Space Kidetts: Space Hero (1966)

Ok first off you might be asking why I am writing about an episode of a TV show on a blog called Forgotten and Overlooked Films. This is because I think episodes of TV shows are films. People say there are such things as made for TV films. These are of course future length movies made for TV. However feature films aren't the only type of films. Short films exist too. These include some long running series such as Looney Tunes, Three Stooges, Tom and Jerry, Our Gang, Popeye, Mickey Mouse, etc., all of which were made for theaters. However it seems strange to me that a Looney Tunes cartoon can be called a film yet an episode of the Huckleberry Hound show not be considered such, when a film can be made for TV as well. The fact that this is a completely nonsensical rule, has convinced me that each episode of a TV show is in fact a short film. This is my belief and I'm sticking to it. So with that settled, let's get on to the film at hand.

Hanna-Barbera made so many TV shows that it is no shocker that while they made so made so many shows that are remembered extremely fondly by so many, they also made some that have faded into obscurity. Space Kidetts is one of those shows. Okay, technically half a show. This series was paired with another Hanna-Barbera series called Young Samson to make half an hour of TV. This is an interesting pairing considering that Young Samson was more serious, while Space Kidetts was more comedic. However both are worth checking out for cartoon fans.

The premise of the series involves a group of kids in the future. These kids have a treasure map that the rotten Captain Skyhook and his sidekick Static, want to get their hands on. However since the kidetts are kids, Skyhook doesn't want to hurt them, just to rob them. Static doesn't understand this and come up with schemes that are too gruesome for Skyhook to hear. This specific episode begins when the kidetts hear that their TV hero, Space Hero, could give certain young fans a visit. However Skyhook hears this as well and visits the kids in a Space Hero costume. The kids are not fooled for a second and neither is the real Space Hero, when he actually appears at the kidetts' clubhouse.

This film was done when William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, where still directing nearly all their studio's TV output. Around the 1970's they would only direct a few series while other directors like Ray Patterson, Alex Lovy and Charles Nicholas. Speaking of Charles Nicholas, he served as this series' animation director. Most of the series' voice artists will be familiar to many Hanna-Barbera fans. Daws Butler (Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw Mc Graw, Mr. Jinx, and many more) voiced Captain Skyhook and Static. Janet Waldo (Judy Jetson, Josie, Wilma's Mother, Penelope Pitstop) voiced Jenny (one of the kidettes). Don Messick (Scooby-Doo, Boo Boo, Bamm-Bamm, Papa Smurf, Ranger Smith, Astro, Mr. Peebles, and many more) voiced Countdown (one of the kidetts) and Pupstar (the kidetts' dog). Lucille Bliss (Smurfette) voice Snoopy (not the famous dog but one of the kidetts). Less familiar to Hanna-Barbera fans is Chris Allen (though he did voice a mouse in the studio's made for TV feature Jack and the Beanstalk) who voiced another kidett, Scooter.    

This show is simple and very charming. It may not be the funniest thing the studio had ever done, but it makes up for that in it's simple charm.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Wings (1966)

As many of my fellow movie enthusiasts know, the 1960's was an incredible decade when it comes to European art cinema. There are so many great European art films from this era (81/2, Jules and Jim, Contempt, Persona, etc..), that is natural that some great ones would become overlooked. One of the unfortunately overlooked of these films was Larisa Shepitko's Wings. This film is just as good as all the better known classics. It is moving, thought provoking, well made and all together brilliant movie, and is a must watch for all fans of art cinema.

The film centers around a woman named Nadezhda Petrukhina (played by Mayya Bulgakova) who is now in charge of a school. She is unhappy in her job and comes off to the kids as very emotional distance. As it turns out she used to be in the air force during World War 2, and she had grown so used to this life that it is hard for her to adjust to civilian life. This story is unfolded very slowly and carefully, and we find out more and more information as the film goes on. As it starts we would agree with the kids that she was very emotionally distant. However by the end as more of the character is reveled we become attached to her and are complete involved in the character. This way of storytelling is what makes this film so fascinating and moving. If this story was told in a more conventional manner, it would not have the power that it does. By the way the ending brings tears to my eyes and I assume it would do the same for you.

Also helping this film is Mayya Bulgakova's brilliant performance as the main character and Igor Slabnevich's amazing black and white cinematography.

This was director Larisa Shepitko's first feature film after she graduated from All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (where she meet and become almost a pupil to the great Russian director

Aleksandr Dovzhenko (Ivan, Earth)). With this film however Shepitko proved herself as one of the greatest Russian filmmakers.  She would have an unfortunately short career as she would die at age 41 in a car crash. However a look at her films and it is clear she was a great cinematic artist.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/507-eclipse-series-11-larisa-shepitko

 

Cool Cat (1967)

It is no secret how Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons are all time classics. They are some of the funniest, smartest, energetic and all around best cartoons (or even films of any kind) ever made. The characters, the humor, the quotes and the stories have all affected our lives and definitely our culture. That  is why it is so surprising how many Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and characters  have been forgotten or overlooked by the majority of people.

