Ooof, yeah, it took me longer this time round (as my brain continues its long slow journey into lockdown-induced mush) but I got there in the end. Here's the last of the latest round of prompts and I might give it a bit of a gap before attempting it again. You'll just have to put up with aimless wittering in the meantime...
If It Fits, Wear It
In a time and place that hasn’t been overly specified, there was a girl. The likelihood is that there were, in fact, lots of girls in this non-specific time and place but this particular tale is about one of them. This girl had a name but she wasn’t that keen on it really so she preferred to be called Coco. Sadly, her life was not that brilliant so no one called her that. In her mind, though, she was Coco so it seems rude to call her anything else.
Coco lived with her father and her father’s wife. Coco was not a fan of her father’s wife so any combination of words which involved the word “mother” were never likely to cross her mind. Coco just thought of her as FW; sometimes that stood for Father’s Wife and other times it stood for something altogether less complimentary. They lived together in a place that her father and actual biological mother had owned but, since the arrival of FW, had become increasingly unfamiliar. A weird, slow metamorphosis had taken place and Coco had increasingly begun to feel that it was no longer the place that she had loved with her father but FW’s place that she and her father were now living in.
It didn't help that the main items of baggage now cluttering up the place were FW’s two daughters. Coco was not particularly fond of them and had pretty much instantly assigned the pair of them in her mind as Thing 1 and Thing 2. They weren’t exactly hostile towards Coco but they had a way of excluding her which made it seem as if it was something she had done. Coco had never heard of the terms “passive aggression” or “gaslighting” but she was nevertheless pretty familiar with them both.
The neighbourhood that they (and the other families like them) lived in was owned by a wealthy man. He was strict but not unpleasant. For example, every summer, he held a beach party for all the neighbourhood. It wasn’t a real beach party as they were nowhere near the sea but he put down a lot of sand and laid on a barbecue so it felt suitably beach-like.
Every year, the whole neighbourhood would go to the beach party and much fun was had by all. This year, there was an extra level of interest as the landlord’s nephew was coming to visit and no one had seen him before so it was particularly exciting. Especially as he was rumoured to be especially handsome and the landlord was said to be looking to marry him off (having no sons of his own, the landlord treated his nephew as the heir apparent and, one day, all of this would be his).
That is to say that it would have been extra exciting for Coco were it not for the fact that, this year, she was not to be going. It had been an accident but, of course, that was not how FW saw it. Coco had just been curious but then she slipped and it had broken and FW had exploded and now she wasn’t allowed to go to the party. Pfft, like FW could tell her what to do. She’d wait til they’d all gone out and then sneak out after them. It was optional fancy dress so she could legitimately cover up her face and no one would know.
Being an artistic sort, it didn’t take Coco long to fashion a mask from some random household objects and, combined with some relaxing beach wear and her comfortable pair of heavily customised flip flops, she was armed for the party. She played up the petulant act and gave her father, FW and Things 1 and 2 plenty of time to get themselves established at the party before sneaking her way (as much as anyone can sneak in an ostentatious mask and distinctive beach wear) out of the house after them.
As Coco arrived at the party, she could see her father and FW talking to the landlord so made sure to give them a wide berth. So intent was she on giving them a wide berth that she did not notice the figure in front of her until she had barrelled straight into them, landing on her behind with a teeth-rattling bump.
“Oh my word, I’m so sorry,” said the figure, “I wasn’t paying attention.”
Coco took the offered outstretched hand to get her back on her feet, muttering apologies herself, and took a good look at the person she had inadvertently assailed. He (for it was a he) was similarly masked (although Coco had to admit that it wasn't as good as hers) and solidly built. He offered to get her something to drink and Coco, conscious that if she was in company she was less likely to be spotted by those she was avoiding, accepted the offer.
As they walked, they fell into easy conversation. He was new here (he was visiting his rich uncle for the holidays), didn’t really know anyone and wasn’t really enjoying himself. Coco admitted that she normally enjoyed the party but, as she was being forced to skulk around, it was somewhat more stressful than usual. They talked and drank and drank and talked and, without really realising it, had passed some hours enjoyably in each other's company.
In all likelihood, it would have continued for longer had Coco not spotted the dreaded figure of FW seemingly making a beeline towards her. Coco panicked and leapt up, bemusing her companion and leaving him with only a single flip flop as a reminder of the evening as she dashed off towards home. She made it home and into bed with sufficient time before the suspicious FW who knew that she’d spotted her rebellious step daughter but was unable to prove it.
