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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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.

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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"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/
|