Carl-70

and yet very watchable.

I don't pretend to know what this film is about, I just know that it was very satisfying to watch. Some movies, a very few, leave you with that feeling, the one that says, yeah, that's what a movie should be; that's how you feel when you have watched cinema art.

I know I should discuss the freudian symbolism and explain how it all fits into Freud's stages of sexual maturation, but I just can't bring myself to reduce this film to such cant.

It is a mythic story, best experienced in a childlike (vs.childish)state.

For some reason, this short-lived show really imprinted on my psyche. I was only seven when it premiered, but I have always remembered it fondly. I don't remember many specifics, but the whole ambiance remains clear to me.

The one plot I do remember is one where the Colonel decides to keep McKeever out of trouble by making him a Military Policeman. The MP gig does not work out the way the Colonel expected, of course.

Jackie Coogan was great as the sympathetic sarge.

I think the show influenced my whole life; I went to a military school, became an army officer, and am now retired from the service.

Thanks, Scott.

For anyone who was around back in 1970, esp. in Germany, this movie is a real nostalgia bomb. The star is the boy singer Heintje, who was a big pop star back then, at least in Europe. I don't think he ever caught on in the U.S.

At the time it was released, it was a kids movie. Now, it is camp. I mean that in a good way. It was fun to see it after all these years, and though the full blown orchestral production of the songs Heintje sings in the movie seem odd (riding in a convertible, he opens his mouth and a full music studio sound comes out) it is just the way they did it in those movies. Think Elvis in any number of movies, you get the idea.

Also some nice views of the French Riviera back then. Cool.