Unable to prove it, that is, until the following morning when a young man knocked at the door holding a single flip flop and asking if it belonged to anyone inside. Triumphantly, FW dragged Coco to the door (embarrassed at being put on display in her nightwear) but, before she could crow about it, the young man had barged past her to offer Coco the discarded footwear. Coco thanked him sheepishly and stood awkwardly in the hall while the young man started to babble about things like karma and fate and kismet and the like. Coco was pretty sure that at one point that he said something relatively pretentious like, “I didn’t believe in pre-determinism, I guess I was wrong,” but she let that slip. Unable to get a word in edgeways, FW threw up her hands in exasperation (she was given over to the occasionally theatrical gesture) and left them to it.
They dated a couple of times until he had to go back home. They wrote to each other for a little while but lost touch once Coco started dating a guitarist. Happily ever afters take a lot of work...
The Prompt
Here is what I had to work with courtesy of Chris:-
Story title - If It Fits, Wear It
Character name - Coco
Object - A single flip flop
Line of dialogue - “I didn’t believe in pre-determinism, I guess I was wrong.”
Look, let’s face it, it was the fact that this one (and The Blues Brothers) popped up as being forty years old that sent me down this path in the first place so it was always going to wrap up with this, wasn’t it? (Rhetorical question - the answer is, of course, yes).
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1981 - nah, only joking, it was 1980, that’s the whole point)
Dir. Irvin Kershner / Dur. 124 mins
What’s It About? Something about a former farmboy who snogs his sister and finds out his dad is basically an intergalactic Donald Trump.
Why’s It Any Good? It’s The Empire Strikes Back.
Well, that concludes this little run on the films of forty years ago. Come back, next time when…
Eh? You were expecting a bit more than that?
OK, fine. Look, there isn’t a single aspect of Star Wars that hasn’t been discussed, dissected and generally picked apart on every corner of the internet ever since the internet became a thing so what can I add to it (and, let’s face it, I’ve already wittered on about Star Wars before)? Not a lot really but what I can tell you is my history with the film.
The Empire Strikes Back was the film in the original trilogy that I watched last. Huh? Yep, true. Way back in the early days of the 80s, I was too young for Empire when it came out at the cinema and Star Wars was on telly prior to Return Of The Jedi coming out so I’d seen Star Wars* and was old enough for Jedi but Empire passed me by. You see, back then, stuff wasn’t really readily available. If you didn't see it at the cinema and it hadn’t been on telly yet, well, you just didn’t get to see it. So I was always a little bit confused by the set up at the start of Jedi but it was Star Wars so that was good enough for me. Apparently I’d missed something about Darth Vader being his dad and, when I did watch Empire, the Yoda reveal was also less of a surprise than it would have been but overall, I got the gist of what was going on. (Plus I was the key demographic for the Ewoks so I’ve always had a fondness for them.)
So Empire had a bit of a mysterious air for me until I finally got to see it on telly a few years after Jedi. As such, it’s the one that I felt I knew the least when I was a kid (that has since been rectified by many, many viewings) so it always stood out slightly from the other two.
So there you have it - some random ramblings on how I came to view Empire. Hopefully something a bit different.
Thus concludes your view of the Films Of 1980. Yeah, I've probably left out a couple of other classics but that’ll do you for now.
* Yes, A New Hope if you’re going to be pedantic and normally I would be but we all know what I mean when I refer to a singular film as Star Wars.
Yeah, I’ve gone completely off-piste now. If any of you can claim that you were expecting me to pull this one out (and you’re not my sibling) then I’m afraid that I may have to accuse you of being a massive fibber and ask you to step outside.*
Animalympics (1980 - although it being 1980 is part of the story here…)
Dir. Steven Lisberger / Dur. 75 minutes
What’s It About? ZOO television network presents it’s TV coverage of the first ever animal olympic games.
Why’s It Any Good? It is entirely possible, and I’m more than happy to admit this one up front, that the “Any Goodness” of this one could well be entirely subjective. This is one of “lost films from childhood” and I mean “lost” in the sense that this was a film that we had taped off the telly on VHS for many years and, at some point, it got taped over. It wasn’t exactly a major release (having been originally commissioned as a couple of TV specials to be broadcast as an accompaniment to the US coverage of the 1980 Olympic Games, only to be bumped up to TV feature status once the US pulled out of the Games and there was suddenly a lot of very gaps in the TV schedule) so, once it had been taped over, it was some years before I was able to obtain a copy again.
