Drawing Account (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #458 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
This goofy Jam Handy film features a cartoon animator who meets a Chevrolet mechanical engineer on an airplane that totally lacks seatbelts. The animator manages to talk the engineer into helping make a cartoon in which a bunch of gremlins run a car engine. The engineer helpfully provides a cutaway engine model for the guys in the animation studio to look at. This results in a baffling scene in which the kooky animators brainstorm about the gremlins while the engineer gives boring lectures about how the car engine works, sneaking in sales messages about how great Chevrolet engines are while he’s at it. One animator, who looks like a Radford Baines wanna-be gets way too excited about making one of the imps into a Roman chariot driver: “We’ll make him a big, muscular guy with a whip!” he crows. Then we get to see a really interesting sequence on how cartoons are made, including how sound synchronization is done, something that was new to me. Then, of course, we get to see the finished cartoon, which is pretty silly. This is one of the goofiest industrial films I’ve ever seen, which makes it a great piece of ephemra. Termite Terrace these guys definitely ain’t!Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
D-Day Minus One (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #600 on Prelinger Archive. Also, film #2 on World War II, Vol. 8: D-Day, the Normandy Invasion (Madacy Video)). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
The story of the paratroop and glider corps, who landed in France the day before D-Day and cleared the way for the invasion, is told with first person narration. It's actually a fairly compelling story, which impresses you with the bravery of the men involved. The footage is excellent, giving you a real feel for what it must have been like to be over there.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ***.
April Maze (film #9 on 11 Cartoons Starring Felix the Cat DVD (PC Treasures, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
This is an early sound Felix, and boy did sound have an impact. This seems way more creaky than the earlier silent Felixes, which are pretty lively. In this one, everything is turgid, probably for the purposes of sound synchronization, and even then, the sound doesn’t synch up very good. The cartoon is about Felix’s attempts to go on a picnic with his two kittens, and how they are repeatedly thwarted, first by an evil stormcloud, and then by a trickster rabbit. The turgidness of the proceedings gives the cartoon a dark, depressing feel, especially during the parts about the stormcloud. You don’t want to so much laugh as cry, making this a fascinating piece of ephemera.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: -****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Fish from Hell (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #520 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Hollywood]
This is one of the all-time great ephemera titles and it doesn't disappoint, though to be more accurate, it should be called Narrators from Hell. Murky footage of deep-sea sport fishing is narrated by a guy whose religious mission is to convince us that fish are EVIL. The passion and logic of his arguments lay somewhere on the spectrum between circuit-riding revival preachers and psychotic cult leaders, and his delivery brings back scary memories for me of my dad listening to the Nebraska-Oklahoma football game and nearly blowing a gasket. The footage cooperates with the narrator's religious mission by mainly showing us various ways to kill sea life, including guns. The highlight of the film is the scene with the giant octopus––to the narrator, this creature is Satan himself and he responds accordingly. Even porpoises are dismissed as only being good for leather and oil, and sharks always bring out the most violent behavior possible in the fishermen––it's a good thing they didn't have access to nuclear weapons, or they would have most assuredly used them against every single shark they meet. If you haven't figured it out by now, this film is an environmentalist's nightmare. It's great ephemera, though––from HELL!!Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Annie Oakley – Justice Guns (film #6 on Disc #1 of Classic Kids’ Shows DVD (Genius Entertainment, 2004)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
In this episode of “Annie Oakley,” Annie has to help out an aging lawman who doesn’t realize he’s past his prime. This is a well-written story with a fair amount of suspense. It also has the original Canada Dry commercials in it, which liven things up a bit, being “ginger-uppers” and all.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
The Ape Trailer (extra on Night of the Blood Beast DVD (Sinister Cinema)). [Category: Commercial]
Fairly campy trailer for a classic old horror flick featuring Boris Karloff as “A Man Gone Mad!” and a man in a gorilla suit who terrorizes a town. The claim that the movie is a “Spine-Tingling Horror Drama” is a real hoot, as are the titles that shake with fear. Lots of fun creature feature stuff.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Beautiful Tel Aviv in Winter (film #12 in the Cities section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
Silent Israeli color film from 1950 showing scenes of Tel Aviv. This goes on and on, and without a soundtrack, it gets pretty dull. It does provide you with a snapshot of Tel Aviv in 1950, which gives it some historical interest.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: **.
The Dream and the Deed (film #8 in the Health section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Public Service]
This early-70s film documents the history of the Hadassah organization in bringing medical facilities to Israel. It starts way back in 1909, where a small clinic for mothers and babies was set up in Palestine to 1971, where many Hadassah-funded hospitals in Israel, particularly the huge Hebrew Medical Center on Mt. Scopus, practiced cutting-edge patient care and medical research. The film is narrated by a folksinger, who breaks into song periodically. This could have been unbelievably hokey, but in this film, it works; it actually carries the story along and makes things a bit more lively and less dry. A great source of information on the history of the Hadassah movement.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
The Alien (Audio Commentary) (extra on Monster Kid Home Movies (PPS Group, 2005)). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
Bob Burns, director of The Alien, uses the commentary track as an opportunity to narrate the silent film. Since he has lots of fun with this, including making fun of himself and the movie, it’s great. It also allows you to make a bit more sense of the film, as he includes what he was originally intending to portray during certain moments that were unclear in the original movie. The Alien is lots of fun on its own; this commentary track adds to the viewing experience.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Circus Day (film #7 on Clowns and Cavemen DVD (A/V Geeks). [Category: Educational]
This 60s film features a clown from a circus in a sports arena who narrates what it was like back in the old days of circus tents and circus trains. We see color footage of an old-time circus from the 40s, and get a real sense of what it was like back then to attend a circus under a tent. It’s rather pathetic, actually, involving out-of-tune band music, hay bales, tired-looking animals, and lots of sawdust. Still, this is a fascinating glimpse into a form of entertainment that doesn’t exist anymore. Of course, I have a hard time imagining even the 60s kids this was made for getting excited by this film, much less the kids of today.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Crowds in New York and Los Angeles (film #9 in the Apollo 11 section of WPA Film Library). [Category: News]
Silent footage of the Apollo 11 astronauts getting a ticker tape parade, commendations from the UN, and nifty plaques from President Nixon. This has some historical value, but it would have been better with sound.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ***.
