# The Monitors (1969)



## BAYLOR (Oct 16, 2018)

It was based on a Keith Laumer novel  of the same name .  It stared   Kennan Wynn , Ed Begley Sr , Susan Oliver, Sherry Jackson, Avery Schreiber, and Larry Storch . in this film this group  benign Bowler  Hat wearing aliens have come to bestow peace  on the the planet earth whether we want it or not.  I don't think the film did well at the box office and I think it was shut our during the Oscars ,. The film opening titles and song are  60's psychedelic .


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## Happy Joe (Oct 16, 2018)

Yep! I remember it (vaguely), didn't impress me favorably; I don't remember why.

Enjoy!


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## M. Robert Gibson (Oct 16, 2018)

Well, you got me intrigued, so off I went on a hunt
The Monitors (1969) - IMDb
I like the tagline


> If you don't like air pollution, war, body odor, hard pizza rolls, exercise, hairy musicians, sexy blonds, tooth decay, smiling heroes, population explosion... you'll love The Monitors.



And, as ever, YouTube comes up trumps


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## BAYLOR (Oct 17, 2018)

M. Robert Gibson said:


> Well, you got me intrigued, so off I went on a hunt
> The Monitors (1969) - IMDb
> I like the tagline
> 
> ...



This film is one those so bad its good films.  It's way of the charts silly .


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## Ray Pullar (Oct 17, 2018)

"I like the Monitors, well, because they're my kind of guys."
Hero's mother:  "My sinuses are clear again and the water tastes good."
Hero: (sarcastic like Charlton Heston) "Yeah they're great but I still hate 'em."
Hero: Oh yeah the Pacifist General.
Stott: (angrily)  That's a filthy Red lie.  The General believes in killing just as much as the rest of us

Strange American mash of The Prisoner, The Avengers, Monty Python and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in. Like a psychedelic Ed Wood movie.  Keith Laumer must hae been apoplectic with rage when he saw it (although he wrote humour E.g Retief ).  He was a USAF Captain too.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 17, 2018)

Ray Pullar said:


> "I like the Monitors, well, because they're my kind of guys."
> Hero's mother:  "My sinuses are clear again and the water tastes good."
> Hero: (sarcastic like Charlton Heston) "Yeah they're great but I still hate 'em."
> Hero: Oh yeah the Pacifist General.
> ...




A good script writer could have made this into a good film, it had alll the elements for it , It just that itnever seemed to come together.


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## Victoria Silverwolf (Oct 18, 2018)

I saw this low budget oddity a long time ago on television.  It has the feeling of an extended comedy skit.  That makes sense, because it was made by the folks at the Second City improvisational group.


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## Al Jackson (Oct 18, 2018)

This film is on a list I have of 2nd rate adaptations of 2nd rate science fiction.
Why some pedestrian junk get's picked over better science fiction passes beyond my understanding.
*Logan's Run* is my favorite example , why it did good box  office still puzzles me.
I thought the Nolan-Johnson novel was pedestrian dystopian. It did not make the HUGO ballot in 1968...
I think the worst one was *The 27th Day*. This  John Mantley novel is pure Readers Digest weak tea , I read the damn thing in 1956 and was bumfuzzled when it came out as a movie 1957 as far as I know it bombed.


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## Ray Pullar (Oct 18, 2018)

It has a style reminiscent of other sixties satirical films such as The Loved Ones, Our Man/In like Flint or The President's Analyst (funnily enough, all James Coburn films).


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## Ray Pullar (Oct 18, 2018)

Minor sf works cost less.  Logan's Run succeeded because of naked Jenny Agutter.


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## M. Robert Gibson (Oct 18, 2018)

Al Jackson said:


> bumfuzzled


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## Dave (Oct 18, 2018)

I'd never heard of it, but I'm watching it now!

Edit: What can I say?
It was atrocious, and very low budget. You can tell a low budget when they film two scenes on the same set/location from two different angles and pretend it is a different place.
At best, I'd say it was "of its time" and "novel."
I can see why Ray Pullar mentions those influences though.
However, rather than the influences 'on it' I think I can see many future things it may have influenced. The vegetable fight scene is very like the scene with the giant vegetables in Woody Allen's _Sleeper_ from 1973. The stoical men in hats have become a trope. I'm trying to think of cancelled a TV series but can't remember. There is the film _The Adjustment Bureau_ too.


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## Al Jackson (Oct 18, 2018)

Ray Pullar said:


> It has a style reminiscent of other sixties satirical films such as The Loved Ones, Our Man/In like Flint or The President's Analyst (funnily enough, all James Coburn films).



The President's Analyst is an odd one! 
The story there besides being an off the wall story is a kind of present-day-alternate-universe story. Fiction like that was considered science fiction then. I mean Dr. Strangelove was solid SF by 1950s definitions.
President's Analyst is one of forgotten gems , it is a subtitle satire , alas did poorly at the boxoffice.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 19, 2018)

Ray Pullar said:


> It has a style reminiscent of other sixties satirical films such as The Loved Ones, Our Man/In like Flint or The President's Analyst (funnily enough, all James Coburn films).



It does have that feel doesn't it?


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## BAYLOR (Oct 19, 2018)

Ray Pullar said:


> Minor sf works cost less.  Logan's Run succeeded because of naked Jenny Agutter.



