Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again, it is time for more cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection starts with the first of Walt Disney's Alice comedies, Alice's Wonderland (1923). Before this film was even close to done with production, Walt was already writing distributors stating, "We have just discovered something new and clever in animated cartoons!" He was speaking of the idea of having a live action character enter into an animated cartoon world. This was actually a reversal of what the Fleischer Brother were doing with their Out of the Inkwell films, were animated characters entered our live action world. For the live action little girl Walt hired four year old Virginia Davis. Walt had seen Virginia on an advertisement for Warneker's Bread. Virginia later spoke of this stating, "It was just a picture of me smiling and looking like 'Oh, yum, yum!' and eating this piece of Warneker's Bread with a lot of jam on it." At the time of making this film, Walt and his studio were struggling financially. While many producers would take this as a reason to make a cheap film, Walt plugged into the project with everything he had. This short was downright lavish compared to much of Walt's previous work and still looks great today. Unfortunately the film was not enough to save his company, but it did catch the attention of Margaret J. Winkler, who was also distributing the Felix the Cat and Out of the Inkwell cartoons. His studio went under and Walt moved to Hollywood without his crew. Yet he had this film and was able to secure a deal for 12 more Alice films with Winkler.
Now for the Terry Toons cartoon, Stringbean Jack (1938). This marked the first Terry Toons short in color. The two-headed giant and the W.C. Feilds caricature are a lot of fun here. A similar two-headed giant would later be used for a Terry Toons cartoon appropriately titled The Two-Headed Giant (1939).
Next comes Betty Boop in Ha-Ha-Ha (1934). This short film also features Koko the Clown, the star of the Fleischer Studio's silent Out of the Inkwell films. This is not the only similarity between this film and the Out of the Inkwell shorts. This cartoon also mixes animation and live action in a very similar way to those shorts.
Next is the Terry Toons short, Foiling the Fox (1950).
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Up next is The Fleischer Screen song cartoon, I Wished on the Moon (1935). The title song was written by Ralph Rainger (music) and Dorothy Parker (lyrics). The same year this cartoon was released Bing Crosby and the Dorsey Brothers orchestra recorded this song and it placed at number two in the charts staying on the charts for seven weeks. The song would enjoy even more popularity when Bing would sing it in the feature film, The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935). Here the song is performed by Abe Lyman and his Californians. Cartoon fans may know that Abe Lyman also worked on the musical scores of some early Merrie Melodies cartoons, such as One More Time (1931) and Smile Darn Ya Smile (1931). Most importantly though this cartoon marks the first appearance of Wiffle Piffle.
Today's cartoon selection continues with another Friz Freleng classic, Daffy the Commando (1943). The following is an exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald, "Daffy the Commando: Looney Tunes Cartoon - This is Daffy's best. By the way where has Vitaphone being keeping Daffy Duck? This is the first I played in a long while. -Ralph Raspa, State Theatre, Rivesville, W. Va."
Donald and Pluto (1936) is naturally a cartoon that stars Donald Duck and Pluto. Mickey Mouse is nowhere to be found. However, it was released a Mickey Mouse cartoon as a Mickey Mouse cartoon. This is because at this time, Donald Duck and Pluto didn't have their own series. It wouldn't be long before that was rectified though.
Now to close with a song.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney by J. B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt.
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
Run Time: 17 minutes. Studio: Biograph. Director: D.W. Grifith. Writer: Edward Bell. Cast: Alfred Paget, Herny B. Walthall, Harry Carey, Lionel Barrymore, John T. Dillion, Kate Bruce, Bobby Harron. Cinematographer: Billy Blitzer.
Though D.W. Griffith is often best known for his epics like Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), which were massive in both scale and length, I often think that the director's best work is the short films that he made for Biograph.
In this short western film, three outlaws are escaping from a posse by heading into the desert. Here they run across a baby who is about to be eaten by a mountain lion. They rescue the baby and protect it as they continue to travel through the desert.
This film shows Griffith and his team at the height of their filmmaking powers. For a short film, there is a lot of story fit into the runtime. However, The Sheriff's Baby never feels rushed and is never difficult to follow. Rather it is gripping for start to finish. The ending is actually quite moving as the buildup to it is perfect. The technical aspects are top notch here. The use of cutting between scenes is quite impressive for its time and holds up perfectly today. Griffith's films are course greatly remembered today for their pioneering use of cross-cutting and this is a great example of why. The cutting between the posse and the outlaws early on, creates some action scenes that still exciting today. Yet this excellent technical filmmaking is never there simply to show off. Rather every aspect of the technical filmmaking is in compete service to the story. Causal viewers may not notice or think about the great use of crosscutting here, but they will definitely feel it. A cast of Griffith regulars are also at the top of their game here. There is very little of the type of overacting that one might associate with films of the early 1910's. This is a too often overlooked gem in Griffith's filmography.