Probably one of the most overlooked Looney Tunes characters is Cool Cat. I am not going to say Cool Cat is as amazing of a character as Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig, because he isn't, and his weaker cartoons really pale in compression to the ones made during the golden age of Looney Tunes. However his best cartoons are quite good and really deserve another look by Looney Tunes fans.

The original Warner Brothers animation studio closed in 1963. After 33 years of making Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for movie theaters, it look as if these characters would never see a theater screen again (though like many short films made for theaters, they were enjoying success on TV at this time). However the very next year Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were revived by the DePaite-Freling studio (who were making Pink Panther cartoons at this time). The Freling of Depatie-Freling was Friz Freling, who had worked for the Warner Brother animation studio since the beginning first as an animator and then as a director. Most of DePatie-Frelings Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies centered around the characters Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, The Roadrunner, and Wile E. Coyote. Shockingly Bugs Bunny never appeared in any of these new shorts. The budgets for these cartoons were severely cut and limited animation is used rather than the full animation that was used earlier during the golden age of Looney Tunes. These cartoons were very successful and in 1967 Jack Warner decided to have his own animation department take over Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies again. Bill Hendricks (who had directed some live action documentary shorts for Warners Brothers) would become the new producer of the two series. Since the cartoons would still be made for the same low budget DePatie-Freling cartoons had been, it also seemed natural to hire some one from Hanna-Barbera to take over the job of directing cartoons. This job went to Alex Lovy, who was the current story director for Hanna-Barbera's TV shows.

Alex Lovy would direct more Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales cartoons, but he was also hired to create some new characters. His characters would include Merlin the Magic Mouse (a mouse who had real magic powers and sounded a lot like W.C. Fields), his sidekick Second Banana, Cool Cat (a hip beatnik Tiger perfectly in tune with the 1960's) and Colonel Rimfire (who would always hunt Cool Cat). Merlin the Magic Mouse and Second Banana would be voiced by Daws Butler while Cool Cat and Colonel Rimfire were voiced by Larry Storch.

My favorite Cool Cat cartoon was his first simply titled Cool Cat. In this film Colonel Rimfire, traveling in his a mechanical elephant named Ellie, "Tawt he taw a puttytat" (a tiger type puttytat) and goes hunting for Cool Cat. Colonel Rimfire loses Ellie and Cool Cat thinks she is a poor elephant in need of help, so Cool Cat tries to tech Ellie how to live in the wild. Everything Cool Cat does to help Ellie however ends up saving himself from Colonel Rimfire.

The animators on this film are Ted Bonnicken, Laverne Harding, Volus Jones and Ed Solomon. Of these animators Ted Bonnicken was the only one to work for Warner Brothers before the studio originally closed in 1963, as he was animator for Robert McKimsons unit in the 1950's and 90's.

Cool Cat remains a very entertaing cartoon, the humor is quite good, for how limited the animation is the cartoon is still quite pleasant to look at, the voice acting is excellent, the story is a lot of fun, and the new characters are quite good. This is definitely a cartoon Looney Tunes fans should check out.

So bye for now and remember, stay cool you hear.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin

It's Love I'm After (1937)

It is incredible that It's Love I'm After is not better known. Not only is it a great movie but it has a big name cast including Bette Davis (My favorite actress), Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland. The film is directed Archie Mayo who the year earlier had directed Bette Davis and Leslie Howard in The Petrified Forest (which is very well rembered by film buffs for being the film that made Humphery Bogart a star). That movie however was a serious drama, while It's Love I'm After is a screwball comedy. This was brought about because Leslie Howard despite only getting serious movie roles wanted to play a more comedic part and although producer Hal Wallis was worried about this, he eventually reluctantly gave Leslie Howard a comedic role (which was this film).

Finding a leading lady proved somewhat difficult. Leslie Howard wanted a talented comic stage actress. The first two considered for the role were Gertrude Lawrence and Ina Claire. Gertrude Lawrence even meet with Archie Mayo to discuss the film. Archie Mayo was happy with her though Hal Wallis wasn't. After seeing her in the film Men Are Not Gods, Leslie Howard came to the conclusion that her greatness on the stage did not transfer over to film. Many other actresses were tried out, until Hal Wallis came up with the idea of casting Bette Davis. Bette was originally very reluctant to take the role. She had been working a lot lately and wanted a vacation. She also felt that Olivia de Havilland had a better role than she would have. To convince Bette Davis to be in the film Hal Wallis, told her the change of pace would be good for her career (she had been doing mostly dramatic pictures lately) and he replaced the originally planned cinematographer, James Van Trees, with Tony Gaudio, one of Bette's favorite cinematographers.