There’s no real plot as such but there are a number of little subplots running throughout which all come to fruition at the end of the film. Really, it’s a more sketch-based model of filmmaking showing us various animals competing in various events. The notable things about it are the voice cast which includes Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal and Harry Shearer (of Spinal Tap and The Simpsons fame) and the number of future famous animators who worked on it - art director Roger Allers would go on to direct The Lion King (the proper first one) and animator would go on to The Simpsons before directing himself on films like The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille (as well as branching into live action with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol).
Is it worth a watch? If you’re interested in comedy and animation history then yes, it’s definitely worth a watch to see early work from performers like Crystal and Shearer as well as a film that would form part of the history of films like The Lion King and The Incredibles. Is it good in its own right? That I cannot tell you as it occupies that palace of youthful nostalgia which prevents me from looking at it without a sense of warm fuzziness. Still, it’s only 75 minutes, what have you got to lose?
*Of course, if the year is ever 1986, you can all put good money on Transformers: The Movie getting trotted out - the ultimate battle of good versus evil in giant transforming robot form.**
** No, not the Michael Bay ones. Nope. No, no, no. Oh deary me, no. Don’t ever bring those up again and we’ll say no more about it.
Still sticking with the 1980 thing on the film-related posts at the moment. Next time round, might pick out some other anniversaries…
The Shining (1980 - I mean, I probably don’t need to keep putting this bit)
Dir. Stanley Kubrick / Dur. 146 mins (premiere); 144 mins (US); 199 mins (Eur)
What’s It About? A writer goes to a hotel for a lovely winter with his family. Then gets possessed by the murderous spirit of the hotel and gets a bit axe-wieldy…
Why’s It Any Good? Notoriously, if you’re the author of the original book, Stephen King, it isn’t any good. He was famously upset with the number of liberties Kubrick took in his adaptation of the book, including Wendy’s characterisation, and is not a big fan (going so far as to pen the script for US TV mini series adaptation in 1997 which he felt was closer to his own vision). If you’re a cinema fan and, in particular, a horror cinema fan, chances are that this might be high on your list.
I’m in two minds with Stanley Kubrick - some of his films I really enjoy and some of his films just leave me unmoved. Two films which in theory should tick a lot of my boxes (sci fi, dystopian, etc.) are ones that I am just not fussed by 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange. The Shining, though, is my favourite of his and a film I could watch again and again. It’s a horror film where a lot of the horrific imagery and sensations play out in bright colours with bright lighting but are no less horrific for it (in some ways, the recent Midsommar hits a similar feeling). It doesn’t need low light and jump scares to get you - although it does use some effective sudden cuts / reveals (the appearance of the twins in the hallway, the reveal of the real condition of the “woman” in Room 237) to provoke terror.
It’s a slow build of creeping terror as Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance goes slowly more and more insane in the isolated hotel. It with good reason that a lot of the scenes and images (aside form the two already mentioned:- Jack chatting with ghosts in the ballroom; “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”; the “Here’s Johnny” moment; Nicholson stalking his son through the snowy maze) have made their way into the general pop culture subconscious and will turn up as references everywhere.
There is more than one version of the film which confused me somewhat when I was younger. For some unknown reason, the American cut (which is around 25 minutes longer) was shown in TV when I was younger so it was this taped-off-the-telly version that I was familiar with. I then ended up doubting my memory when I bought what turned out to be the European cut only to discover that several scenes that I was convinced had always been in the film were no longer there. Is one better than the other? I’m more familiar with the American version so that’s the one in my head when I picture the film.
If you don’t like horror films, this probably won't convert you as it is, at its heart, a horror film. It is however a director at the top of his game with a strong story and an equally strong cast so it more than easily stands the test of time.
