Today marked the 107th birthday of Disney legend Ruthie Tompson. She is best remembered today for her work in the animation camera department and her work on every Disney animated feature up to The Rescuers (before retiring in 1975). Despite this though her work with Walt began much earlier. As a little girl she lived in Hollywood next to the original Disney Brother's studio during the mid-1920's when Walt was making his series of Alice Comedy shorts. These shorts involved a live action little girl entering a cartoon world. Before the animated sequences these films would feature live action wraparounds. Ruthie got to appear in some of these and the Disney brothers (Walt and Roy) would get neighborhood kids to appear in the films for a quarter (Ruthie bought licorice with these quarters as she recalls).
Ruthie would become a full time Disney employee because she got a job (at 18 years old) at Dubrock’s Riding Academy. Walt and his brother Roy often played polo there and Walt would end up offering her a job as an painter. One of her earliest assignments was to put some finishing touches on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It wasn't long until she moved up to being an animation checker. By 1948, she would also enter the area of scene planning. Bob Broughton, who worked in the studios animation camera department would later marvel at how good she was at working with a camera. One of her most accomplished works was to find a way to make Mickey Mouse fully turn on screen.
She is still alive today living in Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills. She still enjoys herself by reading and making movies on her phone. Appropriately she spent today at Disneyland.
We are going to start our look at Charlie Chaplin today with the 2nd film staring him, Kid Auto Races at Venice. When Keystone Film Company got a hold of Chaplin, they didn't quite know what to do with him. The first film with him, Making A Living(1914), was artistically a huge failure. The film simply wasn't funny. So what Keystone decided to do was to visit a soapbox racing event for children, and let Chaplin purposely interrupt the filming, letting Charlie improvise how he interrupts it, and hoping something funny would happen. This film was also the first released (he wore it for Mabel's Strange Predicament earlier but that film would be released later) in which Chaplin wore his immortal costume, that would soon be recognized as his Little Tramp character. While this film unsurprisingly does not have the polish later Charlie Chaplin films would , it still remains quite entertaining today. From 1914 and directed by Henry Lehrman, here is Kid Auto Races at Venice.
Twenty Minutes of Love marked the first time Mack Sennet, head of Keystone Film Company, allowed Charlie Chaplin to direct his own films. While Chaplin would later try to get away from, the slapstick for the sake of slapstick, style of humor of Keystone by creating more motivation for the slapstick, here he plays by the rules of the Keystone style of comedy. This is a fast, fun, and purely slapstick short. From 1914, directed by Charlie Chaplin, and also staring Minta Durfee, Edgar Kennedy, Gordon Griffith, Chester Conklin, Josef Swickard and Hank Mann, here is Twenty Minutes of Love.
Next comes one of Charlie Chaplin's great masterpieces, A Dogs Life. This film was Chaplin's first film for Frist National. You will notice in here a strong break from the type of humor at Keystone. The pace is slower, and all the jokes come from the story and characters, and have clear motivations. You will also notice the story line is more defined and there is drama present. Chaplin wanted to show that comedy and drama could be combined, and he proved his point masterfully. Here we can see Chaplin as a fully formed artist in this true cinematic masterpiece. From 1918, directed by Charlie Chaplin, and also staring Chaplin's long time costar Edna Purviance, and Charlie's brother Sydney Chaplin, here is A Dog's Life.
Charlie Chaplin's films were rightfully sensations world wide, and he was one of the first filmmakers to be hailed as a great artist. Therefore the image of the Little Tramp appeared everywhere. His image could be seen in a comic strip in the newspaper, toys, animated cartoons (done by Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivian, two artists who would bring us the silent Felix the Cat cartoons) and everywhere else you can think of. Actors such as Billy West (not to be confused with the cartoon voice actor) made a career imitating Chaplin in films. One of my favorite uses of the Little Tramp outside of Chaplin's own films is the appearance of an cubist animated tramp appearing in the classic French Avant-Garde film, Ballet Mecanique. Besides the animated appearance of Chaplin's Little Tramp there is much more this film offers. It is also a brilliant representation of the struggle of humanity against the attack of mechanization. In fact this film is such an artistic success that co-director Fernand Leger, considered giving up his highly successful painting job to become a film maker. Sadly for the world of film this never happened, but at least we have this artistic masterpiece. So from 1924, and directed by Fernand Leger, and Dudley Murphy, here is Ballet Mecanique.