This movie centers around Shakespearean actor Basil Underwood (played by Leslie Howard). Basil and his co-star Joyce Arden (played by Bette Davis) are in love with each other, but can't stop bickering. After much fighting the two finally diced to put it behind them and get married as soon as possible. However Harry Grant Jr. (played by Patrick Knowles), the son of a man who helped Basil out when he was down on his luck, comes get revenge on Basil. Harry's finance, Marcia West (played by Oliva de Havilland) has seen Basil perform in plays and has fallen for him. Basil and Harry come to the conclusion that Basil could visit her families house and act like such a jerk that Marcia would begin to hate him. He views this as a way to renew himself before getting married. However Joyce does not see it this way and is upset about their wedding plans being delayed. On top of that everything Basil does just seems to make Marcia fall more in love with him.

This is an absolutely hilarious film, full of laugh out loud moments. This is due both to a great script by Casey Robinson (based off a play by Maurice Hanline) and amazing on screen chemistry between the cast. In fact just everything in this movie works great. Despite this film not being well known this is one of the classic screwball comedies of the 1930's.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1791/It-s-Love-I-m-After/articles.html

The Tale of the Fox (1937)

Though Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is often times called the first animated feature, that statement is actually false. I am not saying this to deny the historical importance of Snow White as that film is still extremely important and an incredible movie, but rather to give attention to what has come before. The Tale of the Fox was the sixth animated feature film released and was released just eight months before Snow White. The animated features before Tale of the Fox were El Apostle, Without a Trace, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Peludo City, The New Gulliver, and The Adventures of Pinocchio. Tale of the Fox was the first animated feature to come from France.

This film was directed by Ladislas Starevich and Irene Starevich. Ladislas Starevich was one of the greatest pioneers in animation history. He was one of the earliest directors to define animation as an art instead of just a novelty. He worked mostly in stop motion animation, creating such brilliant shorts as The Cameraman's Revenge, The Mascot, The Frogs Who Wanted a King and The Insects' Christmas. The Tale of the Fox is his only animated feature though he did direct a live action feature in 1912 called The Night Before Christmas. Irene Starevich was his wife. It is hard to say how much or what she contributed to this film because she worked on very few films and in all those films she worked with her husband. Other than this movie the other films she co-directed with her husband were The Mascot's Wedding and Fétiche en voyage de noces.

This was completed in 1930, but due to audio problems it would not be released until 1937.

The story of this film centers around a fox named Reynard that tricks other animals and then eats them. This causes the king (a lion obviously) to pass a law saying that animals can not eat other animals (making an exception for himself of course). Reynard does not listen to these orders and the king decides to have the fox arrested (something easier said then done).

This film is quite easily a masterpiece it has a brilliant and very funny sense of dark humor. The animation is downright incredible. It is amazing to think that this is the first feature film to be completely done in stop motion (The New Gulliver featured a mixture of live action and stop motion), because it is so incredibly well done here. The story is great. The pacing is fantastic. Most of all though these characters really come to life on the screen. This film is a great work of art and a fantastic beginning to French animated features.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/reynard-the-fox-in-animation/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021309/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt
Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation by Giannalberto Bendazzi

-Michael J. Ruhland


   

Meet The Baron (1933)

Like how today movies get made based off TV Shows, back in the 1930's there were movies based off of radio shows. Meet the Baron was based off a comedy radio show about the fictional Baron Munchausen. Jack Pearl, the radio actor for the character was hired here to play the Baron (or at least someone who is believed to be the Baron) for the screen.

This film would be directed by Walter Lang. Walter Lang is a director who is mostly associated with musical films like State Fair, The King and I (the 1956 live action version) There is No Business Like Show Business. One of the writers for this film was Herman Mankiewicz, who is known by film fans today for co-writing Citizen Kane (he was also the father of All About Eve director Joseph Mankiewicz and grandfather of TCM host Ben Mankiewicz). One interesting thing in here is that there is a mule named Rosebud in this. I am not saying this film would have inspired any of Citizen Kane, but it is still an interesting tidbit. On top of this the film has a great cast including Jimmy Durante, Edna May Oliver and Zasu Pitts. Even some great actors appeared in very small roles such as Lionel Barrymore and Leo White.

However what this film is most watched today for is that it includes a group soon to be known as The Three Stooges. At this time they were known as Ted Healy and his Stooges. Ted Healy was originally the boss and leader of the group, yet after some personal problems between them they would separate and the group would become The Three Stooges. Meet the Baron was the first feature film to feature Curly (although he had appeared in some shorts with this team before). Earlier Shemp would appear in these films with Moe, Larry and Ted. However Shemp was not happy with Ted and left the group. Shemp was replaced by his and Moe's younger brother, Curly. However when in 1946 Curly would have a stroke, he would be replaced again by Shemp, who now was willing to be part of the team since they were no longer working with Ted. In this film Curly was credited as Jerry Howard, as his real name was Jerome Howard. This is one of the very few times he would be credited as such.