Yes, you’re quite right, it has been a while since the last one of these (and there’s only one more to go in this latest run). The brain just hasn’t been quite as up to speed this time around and the cogs have turned much more slowly. I will get the last one out at some point soon, honest! Anyway, here’s the penultimate one…
A Grate Horror In Cheddar
Gather round, dear fellows, for another un-brie-lievable tale of lactic terror brought to you by Curt Wensleydale, Cheesy Investigator. It was just another average day in the office of Wensleydale Investigations. My trusty aide, Gaspard Fromage, had furnished me with the traditional morning repast of crackers accompanied by a healthy helping of cheese (Wensleydale by name, Wensleydale by nature) when there was a sudden ringing at the door. Not overly unusual, you might think but, given that I didn't have a doorbell, it was certainly not something that usually happened.
Gaspard opened the door to reveal a small crumpled looking in a small crumpled looking monk’s habit. The poor penitent was ushered in but eschewed a seat, preferring to occupy a form of seatless purgatory. He tinkled as he approached, revealing the source of the ringing to be a small bell around his neck.
In halting and abject terms, he explained that he was Brother Limburger, a member of the Order of St Jarlsberg, a particularly niche sect who had sworn to abjure the sight, sound and most definitely taste of all cheesy comestibles for reasons which were rather long-winded and relatively unfathomable (especially to those of a cheesy persuasion such as myself and redoubtable Gaspard). I wasn;t sure that their naming convention was overly helpful btu apparently it was all part of their whole “resisting temptation” thing.
For some time now, the Order had been plagued by apparitions of a distinctly cheese-based nature. Dreadful glowing spectres had begun to roam the hallways of St Jarlsberg Abbey at night; spectres of many a differing and perplexing aspect (one such ghastly lactic ghoul was described as resembling a massive radioactive Gouda). Being a pious lot, they had done their best to ignore them and, for the most part, that had been successful. Successful that is until this morning when, following his suspicious absence from the morning breakfast (the usual meal of particularly watery porridge), Brother Limburger had ventured to the Abbot’s quarters only to discover that he had apparently choked on some particularly runny camembert.
I reassured the distraught novice that he had come to the right place and sent him back to the monastery ahead of us. Wensleydale was on the case!
---------
I arrived that afternoon with the magnificent Gaspard and we got ourselves set up. A cheese investigator has a number of vital and sensitive pieces which they must deploy but sadly, as a fully paid up member of the Cheese Investigators Guild, I am not at liberty to divulge such secrets.
A large part of an investigator’s life is playing the waiting game and this was to be no exception. In deference to the brothers’ preferences, I had foregone the usual cheesy hamper that would accompany Gaspard and myself on capers such as this, ensuring that we had gorged sufficiently on the finest Roquefort, Illchester and Japanese Sage Darby.
The afternoon passed eventually, becoming evening, becoming night. The cheesy fortifications weighted heavily upon the eyelids and slumber beckoned. My eyes were just closing when I felt myself being gently shaken awake by the gentle hand of Gaspard.
“This may sound cheesy, but what’s that crawling on the wall behind you?!?”, whispered he.
I turned to look and a sight of such unspeakably horrific cheesiness assailed my eyes that I can scarcely bring myself to describe it. So I won't.
It was utterly burbling cheese-based noises and clearly intended to frighten those of an anti-lactic disposition. Being made of sterner stuff, I was not to be deterred and reached out towards it. A surprised squeak, uncharacteristic for such an unholy abomination, met my ears and it tried to scuttle away. Spurred on, I made a grab for the wretched thing, only to find myself embroiled in a titanic struggle. A struggle that ended with the creature subdued beneath me and a rather messy latex mask clutched in my hands.
Brother Limburger came upon the scene, alerted by the sounds of struggle and gasped in surprise at the unmasked figure before him.
“Why, it’s old Farmer Banks,” said he, “ the local dairy farmer.”
“Aaaargh,” growled the old cow farmer, in an indeterminate and regionally moveable accent, “yar, it’s me. You and your blessed order, putting all the people off my good honest milk with your anit-cheese nonsense. It ain’t right and summat had to be done.”
“It’s the same old story,” said I. “No, really, it is. You'd be surprised by just how many of my cases end exactly like this.”
Another case closed and all in a cheesy day’s work for Curt Wensleydale, Cheesy Investigator!
The Prompt
Here is what I had to work with courtesy of Clive:-
Story title - A Grate Horror In Cheddar
Character name - Curt Wensleydale
Object - Radioactive Gouda
Line of dialogue - “This may sound cheesy, but what’s that crawling on the wall behind you?!?”
I know that you’ve basically only really got one line from the film wedged in your head now. Go on, you can say it out loud. We’re not really around other people anymore, you can say it. Go on, I’ll wait.
