• Universal Solvent Movie with Radioactive Contamination of Clothing

    From Carl G.@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jan 4 16:52:33 2023
    This may be more of a trivia question than a puzzle, but I have been
    trying to find an answer for a long time. I retired recently, and this
    is on my "to do" list.

    I am trying to figure out the name of a comedic movie I saw on
    television (TV), likely before 1980-but it could have been later. I do
    not believe that it was a "made for TV movie", but it might have been.
    I believe that it was made to be shown in theaters and was later shown
    on TV. The description below is made from memory, so a few details may
    be wrong. The description is lengthy, since I am hoping some detail
    will trigger someone else's memory. I have been told by my relatives,
    who are good at movie trivia, that they do not know of any such movie,
    and that I must have dreamt the movie. If the movie was a dream, then
    it is probably the most detailed and self-consistent dream I have ever had.

    The movie's protagonist is a bumbling chemist/scientist. It was not
    "The Nutty Professor", but the protagonist was similar to the Jerry
    Lewis character. At the start of the movie (perhaps during the opening credits), an egg-sized blob of chemical is burning its way through the
    floors of an office building. The protagonist is chasing the blob floor-by-floor, just missing it as each floor has a hole dissolved in it
    and the blob falls to the next floor. The rooms are filled with office furniture. The floor and ceilings are white. The protagonist finally
    catches the blob after a few floors in a beaker. He is reprimanded by
    an angry superior, who considers the protagonist a trouble maker. The protagonist explains that the chemical is his new invention and that it
    will dissolve almost anything, except platinum, and that the beaker is
    made of platinum (although the movie prop may have been transparent, I'm
    not sure). The supervisor recognizes the chemical's commercial value
    and asks that the protagonist figure out a containment material that is
    cheaper than platinum. The protagonist is sent to a lab (possibly a
    mountain cabin) in a wooded area near a lake to figure out an
    alternative. There, he runs into the female lead (I forget the details
    of why she was visiting the wooded area). He is shy and awkward around
    her. I do not recall much of the connecting plot, but at one point, a
    box containing chemicals is accidentally opened. The chemicals were to
    be used to help produce the new containment material. The chemicals are radioactive, and he immediately slams the box shut and tells the woman
    that they have been contaminated and must bath in the lake and and
    dispose of their clothing (with comedic awkwardness and frantic
    activity). Several bolts of cloth, or possibly drapes, are used to
    fashion togas, which they wear. Later, for comic effect, the box is accidentally opened a second time (oops, slam, back to the lake), and
    the awkwardness is repeated. I do not recall how the movie ends, but I
    believe that the protagonist and the woman fall in love by the end of
    the movie.

    I may have seen the movie on a black-and-white TV, so the movie may or
    may not be in color. I do not recall if the movie was dubbed, but I
    think that the actors spoke English (no sub-titles). I have tried using
    the search engines at Google, IMDB, and whatismymovie.com, but have not
    had any luck. The use of radioactivity as a plot gimmick likely means
    that movie was made after the Hiroshima bomb, and likely during the Cold
    War era (between 1946 and 1980, although it could have be later). Even
    if no one knows the movie's name, if you remember seeing it, let me know
    so that I can eliminate the "it was only a dream" possibility.

    --
    Carl G.

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  • From Mark Brader@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jan 5 21:53:19 2023
    Carl Ginnow:
    I am trying to figure out the name of a comedic movie I saw on
    television (TV), likely before 1980-but it could have been later. I do
    not believe that it was a "made for TV movie", but it might have been...

    I forwarded Carl's plot description to a friend, Michael Levine, who
    suggested that it might have been a 1952 episode of the TV series
    "Tales of Tomorrow", which was a half-hour science-fiction anthology
    series, like "The Twilight Zone". The relevant episode is titled
    "World of Water".

    But I think Michael was wrong, because the episode's IMDB page

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717094/

    contains this plot summary:

    A disgruntled refugee scientist, frustrated in both his professional
    and personal lives, develops a universal solvent, which threatens to
    turn all solid material into water.

    and three reviews by IMDB users, and nothing suggests a comedic tone.
    Perhaps this was a different development of the same idea, then.
    --
    Mark Brader, Toronto | "But put in one lousy dragon and they call you msb@vex.net | a fantasy writer." --Terry Pratchett

    My text in this article is in the public domain.

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  • From Carl G.@21:1/5 to Mark Brader on Thu Jan 5 16:19:11 2023
    On 1/5/2023 1:53 PM, Mark Brader wrote:
    Carl Ginnow:
    I am trying to figure out the name of a comedic movie I saw on
    television (TV), likely before 1980-but it could have been later. I do
    not believe that it was a "made for TV movie", but it might have been...

    I forwarded Carl's plot description to a friend, Michael Levine, who suggested that it might have been a 1952 episode of the TV series
    "Tales of Tomorrow", which was a half-hour science-fiction anthology
    series, like "The Twilight Zone". The relevant episode is titled
    "World of Water".

    But I think Michael was wrong, because the episode's IMDB page

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717094/

    contains this plot summary:

    A disgruntled refugee scientist, frustrated in both his professional
    and personal lives, develops a universal solvent, which threatens to
    turn all solid material into water.

    and three reviews by IMDB users, and nothing suggests a comedic tone.
    Perhaps this was a different development of the same idea, then.

    Thanks Mark (and Michael Levine). The movie I remember was a comedy.
    The pictures at IMDB do not match my memory. The memory I have of the
    chemical burning a hole in the floor is similar to the one at https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodAcid. I
    found this webpage when searching for the movie a few years ago. I was surprised that the website did not include the comedic movie, since it
    would have been an ideal reference for the trope. I remember seeing the comedic movie before the movie "Alien" came out, and thought that
    "Alien" borrowed from the movie. What finally pushed me into trying to
    find the movie was listening to a CD with the old-time radio program
    "Lights Out: Oxichloride X", which has a plot based on a universal
    solvent. My Google search also keeps turning up a 1995 Donald Duck
    comic book story called "The Universal Solvent". The comic is listed on
    the tvtropes.org webpage. To find the movie, I have also tried looking
    at the filmographies of possible actors using Wikipedia and IMDB.

    --
    Carl G.

    --
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  • From gerson@21:1/5 to Mark Brader on Sun Jan 8 18:46:15 2023
    "Carl G." wrote in message news:tp7pe0$2v2k5$1@dont-email.me...

    On 1/5/2023 1:53 PM, Mark Brader wrote:
    Carl Ginnow:

    <large snip>

    This doesn't answer the original question at all, but it's still about 'universal solvent'

    there's this
    https://i.imgur.com/7oaMmsu.jpg

    which I found in the site below
    It's just a bit less than half way down, under the heading 'acid' https://www.reddit.com/r/respectthreads/comments/f6h7ch/respect_captain_marvel_dc_earths/
    |

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