Curly wasn't the only star to have Meet The Baron as a feature film debut. This was the film debut (not just feature) of  Lynn Bari, who would star in quite a few B-movies including Return of the Cisco Kid and Hotel For Women.

The story begins with the real Baron (played by Henry Koller)and his two assistants (played by Jack Pearl and Jimmy Durante) traveling through the jungle. The Baron discovers they are low on supplies and leaves his assistants out to die. At this time some explorers find the two assistants and mistake one for the Baron (Jack Pearl)and take him and his friend to the U.SA.. The phony Baron must keep up the facade and not be found out.

This film is very entertaining, it has a good sense of humor, a great cast and even a great musical number. Most of all though this film is just good corny, silly fun.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons by Michael Fleming

Below the Sea (1933)

One thing I love about film is that sometimes a film comes along that is just an unexpected gem. Below the Sea is a great example of this. It may be a cheesy little B movie, but it is definitely a lot of fun. This movie was directed by Albert Rogell, who specialized in directing B pictures. He also directed such films as The Black Cat, In Old Oklahoma, Hit Parade of 1943 and Heaven Only Knows. This film was also the first teaming of Fay Wray and Ralph Bellamy. They would later appear together in Woman in the Dark, Woman in the Shadows, Once to Every Woman and Roaming Lady. Below the Sea was released the same year as Fay Wray's most famous role in King Kong.

The story of this film involves a wealthy woman (played by Fay Wray) who decides to fund and join a sea expedition to search for marine life. However some of the crew has it's sites on a buried treasure. Because if how unprepared she is she gets on the nerves of sea diver McCreary (played by Ralph Bellamy). However the two soon form a romance.

While nothing strikingly original, this film is a lot of fun. The humor is quite good, the characters are very likable, Joseph Walker's cinematography is fantastic, and most of all it is a fast paced fun movie.

For one romantic scene, director Albert Rogell thought it would work better if there were seagulls in the background. Food was put on the ground to attract some. However the seagulls quickly grabbed the food and flew away before the camera stopped rolling. Rogell then got angry and shouted to make the birds fly through one at a time.

Supposedly color footage under the ocean was shot for the film, but it didn't wind up in the finished film for some unknown (at least to me) reason, the film instead is completely in black and white. Critics still praised the black and white undersea cinematography at the time. The movie also became a big box office hit.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Recourses Used
tcm.com/tcmdb/title/68452/Below-the-Sea/articles.html

Any Bonds Today (1942)

Happy Fourth of July everybody. What better way to celebrate the birthday of this great country than with cartoons, and what better cartoons to celebrate it with than Looney Tunes? That is why today we are going to take a look at a short staring Bugs Bunny and made to sell war bonds called Any Bonds Today.

During World War 2, Bugs Bunny was at the height of his popularity. Many historians have stated that they think this is hugely because of two reasons. One of them is that Bugs reflects how America viewed itself at this time. As a nation that didn't want war, but when you messed with it you'd better watch out. This outlook did of course reflect the country during this time as America did not want to enter World War 2, until Pearl Harbor happened. The other reason is that these were not sweet, cute little cartoons and the world was not sweet and cute at they time. I think it is safe to say that another reason was that Bugs Bunny cartoons were very good. Because of this it seemed natural that Bugs would become a symbol of the U.S.A., therefore he was a great candidate to promote war bonds.

Any Bonds Today was not released as a Looney Tunes or a Merrie Melodies short but rather as a stand alone short. The film was directed by Bob Clampett, who directed many fantastic Looney Tunes cartoons and created Tweety and Beaky Buzzard. The song that is sung in this cartoon was written by Irving Berlin, of God Bless America and White Christmas fame. I do not know who all the animators on this film are but the dancing scene was animated by Virgil Ross, and Bugs throwing out war bonds and doing his Al Jolson impression were animated by Robert McKimson.

This short doesn't really have much of a story. Bugs Bunny comes out and starts singing the title song. He is later joined by Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd. Bugs then dons blackface and does an imitation of Al Jolson.

This cartoon is excellent. The animation is great, the song is very catchy and the whole film just has a great energy.

One may notice that Elmer Fudd is designed quite different in this film. That is because during this brief period he was designed to look like Arthur Q. Brain, who provided his voice. He appeared in this design in four other cartoons, Wabbit Trouble, The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, Fresh Hare and The Wacky Wabbit, this design did not catch on the way the creative team thought it would and the character went back to looking how he did before.