There, that's better,isn’t it?
Flash Gordon (1980 - yep, still)
Dir. Mike Hodges / Dur. 114 mins
What’s It About? A football player, a travel agent and a (slightly unhinged) scientist travel to the planet Mongo to prevent it’s definitely deranged emperor from destroying the Earth.
Why’s It Any Good? In the days before comic books and their subsequent big screen adaptations were grim, brooding and gritty (OK, maybe not Batman And Robin but you get the general idea), there was Flash Gordon - a proper attempt at transcribing the lurid excesses of the comic book page up onto the screen.
Is it a good film? By any serious film critics' view, probably not. Sam Jones is not the greatest actor around, the greenscreen isn’t brilliant a lot of the time and it’s weirdly kinky for a family oriented blockbuster type film. Is it a fun film? Oh my word, yes. It’s bright and garish, the various members of Ming’s court are weird and over-the-top, it has a curious abundance of C-list British stars (including a brief role for former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan) and it’s weirdly kinky for a family oriented blockbuster type film (although this last point definitely went over my head as a child). Plus it has Brian Blessed defining himself as that Brian Blessed type character in perpetuity after this (oh, alright, “Gordon’s alive?!?”; there you go).
It has a sense of humor and playfulness that would be lacking from comic book / superhero type films throughout the 80s and 90s until Marvel successfully cracked that formula (and proceeded to then completely dominate the box office for about 12 years but that’s another story…). It was part of the collection of taped-off-the-telly films on VHS that was watched incessantly in our house (Star Wars, Ghostbusters and many more being among that collection) to the point where I would start to know the script. Don’t test me now, that part of the brain has long been filled up by other pointlessly nerdy gubbins. (I was also always disappointed that they never followed up on the ambiguous “The End…?” - I would have loved to see a Flash Gordon II.)
It stills stands up today as a bright, stylish, weird and funny example of superhero films of the pre-gloom era and, if you haven’t seen it and are in the mood for some daft escapism (and who isn’t these days), is well worth a couple of hours of your time.
Yeah, I know, it’s forty years old. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Also, I bet you’re beginning to see what I meant about 1980 being a cracking year for films. At first, you were thinking, “Surely, you can’t be serious?” Well, I am serious and… well, yeah, exactly, you get the idea with that one…
Airplane! (1980 - again)
Dir. David & Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams / Dur. 87 mins
What’s It About? Plot-wise? As traumatised war veteran Ted Striker boards a flight to try and win back his estranged girlfriend Elaine Dickinson, a series of escalating tragedies mean that the flight is not going to go as planned. In reality? It’s a highly efficient delivery system for a large number of very silly and very funny jokes.
Why’s It Any Good? Look, there’s a huge risk that I could just sit and list you out a load of quotes to prove that this is one of the funniest films there is so I’ll do my best not to do that right now. It works because it’s a mix of the serious and the utterly silly. The serious in the sense that not only do you have a number of actors playing it completely deadpan straight (most notably Leslie Nielsen as Dr Rumack and Robert Stack as Rex Kramer) but it’s also technically a remake of a genuine disaster film. Yep, not a huge number of people know that but the film was largely based around the 1957 B-movie Zero Hour (to the extent that it was so similar in structure that they bought the rights to Zero Hour prior to starting production to avoid any potential lawsuits). The silly in the sense that… well, all of the rest of it.
Where Airplane! benefits is that it comes out of the sketch-based tradition that Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker had started with the Kentucky Fried Theatre improv troupe (inspiration for the Kentucky Fried Movie which preceded this) so the gag rate is almost ludicrously high. What stops it from just being a collection of sketches and gags like the Kentucky Fried Movie (which is a fun film but doesn't hit anywhere near the heights of Airplane!) is that they have the serious disaster movie plot to hang it all around.
Does it have some jokes that misfire? Sure, like any comedy rooted in a sketch-based format, sometimes the odd joke doesn’t quite land. With Airplane! though, the rate at which it burns through is so high that those misfires barely notice. It’s also stuffed full of lovely background gags too which mean that, even on a tenth rewatch, you might spot a gag that you hadn’t caught before.
I was too young to watch this when it came out but I was still pretty young when I watched it. The benefit to doing this is that, as I got older, more and more of the jokes landed with me. As a kid, the slapstick gags were the ones that landed. As a teenager, suddenly the sex-based gags made sense. Subsequent rewatches have unpicked more and more gags hitherto unnoticed or not quite understood.
