Cowboy Church #253

 Hello, my friends and welcome back for another service of Cowboy Church.

 Today's musical selection begins with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing In the Sweet By and By. This song came about because of a friendship between composer, Joseph Webster and poet, Dr. Sanford Fillmore Bennett. One day Webster was depressed and Dr. Bennett recognized this. Dr. Bennett asked his friend what was wrong. Webster replied, "Oh nothing. Everything will be alright by and by." These words brought up an idea in Bennett and he wrote down three verses and a chorus to this song as soon as he could. He handed it to his friend saying, “Here is your prescription, Joe.” Webster loved the lyrics and wrote music for them in practically no time at all. Dr. Bennett later said, “It was not over thirty minutes from the time I took my pen to write the words before two friends with Webster and myself were singing the hymn.” The hymn was first published in 1868 and went on to great fame since. This version of the song comes from Roy and Dale's 1973 gospel album, In the Sweet By and By.

This is followed by Red Sovine with The Church Around the Corner. If you have been wandering from God, there is still time to come back to him, and he will welcome you with open arms. 

Afterwards is Blind Willie Johnson with his 1927 recording of If Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down. This song would most famously be recorded by the Grateful Dead on their 1977 album, Terrapin Station. This song would also be recorded by Bob Dylan and surprisingly Tom Jones. 

Next comes The Sons of The Pioneers with their 1937 recording of One More River to Cross. Our good friend Leonard Slye (aka Roy Rogers) takes the lead vocal here, but like many of the best Sons of the Pioneers recordings, the highlight is the group's great harmonies. The incredible Hawaiian steel guitar player, Sam Koki joins the boys on this recording and does a fine job.

Then comes Jerry Lee Lewis with I'm Longing for Home. This comes from The Killer's 1971 album, In Loving Memories: The Jerry Lee Lewis Gospel Album. 

Now comes Johnny Cash singing Let the Lower Lights Be Burning. In the notes for the box set Unearthed, John wrote, "This is a very special song for me, and I'll tell you what it means to me now. When my father was dying, he was in a coma, and all my brothers and sisters and I were gathered around the bed, and we felt like telling him goodbye. But my oldest sister Louise said, 'Let's sing to him.' So we started singing 'Let the Lower Lights be Burning.' At some point I looked at him and, though he had been sound asleep in a coma for days, his lips started moving and he started singing that song along with us. The more we would sing it the more he sang. And he opened his eyes, and he looked around at us as we were singing. Ad of course everybody had a good cry as watched him and listened to him as he sang 'Let the Lower Lights be Burning' with us."

Today's musical selection ends with Roy Clark with 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus. 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus was another hymn born out of personal tragedy.  Louisa M. R. Stead was happily married and one day her, her husband and their four year old daughter had a day at the beach, when they heard a scream. They went to see where the scream was coming from and saw a little boy drowning in the sea. Her husband tried to pull the boy out of the water but the boy pulled the husband down with him. Louisa and her daughter Lilly watched helplessly as the two died before their eyes. It is unknown when the song was actually written, but it is known that it was inspired by this tragedy and how God helped pull her through it as she soon went back on the mission field. The song was first published in 1882 a collection of hymns entitled Songs of Triumph. 

Today's movie is Sing Cowboy Sing (1937) starring Tex Ritter. 

Now for a message from the Reverand Martin Luther King Jr. 

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

    where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

    the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—

    he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel

    will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—

    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,

    nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—

    he will watch over your life;

8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going

    both now and forevermore.

Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another service of Cowboy Church. 

Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #265

 Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons. 

Today's cartoon selection begins with Heckle and Jeckle in The Intruders (1947). The Heckle and Jeckle shorts are some of the best cartoons to come out of the Terry Toons studio and this cartoon shows why perfectly. It is fast paced, creative and a lot of fun. 