Ive read the novel *Logans Run *and Though it quite good, but its  bit dated .  There written several  progressively worse sequels  to this book

As for the film. Its B movie stuff but entertaining.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 19, 2018)

Dave said:


> I'd never heard of it, but I'm watching it now!
> 
> Edit: What can I say?
> It was atrocious, and very low budget. You can tell a low budget when they film two scenes on the same set/location from two different angles and pretend it is a different place.
> ...



The Adjustment Bureau. I wouldn't be surprised if that one was a nod to The Monitors.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 22, 2018)

This film is too important to forget or ignore. Why ? Because it's off the wall weird.


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## Dave (Oct 22, 2018)

BAYLOR said:


> This film is too important to forget or ignore. Why ? Because it's off the wall weird.


When I said that it was atrocious, and meant it was atrociously bad, I'm still glad that it exists. We need independent films like this because they are novel and ground-breaking and they spawn other films. However, sometimes they can be off-the-wall and exceptionally good too at the same time. _Napoleon Dynamite_ comes quickly to mind, but I guess it is all a matter of taste.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 23, 2018)

Dave said:


> When I said that it was atrocious, and meant it was atrociously bad, I'm still glad that it exists. We need independent films like this because they are novel and ground-breaking and they spawn other films. However, sometimes they can be off-the-wall and exceptionally good too at the same time. _Napoleon Dynamite_ comes quickly to mind, but I guess it is all a matter of taste.



The 1960's produced alot of interesting  films like this.  For science fiction , it was a pretty good decade.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 5, 2019)

I love the opening musicall score for this film. It really is otherworldly.


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## picklematrix (Apr 6, 2019)

I don't think I've seen this film, but it sounds like it may be up my street. Retro films don't necessarily have to be perfectly executed, they just need a kind of vintage charm.
Bowler Hat wearing antagonists are always good.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 13, 2019)

Maybe they'll reboot it .


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## BAYLOR (Jun 3, 2019)

We need more quality films like this.


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## Dave (Jun 3, 2019)

BAYLOR said:


> *We need more quality films like this*.


You can't be serious about "Quality"? According to TV Guide, it was the first film production by the Second City comedy troupe of Chicago, financed and co-produced by the Bell and Howell film-equipment manufacturing company, in an effort to establish Chicago as a film production centre. It is low budget, and meant to not be taken too seriously.
Now, if instead you said "*We need more quirky films like this*" then I would agree with you, as I have before. We need less production-line, predicable films and sequels, made to a formula for mass-appeal audiences and more independently produced, innovative films with an original style.



BAYLOR said:


> Maybe they'll reboot it .


Original and innovative, this certainly is, so could you really recapture that with a reboot?


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## Matteo (Jun 3, 2019)

Ray Pullar said:


> Minor sf works cost less.  Logan's Run succeeded because of naked Jenny Agutter.


Possibly, but that film was not exactly unique in that regard...



Al Jackson said:


> The President's Analyst is an odd one!
> The story there besides being an off the wall story is a kind of present-day-alternate-universe story. Fiction like that was considered science fiction then. I mean Dr. Strangelove was solid SF by 1950s definitions.
> President's Analyst is one of forgotten gems , it is a subtitle satire , alas did poorly at the boxoffice.


Indeed!  The first time I saw that was late at night and I wondered what the hell I stumbled upon.  And love the Flint films - have his telephone ring as my ringtone.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 3, 2019)

Dave said:


> You can't be serious about "Quality"? According to TV Guide, it was the first film production by the Second City comedy troupe of Chicago, financed and co-produced by the Bell and Howell film-equipment manufacturing company, in an effort to establish Chicago as a film production centre. It is low budget, and meant to not be taken too seriously.
> Now, if instead you said "*We need more quirky films like this*" then I would agree with you, as I have before. We need less production-line, predicable films and sequels, made to a formula for mass-appeal audiences and more independently produced, innovative films with an original style.
> 
> 
> Original and innovative, this certainly is, so could you really recapture that with a reboot?



I was not being serious on the quality definition . But yes we could use more  quirky films like this the beak up the monotony of the effects driven films we get at the box office.

Could  reboot of this film work?  Moat reboots and remakes do fail .  Id would  to see  Mike Myers make the attempt .


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## Al Jackson (Jul 13, 2019)

BAYLOR said:


> Ive read the novel *Logans Run *and Though it quite good, but its  bit dated .  There written several  progressively worse sequels  to this book
> 
> As for the film. Its B movie stuff but entertaining.


One notes that *Logan's Run* was not a Hugo Nominee in 1968 ( that is 1967 novels)
I remember reading it in 1967 and thinking it was 3rd rate SF
The nominees for 1967 were :

_Lord of Light_ by Roger Zelazny [Doubleday, 1967] ----- winner
_The Einstein Intersection_ by Samuel R. Delany [Ace, 1967]
_Chthon_ by Piers Anthony [Ballantine, 1967]
_The Butterfly Kid_ by Chester Anderson [Pyramid, 1967]
_Thorns_ by Robert Silverberg [Ballantine, 1967]


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## BAYLOR (Aug 2, 2019)

It would make interesting Andrew Lloyd Weber Broadway musical.


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