The odd contemporary reference aside, this is a comedy that absolutely stands the test of time and deserves its place up there on any “All Time...” lists.
I hadn’t realised it until recently but 1980 was a pretty good year for films that I happen to think are great. A lot of these films are generally regarded as great too but one or two might very well just be my opinion. Let’s kick off with one that, for some people, sits a little in Column A and a little in Column B.
The Blues Brothers (1980 - well, duh…)
Dir. John Landis / Dur. 133 mins
What’s It About? Jake Blues, newly released from prison, and his brother Elwood race to put their band back together in order to save the orphanage where they grew up from demolition.
Why’s It Any Good? Because that economical plot description above really is all there is to the film. Spinning out of the characters that John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd used to perform on Saturday Night Live, it’s a loose collection of set pieces and musical numbers strung together around a road movie framework and really exists as an excuse for them to play with as many celebrity cameos as possible and sing a load of soul classics with their musical heroes. Given that those heroes include Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, Cab Calloway and John Lee Hooker, I’d say that’s reason enough.
Yes, the plot is paper thin but how many musicals do you watch for the plot? Be thankful that it’s as short as it is - Aykroyd’s first draft was around 320 pages (that’s about three times longer than an average draft) which Landis then whittled down into something more manageable.*
It’s definitely not a film that’s about plot though - it’s about fun, silliness, songs and absolutely ludicrous spectacle - it held the record for Most Cars Destroyed Onscreen for 18 years until Blues Brothers 2000** surpassed it by one.
It was a reasonable success at the time but, like many others, found a place on the midnight cinema circuit and made its way into the realm of cult movies that pretty much assured its place for posterity.
There was a big fuss about it being released on VHS for the first time and my copy came with a pair of cheap knock-off Blues Brothers shades which I wore until they broke. It’s a film that’s carried by its great musical numbers, its overwhelming charm and a good selection of immensely quotable lines and that’s where we start with our look back to the films of forty years ago...
* That said, the initial cut was still longer than the version released to cinemas. That extended cut has since been released on DVD/BluRay and contains the full performance of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” so, for my money, this is the version worth watching (the bit at the start where Elwood gets the glue spray he uses later on doesn’t really add much, though…)
** A film which I started to watch but just couldn’t bring myself to slog my way through. It’s just...wrong.
I doubt this one is a surprise either; well, the author at least, although the choice of book may have been a bit leftfield…
The Witches
By Roald Dahl
First published in 1983
What’s It About?
A young orphaned boy (aren’t they always in children’s literature) and his grandmother visit a seaside hotel so she can recover from illness, only to discover that they are in the middle of a worldwide convention of child-eating witches…
Background
In the highly unlikely event that you don’t know who Roald Dahl is, he was and remains one of the most successful (and emulated) children’s authors of all time, notching up such classics as Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, James And The Giant Peach, George’s Marvellous Medicine, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG and many more besides. He also had a brief career as a screenwriter, writing the scripts for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and You Only Live Twice as well as one of his own stories for Tales Of The Unexpected.
The Witches was inspired by Dahl’s childhood holidays spent in Norway, listening to bedtime stories about witches and magic…
Why’s It Good?
Because Roald Dahl stories combine a love of language and nonsense with that dark undertone that most kids love in their stories. Why have I picked this one over any of the others? Not because I don’t love the rest of his books - I devoured them all as a kid and enjoyed every single one - but because this was the first one I consciously remember being a “new” Roald Dahl book, one that I hadn’t already pored over. It’s an odd sensation to define but that made this book feel like the first one of his that was “mine”, one that hadn’t already been popular with loads of people. Add to that some vivid descriptions of witches and the genuinely tense section where the boy (who remains unnamed throughout the book as does his grandmother) is trapped in the hotel ballroom with a collection of witches unmasking themselves.
Side note - this one also has a nice crossover with my lifelong Jim Henson obsession given that the make-up and effects for the film adaptation were created by the Jim Henson Creature Workshop, leading to some genuinely horrific transformation scenes (although the film disappointingly opts for a standard Hollywood happy ending as well as deciding to give the boy the name Luke).
If you only read one Roald Dahl book, well, I’d probably still recommend Charlie And The Chocolate Factory but this one remains a firm favourite for me.
