The Phynx is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Lee H. Katzin about a rock and roll band named The Phynx and their mission in foreign affairs. The group is sent to Albania to locate celebrity hostages taken prisoner by Communists. The last part of the film, supposedly set in Albania, was filmed in the Spanish city of Ávila , recognizable by its medieval walls.
36-479: This turned out to be the final film appearance for several of the veteran performers in the cast, including Leo Gorcey , George Tobias and Marilyn Maxwell . Four young men, the members of the Phynx rock group, are assigned to recover a number of famous American citizens that have been lured to Albania and then trapped behind a tall wall, threatened by the country’s solitary tank, and cannot leave. The Phynx must find
72-451: A Russian Jewish immigrant. Both were vaudevillian actors of short stature. Bernard Gorcey was 4 ft 10 in (1.47 m) and his wife was 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m). Their son would reach 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) in adulthood. In the 1930s, Gorcey's father lived apart from the family while working in theater and film. When he returned in 1935, he and Leo's younger brother David Gorcey persuaded Leo to audition for
108-464: A captain that he heard the ocean is infatuated with sharks. Oliver is quick to call out Stan's malapropism only to correct him with another: "Not infatuated ! He means infuriated ." The correct word in question is actually infested . Emily Litella , a fictional character created and performed by American comedian Gilda Radner used malapropism to entertain viewers on the late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live , including one skit in which she
144-586: A few well-frozen worms (i.e., well-chosen words) in praise of the society". Ring Lardner used malapropism extensively for comic effect. For example, in his short story The Young Immigrunts , the four-year-old narrator repeatedly refers to a bride and groom as the "bride and glum". Archie Bunker , a character in the American TV sitcom All in the Family , used malapropisms frequently: he refers, for example, to "off-the-docks Jews" ( Orthodox Jews ) and
180-440: A film together; the duo made dozens of films together as The Dead End Kids , East Side Kids , and The Bowery Boys from the 1930s to the 1950s. This film article about a 1970s comedy film is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to an American film of the 1970s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Leo Gorcey Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1917 – June 2, 1969)
216-486: A meeting with Jordan's agent, Jan Grippo. The series became The Bowery Boys, with Gorcey holding a 40% financial share, and Grippo as producer. Gorcey brought aboard his father, Bernard Gorcey, to appear as Louie Dumbrowski, the panicky owner of a sweet shop where the boys gathered, as well as his brother David to play one of the gang members. The series was immediately successful, and Gorcey starred in four Bowery Boys films per year through 1955. That year, his father died as
252-486: A plot to hide the celebrities in wagons of radishes, topple the enclosing wall with hundreds of electric guitars, and escape. The Phynx received an extremely limited release, and has since become an obscure, rarely seen cult film ; bootleg copies for many years turned up on auction websites before Warner Archive officially released the film on DVD in October 2012. This was Gorcey and Hall's final time they appeared in
288-470: A result of injuries from an automobile accident. Gorcey, devastated, began abusing alcohol and lost a great deal of weight. When he allegedly trashed a film set in an intoxicated rage (an occurrence which was later vehemently denied in the 1980s by both Huntz Hall and David Gorcey), the studio refused to grant him a pay raise that he had demanded, so he parted ways with the Bowery Boys and was replaced in
324-472: A small part in the play Dead End . Leo had just lost a job as a plumber's apprentice and wished to emulate his father's modest success. The Gorcey boys were cast in small roles as two members of the East 53rd Place Gang (originally dubbed the "2nd Avenue Boys") in the play Dead End by Sidney Kingsley . Charles Duncan, originally cast as Spit, left the play, and Gorcey, his understudy, was promoted. Gorcey created
360-519: A small role in a 1948 film, the comedy So This Is New York , starring radio comedians Henry Morgan and Arnold Stang , which was Gorcey's last appearance as a straight character actor. In 1945 Sam Katzman , producer of the East Side Kids series, flatly refused to meet Gorcey's demand of double his usual salary. Gorcey walked out on Katzman, and Katzman discontinued the series. Gorcey turned to Dead End teammate Bobby Jordan , who suggested
396-445: A sneering tough guy meeting anyone's challenge with a wisecracking remark. In the early 1940s, as the dramatic films shifted to roughneck comedy, Gorcey embellished his dialogue with malapropisms , always delivered in a thick Brooklyn accent . "A clever deduction" would be mangled by Gorcey as "a clever seduction"; "I reiterate" became "I regurgitate"; "optical illusion" came across as "optical delusion"; and "I should see an optometrist"
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#1732797998186432-430: A television commercial for a 1969 Pontiac model. In 1967, Gorcey self-published an autobiography, An Original Dead-End Kid Presents: Dead End Yells, Wedding Bells, Cockle Shells, and Dizzy Spells, which was limited to 1,000 copies. It was reprinted in 2004. In May 1939, Gorcey married 15-year-old dancer Kay Marvis, who appeared in four of his Monogram movies. They divorced in 1944 and the following year, Marvis became