Note: I am reviewing this movie because it has been rereleased to theaters. There wasn't enough advertising about this in my opinion, so if you didn't know about it, go see it on the big screen since you know now.
Michael's Grade: A+
Review: One of the Disney Studio's best animated features made after Walt passed away.
The characters in this movie are fantastic from the most major characters to the most minor. Belle is an extremely likable and very relatable protagonist. We can both perfectly see why the town thinks she is odd, and why the Beast falls in love with her. The Beast is a complex character, and one with great depth. This is a character which has to change from threating and intimidating to very charming and lovable. This is done perfectly. You perfectly believe his anger and ruthlessness towards the beginning of the film, but also believe that he has a nice and gentle side to him as well. The servants could have easily been just one note characters but they are also given time to fully develop and feel very real and well thought out, while never distracting from the main story.
The animation and design for this film couldn't be better. This look is very stylized but not so much that it ever feels abstract. There is depth and reality in this animation but it still never loses sense of being a cartoon or tries to be like a live action film. This is perfect because this movie ranges from cartoon slapstick to serious drama to pure fantasy. If it was too cartoony, the fantasy would not pay off, because it wouldn't feel like it was something special or out of the ordinary in this world. However if it was too realistic, that would make the slapstick humor fall flat and make the fantasy seem to fake. This film though hits the perfect medium. The character animation is also brilliant (this was the first time supervising animators were credited with which character they supervised in an animated Disney film by the way). Glen Keane's animation of the Beast is definitely a high point of this movie as he captures both the larger than life aspects of this character as well as the subtly of him just through the way the character moves.
The story itself is quite simple, but the beauty is in its simplicity. This is one of those films that perfectly captures the idea of a simple story being told well, it can hold its own with all the huge epic stories out there. There is such a charm to this film's simplicity and the whole movie just comes across beautifully. This kind of simplicity never dates and like how Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs never feels confided to the 1930's this film will never feel confined to the 1990's. This is truly a timeless movie in the way too few are. This is one of the movies that I just know will always stand the test of time. This will still be hailed as a classic many years from now and it rightfully deserves that place.
Hello fellow film lovers, today we are going to look at some shorts staring the great man himself, W.C. Fields and produced by the legendary Mack Sennett. W.C. Felids had a very off and on film career in the silent era. While he had been In some big films (he played a major role in Sally of the Sawdust, directed by no less than D.W. Griffith), but he did not become a major film star in that era. His career as a movie star really took off in the sound era. One of his first big breaks in sound pictures was his teaming with Mack Sennett. For any of you who may not know Mack Sennett was one of the major producers of comedy shorts during the silent era, forming the famous Keystone Studios. He helped begin the careers of such film legends as Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Harry Langdon, Andy Clyde and in the early sound era Bing Crosby.
W.C. Fields only made four short films for Sennett and today we are going to look at all of them. Legend has it that Fields signed on as a writer for Mack Sennett than became an actor for the producer by chance. I do not know if this story is true but Fields did write all the films he starred in for the producer. The first of these was 1932's The Dentist. This film used a plot as a very loose thread, mainly there to connect gags. Luckily the gags are really funny here. This was made during the pre-code era (Hollywood would from 1934 until 1968 police its own films and make sure none of them were too obscene for younger audiences) and there are plenty of scenes that would not fly later. In fact after the film would be heavily cut when rereleased later. In this film Fields played a character quite different than audiences were used to seeing as the protagonist. His character here had little to no redeeming qualities, but man was he funny.