The Atom Goes to Sea (film #3 on AV Geeks). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
Fairly dull film made by General Electric to document the creation of the first two atomic submarines, and to champion GE’s role in the development of one of them. In fact, the non-GE submarine, the Nautilus, was considered so unimportant that the section of the film devoted to it goes immediately from introducing it to showing it being christened, so that more time can be devoted to describing the development of the GE submarine, the Sea Wolf. A huge sphere is shown that had some important role or other in the development of the submarine’s engine; it isn’t really clear what, or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention, which gives you an idea of how much interest this film stimulates in its subject matter.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
Down the Gasoline Trail (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #457 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
This cute animated Jam Handy film for GM shows the journey of a gasoline drop down the fuel line to the engine, where it is vaporized, turning it into an angel which flies out of the exhaust pipe. I won’t touch with a ten-foot pole the theological issues involved here. I’ll just say that this is a fun film with a great “Mr. Product” character. Remember, folks, every time you drive, angels are flying out of your exhaust pipe. Or at least they did in the days before catalytic converters.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
The Derby (film #16 on The Movies Begin, Volume Two: The European Pioneers (Kino Video, 1994)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
Trackside view of a horse race. Even the restoration efforts of The Movies Begin people couldn't cut the graininess of this one. An 1896 R. W. Paul film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
Another Fine Mess (film #11 on Laurel & Hardy DVD (Hallmark Entertainment, 2003)). [Category: Hollywood]
Laurel and Hardy get into a complicated scrape after ducking into the cellar of a rich man’s house to avoid police and getting locked in. They eventually end up posing as the owner of the house (Ollie), and the butler/maid (Stan, alternating), showing the house to prospective renters. Things get even more complicated when the real owner of the house shows up. This is a very funny short, with a plot that just keeps getting more and more absurd. Stan in drag is a real hoot, and you get to see where Monty Python got the pantomime horse riding a tandem bike gag from. This truly is a fine mess.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Annabelle Serpentine Dance #4 (film #8 on the Viva la Dance disc of Unseen Cinema DVD Boxed Set (Image Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
Why they called this “#4” when there is another “Annabelle Serpentine Dance #4” on the disc I have no idea. This one is beautifully hand-colored, with constantly shifting bright colors on the skirts. Annabelle should watch out for the skirts dropping over her head, though. An 1897 Edison film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Bells of Coronado (film #13 on SabuCat Movie Trailers). [Category: Commercial]
Not a sequel to Bells of Capistrano, this western is in color and features Roy Rogers. It also features an up-to-the-minute atomic plot about bad guys who steal some radioactive “atomic ore.” This is mildly silly, but mostly it’s pretty ordinary.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Curiosity Killed a Cat (track #2 on Americans in War (NFV, 1990)). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
G.I.s Goofus and Gallant wander around battlefield Europe, Goofus constantly poking his nose into everything he finds, and Gallant constantly shouting at him to stop fiddling with everything, for Chrissakes! Designed to teach soldiers that unexploded shells, dead bodies, and the like are dangerous and should be left alone. Know-it-all Gallant is at least as annoying as dim-witted Goofus, though.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ***.
Banim Bonim (film #2 in the Pre-State section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
This silent film from the 20s gives a detailed portrait of the early Zionist pioneers to came to Palestine to take the first steps to build a Jewish homeland there. The film shows a group of pioneers arriving in Palestine, touring the country, and then getting on with the hard work of pioneering, mostly involving agricultural work and building construction. This has a great deal of historical value, as it’s very detailed, but it tends to drag after awhile, as it goes on and on and on. Still, this is a valuable film, so it’s good that it was preserved.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
The Door on 69th Street (film #13 in the General section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Public Service]
This early-60s film documents the role of the American Jewish National Fund in the development of Israel, particularly in terms of land reclamation. This has historical value, as it goes into a great deal of detail on all the various bureaucratic things that had to be done to get Israel started and keep it going. But it’s pretty boring to watch, as it’s very self-congratulatory and insists upon mentioning every last famous person who helped them over the years. For persons researching the history of the modern state of Israel, this film has some value; others will probably find it a snoozer.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: **.
