jonathan Winters is a stand-up comic at the time.

He would end up being a big influence to Robin Williams and actually did a season of Mork & Mindy.

But I don't expect you to follow him either.

Yeah

... and, um, and a bunch of the other, William Demarest and a lot of the other sort of-

Yeah, no, it's-

... regular homes

A, a very young Phil Silvers is in it.

And of all people, World War I, real life World War I veteran William Demarest is in it.

Uh, I think he was born in Minnesota, 1892.

Uh, and so he would've been 25 when he went over there with the American Expeditionary Force, the Doughboys.

Hollywood has a way of loving to, um, pay homage to other earlier films, and maybe this bit was used in other earlier films but, well, uh, here in a couple of months, the, uh, great debate will begin anew as to whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

And there is that, that, that one scene where Bruce Willis [sighs] wraps a fire hose around his waist and leaps off the, what is it? The Nakatomi building, uh, before the, before things blow up.

And so I, I giggled merrily to myself last night when watching All Through The Night, I saw, uh, William Demarest.

They were escaping from the Nazis.

But we know that there's something there.

And the handyman played by William Demarest, who ever watched My Three Sons, Uncle Charlie, who will always be that character.

He knows something's going on.

He knows right from the beginning, but doesn't want to say anything because he's going to sound like he's crazy.