Movie lovers will easily recognize similarities between this film and the story Three Godfathers. Three Godfathers had five official movie adaptions (the most famous being the John Ford/John Wayne 1948 adaption). This story was written by prolific author Peter B. Kyne had first appeared as a short story in The Saturday Evening Post in November of 1912. In 1913 the story would be turned into a novel. Though records from Biograph report that The Sheriff's Baby has an original story by Edward Bell (he received payment for his story on December 16, 1912), the similarities are too clear to ignore. It is definitely plausible that The Saturday Evening Post version was at least an inspiration for this film.
For anyone who wishes to watch this delightful film, it is available as a bonus feature on the Film Preservation Society's Blu-ray set for the William S. Hart feature film, Wolf Lowry (1917).
Thriller has lots of twists and turns but little reason to care.
In this film, an unexploded WWII era bomb is discovered underneath a construction site. However, there may be more than meets the eye going on here.
This is a movie, I wished I liked more than I did. It is rare to find a modern movie that keeps surprising me with every twist and turn. I can honestly say that I never really knew where this plot was going. So why didn't I actually care for the film then. The answer is simply that I was never given a reason to care about anything that happened on screen. This movie is full of characters and often cuts back and forth between them. With its complex plot and 97-minute runtime, we end up barely knowing anything about who these characters are. Thinking back on the film as I write this review, I not only can't remember most of the characters' names, but I can't recall much of any personality any of them have. All these characters seem to be defined by the roles they play in the story and at the end of the day, they are not characters as much as they are plot devices. Even a strong cast, cannot make me care about any of these characters. The result is that with each twist and turn that happened, I felt no connection to what was happening on screen. I even found that my mind began wandering during scenes that I knew were supposed to be exciting. When the ending came, I simply found I had no investment in what was obviously supposed to be a shocking twist.
This thriller starts strong but unfortunately falters out as it goes along.
In this film a young black man goes to live with his cousin in a small town in Idaho after getting out of jail. He wants just to live peacefully and leave his past behind him. Unfortunately, a group of white supremacists decide to make life a living hell for him.
After an unnecessarily gratuitously violent opening, this movie does a very good job creating an emotional connection between you and the main character. From the second you meet him you are set up to have sympathy for him. He fought for his country; he cares deeply about what is right and wrong and he is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in. He has been in jail for fighting a man who was beating his wife in fact. Added to this is that Shameik Moore is very charming and charismatic in the role. With our emotional connection this becomes a fairly strong if familiar drama about systematic racism, the treatment of veterans and corruption in law enforcement.
However sadly this can't last. The movie soon becomes bogged down in an orgy of sex, violence and clichés. As the movie goes along, the violence and sex simply become gratuitous. Many scenes are not simply violent but repulsively gory for the sake of being repulsively gory. This movie would have lost nothing if it just simply cut away and left some of these gory scenes to our imagination. As the storyline and the action get increasingly over the top, the extremely realistic violence feels more and more out of place. The sex is just unnecessary. Many women are reduced to sex objects in many scenes that simply feel here to make this already very adult movie feel edgy. I am not squeamish or a prude but much of the sex and violence in this movie simply serves no purpose but shock value. Worse than this the social commentary and the characters often take a back seat to this shock value as the film continues. About halfway through this film, if not before then, everyone knows exactly what direction the story is going. However, as the film takes its time to get to the inevitable conclusion, the audience becomes impatient for what they know will happen to happen.
I will admit though that when we get to the big, expected climax, it is quite well done though.
It is sad when a movie that starts out quite strong, turns into something not so great. Unfortunately, that is the case here.
If you love the 1960's live action Disney films as much as I do, you probably have the same fondness for Hayley Mills (who as a child acted in multiple Disney classics). To me Pollyanna (1960) still ranks as one of Disney's finest live action movies and The Parent Trap (1961) is still a comedy classic. Because of this I was eager to read Hayley Mills' memoir.
What I found was the Hayley is just a lovely of a human being as she is an actress. She not only talks about her career and personal life but also her own personal philosophies. In a simple and unpretentious manner, she shows herself to be a very soulful and intelligent woman. You not only learn about her here, but you connect with emotionally.
As a buff of all things Walt Disney, I of course greatly enjoyed the times when she talked about Walt himself. It is rare to be able to actually read about Walt from the point of view of someone who actually knew him. This makes me treasure every chance I get to read a first-hand account of the great filmmaker. To read Hayley writing about him with such love and fondness only increased this joy.
She also talked greatly about some of her British films. Even if you have not seen these movies, Hayley's writing makes you want to search them out.
Hayley also talks greatly about the effects of being a child star in Hollywood. While her life does not have the same tragedies that many child stars suffered, it did lead to much insecurity on her part. She obviously still remembers these insecurities and writes about them in a way that can feel heartbreaking to read.
A must read for any Hayley Mills and/or Disney fan.
