Auto-Lite on Parade.

This bombastically-narrated 30s film is all about the Electric Auto-Lite Company, which makes things like sparkplugs, batteries, headlights, gages, and bumpers for automobiles, as well as leather goods, pots and pans, and, well, let's just say they make everything under the sun. Most of the film is an ultimate factory tour of every department in every plant. If you like factory footage, then this is your film. The narrator goes on and on about the "men" of Auto-Lite despite the fact that most of the workers seen are women. The real highlight of the film, though, comes at the end, when we get to see a stop-motion animation parade of Auto-Lite products, similar to the one in Aluminum on the March. I'm a real sucker for this sort of thing, and this one doesn't disappoint. It's ends with a marching Auto-Lite guy made of sparkplug boxes, which is, of course, essential. This is definitely an industrial film for collectors, not so much because it's unusual as that it's so characteristic of the genre.

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