Glenda Jackson Sings "Battle at Sea" with the... by taxidrivermow
A friend loaned me a VHS copy of Nasty Habits not too long ago. Based on Muriel Spark's The Abbess of Crewe it's a black comedy metaphor for Watergate with Glenda Jackson in the lead, which is to say the Nixon part.
I've remembered this episode of The Muppet Show for a long time. Jackson, give or take a scheming nun, is best known as a serious dramatic actress. So it's admirable that she's so willing to throw herself into the part of a high seas pirate taking over the Muppet Theater.
2 comments:
Glenda Jackson is the only MP to have won an Oscar. Pretty darn cool, eh? I can't say I remember seeing Nasty Habits but I can see from the trailer that it must have been pretty funny, and not the least bit disguised either in its references. It was neat to see Melina Mercouri as one of the noted stars (even though I didn't see much of her in the trailer). I loved her work in the 60s (Never on Sunday was wonderful as was Phaedra) and then she too went on to become an MP in Greece and eventually their Minister of Culture.
The Muppet clip was great. That Jim Henson truly was a genius is proved so often by the very cool stars who agreed to perform with his crew.
I had forgotten Jackson was an MP. Vanessa Redgrave ran for parliament back in the 70s but I don't think she got elected. The movies' gain, really.
The Melina Mercouri character is an odd touch, at least in terms of the movie. In the book it didn't really seem that odd. The thing is she's off in another country the whole time. She just talks to Jackson's character over the phone. I'm not even sure she was on the same set as the rest of the cast.
Anne Meara is in it too, and she's fun. The earliest memory I have of her is as the mouthy waitress on Archie Bunker's place but she was in a lot more.
How many shows can claim to have had Steve Martin, Debbie Harry, and Gene Kelly as guests? Okay, SNL had two out of three, but even that's a pretty exclusive club.
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