I put this on this afternoon on TCM because I never had seen the start. Something was very definately missing. There's a long scene in which Lonesome and Vitajet part company. In it, Lonesome exposes the product as nothing more than sugar and a little caffeine. Vitajet's sales proceed to plummet.
In this version, Lonesome and Vitajet are still together at the end. What happened?
For what it's worth, I've seen this movie several times on TV, probably going back 40 years or more, and I don't remember this scene.
shareI don't remember seeing such a scene either and I lived in the little town in Arkansas where most of filming was done. I saw the movie when it first came out and watched it in the very same theater where the Memphis TV studio scenes were shot.
But what the OP describes does sound like a very early episode of the Andy Griffith Show where Ellie, the new pharmacist in Mayberry, refuses to sell the elderly lady Emma the pills she always takes. Emma claims her health is rapidly going downhill as a result. In the end Ellie agrees to sell her the pills, but tells Andy they're really just made of sugar.
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It's easier to be an individual than a god.
Lonesome Rhodes doesn't actually say the stuff about Vitajet. This is said during a meeting of the makers of Vitajet and the advertising people.
If you were observing this nutty planet, would YOU want to make contact?
This is said during a meeting of the makers of Vitajet and the advertising people.Yes, this is correct. This was important I think for establishing that the pills they were selling were basically a scam and that their later success occurs only because of Rhodes' ad campaign rather than from any intrinsic property of the pills. (You'd think people would stop taking them after they realized they didn't work though, eh?)
It was a doctor hired as a chemical consultant who made the statement about the content of the pills and he and his chart were gone when Lonesome showed up. Lonesome did not know or care the content of the product--he was clearly all about selling the sizzle rather than the steak. The popularity of the pills clearly showed the placebo effect.
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