Thursday, May 13, 2010

Show your pearly whites!



Rather a strange post this week you may think, but I find it quite toothsome! Teeth have been on my mind rather a lot lately. Our family has a great dental plan and going to the dentist has almost always been a positive experience for me, but trying to schedule appointments for adult children who are away from home (at university) and may or may not be covered by the plan, unless you fill out the proper paperwork, can be a bit of a challenge.  Added to that my hubby has informed me that he may need braces!!!

While reading Chris Ryan's Strike Back a few months ago, I came upon a scene of tooth extraction (with no pain killers) which reminded me of the scene with Dustin Hoffman and Sir Lawrence Olivier in the movie Marathon Man.  Hoffman's character is a graduate student and a marathon runner who inadvertently gets mixed up with spies and an evil Nazi dentist, resulting in a torture scene that would even make Spooks fans squirm!
WARNING: If you are afraid of Dentists, watching this scene will not be advantageous to you!

Marathon Man ( 1976)


WAIT! Don't run away! (At least I didn't show you a scene from the horrible dentist slasher film The Dentist 2 starring former L.A. Law divorce lawyer Corbin Bernsen -- they made a sequel??!)
Marathon Man is an fabulous thriller with great performances all round. It is based on the book by William Goldman, who also wrote the screenplay. William Goldman is one of my faves, especially for writing The Princess Bride, which is also a super movie....but I digress.

After a scene like that one, we need some comedy relief. Here's Tim Conway and Harvey Korman from The Carol Burnett Show with their famous Dentist skit.



 More funny stuff about dentists...Here's Bill Cosby!



And now how about a bit of music?  
Steve Martin is a maniacal dentist in this crazy musical film (but he certainly enjoys his work!)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

I can't resist showing this scene too. Bill Murray and Steve Martin together!


I can't believe I forgot about this one! Here's a late addition to this page:
The Painless Dentist Song by Allan Sherman.




I really enjoyed this movie starring funny man Ricky Gervais about a dentist who, after dying for 7 minutes during a routine operation, is brought back to life but is haunted by ghosts who all want a favour from him.

Ghost Town (2009)



Now here is what I was talking about. In Chris Ryan's Strike Back, Richard Armitage plays John Porter, a former SAS officer who had a bad experience in a past assignment that keeps haunting him.  When he realizes that because of his history, he might be the only one who can save a female reporter kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq, he volunteers for duty.  The following screencaps are courtesy of Richard Armitage Central.
An army dentist is implanting a tracking device 
(although JP just thinks he's getting complimentary dental work)!

Don't hurt him!!


Now I'm not sure, because I haven't been able to see episodes 1 and 2 of Strike Back on Sky 1 which debuted in Great Britain with much fanfare last week, but I think this next picture might be from the tooth extraction scene. Athough it looks painful, it is certainly can't be as harrowing as the scene in the book!

Is it safe?
  Porter gripped the sides of the chair. He closed his eyes, opened his mouth. He could smell the stewed fruit washing over him as the old woman leant into his face. She said something to H----, and he replied, but Porter couldn't make out a single word. She tapped one tooth then another with a scalpel: two of the teeth that had been replaced for him back at the Firm's headquarters. Porter could feel a clamp being placed inside his mouth to hold it open, then a wrench being screwed onto one of his teeth. H---- knelt down, pressing a strip of leather into Porter's hand. "Here, pull on this," he said quietly.
  Don't yell, he told himself grimly.
  The woman yanked at the wrench. Porter could feel a bolt of pain jabbing right through him as the nerves attaching the tooth to the jaw screamed out in agony. It was like having a needle threaded straight into your veins. There was a crunching sound, then the scratching of metal against bone. Porter gripped hold of the strip of leather, twisting it into his hand, trying to keep the pain under control. 
  Another yank. A fresh wave of pain swept through every nerve in Porter's body. (Expletive!), he muttered, making sure he kept his mouth open and the word to himself. He could feel the sweat dripping off his brow. The woman said something to H----. Porter opened his eyes. He could tell the wrench was still clamped to his tooth. H--- was leaning into the wrench, a grimace on his face. Porter steeled himself, shut his eyes tight and gripped hard on the sides of the chair. He could feel the force of the wrench smashing into his gums. Then a snapping sound. A searing pain ran up through his mouth, colliding inside his head.
  He opened his eyes. He could feel some blood hitting the back of his throat, and washing across his tongue. The side of his mouth was numb from the impact. In front of him, H--- was holding the tooth inside the wrench, showing it to the old woman. There was still some blood dripping from the stem. "It's clean," said H--- with a shrug. "Maybe it's the other one."
Ryan, Chris. Strike Back. London: Arrow Books, c2007, p. 431-433.


