ABCs of Walking Wisely (film #282 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Educational]

This Sid Davis children's pedestrian safety film features an annoyingly cheerful and self-righteous female narrator, a cheerfully upbeat and annoying soundtrack, primitive cartoons of anthropomorphic letters of the alphabet, and lots of scenes of kids almost being hit by cars, enough so that you start to wonder about the safety of the child actors in the film. Its premise, that both good and bad pedestrians can be likened to letters of the alphabet, is absurd, but that's par for the course for this kind of film. For a Sid Davis film, this is remarkably mild, though there is a scary scene of one kid almost getting picked up by a hitchhiker, and in Sid Davis' world we all know what that means (except for the narrator, who stupidly supposes the motorist in question might be a "bad driver"). And you don't want to know what the "X-walker" is (though fortunately he is not graphically portrayed). I want the original drawings of the anthropomorphic letters for the Film Ephemera Museum of Quirky Devices.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.