The Alphabet Project: J is for...

Jabberwocky (1977)

After the death of his father the young Dennis Cooper (Michael Palin) goes to town where he has to pass several adventures. The town and the whole kingdom is threatened by a terrible monster called Jabberwocky. Will Dennis make his fortune? Is anyone brave enough to defeat the monster? A medieval tale with Pythonesque humor. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Many of the props and costumes were recycled from the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The narrator of the film's trailer warns that it is so terrifying "No one will be admitted to the theatre until the last ten minutes of (the) film". Real horse carcasses are used in the scene where Dennis and the Champion are ambushed by the Black Knight. The horse that the champion rides is visibly disturbed by these surroundings. A tavern in the town is named The Queen's Haemorrhoids.

Well, well, well, my clues maybe a little too easy for you, seeing as three of you came up with Jabberwocky. Oh, yeah, the movie. This was Terry Gilliam's first solo shot at directing and you can see his style starting to come through. Michael Palin is pretty good too. You can tell that there is a major Monty Python influence on the humor of this movie, but you can also tell that it is not fully python. It definitely has it's moments (King Bruno, the Questionable, the knights playing hide and go seek to find a champion) but a fully python film would have included more of those moments, so basically The Holy Grail is a vastly superior film, but Jabberwocky is still funny.

Up Next: The "K" movie. Hopefully, this week's clue will be harder to figure out. This week's clue: It Deals With Charlie's New Factory.

So, Impman, Anonymous Ken, and Kim, get me your movie choices. Here were last week's incorrect guesses:

Jeepers Creepers - A brother and sister driving home for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature in the isolated countryside that is on it's last day of it's ritualistic eating spree.

Jailhouse Rock - After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.

Jiminy Glick in Lalaland - Culture critic Jiminy Glick gets tied up in a murder case at the Toronto Film Festival.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back - The comic 'Bluntman and Chronic' is based on real-life stoners Jay and Silent Bob, so when they get no profit from a big-screen adaptation they set out to wreck the movie.