jeriendhal | The Monitors

Once upon a time, before the Era of the Infomercial swallowed late night TV, my then local TV station used to show the usual round of b-movies in the wee hours before playing the morning national anthem video. That's how I saw such gems as Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and I Was A Teenaged Frankenstein, taped on my parents VCR and watched after school or during the long days of summer.

One of the lesser gems (much lesser) was a 1969 sci-fi comedy called The Monitors. The plot was fairly simple. Aliens dressed in neat bowler hats and long black overcoats take over the Earth, and proceed to make it nice and tidy. No more wars are permitted. No more weapons. There's a Monitor on every streetcorner, and riots and crime are swiftly met by cans of aerosol knockout gas. About the only real crime you can be prosecuted for is attacking a Monitor, and even that gets you sent for "Indefinite Dentention" in a place that resembles a golf resort more than a prison. The President is reduced to manning a dusty Oval Office and wishing some kind of crisis would occur that requires him him to act, well, presidential. About the only terrifying thing about the place are the peppy jingles the Monitors run on every radio and TV station trying to convince people to trust them. Well, that and the loony Resistence movement that's far more of a danger to humans than to the Monitors.

Trust me, it's less interesting than it sounds. IIRC the film is definitely in that narrow 60's era of screwball anti-establishment comedies, such as What's So Bad About Feeling Good? and the like. As a result the plot is practically non-existent, and the acting by Chicago's Second City comedy troupe is uneven and broad. But for some wierd reason I rather do want to see it again, but apparently it's never been released on DVD or video.

Anyone have any clues as to where I might find it?