The Alien (film #1 on Monster Kid Home Movies DVD (PPS Group, 2005)). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
The Monster Kid Home Movies DVD contains amateur sci-fi and horror films made by kids during the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. This 50s film features a teenaged mad scientist who invents a device that he uses to bring a space alien with a plastic forehead to Earth. The alien is a benign presence who is able to perform various kinds of magical tricks, and the scientist takes him for a walk around the neighborhood, where he performs various amazing feats. Then the scientist sends the alien back to where he came from, but the alien ends up erasing all the scientist’s notes, so no one will ever believe him, poor schmoe. This is a really charming film that is really well done for an amateur film. The story is told very well, making good use of the silent genre. I especially like the opening and closing credits and the title cards––they are beautifully designed. Shows what a little passion and ingenuity can do when the budget is almost non-existent.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Craig Breedlove and the Spirit of America (film #7 in the Featured Clip Archive section of WPA Film Library). [Category: News]
Silent footage of Craig Breedlove breaking the land speed record in 1965 in his specially-outfitted rocket car, The Spirit of America. This has historical interest for racing fans, but no surprises.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
Atom Fallout: New Tests Begin as Safety Debate Rages (film #73 on Universal Newsreels). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
50s newsreel reporting the latest round of nuclear tests in Nevada. We get to see a spectacular nuclear explosion and, despite the narrated concerns about fallout, lots of folks watching the blast wearing those eye-protecting glasses. Also included is a story about one of the last Navy sailing ships. This is pretty standard, but it has lots of historical interest.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Dow Midland (film #458 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
This 50s industrial film, made by Dow Chemical, is missing its soundtrack. Even without sound, it’s pretty obvious that its message is Dow chemicals are everywhere. Lots of great visual imagery is here, including factory footage, containers of various kinds of dangerous chemicals, guys in lab coats doing experiments surrounded by bubbling beakers, and a guy in the plastics department mixing chemicals in 50s kitchen mixers, resulting in mixtures that resemble cake batter. Without the soundtrack, the viewer can feel free to add his or her own commentary, inferring stuff that is lots worse than what was probably said (though who knows?), or perhaps better, but what fun is that?Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **** (mainly for the possibilities). Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
The First Circus (film #7 on Origins of American Animation). [Category: Hollywood]
This is actually two short vignettes of early-20s silhouette animation. In the first one, two chimps discover a bottle of liquor. Just as it threatens to turn into a bizarre combination of The Gods Must Be Crazy and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the alpha male shows up and steals it from them. Typical. The second vignette features a caveman’s version of a circus, the highlight being a high-wire act involving a brontosaurus and a snake. These vignettes are mildly charming and fun to watch. This film is notable for being the first downloaded silent film I’ve run across that includes a musical soundtrack. As usual for the films on the American Memory sites, this film is very well-preserved and beautifully digitized, looking just as good on my tv screen as on a computer screen.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Alice’s Wonderland (film #1 on Disc #1 of Disney Rarities DVD (Disney, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
This first of the “Alice” shorts features Alice visiting a cartoon studio. There she views wonders such as an animated mouse tormenting a real cat, and a boxing match between a cat and a dog (though what’s in the box marked “DANGER”?). This is by far the best part of the cartoon. Then, later that night, she goes to sleep and dreams a cartoon train takes her to Cartoonland, where she is given a warm welcome by all the cartoon animals. Everything goes well until the lions get loose. This is a lot of fun, very “tooney”, and a good introduction to the “Alice” series.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Annabelle Serpentine Dance #4 (film #6 on the Viva la Dance disc of Unseen Cinema DVD Boxed Set (Image Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
More hand-colored twirling skirts. The red portion is striking. An 1897 Edison film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Bells of Capistrano (film #12 on SabuCat Movie Trailers). [Category: Commercial]
Fairly standard trailer for the musical Gene Autry western The Bells of Capistrano. Apart from the nicknames given to the sidekicks and the assertion that this is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (wonder what Barnum & Bailey’s lawyers thought of that one?), this is ordinary.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
Cindy Goes to a Party (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #319 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Educational]
Tomboy Cindy is bummed out because she wasn’t invited to her friend Mary’s birthday party, presumably because of her tomboyish ways. Fortunately, her fairy godmother comes and saves the day, mostly by waving her magic wand to make rules of party etiquette appear in the air in front of her. Cindy and her friend Dennis (who is also afflicted with the same psychosis, even seeing the fairy godmother in a print of Whistler’s Mother) have fun at the party by being good little conformists and following all the fairy godmother’s rules. However, when Cindy begins to anticipate what the fairy godmother will say (which is not too difficult as her rules are incredibly obvious and elementary––“Don’t break things” is an example), the godmother slides into a fit of depressed uselessness, saying, “You don’t need me anymore!”, which is a cue for Cindy and Dennis to emotionally rescue her by insisting that they do too need her, and generally shoring up her fragile ego. So they are also learning the habits of codependence at an early age as well. As you might guess from the description, this film is incredibly campy and has a great deal of entertainment value. I always say you can’t go wrong with supernatural visitors, especially neurotic ones.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Ashdod (film #10 in the Cities section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
This early-60s Israeli film documents the building of Ashdod, a city that was built in the desert to house refugees. Mostly, it’s about the refugees themselves, and what it’s like to come to a newly-built city and try to build a new life for yourself there. It ends up giving you a real sense of what it’s like to be a refugee, with both the hardships and the hopes. There is something touching about the style in which the film is made that stimulates empathy in the viewer. Most of the films on the Spielberg archive have a lot of historical interest; this one is one of the more interesting to actually watch.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
The Adventures of Superman – Stamp Day for Superman (film #2 on Disc #2 of Classic Kids’ Shows DVD (Genius Entertainment, 2004)). [Category: Public Service]
This episode of “The Adventures of Superman” was actually a film for kids where Superman encourages all of them to buy U.S. Savings Stamps at school. Of course, he has to rescue that ditzy Lois Lane from a jewel thief who wants to kill her, too. This is all the dorky fun of a “Superman” episode, plus lots of pitching for savings stamps shoehorned in to things. My favorite shoehorn moment is where one of the jewel thieves confesses to Superman that he got involved with crime because he never learned how to save his money (like with savings bonds, maybe?). And Perry White has a great cranky moment. This probably went over well with its intended audience, assuming that they had any money to spend.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Air Head Videos 4 (film #305 on Open Source Movies). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
These Stupid Lego Tricks are starting to grow on me. This one features a minifig getting slimed by Silly Putty, an exploding Lego computer, footage from a Lego security camera, and some bizarre experiments with electricity. The animator created a fun logo for the end of the film. OK, enough test footage, now how about actually making a film with a plot?Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ***.
