Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

[digitS']

is 44 years old and the cast had a reunion. Some of them were on the Today Show ...

Forty Four Years!!!

I was looking at the clips and thinking about Jack Albertson and how he looked old in that movie, 44 years ago!. Of course, he's gone ... maybe with a stop at Angels Camp or Paradise (California) ... where one of my uncles lived ... but Uncle Marv's gone now, too.

Anyway, I'm wondering where I'd seen Jack Albertson younger. I mean, other than Chico and the Man, which was about the same time as Willy Wonka. So, I checked Wikipedia and IMBD. Maybe this or that ... Ensign O'toole with Dean Jones! Sure. Gosh, you don't suppose it was also from the Milton Berle Show?

ol'Steve

 

[journey11]

That's hard to believe! I never did care for the remake with Johnny Depp. Just thought he made it odd and creepy. The original with Gene Wilder is much cooler. It's been 10 years since that remake.

I use to have nightmares about the blueberry girl (from the original.) I think that was the whole point though, to threaten little children to be less greedy.

 

[Kassaundra]

I liked the original, but loved the Depp remake. I always thought Willy Wonka was much more disturbed then Gene Wilder played him. I had a work partner (who may or may not have smoked home made cigarettes) that found the remake so disturbing and terrifying he had to turn it off. lol I told him to watch it sober, but he was to frightened to do that!!!! lol lol lol

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, if you want to go from the original as defined by the books (a good place to start, since not only would that be the original and definitive one, but since there are TWO books, you get a lot more space to see how Wonka reacts to situations a bit bigger than merely picking a successor, such as an alien invasion.) Wonka seems sort of in between the two. He's a lot less lovable than the way Wilder played him; a lot less tormented than the way Depp did. He is pretty typical of a Roald Dahl type character, utterly mad, but not in a way that is particularly threatening, at least, not threatening if you are the right kind of person, the phrase "charming sociopath" comes to mind).

As a little bonus, here is a clip of William Battely (Charlie's mean teacher) showing him actually doing the comedy he was good at