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David Burge Profile picture
@iowahawkblog
Jun 4, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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My new favorite movie of all time: High School Confidential (1958). It has EVERYTHING: switchblade fights! Mamie Van Doren! Reefer addicts! Jerry Lee Lewis! Midnight hot rod races! Vampira beatnik poetry! And non-stop hep cat lingo galore, daddy-o! ImageImageImageImage
I literally can't believe I never saw this movie before last night on TCM. Should be available on TCM on demand soon
Plus it has my late great pal Norm Grabowski (uncredited) as one of the Wheeler Dealers, the hoodlum gang that runs the reefer biz at 35-Year Old Student High School Image
And Michael Landon as head honcho of the Rangers, the high school's top hot rod club Image
And Charlie Chaplin Jr as undercover narc busboy at the beatnik jazz club owned by local reefer kingpin "Mr A" played by Jackie Coogan - whose movie career started as child costar of Charlie Chaplin Sr in "The Kid" and later became Uncle Fester on The Addams Family Image
And two chopped lead sled 48 Chevy coupes built by George Barris. Note: no one will be seated during the shocking lead sled flip scene ImageImage
In short: this is not a movie, it is a 1 hour 25 minute xray of my brain
Footnote: here's a Jackie Coogan tangent I went off on, prompted by a car ID request

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More from @iowahawkblog

David Burge Profile picture
Jan 4
V6? Don't make me laugh. V8? Mid. V12? Wannabe. Today #DavesCarIDService salutes the V16 - starting with a happy birthday to the OG Cadillac OHV V16. Introduced January 4, 1930, this bad boy was Caddy's top of the line power plant throughout the Great Depression.

It was Cadillac's answer to Packard's "Twin Six" V12 that set the standard for no-holds-barred luxury car cylinder excess in the 1920s. The development cost was astronomical. Only 4000 were ever made, and all those cars are very collectible today. And all lost money for Cadillac and GM, but no biggy - it was purely a prestige play.Image
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While Cadillac's V16 was the first offered in a passenger car, it wasn't the first one produced by a car maker. That distinction belongs to the Duesenberg brothers, who developed the beauty Model H (#1) as an aircraft engine during WW1.

Caddy's moonshot in the Cylinder Wars would not go unchallenged. Down the road in Indianapolis, rival luxury car maker Marmon quickly debuted their own V16 (#2) in 1931. These are much rarer than the Cadillac, with only 6 survivors known. Oddly one of them is in a hot rod (#3, #4).Image
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A couple of notes here:

1. "That Marmon is only a V10!" Wrong. When looking at an engine count the spark plugs, not the exhaust ports. The two outside pipes are dedicated to 1 cylinder, the 3 inside pipes are shared by 2 cylinders.

2. While most all V8s have 90 degree cylinder banks, Vs with more cylinders generally have much narrower V angles in order to run smoothly. The Cadillac V16 only has 45 degree V angle.
Read 13 tweets
David Burge Profile picture
Dec 21, 2024
A happy #davescaridservice Winter Solstice to all who celebrate! I don't, because frankly the whole winter business is not my cup of tea. Literally leaves me cold, not unlike this unfortunate 1959 Buick convertible in a vintage LIFE magazine shot. Image
On the upside, at least the sunset has stopped receding, and the coming snow and ice give me a chance to hone my car ID chops. But not even the brutal snows of Chicago can obscure the mighty tailfins of a 1959 Cadillac 4 door hardtop. Image
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Shovel, shovel, shovel.

This shot from 1960 NYC by Robert Doisneau shows French cellist Maurice Baquet trying to open the door to his 1957 Oldsmobile. Best hail a cab Mo, lest you want to play your big fiddle with frostbite. Image
Read 36 tweets
David Burge Profile picture
Dec 17, 2024
I watched the Netflix movie "Carry-On" last night and my god it might be the worst thing I have ever watched
I watched the whole thing, but the last 80% basically hate-watching to see how many ludicrous action movie tropes they could stuff into it
Spoiler alert: yes the ninja skilled TSA superhero goes full Tom Cruise and saves the day. Amazingly this was not written as a comedy

Read 6 tweets
David Burge Profile picture
Dec 1, 2024
As the Thanksgiving weekend winds down and your leftovers disappear, I would like to commemorate the season in a very #DavesCarIDService way: with a salute to Mayflower-themed Plymouth and Native American-themed Pontiac.

#1: 1946 Plymouth hood crest
#2: 1929 Pontiac ornament Image
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Both Plymouth and Pontiac were relative latecomers to car making, and both were corporate-created brands aimed at a similar market niche. GM created Pontiac in 1926 as a low priced companion brand to Oakland, and Chrysler created Plymouth in 1928 as a low price alternative to Dodge.

And they were both created with a distinct branding identity: Plymouth redolent of proud Mayflower pilgrims, and Pontiac of proud Native Americans. "Pontiac" actually comes the Michigan city where the plant was located, but they played the Native American connotations to the hilt.
In the spirit of the season I will show some of the ornaments that displayed that pride. First, Plymouth with their increasingly stylized Mayflower:

1934, 1936, 1938, 1948. Alas, the Plymouth Mayflower was stylized out of existence in 1955. Image
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Read 5 tweets
David Burge Profile picture
Nov 29, 2024
Is there a German word for the hatred of other people enjoying things
I guess it would be freudeschaden
I suppose my kids got a lot of served a lot of unrequested Beatles in their music classes, but at least they didn't have to deal with that fucking Peter Paul & Mary folk music shit that I was faced with

Read 13 tweets
David Burge Profile picture
Nov 27, 2024
RIP to the great Jim Abrahams, of Zucker-Zucker-Abrahams fame. At the U of Wisconsin, they founded the Kentucky Fried Theater, that led to their first movie.

Later they returned to Madison and funded the absurdist Pail & Shovel Party to run for student government, with a campaign promise to bring the Statue of Liberty to campus. They made good on it with a replica on frozen Lake Mendota, and also installing over 1000 plastic pink flamingos on the campus quad.

Hail and farewell to a great Badger and a great prankster.Image
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btw the movie "AIRPLANE!" was based on was the forgettable 1957 melodrama "ZERO HOUR!" It's apretty hilarious to watch now because you realize AIRPLANE! mostly follows it scene by scene but with added gags. Image
The thing about Zucker-Zucker-Abrahams is they combined the two most powerful genres of comedy: Jewish and Midwestern.

Smirk all you want about Midwest humor but I'll just point to MST3000, the original Onion, John Hughes, and most of the original National Lampoon.
Read 5 tweets

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