After this cartoon the studio would receive a complimentary letter from Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau.  Later this same year Bugs would be made an honorary Sargent in the U.S. Marine Corps, for the ending in a cartoon called Super Rabbit.

Happy Fourth of July and Bye Bye and Buy Bonds.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Recourses Used
tralfaz.blogspot.com/2016/06/any-bonds-today.html

Emma (1932)

Having watched Marie Dressler as the star of the month on TCM, it amazes me that her and the films she appeared in are so forgotten today. From 1930 to her death in 1934, Marie was voted as the biggest box office drawl in Hollywood. She was not your typical Hollywood star, mostly because she was in her 60's at this time, but she was extremely popular with early 1930's audiences. One of her best performances was in the 1932 film Emma.

This film was directed by Clarence Brown, who had previously directed Marie in Anna Christie (Greta Garbo's first talkie). Brown was a big director of the silent era directing such films as Flesh and the Devil, Kiki, and The Trail of '98. He would continue to have a great career in the talkie era with The Yearling, National Velvet, and Conquest.

In this film Marie plays a nanny named Emma, who is essentially a mother in all but name of the children. After the children grow up she decides to take a trip to Niagara Falls. She is worried about leaving the family. The family's father (played by Jean Hersholt) decides to go with her, and ends up asking Emma to marry her. The father passes away and leaves the money to Emma. His children are angry and want to sue Emma over this money. The exception to this is Ronnie (played by Richard Cromwell) who has a stronger connection to her than the other children.

This film also featured Myrna Loy in her first role for MGM. She was also working on two other films at this time, and was very stressed. Marie told Myrna  "Get your chin up, kid. You've got the whole world ahead of you." Helping Loy to gain back her confidence and put on a great performance. Loy had nothing but nice things to say about Marie Dressler in her autobiography Being and Becoming. She would go on to a great career at MGM appearing in such films as The Best Years of our Lives and The Thin Man.

Emma is an amazing film. Marie Dressler's performance is near perfect, the script is great, the film is fantasticly directed, and everything just works. The story is sentimental, but is extremely effective and the sentiment never feels forced. This is a must watch movie for all lovers of classic film.

The movie was a big success at the box office and Marie Dressler was nominated for an academy award for this film (though she didn't win).

-Michael J. Ruhland

Recourses Used
tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1546/Emma/articles.html

The Adventures of the Roadrunner (1962)

No matter how many great cartoon series are made Looney Tunes will always be the greatest (or at least my favorite). These series not only contains many of the greatest cartoons ever made, but also some of the greatest films ever made. I am obviously not the only one to feel this way. These cartoons have found away into many of our subconscious minds. We can quote these cartoons without even thinking about it. The characters have become old friends and have been burned strongly into our minds for our whole lives. It may seem strange that I can talk about something Looney Tunes related on my Forgotten and Overlooked Films blog, but due to various reasons The Adventures of the Roadrunner has been unjustly forgotten.

In the late 1950's and early 1960's Looney Tunes were becoming not just big hits in movie theaters, but also had a huge television following thanks to The Bugs Bunny Show. It was because of this that Chuck Jones decided to make a TV series based off of his Coyote and Roadrunner characters. The result was this pilot episode. This episode was directed by Chuck Jones as well as by his current layout artist, Maurice Noble and one of his animators, Tom Ray. It would be animated by Chuck's usual team of animators (at this time) including Ken Harris, Dick Thompson, Ben Washam, Tom Ray and Bob Bransford. However for whatever reason, this pilot was not picked up by any TV networks. Because of this it would be released in theaters as a single near half an hour short film.

The film begins with a theme song written by Looney Tunes composer Milt Franklin. After that it starts as your normal Roadrunner cartoon as the Coyote tries many ways to catch the Roadrunner and of course constantly fails. However this time Wile E. Coyote speaks directly to the audience about his plans. He had spoken before in some Bugs Bunny cartoons, but this is the first time the character talked in a Roadrunner cartoon. Then we see the characters are been watched on TV by Looney Tunes character Ralph Philips and his brother. Ralph admits sometimes he thinks he is the Roadrunner. Ralph's brother decides (since he wants to be a psychiatrist) to psychologically look at the root of Ralph's problem. This leads to the classic Ralph Philips cartoon From A to ZZZZZ. Then we see more of the Coyote's failed attempts to catch the Roadrunner. Ralph then asks his brother why the Coyote would want to eat the Roadrunner. Wile E. Coyote breaks the fourth wall and explains to the kids about all the delicious foods, roadrunners are made of.

This is a very funny short with much of the charms of the best Roadrunner cartoons. The timing is perfect, the animation great, and the humor is fantastic. This definitely needs to be watched by all Looney Tunes fans.

