Goof on the Loose (1959)

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Goof on the Loose (USA, 1959) 8 min B&W DIR–PROD-SCR: Ray Dennis Steckler. MUSIC: André Brummer, Libby Quinn. DOP: Ron McManus. CAST: Bert Leu Van, Rick Dennis, James Bowie, Carolyn Brandt, Pat Kirkwood, Gene Pollock, Ray Dennis Steckler. (Morgan-Steckler Productions)

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One writer had said they could always tell what kind of filmmaker one will be strictly on the basis of their first film. This is a perfectly pretentious statement to make, especially upon viewing one’s work in hindsight. For instance, can you see glimpses of Alan Rudolph’s Choose Me in Barn of the Naked Dead?). But in some cases, like François Truffaut’s Les mistons, this observation is absolutely true. And it is also true for Ray Dennis Steckler. In this eight-minute short, one can see that an auteur is born.

The only way to do this frenetic silent film any justice in print is to offer a play-by-play synopsis. Opening with some jaunty music and a title card: “Dedicated to the Laugh Makers of Long Ago…”, we are introduced to our hero, The Goof (played by Bert Leu Van), an offshoot of silent film clowns, wearing a small porkpie hat, holding a parasol in one hand and steering a bicycle with the other. A car knocks over a box in an alleyway, and underneath is revealed The Drunkard (played by Rick Dennis, who would have a bit part in Steckler’s first feature, Wild Guitar), with his trademark backward baseball cap. The Goof parks his bike (a wolf sound is heard on the soundtrack), climbs over The Drunkard, and over a wall. He ogles at a woman in a swimsuit being photographed next to a backyard swimming pool. Also present at the scene is this floppy-hatted something, perhaps an early forerunner of one of Steckler’s Incredibly Strange Creatures, which the smitten Goof hops over. Meanwhile, outside, a strange zombie-like Grandma in a nightgown and nightcap walks past The Drunkard. He opens the gate to the same backyard (an alarm sounds), and a cut-in to a hand-scrawled sign reveals this location to be “Mrs. Bait’s Home For the Fruity”. The Goof cuts a flower. Grandma sits by the pool in patio furniture across from someone wearing a Frankenstein Monster mask and smoking a cigarette. A guy fishes off the diving board. The girl kisses The Goof. The cameraman goes into the pool with a bag on his head, and tosses his exposed film into the water. A guy with an arrow through his hat looks on. The Drunkard crawls in the entrance. The girl’s kiss stops. The Drunkard comes to the patio and dances with Grandma. The cameraman examines the rushes of his film while still standing in the pool. The Goof leaves. The girl jumps in the pool and a fish hook gets caught on her suit. The guy with the arrow through the hat laughs.

A kid tosses a football, knocking the flower from The Goof’s hand. He shakes his fist at the kid, while another kid chews up the flower with his lawnmower (an airplane noise is heard). The Goof then gets sprayed with a squirt gun (sounds like a fire alarm), and chases the antagonistic kid around the corner of the house, only to get carried out by the kid’s father and get socked to the ground. The Goof rings a doorbell, a woman comes out (the door opening sounds like a drawbridge), he gives her the shredded flower, which she throws back in his face (a car honk sounds).

The Goof walks through the park. Crowd noise is heard, but no crowd is seen. “Alfred E. Neuman For President” is on a sign attached to a garbage can. Beside that, a kid reads a comic book. Bop sax music is heard on the soundtrack as a saxophone player wanders up. The Goof takes a drink from a fountain and then spits the water into the saxman’s face. He chases The Goof through the park, and they collide with some guy who looks like Ed Norton from The Honeymooners. He too begins to chase The Goof. Their skirmish causes a fisherman to twirl around (tornado noise on the soundtrack) and falls in the water (breaking glass sounds, this time).

The Drunkard staggers through, and gets knocked over twice by the people in chase. The three run into the bushes and then rush out, as a guy with a sandwich sign (“Eat At Trader Joe’s”) emerges. A think leggy woman in a dress sits on a bench, her top half being covered by the newspaper she is reading. The Goof inches his way over to the woman on the bench, the paper drops, and a guy with spectacles (who looks a lot like Mr. Steckler in a cameo) sticks his tongue out at him. Ed Norton and the sax guy pursue him, and knock over The Drunkard again. (The sound of cannon fire is heard when he hits the ground.)

A photographer snaps pics of a woman by a statue. The sax guy chases her around the photographer and The Goof tries to sneak by—alas, the chase continues. The fisherman still treads water to the sound of glass. The Drunkard gets up and gets knocked over twice more. A woman feeds the pigeons. They all fly away as the people run through. The trio jumps around a parked car. Finally, The Goof gets put in the trunk. He manages to sneak out the front of the vehicle, gets in the vehicle parked ahead, U-turns, honks, waves. The two guys wave, then do a double take and open the trunk. Inside is The Drunkard. The two guys chase the car as it vanishes into the horizon. The fisherman treads water. The guy in the Frankenstein mask sits on patio furniture. Whew!

These few minutes of film are certainly a lovely tribute to silent comics of yore, from the Keystone Kops comedies, to the surreal slapstick of Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. This is also a blueprint of the inspired madness that would follow in Steckler’s features. In a past chapter of this serial on Steckler’s work, I had, with tongue in cheek, compared it to Godard. The more I think about it now, the more I believe it. Ray Dennis Steckler is a master innovator, who like a French New Waver, improvises with the camera, and often turns narrative on its ear. His cinema certainly may not be consistent, but the constantly changing tones, and the dream logic make his work absolute poetry. (The use of incongruous sound effects even predates Godard’s Made in USA.) In his interview for the great RE:Search book, Incredibly Strange Films, Steckler joked, “(The film) would’ve run ten minutes, but we got chased out of the park!”

Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #11, as part of the ongoing “Ray Dennis Steckler and You” series. We had acquired an off-air copy of this short film along with his Lemon Grove Kids epics, and had reviewed them together, as they capture the same spirit. Goof on the Loose is now officially released, as an extra on one of the two Media Blasters box sets of Steckler’s work.