The next short is one of Fields' best, 1933's The Fatal Glass of Beer. This film was directed by Clyde Bruckman, one of the most prolific comedy directors and writers of this era. Over his career Bruckman had worked with such greats as Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, Harry Langdon and the Three Stooges. He would later work with Fields again directing the 1935 feature film The Man on the Flying Trapeze. This is a very interesting short that seems completely different from any other short subject being released around this time. This is a parody of old fashioned melodramas, and takes many of the ideas used in those stories to ridiculous extremes. Because this short was so different from anything else being released around this time, it was not very popular. In the 1930's often times small theater owners would write about films that were being shown there and audiences' reactions to them for various magazines. In these comments this film was referred to as one of the worst comedies made. Despite this though the film is very funny and an absolute delight to watch, so enjoy and don't listen to 1930's theater owners. Sorry this isn't the best video.
Next up comes 1933's The Pharmacist. This short is not only very funny, but quite fascinating to watch today. It in many ways looks forward to one of the great man's best feature films, 1934's It's a Gift. The Pharmacist was directed by Arthur Ripley, who many of my fellow silent film enthusiasts might recognize as one of the main writers for Harry Langdon's films.
The fourth and last short Fields made for Sennett was 1933's The Barber Shop. Again directed by Arthur Ripley, this is a very funny short even if it is more conventional than the other three here. Sorry I couldn't find a complete video.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources UsedThe Great Movie Shorts by Leonard Maltin
Review: Complex and fascinating experimentation in auteur style film making, that has its problems, but is an excellent film none the less.
This movie is a complex biblical allegory that is not always clear but is very interesting and worth trying to figure out. Mostly this film is about our main character's struggle with her own faith and to forgive and let go. She doesn't understand the things going on around here and as one with so little faith is left feeling completely isolated and alone even when completely surrounded by people. With this she feels at many times completely relatable. We know what it is like to feel like the only one in the dark about things and constantly completely powerless. The other characters don't always feel that real, but in the case of this movie that makes clear and perfect sense as we are seeing things through the eyes of a character who with her lack of faith does not understand what is going on. This film is not always an easy one to follow, but at the end more of it begins to make sense.
However despite the deep and thought provoking allegory this film has some problems. There is blood and gore in this film, but little of it seems to add to the setting and really feels unnecessary. This definitely could have been toned down and the film would have lost none of its atmosphere and allegorical complexity. This film also features too many jump scares and they can get tiring. It worked once or twice, but not this many times. There are also times when scenes go on longer than they need too.
However these faults are easily overcome by the thought provoking and complex ideas discussed in this film, and the excellent direction which perfectly captures our main characters feeling of bein isolated. This may not be a film for everybody but it is definitely a film with a lot to recommend for those who enjoy this type of movie. Don't let the trailers fool you though this is an art film not a horror movie. Even with its faults it is always great to see a Hollywood movie take these kinds of chances.
Though today it is common for characters created for Disney's animated features to appear in other Disney animated works, such was not true until rather recently and in fact such a thing was very rare for quite a long time in the studio's history. The only exception being the characters in Pinocchio. Jiminy Cricket appeared in yet another feature film called Fun and Fancy Free as well as appearing on The Mickey Mouse Club TV show and various educational films. Figaro on the other hand became a short subject star. He often appeared as Minnie Mouse's pet and made a comedy team with Pluto. Today we are going to look at 3 of these short subjects.
First up is his first appearance in a short film with 1943's Figaro and Cleo where he costarred with Cleo the goldfish (also from Pinocchio). This cartoon came about because of a scene cut from Pinocchio. This scene would have involved Figaro and Geppetto trying to eat Cleo while starving in the belly of a whale. Much of this scene though was animated and after this scene was cut much of this animation was used in this cartoon. An example being Figaro using his tail as a fishing hook to catch Cleo (animated by Fred Moore). The cartoon was directed by Jack Kinney who would have been the sequence director for that scene in the feature and this ended up being the last short film with the cat, Kinney would ever direct. This is probably the best of Figaro's shorts and features some great slapstick (thanks hugely to Kinney, who was one of the studio's greatest masters at cartoon slapstick). So enjoy.
