Undressed Under Duress, Season Two Part 7
Pintsize Divide and Conquer
In the 1976 movie, Across the Great Divide, the pint-sized this time turn the tables, getting the drop (literally) on a con man at gun point. Two kids, Holly and Jason Smith, played by Heather Rattray and Mark Edward Hall, are forced to set out on their own after their grandpa dies unexpectedly. The girl and boy are determined to get themselves across the Rocky Mountains by following the Oregon Trail. Their own inherited, four hundred acre ranch awaits them, if they can possibly make it. The Pacific International Enterprises film was written and directed by Stewart Raffill and filmed in Utah and Canada.
Just as the kids are starting out on their trek, they wake up and come across Zachariah Coop (Robert Logan), a smooth talking dandy on the run away from a gang of disgruntled gamblers whom he had cheated at cards. What?! Coop, the youngsters discover, is attempting to steal their only horse. He must to be stopped!
The young girl pulls her rifle on him, ordering him to stop in his tracks. The surprised, would-be horse thief can't believe he has been caught with his pants down, so to speak. Actually, his pants are soon to be down, around his ankles!
To safely retrieve their horse, the fast thinking girl orders Coop to step away from the horse and to drop his pants. Her agitated little brother tells her to "shoot him in the leg."
...and finally, down come his pants and up go his hands, high above his head.
Suddenly, Holly takes another shot over his head as she orders him "down on the ground." The kids then retrieve their nearly stolen horse. The girl keeps her gun trained on the prostrate Coop. Off the kids ride while the bewildered Coop looks after them. How could he have been overtaken by a couple of snot-nose kids?!
As Holly and Jason disappear over the hill, riding double on their horse, Coop carefully and guardedly pulls himself up from the ground. He wants no more encounter with those brats, at least not with his pants still down.
Since Coop is generally headed in the same direction as Jason and Holly, their paths meet up again and again. Eventually, the trio hooks up hoping to reach Oregon together. Trust building, their adventures include fighting off a pack of wolves, facing down a mountain lion, almost being run down by a stampeding heard of bison, and joining an Indian encampment.
At one point, Jason nearly drowns as he attempts to ride his horse across a fast moving river. Hearing Holly scream for help, Coop wakes sleep and eventually realizes the little boy is having a hard time staying on his horse. He needs help!
After a time, Coop pulls Jason back across the river and on to land. A boy saved, a tragedy averted and trust continues to build. Safely back at camp, the man and boy down to their long underwear, wrap themselves in blankets while their wet clothes dry by the camp fire.
While Holly tends to her little brother, Coop pulls his blanket up around his shoulders, somewhat modestly, covering his union suit. In boots, the boy-saving hero gathers fire word, preparing for another cold and dark night in the mountain wilderness.
So, will the threesome meet their goal, safely? Check out this family film to find out presently streaming across several platforms.
This completes my seven part Undressed Under Duress – Pint-size. Again, I would like to thank young Josh of Vermont for suggesting another season of Undressed movies for Union Suit Fans like him. As film critics, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, use to say, “See you at the movies.” I'll be watching, probably in my union suit...Chris
and, certainly not, "The Kid." Dick Tracy, a 1990 Universal Studios, Touchstone, Lake Buena Vista Pictures action film, was based on Chester Gould's classic comic strip of the same name. I remember first reading the strip in the newspaper comic pages when I was a little boy, about the same age as “The Kid.” It had the greatest characters and always an exciting story line. The film version debuted at the Walt Disney World resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida on June 14th of that year. The movie received seven Academy Award nominations winning three. But none for acting or directing. Rather, the film won for best original song, art direction, and makeup. Warren Beatty (Dick Tracy), Madonna, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino starred. Beatty also produced and directed as well. One note of interest. The movie never explained why Mumbles (Hoffman) was interrogated by Tracy sans pants, wearing striped boxer shorts. Later with the questioning over, Mumbles walks out and down the hall still in his boxers, carrying his pants.
The scene stealer, however, was not Mumbles or one of the other famous actors but, rather, a skinny little boy played by twelve year old Charlie Korsmo, looking more like an eight year old. He was born in Fargo, North Dakota in 1978. Madonna, as Breathless “The Blank” Mahoney who entertained at the Club Ritz, stole a few scenes herself. What a dame! Anyway, Korsmo played a 1938 scrawny street kid simply known in the movie and in the comic strip as “The Kid.” He was a small, malnourished “street urchin,” surviving on the dangerous metropolitan streets by eating out of garbage cans. One day, The Kid witnessed the deadly shooting of mobsters by Flattop and Itchy, Big Boy Caprice's (Al Pacino) proteges and henchmen. Realizing the boy had seen them before hightailing it away, the race was on to find him. It was “curtains” for The Kid.
When detective Dick Tracy noticed the boy stealing, he caught him. Along with his girlfriend, Tess Trueheart (Glenne Headly), Tracy took him under his wing, eventually discovering he was in mortal danger. Getting him fed, properly clothed and off the streets was the new goal.
Tracy and The Kid were on the road to becoming allies and later great friends. He led the escape artist, in his underwear, back to the haberdashery and to Trueheart for some new duds as the gangsters cased the joint, intently watching the detective and boy for their opportunity.
Having gotten the boy washed, new clothes, and filling the ravenous kid up with copious amounts of food and ice cream, Tracy took him back to his apartment for a good night's sleep. The Kid now appeared to be on a straight and narrow path.
Early the next morning while Tracy was shaving and getting ready to take on the city's crime syndicate, The Kid, having woken up in his a new red union suit, played around the apartment, delaying having to get dressed.
Tracy tried to get him to brush his teeth and get ready for the day.
A knock at the door stopped both man and boy in their tracks. A feminine voice called out they were there to take the boy to the orphanage. The suspicious Tracy cautiously opened the door.
With guns drawn, Caprice's hoodlums barged in, intent on kidnapping the boy. They were set on putting an end to the young witness. Hearing the intrusion, The Kid hurried back to his bedroom and grabbed a handful of his clothes.
Having seen Tracy's wallet full of money laying on the dresser and knowing he would be better off on the streets with some cash, The Kid, paused, ran back to grab his chance at survival when once again he'd find himself back on the street.
Laying hands on the wallet and still clutching his clothes, he ran back to the window in his long red underwear and jumped out. He then was back out onto the city street in no time.
Taking time to only pull on his knickers and a coat on over his union suit, he expertly jumped on the back of the sedan, the one Tracy had been forced into as he was taken hostage.
Tracy was in big trouble. A large boiler was about to explode in a building basement where Tracy had been taken and tied to a chair. The Kid rescued Tracy from certain death by freeing the detective from his bindings.
Man and boy ran up the stairs...