Now look at the beautiful mouthful of teeth he is sporting here. Enough to make a dentist proud!


I honestly forgot where I found this marvelous shot. Please inform me about who should get the credit. Usually when I come across such amazing pictures I am so stunned by man beauty it is a wonder that I can even figure out how to save them to my computer!

Until next time...keep smiling!

14 comments:

Avalon said...

Funny post but sorry I could not watch the torture scene...lol...not our thing. (And thanks for the warning because I would have watched and then been sick)
I have never had a tooth pulled but I can imagine that must be quite painful! I have had my wisdom teeth extracted by surgery but they put me to sleep so I suppose that doesn't really count.
Loved the last photo!

tyme_4_t said...

Tim Conway, Bill Cosby & Richard Armitage in one post - love it! They all make me smile!
That last pic of RA leaves me grinning from ear to ear...*squee*

Phylly3 said...

Thanks T4T! Glad to make you smile!
How about Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Steve Martin, Bill Murray and Ricky Gervais with Richard Armitage? Pretty fun party, I'd say!

§arah said...

The smile at the beginning is yours, isn't it? You've always had nice looking teeth. Oh and the torture video was removed, btw "due to terms of use violation".

Phylly3 said...

Thanks for the heads up on the missing video. I have had to replace other ones before--and I will again. How annoying!

mulubinba said...

Great post - the clips bring back memories of my favourite actors. The excerpt from Strike Back ...ugh... I thought the scene in Ep 1 was bad enough but the book is worse. That last pic - lovely smile which attracted me to him first in Vicar of Dibley. The photo was from the BAFTAs but I also would have no idea where it might have come from.

Phylly3 said...

Nice to hear from you again mulubinba! Yes, his smile is like a ray of sunshine!

Twinkling Moon said...

What the heck! i posted a comment twice yesterday and now I don't see it. Maybe you took it down phylly3 and I am just being stubborn and not getting the hint, LOL!

Anyhow, I'm trying to remember what I said now. Well, I love your line of "look at that beautiful mouthful of teeth he is sporting here. Enough to make a dentist proud!" No kidding! I'm not even his dentist and I'm proud of that mouth, LOL!

His smile is definitely a "ray of sunshine" as you say Phylly3. I can't help but look at his mouth whenever I see him. I mean, he does have beautiful eyes and everything, but that mouth, *sigh*. I think it has to do with his voice too, if I'm honest, that draws me to his mouth. I just love it, but find sometimes I have a hard time understanding him. I think it may be a combination of his accent and the depth of his voice. So I end up trying to read his lips, crazy, I know, LOL!

Thanks for the great post phylly3, and no offense taken, :)

Phylly3 said...

Sorry Twinkling Moon! I just noticed your comment here and as it is on an older post I had to moderate it. I didn't see a comment yesterday though (and I was looking)!
Glad you found me, and that you don't mind me posting all those nonflattering clips of dentists.
Nice to have a professional opinion! :D
I am glad you said that sometimes you have trouble understanding him, because I thought it was just me going deaf! When his voices drops very low and quiet I really can't hear what he is saying. I end up pressing rewind, and play over and over until I get it!

Anonymous said...

Those pearly whites have changed quite a bit! Check his teeth out in N & S, before he got them worked on--they're quite different.

Phylly3 said...

Yes. I have noticed that. There have been some long discussions about his dental work on some other blogs.
Of course I love his teeth now, but the way his teeth were originally was certainly more realistic in period drama. I never really noticed a problem with the way they were before, but I don't tend to notice teeth so much as eyes.
Actors today have more pressure to look perfect (according to Hollywood standards) I guess.
You should find yourself a nickname, Anonymous! LOL Thanks for commenting! :)

Eddie Storms said...

Wow! These movies and photos can really be scary! And indeed, if someone would dental phobia can see this stuff, I'm sure he will be more afraid. But for me there is nothing to be scared about when it comes to going to a dentist (Atlanta, Georgia) because a dentist (Buckhead)is a professional that can make your teeth healthy and will make you achieve the perfect smile. So there is nothing to be afraid about when it comes to going to a dentist office.

Anonymous said...

I missed this when it first came up, I think. Great collection!

NovemberBride said...

Me too. (Well, TBH, I wasn't around when this first posted. I call it my PreRA era.) I haven't laughed so hard or so long in ages. I literally couldn't breathe. Tears ran, hubs ran in to check on me. Now he's going to watch Tim, one of our all time favs.

Thanks for an absolutely HYSTERICAL post!