Because of it's length this film was cut into two shorts for TV, Road Runner A Go Go and Zip Zip Hooray. Some of the jokes from this film were reused in the theatrical cartoon To Beep or Not to Beep released the next year. The Adventures of the Roadrunner is available as a bonus feature on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Recourses Used
Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons (TV documentary)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0154117/?ref_=rvi_tt

Reducing (1931)

If you are like me, you having probably also been extremely enjoying having Marie Dressler as the star of the month on TCM. It is fantastic to look at the career of this fantastic comedic actress. Having been watch TCM on Monday nights recently I have been constantly delighted in the talent of this woman.  So today we are going to look at a delightful, but sadly overlooked comedy staring her and Polly Moran called Reducing.

Though she is forgotten today Marie Dressler was a huge movie star in the 1930's. Though she started her film career in 1914 in Tillie's Punctured Romance (the first feature length comedian). Though that film was a hit her film career never really took off in the silent era. However in the early 1930's her career really took off. She was not your average Hollwood star. She did not look like Hollywood's traditional leading ladies. She was also not esspically young at this time. However her popularity was inmatched. She was in fact even a bigger star then Greta Garbo, and in 1930 she won an academy award for her performance in Min and Bill (she was 60 years old at the time). She passed away in 1934 but left behind her a fantastic film legacy.

This film was directed by Charles F. Reisner. Reisner had been the associate director on the Charlie Chaplin films The Kid, The Pilgrim, and The Gold Rush. You can also see him on camera playing the bully in Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. He also directed Buster Keaton's Steam Boat Bill Jr.. He would also later direct Lost in a Harem (with Abbott and Costello) and The Big Store (with the Marx Brothers). 

The film's story begins as Polly (played by Polly Moran) invites her sister to ask her sister Marie (played by Marie Dressler) to live with her after she discovers Marie has money problems. Marie's daughter Vivian (played by Anita Page) begins to fall for the boyfriend of Polly's daughter Joyce (played by Sally Eilers) making a fight rose up in the family.

This film is a simple but delightful comedy. The jokes are quite funny, the characters very likable, the cast is great and the whole film is just pleasant to watch. It is interesting to note that this movie followed Marie Dressler's academy award winning performance in Min and Bill. Even though this is a more lightweight film she turns out just as good of a performance here. In fact all the performances in this movie are great.

This film was not popular with critics, but audiences loved it. MGM soon put Marie Dressler and Polly Moran in another film. This film would be called politics and would also be directed by Charles F, Reisner.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2155/Reducing/articles.html

Sweet Music (1935)

I love the Warner Brothers musicals from the 1930's. This of course includes beloved classics like 42nd Street, but it also includes overlooked gems like Sweet Music. It amazes me how little talked about Sweet Music is among classic movie fans. It has everything that makes me love these musicals so much. Great songs, lavish looking musical numbers, a great cast (Rudy Vallee, Ann Dvorak, Ned Sparks, Allan Jenkins...) and great humor are all here. Yes it is a corny and silly movie, but I think we could all use a little more corniness and silliness in our life and this film is very entertaining to boot.

The director of the film is Alfred E. Green. Green was never a director who had a distinctive style or genre. He directed films as diverse as Dangerous, The Gracie Allan Murder Case, Ella Cinders, The Jolson Story, Baby Face, Smart Money and this film. While he may not be on par with Alfred Hitchcock as a director, he did bring us a list of usually consistently good movies. Most of his films were usually B-movies but this is a rare A-movie for him and he pulls it off very well.

One of the main reasons for this film existing is it's star Rudy Vallee. Rudy Vallee was one of the biggest music stars of this era, and Hollywood was quick to take advantage of his popularity. His first film appearance was in 1929 with the short Radio Rhythm and that same year he would appear in his first feature The Vagabond Lover. He would have a great career as a movie actor as well with films such as The Palm Beach Story, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, I Remember Mama, and Gold-diggers in Paris, and this film. He would prove he was a great performer whether an actor or a singer. However this film was made to show off Rudy's music. He would often times clown around when performing on stage and that is taken to full advantage here. For instance Rudy does an imitation of radio star Fred Allan during a great comedy song called Outside and there is much slapstick with him and his band on stage. This film truly lets Rudy Vallee show his very likable stage image at it's best.

Rudy Vallee isn't the only great thing about film's cast. Especially of note are Ned Sparks and Allan Jenkins (who my fellow Hanna-Barbera lovers might know as the voice of Officer Dibble in Top Cat). Both of these actors played smaller roles in many Warner Brothers musicals. They were always quite funny in those small roles and they are even better in their larger roles here. Their parts in this film are hilarious (Ned Sparks as Ann Dvorak's agent and Allan Jenkins as a nutty publicity agent). Also what works well here is that Ann Dvorak and Rudy Vallee have great chemistry.

