Some Days I Don't Know Why I Bother

I've just spent a good half-hour I'll never get back registering with the IMDb to add a comment to a movie. Gave them my details, waited for the registration email to come back, went through the login and profiling section and typed in my three line comment, only to be told it wasn't long enough.

Well screw them, I'll tell you instead.

The last few days, some fondly remembered movies and TV shows have been dropping through my letterbox, including Season One of the original 1965 Get Smart! with Don Adams. I've also picked up a copy of an old favourite, the unbelievably cheesy Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov, Richard Hatch and Michelle Pfeiffer.

I've had a soft spot for CCCDQ for years, specifically down to a sequence where Number One Son (Richard Hatch) and the girl (Michelle Pfeiffer) are tied helplessly to chairs watching a candle about to burn through a rope which will trigger a needlessly complicated grisly death. Not only are they tied up, but there is also a slavering guard dog ready to tear them apart if they try to escape. How can they put out the candle???

For the benefit of the spoilerphobic, I'll de-spoilerise:

SPOILER:
They sing "Happy Birthday To You" to the dog and it blows out the candle.

So I'm watching Get Smart this evening, and I've reached episode three "School Days", where Max and 99 have gone to CONTROL's spy school where an KAOS agent has infiltrated. In their efforts, Max and 99 are knocked out, captured and tied to chairs with a bomb between them. The fuse is about to be lit by a carefully timed candle. How to put out the flame???

Max calls for Fang, CONTROL's wonder-dog agent...

And blow me if the same gag doesn't happen. And Get Smart did it first in 1965 against CCCDQ's 1981. It doesn't mean that I love CCCDQ any less - maybe a point off for originality, but maybe a point back on for environmental friendliness. I mean, recycling a joke has got to reduce a movie's carbon footprint.

Would you believe a little bit?