Up next comes probably the most popular and well known of Disney's Silly Symphonies, Three Little Pigs (1933). This cartoon is considered to be a breakthrough in personality animation. No less than Chuck Jones would say, "That was the first time that anybody ever brought characters to life. There were three characters, who looked alike and acted differently; the way the moved is what made them who they were. Before that in things like Steamboat Willie [1928], the villain was a big heavy guy, and the hero was a little guy; everybody moved the same. Even in the Fleischer's stuff, the basic difference between Popeye and Bluto was the size difference not the action difference." The animation of the three pigs is mostly handled by Fred Moore and Dick Lundy. Dick Lundy animated all of the dancing scenes. Jack King animated one excellent scene in which Practical Pig is playing the piano. Norm Ferguson animated the majority of the Big Bad Wolf. Art Babbitt animates only two scenes, one in which the wolf catches the pig's by their tails and one in which he falls into a boiling pot. These were some of the best Disney animators of the time and their work here perfectly shows why. This is not just a milestone for its time, but remains a hugely entertaining cartoon today, heavily because of the work of these animators. Walt Disney later remembered this film's premiere, "It caused no excitement at its Radio City premiere. In fact many critics preferred Father Noah's Ark [1933], which was released at the same time. I was told that some exhibitor's and even United Artists considered The Pigs a 'cheater' because it only had four characters in it. The picture bounced back to fame from the neighborhood theatres." Three Little Pigs would become not only a hit cartoon but a sensation with movie goers everywhere. The short also gave the Disney studio its first of many hit songs, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf (written by Frank Churchill), a song that is still instantly recognizable to Disney fans today. Time Magazine referred to the song as "the tune by which 1933 will be remembered." Despite all this Walt would later discuss the making of the cartoon stating, "It was just another story to us, and we were gaging it up just like any other picture." The following is from a 1933 issue of Modern Screen Magazine, "Here's some good news for you 'Three Little Pigs' fans: This Silly Symphony has met with such tremendous success that Walt Disney is going to feature them (plus the Big Bad Wolf) in several other Mother Goose rhymes. In other words, they're going to become regular stars like Mickey Mouse. Incidentally folks are seeing 'Three Little Pigs for the umptieth time and still enjoying it." There would only be three sequels (The Big Bad Wolf (1934), Three Little Wolves (1936) and The Practical Pig (1939)), none of which would be as successful as the first leading Walt to infamously say, "you can't top pigs with pigs." This cartoon reached the number 11 spot in Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons. Before the studio embarked on Snow White (1937), silent movie queen Mary Pickford approached Walt Disney about making an Alice in Wonderland feature film where she would play a live action Alice and would enter completely animated Wonderland. Mary Pickford had great admiration for Walt Disney's work, and she was the main force driving this planned film. In early 1933, an acquaintance of Mary's named Frank Reily suggested that Mary make an adaption of Alice in Wonderland with the aid of the Disney studio. Some of Mary's associates warned her against such an expensive venture during the midst of the great depression. Mary came to visit the studio when the project and overheard from story artist Ted Sears and composer Frank Churchill about a project in the works involving three little pigs and heard the song, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. As well pitching her idea to Walt, she also told Walt, "If you don't make this cartoon about the pigs, I'll never speak to you again." Even if the proposed feature never happened, Mary was right about this cartoon short. 

Now for The New Three Stooges cartoon, Gagster Dragster (1965). The Stooges voice themselves in this made for TV cartoon. The real Stooges also appear in the opening and closing live action segments. The live action segments would often be repeated even when the cartoon was new. Curly Joe DeRita felt that this hurt the show. He thought that people would see a live action segment they had seen before and assume the show was a rerun and change the channel not knowing the cartoon was new. 

Next comes the Screen Song cartoon, Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet (1929). The title song was written by Percy Wenrich in 1909. Percy Wenrich also wrote such songs as I'll Meet You When the Sun Goes Down, Moonlight Bay, When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose and Sail Along, Silv'ry Moon. 

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

Next comes a wonderful Daffy Duck film, The Daffy Duckaroo (1942). This cartoon was directed by Norman McCabe, who I always feel was underrated as a Looney Tunes director. Some of his Looney Tunes shorts are truly excellent, but because most of his cartoons were in black and white and feature a lot of topical gags about World War 2, his cartoons rarely get the exposure that other Looney Tunes directors do. He would return to the Looney Tunes universe well after the golden age as a timing director on such TV shows as Tiny Tunes Adventures, Taz-Mania and The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. I personally love McCabe's version of Daffy. He is as wild and crazy and energetic as Bob Clampett and Tex Avery's version of the character is, but he also has a few traits of the later Daffy that Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng would use. 