The song writers for this film are the great team of Al Dublin and Harry Warren (42nd Street, Gold-diggers of 1933) as well as the team of Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal (Footlight Parade) and another song writer team of  Mort Dixon and Allie Wrubel (Flirtation Walk). One of the highligts of the film is the great ending musical number written by Dublin and Warren.

Critics and audiences both enjoyed the film when it was released, and I am sure many classic film fans will love it today.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Recourses Used
tcm.com/this-month/article/410227%7C409219/Sweet-Music.html

She Done Him Right (1933)

When it comes to classic theatrical cartoon shorts the studios that immediately jump to our minds are Warner Brothers, Disney, MGM, and Fleshier Brothers. However we cartoon fans too often overlook the Walter Lantz Studio (home of Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy and Andy Panda). However when you take a look at this studios output there is no doubt some really great cartons were made at this studio. Cartoons like The Barber of Seville, Ski for Two, The Legend of Rock-a-Bye Point, Convict Concerto, Fish Fry, Confidence and many others are definitely classic cartoons and great films by any standard. Because of this we are going to take a look at one of the Lantz studios most forgotten cartoons.  This cartoon is She Done Him Right.

The main character of this film is Pooch the Pup. Pooch the Pup was the first original cartoon character to come from the Walter Lantz Studio. The studio however got it's start making Oswald the Lucky Rabbit character. Who was as many of you know (it is so cool I can say that now) was created by Walt Disney. Walt would learn he did not own the rights to the character when his boss at that time Charles Mintz would demand the cartoons be made on a much lower budget, and Walt refused. Walt would leave the studio and create Mickey Mouse along with Ub Iwerks. Charles Mintz would briefly take over the character though soon Universal took the rights away from Mintz and give them to Walter Lantz. Pooch the Pup however was not that different from Oswald despite the fact that the studio was making cartoons with both characters at the same time.

This film had two directors one of them was Walter Lantz, himself and the other was Bill Nolan. Bill Nolan is perhaps best remembered today for helping redesign Felix the Cat and for his work with Walter Lantz. After Bill Nolan's work with Lantz he would become an animator at the Fleshier Brothers Studio, working on some Popeye cartoons and the feature length Gulliver's Travels. Walter Lantz and Bill Nolan were the studios main directors at this time. The animators for this cartoon include Manuel Moreno, Lester Kline, Fred Kopietz, George Grandpre, Ernest Smythe. Lester Kline and Ernest Smythe would spend their whole careers working for Lantz. With the exception of one cartoon at MGM (The Alley Cat) the same would be true for Manuel Moreno. Fred Kopietz would have a good career as a Disney animator later and George Grandpre wuld have a long career at Warner Brothers, working on many Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodie cartoons. It is unfortunate however due to their lack of credit, it is unknown who that voices for this cartoon are. Hopefully someone will find that information someday.

This cartoon is one of the great examples of pre-code (referring to the production code, Hollywood's own system of censoring it's films) Lantz at it's best. This cartoon abounds with energy. It has a very lively soundtrack  with a fantastic performance of Minnie the Moochers' Wedding Day, a lot of bizarre humor and of course many jokes the censors would not allow if it was made after the production code. The whole film is just a lot of fun, and it shows why the Walter Lantz studio was so good.

Less than a week ago me and a very good friend of mine were able to see this cartoon on the big screen like it was meant to be seen . It was a fantastic experience and if any of you get a chance to watch these classic cartoon shorts on the big screen take it. It makes these great films even better.

-Michael J. Ruhland
Resourses Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

This film may not be exactly forgotten, but it certainly is overlooked. When talking about the films of Alfred Hitchcock this film is hardly ever mentioned, and sometimes when it is glanced over as one of Hitch's weakest films. Honestly I disagree with this strongly. It may not be Vertigo or North By Northwest, but it is a very delightful movie that should get more attention.

People familiar with Alfred Hitchcock only as the master of suspense, will probably be very surprised by this film. This is because this film is a screwball comedy, not a suspense movie. Hitchcock would later say in the book long interview with François Truffaut that he did this movie as a favor to Carole Lombard (who plays the lead female character in this movie). However some RKO (the studio this was made for) files state that Hitch personally sought out this film to direct. This would be one of the very few Alfred Hitchcock films in which Hitchcock would not play a huge role in the writing of.

Despite all this though Hitchcock put a lot of effort into the direction of this film. Scenes like the amusement park ride or Mr. Smith (played by Robert Montgomery) and his friend Jeff (played by Gene Raymond) walk opposite directions out the apartment no longer friends are expertly directed. Visually this film is just a treat to look at. The one scene not directed by Hitch was his cameo. This scene was directed by the film's star Carol Lombard, who made Hitch do many retakes.

