Don't Drink the Waterby Anonymous

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March 23, 2008: Put Ralph Kramden together with Woody Allen and what do you get? Comic exquisitry. Gleason is at his Kramdenesque best against comic heavyweight Estelle Parsons in the Alice corner, a sterling silver tea service delivering the comic goods of The WoodMan. Of course, Walter is not quite the self-secure Brooklyn-based bus driver we know & love. He's a resigned, feared NJ caterer and tourist trapped in an Embassy house, muttering lots of those great Allen cultural references about bar mitzvahs and the like. Unlike Alice, Marion is the insulated housewife clinging to such comforts as floor waxing and kitchen command. Ted Bessel is fine as the bumbling Axel. In 1969 certainly more than a few names could have covered the leads. I could even picture Jack Lemmon and Albert Brooks in the Walter and Axel roles (who knows, maybe they were considered). But fortunately, The Great One was located and secured, and finally we can once more appreciate it. In the 90's, Woody assumed the lead in a very poor TV remake, which will never live it down in the face of his first classic.