Now for an MGM Happy Harmonies short, The Little Bantamweight (1938). This is a rather typical entry in the Happy Harmonies series. It is very visually appealing, though it has much less gags than the typical cartoon from another studio. With the lack of gags, it is strange to think that this is the studio that in the 1940's would be giving us the Tom and Jerry and Droopy cartoons. 

Now for the Pink Panther in Pink in the Woods (1979). In this short film, The Pink Panther gets a job as a lumberjack. He had previously been a lumberjack in Pink Is a Many Splintered Thing (1968). 

Let us close by singing a song we all know. 

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

Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin

Mary Pickford: America's Sweetheart by Scott Eyman

Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman The 50 Greatest Cartoons Edited by Jerry Beck Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age by Michael Barrier https://mediahistoryproject.org/

Movie Review: Clika

 

Michael's Movie Grade: D-

A bland and overly familiar film.

This movie tells the story of a migrant worker, who is struggling to make it by and whose dream of making it in the music business seems to be going nowhere.  He decides to make some extra money; he is going to run drugs with his cousin. However, he soon finds himself in love with the new life he has as a drug dealer. 

The main problem with this movie is that our central character is hardly a character at all. Besides that, he dreams about being a famous musician and that his work doesn't pay much, we barely know anything about him. Unfortunately, these types of movies completely depend on the character.  This could be a somewhat interesting film, if we watched a good and likable character become a despicable human being as he went further down the rabbit hole. However, we know too little about him before he starts running drugs to have any sort of emotional connection. Because of this when we see him start to act cocky and selfish, this is the first time we see any personality from him. Because of this we simply view him as a terrible person instead of a once moral young man selling his soul for easy money. It is simply hard to care about anything that happens to him. This is not to say much of interest actually happens to him. For a film that is supposed to be about high stakes and danger we see very little of that until we are near the end. By then it is simply too little too late. The rest of the story simply seems to be going through the motions. There is a romance that exists because these stories are supposed to have a romance. There are family members and friends he is a jerk to because of course there are. Every plot point here has been done a million times and much better. Add to this stiff acting, unintentionally comedic dialogue and a moral which we are beaten over the head with and you get a lame excuse for a movie.

The only thing worth recommending here is the music. The songs sound great and are full of a type of energy that is absent elsewhere. 

Skip this one. 

Video Link: When Batgirl & Robin Got Controversial! - Casually Comics

Movie Review: Dead Man's Wire

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent thriller. 

This movie tells the true story (that happened in Indianapolis in 1977) of a man who feels wronged by a broker and ends up tying a noose with a gun attached to it to the broker's son. By doing this he plans to bring to light how terrible of people the broker and his son were. 

Is this man an evil horrible person, someone who is suffering from mental problems or a hero standing up for the little man? What makes this film work so well is that it never answers this question. It simply tells you the story and makes you reach your own conclusions about it. With such an approach the best well to tell the story is to make it as authentic as possible. Director Gus Van Sant (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), Good Will Hunting (1997), Milk (2008)) and writer Austin Kolodney (amazingly writing his first feature film) go to great lengths to achieve this. Austin Kolodney, even did much research on the subject to make sure this movie was as close to the real events as possible. Van Sant gives the movie an almost documentary look and feel to it, making us sometimes momentarily forget that we aren't watching real footage. This includes making each shot look as authentically like the 70's as possible. This was done down to the tiniest detail. Also making this movie feel real is the performances of Bill Skarsgård and Dacre Montgomery, both of whom seem to become these real-life people. Bill Skarsgård's is also incredibly magnetic making it hard to take your eyes off of him, even if his character can be far from likable. He is truly scary in this role because of how natural he feels, and this is what creates the tension needed for this kind of thriller. 

One thing does cut into this movie's feeling of authenticity though and that is Al Pacino's supporting role. When he is on screen, we are too aware that we are watching Al Pacino, and the film no longer feels like a documentary. 

The movie has a subplot involving two reporters who work on small stories but see this crime as a chance to get a big story for the first time. These characters are quite likable, but the story can feel shoehorned in and more than a little like padding at times. 

This is a truly engrossing film. 

Movie Trailer: Masters of the Universe

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