Cosmos Pioneer: Soviets Orbit Man in Space (film #136 on Universal Newsreels). [Category: News]
This doesn’t even have any stock footage or plastic globes, just President Kennedy telling us that while he doesn’t see the Soviet lead in space to be a threat to national security, he does see a threat in the Soviet arms buildup. Nothing much here that we don’t know already.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: **. Overall Rating: *.
At the Summit (film #71 on Universal Newsreels). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
50s newsreel about world leaders arriving in Geneva for a round of peace talks. Also reported are a plane crash in Chicago, a Russian-American agricultural exchange, and the Miss Universe pageant. The beauty contest footage is fairly objectifying, as usual, but otherwise this is just a standard 50s newsreel with no surprises.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
Decoyed (film #26 on The Origins of Cinema, Volume 6: Rare Films (Video Yesteryear, 1997)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
I couldn't really make out the plot of this one. It has something to do with a woman, who may or may not have been kidnapped, being forced to beg on the street for the benefit of a very abusive character who has her under his sway, and how she gets another guy to come to her aid. Nothing seems to be resolved, though. Confusing and rather upsetting.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: **. Overall Rating: **.
Dollar Store (film #450 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
Silent film footage from the 60s of a woman in a retail store examining the merchandise. This looks like it’s from a dime store of the period, but everything looks so dreary, you can hardly tell it apart from a thrift store. It ends with a number of different close-ups of fishing tackle. It’s hard to know what the purpose of this was––everything looks so dreary and cheap, it’s hard to buy it was for advertising purposes. It certainly doesn’t make me want to buy anything.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Alice’s Wild West Show (film #2 on Disc #1 of Disney Rarities DVD (Disney, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
Alice holds a Wild West Show for the neighborhood kids, and the initial scenes of all the handmade props and signs are great. Her cast runs out on her when a rough gang arrives to break up the show, leaving Alice all alone to entertain the crowd with tall tales about the Wild West, which we get to see through the magic of animation. This doesn’t prevent the tough gang from breaking up the show, though Alice gets the last laugh, as well as a couple of teeth knocked out. I like these Alice shorts better when they spent some live-action time setting up a situation, rather than making them just cartoons with Alice making a few appearances. They usually have wonderful little moments in them, such as the lemonade stand in this one that would make the health department have a heart attack. I want the signs in this one for the Film Ephemera Museum of Quirky Devices.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Andy’s Gang – The Man Eater of Jog (film #1 on Disc #1 of Classic Kids’ Shows DVD (Genius Entertainment, 2004)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
OK, folks, I’ve been waiting to see a full episode of this show after being exposed briefly to the thoroughly evil Froggy the Gremlin on the TVParty website. This does not disappoint. “Andy’s Gang” was a disturbing, dark corner of Kidvidland, a place to banish bad kids. The story feature, about a man-eating tiger hunt in India, is pretty much standard adventure fare, though the half-naked main character and his assistant have a relationship that is ripe for msting, and the scene of the elephant trampling the tiger is mildly disturbing. But never mind that, it’s the scenes with Andy that will make you cringe. Worst is the segment featuring a cat and a gerbil who are dressed in some sort of animatronic costumes and forced to perform as a Spanish dancer and guitarist, respectively. At least, this must have caused the animals psychological damage, if not actual pain, though they both look like they’re heavily drugged. Of course, this is all just a warmup to prepare kids for the thoroughly evil and anarchic Froggy the Gremlin. Actually, seeing Froggy get his digs in on Andy is fairly cathartic after the animal abuse business, making me think that Froggy must have been channeling the animal spirits to perform acts of revenge. The kids in the audience look about as real as the little old lady audience that would occasionally appear on “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” though, so that’s reassuring. I don’t even want to think about how this affected the viewers at home, though.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: *****+. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Beast of the Yellow Night Trailer (extra on Beast of the Yellow Night DVD (RetroMedia Entertainment)). [Category: Commercial]
Lurid trailer for a cheap 70s horror flick. Lots of blood and lurid claims in a yellow typeface. This is not quite campy enough to be very much fun, though the ending advice to “see it with someone you trust” is mildly amusing.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
As Long as I Live (film #9 in the General section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
This Israeli film from the 60s gives the viewer an overview of Jewish religious practices as they are done in Israel, particularly observance of the Sabbath, Passover, and Chanukah. This makes it a good example of an outsider film that tries to educate the public about the practices of the outsider group. If you’re curious about the Jewish religion, this is the film for you. It particularly highlights practices that celebrate the freedom of Jews to practice their religion at all, reminding us of the long history of oppression they have had to deal with.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Doctor in the Desert (film #4 in the Health section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Public Service]
This Israeli film from the 60s documents the bringing of modern Western medicine to the Bedouin tribal people of the Negev desert. This is straightforwardly and rather starkly told, with lots of fascinating images of the Bedouin’s way of life. Western medicine is portrayed as vastly superior in all ways to any traditional health practices these people may have had. More interesting is a segment on a Bedouin medical student who has to deal with cultural clash. This is shown poignantly at the end of the film, where he gets off the bus after a day of classes dressed in Western garb and puts on his Arab headdress before walking home. This has historical and multicultural interest.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Aerial View of Sixth Ave. Train at 28th, 26th, 24th (film #19 on the Picturing a Metropolis disc of Unseen Cinema DVD Boxed Set (Image Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
Brief aerial view from the 20s of a New York City elevated train. This is very well-preserved, and thus has historical interest.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Chet Huntley Retired (film #34 in the 1969 section of TVParty). [Category: News]
