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