Explosion of a Motor Car (film #2 on The Movies Begin, Volume Three: Experimentation and Discovery (Kino Video, 1994)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
A family has their nice Sunday drive ruined when their car explodes, leaving behind only a bunch of old metal parts and flummoxing a passing policeman. After dodging falling body parts for several minutes, the cop, in true cop fashion, writes out a ticket. My husband commented upon seeing this, "He's right. Somebody deserves a ticket for this!" A 1900 Hepworth film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Casting a Guide Box, Westinghouse Works (film #32 on America at Work, America at Leisure. Also, film #3 on Inside an American Factory. Also in the Historical section of Open Video Project.) [Category: Early Film & TV]
Molten metal pours from a huge vat into a mold. This takes a good long time and requires lots of manpower. It also looks like very dangerous work. This goes on a bit, but it has lots of historical value in documenting metal casting practices at the turn of the century. A 1904 Biograph film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Gripes (film #3 on The Complete Uncensored Private SNAFU DVD (Image Entertainment, 1999)). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
SNAFU has nothing but complaints for the way the army is run, so Technical Fairy First Class gives him a chance to run things. He turns his outfit into a GI's paradise, that is, until the Germans attack. This is a pretty ordinary SNAFU, with a few good moments.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
The Blob Trailer (extra on The Blob DVD (The Criterion Collection, 2000). Also, film #35 in the trailers section of Movieflix.). [Category: Commercial]
Classic trailer for the classic 50s horror flick The Blob. How can you go wrong with lines like “will be oozing into this theater!” or “Starring Steve McQueen and a cast of exciting young people!” A must for your trailer collection.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
The Clash on Alright Now, March 1979 (film #67 in the Video section of Bedazzled). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
In this TV clip, the Clash are interviewed by a host in an outrageous black-and-white checked suit, and they tell us that they would like to be considered a rock and roll band, rather than a punk band, and definitely not a new wave band, because new wave artists wear skinny ties. Then they play a rousing version of “English Civil War”, while title cards tell us such bits of trivia as the fact that Mick Jones’ biggest influence was 3rd-rate rock bands from ’67-’73, or that Topper likes milking goats. A fun piece of rock history from the punk explosion.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Fireworks – Blind Child (film #14 in the Public Info. Films section of TVArk). [Category: Public Service]
British PSA from the 70s that tries to get parents to be careful with fireworks by putting the fear of blinding their children into them. Well made and effective.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ***.
Hollywood Boogie (film #1334 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Hollywood]
We get to see an all-girl orchestra in action in this lively soundie, but there’s no sign of Tony Curtis or Jack Lemmon. Seriously, this soundie is a lot of fun.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
As It Was Beckett (film #25 on German Cinema). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
This experimental German film seems to feature a middle-aged married couple arguing, though it’s hard to tell for sure because I don’t understand German. They do seem to be having an emotional time of it. At times, the action on screen freezes, but we still hear their voices on the soundtrack, perhaps to convey inevitability. This looks like an interesting film, so I wish I understood the language for this one.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Death on the Highway (film #6 on Hell’s Highway DVD (Kino Video, 2003)). [Category: Educational]
Excerpt from a really gory driver’s ed film showing such cheery things as cut-off limbs, blood-spattered pavement, and bodies cut in half. This would be really disturbing, except the blood was obviously retouched with bright red paint, which makes everything look fake. The film was obviously very cheaply made, with stark narration and no music. Too bad this is just an excerpt––the full film is probably a camp classic.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
FDR Social Security Act Speech (film #1051 on Open Source Movies). [Category: News]
In this film clip, Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act and gives a speech about how it will benefit Americans. This has no surprises, but it does have historical value.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Battle for the Marianas (film #3 on Side A of Disc #2 of the War in the Pacific section of Combat Classics DVD Megapack (Mill Creek Entertainment, 2006)). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
This documentary covers the battles for the major islands in the Marianas: Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. These were quite bloody battles, and so there’s lots of grisly and brutal combat footage here. This is mainly a combat-focused documentary with lots of historical interest. But if you don’t like watching battles, it’s rather slow going.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Five Fires (film #1400 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
More spectacular fire footage from around the world. This one gets rather grisly, as it features scenes of dead bodies being taken out of ruins and identified. The aftermaths of several huge fires are shown in some scenes, and some of this footage is quite eerie. Other scenes just show lots of stuff burning up. Again, this is a great film for fire buffs.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
The Exploits of Elaine (acquired through trading). [Category: Early Film & TV]
This early serial is pretty hard to follow, since it's missing several chapters and though it's a U.S. production, some of the chapters are in French. The French chapters have lousy film quality to boot. It's about pretty Elaine Dodge and her attempts to track down her father's killer, mysterious supervillian The Clutching Hand. Helping her is Craig Dodge who appears to be a combination detective, newspaper reporter, and scientist (though I could be wrong about this––it’s kind of hard to tell). It is full of all the action and intrigue you'd expect in a serial, and one episode even includes a death ray. Still, I'm not much of a fan of the form, as you've probably guessed by now. A 1914 Pathe serial.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: **.
Fireworks – Bandage (film #12 in the Public Info. Films section of TVArk). [Category: Public Service]
70s British PSA in which a mother thoroughly mortifies her little girl by telling a neighbor in detail how she injured her heavily bandaged hand making a mistake with a sparkler. I mean, really, hasn’t the girl suffered enough? Although aimed at parents, I bet this had an impact on kids, if only to avoid embarrassment.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Comin’ Round the Mountain (film #1 on Disc #11 of 100 Cartoon Classics DVD Megapack (Treeline Films, 2004). Also, film #20 on Disc #3 of 150 Cartoon Classics DVD Megapack (Mill Creek Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
This cartoon starts out fairly predictably, showing us two feuding hillbilly families, one of cats (the Catfields) and the other of dogs (the McHounds). After showing us a bunch of very old cat and dog and hillbilly gags, it suddenly turns into one of those “sing along with the bouncing ball” films, as we are asked to sing a wacked-out version of “Comin’ Round the Mountain” to welcome the new schoolmarm. That’s what I like about some of these old cartoons––sometimes they throw you for a loop.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Cartoon: TR’s Arrival in Africa (film #3 on Theodore Roosevelt). [Category: Early Film & TV]
The arrival of Teddy Roosevelt in Africa causes all the animals to scurry up a tree. Sorry, I gave away the whole plot of the cartoon. A 1909 film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Blitz Beer (film #8 in the Ida Lupino & Howard Duff section of TVParty). [Category: Commercial]
Fascinating 50s commercial for Blitz Beer that features silent film footage with silly dubbed-in voices and a plot that actually mentions drunken partying! A great old commercial that would never fly today.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Clash City Rockers (film #293 in the Video section of Bedazzled). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
The Clash rock out their song “Clash City Rockers” on this TV clip. No lip-synching here––this was obviously a live performance. In fact, this is one of the best TV performances I’ve seen of any band. The Clash was a breath of fresh air during the 70s––just ask Kevin Murphy.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
The Armageddon Factor Rehearsal #2 (film #90 in the Cult section of TVArk). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
Another moment from the same rehearsal as in #1, this time featuring the Doctor telling off K-9 after he gives an “insufficient data” response. You know he’s always wanted to do this, so this is no surprise.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
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Better Reading
Better Reading . Teenager Harold Wilson has a problem—he can’t read for (expletive deleted). So he has to spend all his free time studying ...