This is the final goodbye Chet Huntley said to David Brinkley and all the viewers at home when he retired from the NBC Nightly News. This is a genuinely historic and touching moment in the history of TV news. Huntley’s prediction that there will be more good news to report “if we work at it” still has relevance today.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
At Sea (film #70 on Universal Newsreels). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
Brief newsreel story from the 50s about the nuclear submarine Skipjack. Typical submarine footage of submersions and a guy looking through that thing on submarines that you look through. Pretty standard.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
Conquer by the Clock (In the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #370 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
Strident WWII propaganda film that warns war workers of the danger of slacking off, even for a second. Occasional periods of R & R are shown to have dire consequences for the soldiers fighting the war. I guess they hadn’t heard of the concept of burnout yet. This makes the film pretty campy. A quintessential propaganda piece with some striking modernistic visuals.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Diesel Story (film #438 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
This rather dry film, sponsored by Shell Oil, tells the story of the development of the diesel engine. Lots of engines are shown, and they way that they work is described in detail. If you’ve ever wondered just what “fuel injection” is, then this is your movie. The dry scenes of internal combustion are broken up in the middle of the film by footage from a German movie about the life of Rudolf Diesel––we get to see the dramatic moment when the engine finally works! Then it’s back to more boring mechanical diagrams. Still, this could have been a lot more tedious than it is, if only by being longer. And the opening and closing credits are wonderfully designed, adding to the interest of the film. Grease monkeys should enjoy this, others will find it to be a 3-star film if ever there was one.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Alice’s Mysterious Mystery (film #6 on Disc #1 of Disney Rarities DVD (Disney, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
This is the film that blew the lid off the whole “secret ingredient” in sausages conspiracy. Or, maybe not. Alice foils an evil cat who runs a dogmeat sausage factory, featuring a doggie death row where a dog priest prays over the hapless victims before they are turned into dogs of the hot variety. Dog lovers may find this a bit upsetting, though the evil cat gets his in the end. The beginning features some great cartoon vehicles.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Biology (film #6 in the Schools section of TVArk). [Category: Educational]
Fairly cool opening credits for a British educational science program, featuring Pink Floyd’s “Time” as the music. I wonder if weird correlations could have been made had they replaced the entire program’s soundtrack with the rest of the album.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Annabelle Serpentine Dance #1 (film #5 on the Viva la Dance disc of Unseen Cinema DVD Boxed Set (Image Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
Annabelle’s at it again, this time dancing in an incredibly twirly skirt, making her the idol of little girls everywhere. This one is beautifully hand-colored, making it fun to watch, though short. An 1894 Edison film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Beast of Blood Trailer (extra on Beast of Blood DVD (Image Entertainment, 2002). Also, extra on Brain of Blood DVD (Image Entertainment, 2002. Also, extra on Brides of Blood DVD (Image Entertainment, 2002). Also, extra on Mad Doctor of Blood Island DVD (Image Entertainment, 2002)). [Category: Commercial]
Very campy trailer for an incredibly cheap 70s horror flick, featuring a guy in a rubber mask killing guys on a ship, a mad scientist doing hideous experiments with the deadly chemical chlorophyll (so that’s what happened to all those 50s folks who used chlorophyll toothpaste!), cardboard sets, disembodied screaming voices, lurid titles, and One Way to Get Ahead. This ranks with the best cheesy 50s horror films, except it’s in lurid color and a little bit bloodier. Loads of fun.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
The Arava Is My Home (film #11 in the Rural Settlement and Security section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
This early-70s Israeli film shows us what it was like to develop and live on a desert kibbutz. A man who lives on a kibbutz in the Arava desert area narrates the film, telling us about the hardships he and the early pioneers went through to build their desert home, including crop failure, flash floods, terrorist attacks, and the omnipresent heat. Eventually, though, they are successful in building a viable agricultural settlement, including homes with modern conveniences, such as running water and electricity. This is a valuable historical document of the development of the kibbutz way of life in Israel. It’s straightforwardly told, with few surprises, but the story is pretty interesting nonetheless.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
And Still They Come (film #8 in the Immigration and Absorption section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Public Service]
This early-60s film documents the work of the Youth Allyah in Israel, a program that rehabilitated and resettled displaced and orphaned Jewish children and adolescents. Most of these young people had been traumatized; many came from chaotic backgrounds of homelessness or poverty. Rehabilitation through education, creative work, agricultural work, physical training, and vocational training is shown. This is a very hopeful and optimistic public service film, showing young people who have survived horrors being placed in a nurturing environment and allowed to grow. The story of artist and Holocaust survivor Yehuda Bakon frames the larger story, and we get a chance to see his compelling artwork that documents both the horrors he survived and his healing process. Unfortunately, the copy of the film in the Spielberg Archive is dark and hard to see. Still, this is a compelling film that is worth watching.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Abstract Movies (film #27 on the Light Rhythms disc of Unseen Cinema DVD Boxed Set (Image Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
A collection of short experimental films made by abstract painter George Morris. These start out as simple pans and zooms of his paintings, but go on to fairly mesmerizing experiments in stop-motion animation, cut-paper puppetry, and bizarre shots of body parts. I particularly like the framed heads and the sparkly hand that makes stars. A visually interesting film collage.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Fiesta Soundie (film #509 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Hollywood]
This peppy soundie has Mexican stereotypes aplenty, as well as hot Latin rhythms. It tells the musical story of the love of a codependent wife for her worthless husband Pancho. It's all rather silly, but it's got rhythm.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ***.