The direction is not the only thing great about this film. Though not every joke works, the ones that do are very funny. The scene were Jeff is drunk, the amusement park ride, and two disastrous dinner dates are very funny. The love story is quite believable. Though the characters do some quite unlikable things to each other at times (one of the film's very few big faults), I still believed that they loved each other.

This was Hitchcock's third movie made in Hollywood. The two before this were Rebecca and Foreign Correspondent. Hitch started his career making films in Britain (starting in 1922), and made many great films there.  He moved to Hollywood in 1939, after signing a contract with David O. Selznick, the head of 20th Century Fox. However the relationship between the two was not exactly always on good terms and so he soon began making films at other Hollywood studios (such as this film).

Mr. and Mrs. Smith was very popular with audiences. However many critics were not so pleased with the film and considered it below the quality of Hitch's previous American films.

The two main stars of this film would later reprise their roles for radio however not together. Carol Lombard would reprise the role for the Lux Radio Theater show later the year this film was released. Robert Montgomery would reprise the role in 1949 for the Screen Directors Playhouse show.

After this film Carol Lombard would only appear in one more film. That would be Ernest Lubich's To Be or Not to Be released in 1942. She would end up dying in a plane crash in early 1942 while participating in a war bond drive for World War 2.

For the record this film has nothing to do with the 2005 movie baring the same name.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resourses Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1693/Mr-and-Mrs-Smith/articles.html

The Maltese Falcon (1931)

As movie lovers (I am assuming if you are reading this you love movies), nearly all of us adore the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon. This is because it is an incredible film that has well earned it's reputation as a classic. However too many of us overlook the 1931 adaption of the book. While this film may not be quite as good as the 1941 film, it comes very close, much closer than one who hasn't seen this movie would think. It is also very interesting to note how similar these two films are. The 1941 film is actually a very close remake of the 1931 film. There was also 1936 film adaption called Satan Met a Lady, however that film is extremely different from either the 1931 or the 1941 versions. It is worth noting that 1931 was the year often the novel on which all these films were based was released. It is also worth noting that all three version were released by the Warner Brothers studio. Despite some attention from Film Historians, J.B. Kaufman and Leonard Maltin, this 1931 film has unfortunately be forgotten by many, which is sad because this is truly an excellent film, and should be enjoyed by all lovers of classic Hollywood movies, however today we will take a look at this fantastic and very overlooked film.

One of things that really makes this film great is simply it's cast. This film stars Ricardo Cortez, a very underrated actor, as Sam Spade. Cortez turns in an amazing performance in this film. It is no use comparing him to Humphrey Bogart, because he plays the role quite differently. His Spade is a bigger womanizer and a more upbeat character. This role was originally considered for the actor George Bancroft, who is best known today for being in films like Stagecoach and Mister Deeds Goes to Town. We are quite lucky that Cortez was chosen for this part because his performance is fantastic. Also starring in this film is Bebe Daniels, who is best known today for being Harold Lloyd's first leading lady, and for all her appearances in Busby Berkeley's musicals. Again she turns in a great performance. Also in this film is the talented and beautiful Thelma Todd, best remembered today for her roles in Laurel and Hardy and Marx Brothers films.

This film was directed by Roy Del Ruth. While Del Ruth never gained the following John Houston (who directed the 1941 film) did, he was definitely a talented director, directing such films as It Happened on Fifth Avenue, Topper Returns, Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back and The First Auto. This film is definitely one of his best works.

It is intresting to note that this film has the same art director as the 1941 version. This was Robert M. Hass, who also was the art director for such great films as Now Voyager, Jezebel, Dark Victory and Angels with Dirty Faces. His work on both films was fantastic.

This film being made in 1931 has a lot for fans of pre-code Hollywood of which I know there are many. For those unaware of the phrase pre-code, it is referring to the era in Hollywood before the production code took power. The production code was essentially a code of censorship that American movies would have to abide by. If a film broke any of the rules of this censorship code, it would not be able to get the same distribution that one that followed the code could get. This code while it existed earlier didn't take full power until June 13, 1934. Because of this scenes like Sam Spade searching Ruth Wonderly for money he thought she stole and making her take off her clothes (no nudity was shown on screen) during the process would not be possible if this film was released 3 years later. It is worth noting that these scenes are done much more tasteful and discreet than much of what you see in movies today.

When shown on TV in than the 1950's it would be re-titled The Dangerous Female to not be confused with the more popular movie. It is thanks to Turner Classic Movies that it's original title card has been restored.

While this may not be the 1941 version, it comes pretty darn close. This film is full of clever dialogue (some of which would reappear in the 1941 film), great performances, and good direction. This is a fantastic film which is a definite must see for fans of classic movies.

Also movie buffs should look for a portiat of actress Lousie Brooks in Sam Spade's apartment.

-Michael J. Ruhland


Resourses Used
http://www.jbkaufman.com/movie-of-the-month/maltese-falcon-1931-0