468-487: Is not attested until 1836. An instance of speech error is called a malapropism when a word is produced which is nonsensical or ludicrous in context yet similar in sound to what was intended. Definitions differ somewhat in terms of the cause of the error. Some scholars include only errors that result from a temporary failure to produce the word which the speaker intended. Such errors are sometimes called "Fay–Cutler malapropism", after David Fay and Anne Cutler, who described
504-744: Is suffering a nervous "shakedown" (rather than "breakdown"), calls the Exalted Ruler of their group the "exhausted ruler" and says that he and Oliver are like "two peas in a pot" (instead of "pod"); in The Music Box , he inadvertently asked a policeman, "Don't you think you're bounding over your steps?" meaning "overstepping your bounds", which has much in common with the transposition of a Spoonerism. Sometimes even Laurel's partner, Oliver Hardy , also practiced malapropism, particularly correcting Stan's; in The Live Ghost Stan tells
540-418: Is the use of my vernacular tongue, and a nice arrangement of epithets ", —although these are not the only words that can be substituted to produce an appropriately expressed thought in this context, and commentators have proposed other possible replacements that work just as well. Other malapropisms spoken by Mrs. Malaprop include " illiterate him quite from your memory" (instead of "obliterate"), "he
576-452: Is the very pineapple of politeness" (instead of pinnacle ) and "she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" (instead of alligator ). Malapropisms appeared in many works before Sheridan created the character of Mrs. Malaprop. William Shakespeare used them in a number of his plays, almost invariably spoken by comic ill-educated lower class characters. Mistress Quickly ,
612-498: The "Women's Lubrication Movement" (rather than Liberation ). Intending to refer to the medical specialized field of gynecology and to specialist in that field as a gynecologist, he would mispronounce the words as "groinecology" and "groinecologist". Tyler Perry 's fictional character Madea is known for her Southern dialectical usage of malapropisms, which some critics link to the mammy archetype . Malapropisms do not occur only as comedic literary devices. They also occur as
648-457: The 1980s. Malapropism A malapropism ( / ˈ m æ l ə p r ɒ p ɪ z əm / ; also called a malaprop , acyrologia or Dogberryism ) is the incorrect use of a word in place of a word with a similar sound, either unintentionally or for comedic effect, resulting in a nonsensical, often humorous utterance . An example is the statement attributed to baseball player Yogi Berra , regarding switch hitters , "He hits from both sides of
684-550: The Bowery Boys films. Also in 2017, Richard Roat, known for having the largest collection of Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys memorabilia in the United States, published the book Hollywood's Made-to-Order Punks: The Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys , complete with photographs, behind-the-scenes trivia, and interviews with the surviving Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys that he'd collected since
720-524: The accidental or deliberate production of newly made-up words ( neologisms ). For example, it is not a malapropism to use obtuse [wide or dull] instead of acute [narrow or sharp]; it is a malapropism to use obtuse [stupid or slow-witted] when one means abstruse [esoteric or difficult to understand]. Malapropisms tend to maintain the part of speech of the originally intended word. According to linguist Jean Aitchison , "The finding that word selection errors preserve their part of speech suggest[s] that
756-562: The couple were divorced in February 1956. Later that year, Gorcey married Brandy Davis. They had a daughter, Brandy Gorcey Ziesemer, but divorced in 1962. Gorcey was married to Mary Gannon on July 12, 1968, until his death, nearly one year later. Gorcey, a lifelong alcoholic, died of liver failure on June 2, 1969, one day short of his 52nd birthday. He is buried at Molinos Cemetery in Los Molinos, California . In 1967, Gorcey's image
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#1732797998186792-437: The first person known to have used the word "malaprop" specifically in the sense of "a speech error" is Lord Byron in 1814. The synonymous term "Dogberryism" comes from the 1598 Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing in which the character Dogberry utters many malapropisms to humorous effect. Though Shakespeare was an earlier writer than Sheridan, "malaprop/malapropism" seems an earlier coinage than "Dogberryism", which
828-541: The general rhythmic pattern are maintained. The fictional Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan's play The Rivals utters many malapropisms. In Act 3 Scene III, she declares to Captain Absolute, "Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs !" This nonsensical utterance might, for example, be corrected to, "If I apprehend anything in this world, it
864-491: The inn-keeper associate of Falstaff in several Shakespeare plays, is a regular user of malapropisms. In Much Ado About Nothing , Constable Dogberry tells Governor Leonato, "Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons" (i.e., apprehended two suspicious persons) (Act 3, Scene V). Malapropism was one of Stan Laurel 's comic mannerisms. In Sons of the Desert , for example, he says that Oliver Hardy