Cosmonaut: Russian Orbits Globe 17 Times (film #135 on Universal Newsreels).[Category: News]
Early 60s newsreel story about a Russian cosmonaut’s circling of the earth, back when the Russians were kicking our butts in the space program. There’s some campy scenes of distressed-looking Americans peering at lurid newspaper headlines about the spaceflight. Then, because the Russians kept everything top secret, we get to see stock footage of what the flight might have, but probably didn’t, look like, culminating in a plastic globe spinning around with a satellite connected to a wire to represent the spacecraft. They might as well have mined the Universal vaults for the old logo with the biplane. Pretty silly for what was supposed to be a straight newsreel.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
As Always, Hadassah (film #2 in the Health section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
This early-70s film documents the efforts of the medical staff and volunteers of the Hadassah Mt. Scopus hospital in Jerusalem to treat and rehabilitate wounded soldiers and civilians of the Yom Kippur War. It’s a fairly compelling story, but the stark, early-70s style of the film tends to make it drag a bit. Still, you get a real sense for the medical practices of that time and place, as well as what it was like to try to provide medical treatment in wartime conditions.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Dial Comes to Town (film #433 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
If you’re watching ephemeral films in order to laugh at dorky innocent people from the past, then this is your film. Gramps is all up in arms because there’s talk that they’re gonna install them there phones with dials on ‘em! Fortunately, the rest of the family is a little more on the early adapter side, so they take him to a long meeting about dial phones, where they explain way more than you want to know about how they installed them. Then you get to the meat of the film, where a pretty lady laboriously shows us how to make a call on a dial phone, using enough repetition that even the lower-1Q folks like Gramps get it. She uses a huge telephone dial as a visual aid, which definitely has my name on it for the Film Ephemera Museum of Quirky Devices (I called it first!). This is a highly entertaining film, with a great opening featuring a stop-motion animated dial that installs itself on a telephone. This is definitely one to have in your collection.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Choosing for Happiness (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #318 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Educational]
College girl Mary narrates this film about her friend Eve, and why, despite Eve’s good looks, she hasn’t found a husband yet. It turns out that Eve is as controlling as all get out, throwing a snit fit whenever a boyfriend fails to do exactly as she orders. The message here is that you can’t change other people, you can only change yourself. It’s a sound message, as far as that goes, except that you don’t get the feeling that young men during the 50s were getting the same message from social guidance films. When you take into consideration the blatant sexism of the 50s, it’s disturbing to hear young women being encouraged to “take men as they come”––it seems to be more about subservience than about healthy relating, despite the fact that Eve’s controlling behavior is genuinely annoying, and the boyfriends are portrayed as decent sorts mostly. And the film is made in an annoyingly confusing style, with Mary narrating Eve’s story, when Eve really should be doing it herself. There are also bits of wacked-out dialogue that make you wonder what the writers could have been thinking, especially the scene with Eve and supernerd boyfriend Arthur the Math Major. This makes the film more confusing than it needs to be, and it makes me wonder how it went over with its intended audience.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Alice’s Egg Plant (film #4 on Disc #1 of Disney Rarities DVD (Disney, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
Alice runs a poultry farm in this cartoon, and she learns that the solution to labor-management problems is to hold a cockfight. I’m serious. This gets awfully close to being capitalist propaganda, except all the eggs are lost in the end. Phew!Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
A Day in the Life of a Coalminer (track #8 on The Movies Begin, Volume Three: Experimentation and Discovery (Kino Video, 1994)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
This fascinating film is probably one of the first documentaries ever made, showing us the real work of real turn-of-the-century coalminers. There are many unforgetable images here of men being squeezed like sardines into tiny elevators, men working in dark, cavelike corridors hundreds of feet underneath the ground and looking like they never get a chance to stand upright all day, men getting paid a small handful of coins for their labors. But what's really striking is the women. Yes, there are dozens of women in this mine doing such "women's work" as loading huge logs onto handcarts, hunching over a conveyor belt sorting coal, and standing on top of coal hoppers poking the coal with pitchforks. The classist ending will disgust you, or you have a heart of stone, I'll warrant. A fascinating historical document of hard, dirty labor. A 1910 Kinetescope film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Annabelle Butterfly Dance #3 (film #3 on the Viva la Dance disc of Unseen Cinema DVD Boxed Set (Image Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
This is similar to Annabelle Butterfly Dance #1, except it was hand-colored. The shifting colors add even further to the charming, otherworldly quality of Annabelle’s dancing. An 1895 Edison film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Beast from Haunted Cave (extra on Journey Beneath the Desert DVD (Video Screams)). [Category: Commercial]
Campy, lurid trailer from the 50s sci-fi flick Beast from Haunted Cave. Features “4 men and a girl (a bad girl to boot!),” fistfights, crime, “a ski lift to the heights of terror,” and bad special effects. Lots of fun.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Arad (film #9 in the Cities section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
Rather dry 60s film about the planning and building of a new town in the Israeli desert. The scenes of the new residents setting up housekeeping are mildly interesting, giving you a feel of what it must have been like to be an Israeli pioneer. But mostly this is rather dull.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Deadline for Danny (film #2 in the General section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Public Service]
This 50s film, sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal, attempts to personalize the struggles of Israelis during the “austerity period,” when food shortages required everyone to conserve and struggle with not having enough. Danny, a young boy, is devastated to find out that his beloved cow, Elissa, is going to be slaughtered for meat because she is not giving milk. He goes all the way to Jerusalem by himself to try to get somebody from the government to give Elissa a reprieve, only to go through a frustrating round of bureaucrats ordering him to fill out forms in triplicate. He eventually is given a ride home by a man delivering fodder to farms, and he ends up witnessing a riot that starts when a village is given only 6 bushels of fodder when they need 14. After this, he gives up trying to save Elissa, but a miracle happens that allows the film to end happily. This is a very charming film that does generate empathy for the struggles of Israel’s pioneers. Its ending is a tad unrealistic, but it doesn’t really undercut the film’s message much, and since you end up identifying with Danny and Elissa, it’s a relief to see her saved in the end. The film has a great deal of historical value in documenting the early struggles of the people of Israel.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *** (mainly for the bureaucrat sequence). Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Abstract Experiment in Kodachrome (film #33 on the Viva la Dance disc of Unseen Cinema DVD Boxed Set (Image Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
Stop-motion animated film featuring moving abstract designs created with such things as children’s blocks, colored tiles, balls, and sheets of colored paper. Sort of like a film version of a mixed-media art piece. Since I’m into mixed-media, I enjoyed this very much. The colors and movement are delightful, and the music soundtrack adds to the total effect. This is the sort of thing I love to find on a collection of experimental films.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: *****.
