Tales of the Golem; or, the Modern Epimetheus

If kerosene works why not gasoline

We went back for more Peckinpah: The Wild Bunch. We didn't stay for the second feature, The Killer Elite, because the intermission panel didn't exactly talk it up. "I think the first twenty minutes of The Killer Elite is brilliant, but then you see that pieces are missing..."

The panel complained about the fact that one of the screenwriters of The Killer Elite insisted on having his wife cast as the female lead. According to the IMDB, at this time the screenwriter was about 58, and his wife was 15 years old.

While watching The Wild Bunch, I kept thinking of Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days as interpreted by Monty Python.

At one point the Wild Bunch encounters an automobile, apparently for the first time. "What's that thing? Does it run on steam?" "No... on alcohol, or gasoline." But if you weren't familiar with automobiles, would you know what gasoline was?

Well, Wikipedia says that pre-automotive gasoline was sold in small bottles as a delousing agent. I guess it's plausible that the Wild Bunch might have been familiar with gasoline as a means of setting fire to buildings.

posted by Richard Mason @ Monday, September 11, 2006