900-462: The last seven films by Stanley Clements . However, Gorcey's brother David remained with the series until it ended in late 1957. During the 1960s, Gorcey did very little acting. He had a bit part in the 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and he appeared with old sidekick Huntz Hall in a pair of low-budget films, Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar in 1966 and The Phynx , released in 1970 after his death. Gorcey also made an appearance in
936-412: The latter is an integral part of the word, and tightly attached to it." Likewise, substitutions tend to have the same number of syllables and the same metrical structure – the same pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables – as the intended word or phrase. If the stress pattern of the malapropism differs from the intended word, unstressed syllables may be deleted or inserted; stressed syllables and
972-589: The meaning that she intends but which sound similar to words that do. Sheridan chose her name in humorous reference to the word malapropos, an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos (literally "poorly placed"). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first recorded use of "malapropos" in English is from 1630, and
1008-401: The occurrence of such errors in ordinary speech. Most definitions, however, include any actual word that is wrongly or accidentally used in place of a similar sounding, correct word. This broader definition is sometimes called "classical malapropism", or simply "malapropism". Malapropisms differ from other kinds of speaking or writing mistakes, such as eggcorns or spoonerisms , as well as
1044-616: The plate. He's amphibious", with the accidental use of amphibious rather than the intended ambidextrous . Malapropisms often occur as errors in natural speech and are sometimes the subject of media attention, especially when made by politicians or other prominent individuals. The word "malapropism" (and its earlier form, "malaprop") comes from a character named "Mrs. Malaprop" in Richard Brinsley Sheridan 's 1775 play The Rivals . Mrs. Malaprop frequently misspeaks (to comic effect) by using words which do not have
1080-593: The second wife of Groucho Marx . Gorcey married actress Evalene Bankston in October 1945, but they divorced two years later. He was arrested for firing a gun at his wife when she entered his home in Van Nuys , California, but was acquitted of the charge in 1948. In February 1949, Gorcey married actress Amelita Ward , with whom he had appeared in Clancy Street Boys and Smugglers' Cove . The marriage produced two children, including Leo Gorcey Jr., but
1116-454: The secret map to infiltrate the castle. It is printed in parts on three different women’s stomachs in three different European countries. To discover the girls marked with the maps, the Phynx must have sex with hundreds of girls. Their labors are lessened when in Rome they are given X-ray glasses, which visually strip the girls down to their underwear. Finally, the four get into the castle and hatch
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1152-611: The stage persona of a quarrelsome guttersnipe whose greatest joy was to make trouble. In 1937, Samuel Goldwyn made the popular play into a film of the same name and transported the six rowdy young men to Hollywood . Gorcey became one of the busiest actors in Hollywood during the following 20 years, starring in seven Dead End Kids films between 1937 and 1939, 21 East Side Kids films between 1940 and 1945, and 41 Bowery Boys films between 1946 and 1955. The earlier films presented Gorcey in variations of his Dead End character Spit,
1188-563: Was an American stage and film actor, famous for portraying the leader of a group of hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids , the East Side Kids and, as adults, The Bowery Boys . Gorcey was famous for his use of malapropisms , such as "I depreciate it!" instead of "I appreciate it!" Gorcey was born in New York City on June 3, 1917, the son of Josephine (née Condon), an Irish Catholic immigrant, and Bernard Gorcey ,
1224-536: Was puzzled over the hubbub surrounding the "plight of Soviet jewelry" instead of "Soviet Jewry". British comedian Ronnie Barker also made great use of deliberate malapropisms in his comedy, notably in such sketches as his "Appeal on behalf of the Loyal Society for the Relief of Suffers from Pismronunciation", which mixed malapropisms and garbled words for comic effect – including news of a speech which "gave us
1260-496: Was rendered as "I should see an ichthyologist." A studio press release reported that Gorcey spent 30 minutes a day studying a dictionary: "He has made something of a career for himself as an actor by the use of words no one else has ever heard of, and by the misuse or mispronunciation of others." In 1944, Gorcey took a recurring role on the Pabst Blue Ribbon Town radio show, starring Groucho Marx . He also had
1296-540: Was to appear in the crowd of celebrities on the cover of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , but because he requested a fee, he was removed. Me and the Dead End Kid, a book about Gorcey written by his son Leo Jr., was published in 2003. In 2017, a third book on his life appeared, Leo Gorcey's Fractured World by Jim Manago, which included an examination of Gorcey's use of malapropisms in
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