Corruption in Local 2 (film #9 on Shaping San Francisco). [Category: News]
Brief TV news clip from the 70s of an interview with a union member complaining about dirty dealings in the union. This has some local historical value, but it’s too brief to be of much interest otherwise.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
The Arsenal for D-Day (film #515 on Universal Newsreels). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
Newsreel story about all the masses of stuff that had to be made and collected for the D-Day invasions. If you’re interested in vintage WWII items, then this is your film. Also included is a story about England getting planes from Lend-Lease, which is pretty standard.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Composite (film #1 in the 0800046 Composite No. 1 section of DOE Nevada). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
Short montage of nuclear explosions blowin’ things up real good. This is more than the usual mushroom clouds––it also includes some striking imagery of buildings imploding, filmed from the inside. If it’s explosions you want for your video project, check this out.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Destination Earth (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #424 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
This animated bit of capitalist propaganda features a Martian from a totalitarian Martian society who comes to Earth to find out what makes the Earthmobiles so darned efficient, so he can repair the Head Martian’s limousine. By doing research in a public library, he discovers that oil and free-market competition make America great, so he goes back to Mars to preach this gospel (obviously the stack of books that he steals from the library don’t contain titles about air and water pollution, Middle-Eastern politics, robber barons, or the Great Depression). This inspires the Martians so much that they all go out to drill oil wells, while the totalitarian leader is conquered simply by pushing a self-destruct button––that he was defeated so easily really makes you wonder about the intelligence of the Martian race. This is propaganda, to be sure, but it’s delightfully animated, genuinely funny in spots, and less strident than many films of its kind. The bright colors and 50s cute-style animation won me over, frankly, though I’m not about to drill any oil wells any time soon.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Alice the Whaler (film #7 on Disc 1 of Disney Rarities DVD (Disney, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
Alice is on a whaling ship with all of her animal buddies. Mostly, this is an excuse to show lots of silly antics of the animal buddies, especially the trials and tribulations of the mouse assistant to a cranky cat chef. It ends rather abruptly, with a harpooned whale dragging the ship through the waves. Never mind, the animal buddy antics are cute and funny.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Fiddlesticks (film #1 on The Cartoons That Time Forgot: The Ub Iwerks Collection, Vol. 1 DVD (Image Entertainment, 1999)). [Category: Hollywood]
Flip the Frog sings and dances his way into our hearts in this, his first cartoon. That's all, really, but he does it in such a cute and engaging way, surrounded by other cute characters such as an insect band and a piano that plays itself with its front legs. Engaging and cartoony.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Annabelle Butterfly Dance #1 (film #2 on the Viva la Dance disc of Unseen Cinema DVD Boxed Set (Image Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
A woman with butterfly wings and a voluminous skirt dances gracefully while twirling her skirt around. This has a certain otherworldly beauty about it not found in films today. An 1894 Edison film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Be Fresh (film #14 in The Modern 70s Woman section of TVParty). [Category: Commercial]
Mildly amusing 70s commercial featuring a cranky maid who “doesn’t do toilets” because Be Fresh, an in-bowl toilet bowl cleaner, is a “shower for the bowl.” The actress playing the maid created a wonderfully cranky character, making this commercial fun.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Aga: Tiberias Catastrophe (film #9 in the Pre-State section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
This 30s newsreel about a flood in a Palestinian city was the first newsreel narrated in Hebrew. English subtitles are provided, but unfortunately they are almost impossible to read because of lack of contrast with the background film. Too bad; understanding the narration would have increased the historical value of this for English-speakers like me. As is, the film still has some historical value for being a first in the Hebrew language.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
Adventure in Israel (film #1 in the General section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Public Service]
This 50s film, narrated by George Jessel and his 11-year-old daughter Geralyn, documents their trip to Israel and appeals to viewers to contribute to the United Jewish Appeal to help with resettlement of refugees. It’s done in the lighthearted and rather silly style of a Hollywood travelogue short, but the scenes of refugees in transit camps, and building homes in pioneer settlements, are genuinely touching, giving the film a note of reality that you don’t expect given its style. Jessel’s assertion that all that is really needed to solve the refugees’ problems is more money is poignant from today’s perspective, considering the ongoing violence the people of Israel have had to put up with. An interesting historical artifact from the post-war period.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
The Choice Is Yours (film #3 on Boozers & Losers, Vol. 1 (Something Weird, 2000)). [Category: Educational]
Teenaged Louise and her little brother Jerry like to visit Louise's chemistry teacher on a regular basis so he can "practice his lectures on them." Since this is an educational film made by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, this raises no eyebrows, nor does it deserve to. The teacher actually does give Jerry and Louise a long, detailed lecture on the Evils of Drink––er, the Effects of Alcohol on the Body, complete with visual aids. Actually, this film is a lot less patronizing than most of its ilk––the chemistry prof actually treats Jerry and Louise as if they were halfway intelligent and capable of thinking for themselves. Of course, the deck is stacked in favor of them coming to the conclusion that drinking is bad, but what do you expect? The WCTU really stretches it, though, when they show children living in ghetto conditions and try to imply that this is entirely due to alcohol consumption. But for the most part, this film is a bit more intelligent than you'd expect.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ***.