Next up comes a typical example of the type of film Figaro would appear in under the direction of Charles Nicholas. While Disney's other two major short cartoon directors (Jack Kinney and Jack Hannah) of this time made films using fast paced slapstick and zany gags, Nicholas' cartoons were often times much softer and slower paced. However Nicholas' films still have their charms, especially the great animation from Disney masters. Much of the animation here is handled by Marvin Woodward and George Nichols. Woodward animated such scenes as Figaro trying to volunteer and Pluto stealing his thunder, Figaro in the first aid kit, Figaro being hit by a cork and more. George Nicholas animates such scenes as Pluto chasing Figaro under the rug, Pluto falling on the slippery floor, Pluto getting hit by the cork and more. Charles Nicholas himself animates a few short bit in this film (Pluto pushing Figaro out of the way, Pluto getting mixed up with a roll of bandages and Pluto crashing under the bed. Other animators include Norman Tates, Harvey Tombs and Bob Youngquist. So from 1944 here is First Aiders.
Last is another cartoon directed by Charles Nicholas. This film is from 1946 and is called Figaro and Frankie. This film uses a rather usual storyline for a cartoon from this era. Figaro tries to eat a bird named Frankie. However while Jack Kinney and Jack Hannah would have used this story as a way to fit in as many cartoon gags as possible, Charles Nicholas here uses it instead to tell a simple story. Despite this though the "kiss and make up" part near the end (animated by Marvin Woodward) may make a cartoon fan think of Tweety and Sylvester's first cartoon team up (Tweetie Pie) released a year later, the scene here is not played for slapstick as it would be in that cartoon. Enjoy the film.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources UsedPinocchio: the Making of the Disney Epic by J.B. Kaufman
Run Time: 95 minutes. Studio: MGM. Director: Victor Sjöström. Writer: Victor Sjöström, Carey Wilson, Marian Ainslee. Based on a play by Leonid Andreyev. Main Cast: Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Ford Sterling, Marc McDermott, Ruth King. Cinematographer: Milton Moore.
He Who Gets Slapped was a very important film in the history of movies. It was both the first movie to be released under the company name of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (or MGM for short). It is also the first movie for the studio headed by Irving Thalberg. Thalberg had received two titles at this time, first vice president and supervisor of production. Thalberg had previously worked at Universal which had made a lot of movies staring Lon Chaney. Because of this Thalberg brought Chaney over to star in this movie. Chaney would later remember his character in this film as one of his favorite characters he ever played.
Paul Beaumont (played by Lon Chaney) was once a very dedicated and brilliant scientist. However one day his assistant (played by Marc McDermott) claims Beaumont's ideas as his own and becomes the toast of the scientific community. To make matters worse he has also stolen the affections of Beaumont's wife. This causes the poor scientist to have a complete mental breakdown. He now sees life as nothing but a cruel joke. Because of this he joins a circus as a clown under the rather self-deprecating name "He Who Gets Slapped". In this act no matter what he states it is swiftly answered with a slap to the face. At this circus he falls in love with a woman named Consuelo (played by Norma Shearer), who is love with Beazno (played by John Gilbert) a daredevil horseback rider at the circus.
This is a fantastic movie. The setting is hugely absorbing, the characters very well defined, the story engaging, and the performances fantastic. While the cruelty the world keeps dealing our main character could easily have come off as forced and mean spirited, it feels completely real here. This is because the characters and the setting are completely believable. While the main character is often an object of pity here, we feel much more for him as well. We admire who he was and what he had done before subjecting himself to the torture that became his life throughout this movie. This makes us feel all the more for him, and understand the tragedy of the story to a much greater extant. It is also worth noting that the fact that he is simply a pawn to the cruel hand of fate, is shown cinematically as a laughing clown spinning a globe. Not only is fate pilled up against him, but it is laughing at him as well. It is a clown with a cruel sense of humor that simply tortures our hero because it can. This is a brilliant image that sums up this film perfectly, without any dialogue but rather just the power of the cinematic medium. Overall this is just a fantastic movie that ever silent film fan needs to see.
The movie had a budget of $172,000 (and was shot in 37 days) and earned back $349,000. The film did very well with critics with a review in the New York Times even saying "For dramatic value and a faultless adaptation of a play, this is the finest production we have yet seen."