Air Head Videos 3 (film #304 on Open Source Movies). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
Still more Stupid Lego Tricks. Highlights of this one include the minifig conga line, the use of plastic wrap to simulate water, and the closing credits, which actually give credit to the minifigs. Silly.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Conditions in Paris (film #7 in the 1929 Stock Market Crash and Great Depression section of WPA Film Library). [Category: News]
Silent newsreel footage of the Great Depression as it was experienced in Paris. This is not too different from scenes from the US at that time, featuring as it does scenes of soup lines, homeless people, and children living in appalling shacks. This shows that it really was a world-wide depression.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Army Needs Must Be Met, NAM Is Told (film #67 on Universal Newsreels). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
Rousing wartime newsreel featuring a speech by Frederick C. Crawford to the National Association of Manufacturers telling them they need lots more stuff to be made for fighting the war. So go to it, Industry! Build a better tomorrow! Also featured are stories on flooding in Italy, talks between Churchill and Stalin, and a football game. This is one of the more rousing of the patriotic newsreels, reminding viewers over and over that the war will be won through industrial production. And it was.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
A Dash Through the Clouds (track #3 on The Origins of Cinema, Volume 4: The Arrival of D. W. Griffith (Video Yesteryear, 1995)). [Category: Early Film & TV]
How ya gonna keep 'em in the kitchen after they've been above the clouds? After a dashing young pilot takes Martha for a ride in one of them newfangled flyin' machines, she has no more use for her stuffy old husband Arthur, much to his chagrin. But he changes his tune when Martha and the pilot use the flyin' contraption to rescue him from a fracas in a Mexican border town (over a woman, I'm sorry to say). It doesn't make any difference to Martha, though––she still thinks he's a stuffed shirt even after she rescues him. This exciting early melodrama is loads of fun. The flying scenes in the Wright-Brothers-era plane look authentic, giving the film historical interest as well. A 1912 D. W. Griffith film.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Demonstration, London Fire Brigade (film #1388 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
Silent, color film footage from the 40s of firemen putting out assorted fires. This doesn’t appear to take place in London, but in various places in the eastern U.S. Lots of smoke, flames, and vintage fire equipment for firefighting fans.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Alice in the Jungle (film #5 on Disc 1 of Disney Rarities DVD (Disney, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
Alice goes on a jungle safari, but mostly this is used as an excuse to show lots of silly animal antics, with Alice herself only briefly involved. Never mind, the animal antics are cute and funny, though Alice’s pet cat bears a striking resemblance to Felix. In fact, take out the brief Alice scenes, and this could pass for a Felix cartoon. I will resist the temptation to make a reference to copyright lawsuits and simply say for a Felix rip-off, this is not bad.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Communism (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #361 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
Unlike Capitalism, this Coronet film has no dorky teenagers or weenies in it. Instead, it’s a fairly straightforward account of the history of Russian communism and Soviet aggression. This is not nearly as strident as it might have been, given the time that it was made, though it does clearly paint communism as an international conspiracy and a threat to world peace and freedom. Most of it is reasonably accurate, with the most inaccurate part of it probably being the talk about the U.S. fighting communism by supporting freedom in other countries, ignoring the U.S. policy of supporting tyrannical dictators in many countries simply because they weren’t communist. So overall the film is kind of dull, though it does contain a lot of film footage of early Soviet Russia.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: ***.
Beulah for the 1952-53 (film #5 on The Beulah Show section of TVParty). [Category: Early Film & TV]
Brief clip from “Beulah” showing the opening credits and Louise Beavers offering a witty, stereotyped bon-mot. Another example of the difficulties African Americans had to face in show business during that time.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Batman and Robin Discover the Missing Show (film #32 in the 1966 ABC Fall Preview section of TVParty). [Category: Commercial]
Campy, silly ending to the 1966 ABC fall preview show, in which Batman and Robin discover Milton Berle under the desk and sentence him to a series run of five years. It ends with some very 60s-style groovy animation. A real blast from the 60s.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
The Adventures of Gadi Ben Sussi (film #8 in the Pre-State section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
Primitive silent cartoon from the early 30s showing the adventures of a Yemenite character in Tel-Aviv, with subtitles in Hebrew. Frankly, I couldn’t make head nor tails of this one, though it was rather fun to look at, what with its tooney animation and body parts flying everywhere.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Channah Means Grace (film #3 in the Health section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Public Service]
This touching film from the early 50s profiles Channah, a girl who cannot walk due to injuries she suffered in a DP camp, and how she is helped by professionals at the Hadassah Medical Center to walk again. Surgery and physical therapy result in her legs returning to normal, yet Channah will not try to walk without assistance. A psychological evaluation reveals that Channah’s traumatic experiences make it hard for her to trust, so the treatment team makes the wise decision to build Channah’s desire for rehabilitation by having her take dance classes, something she has shown interest in. Eventually, she learns to walk by learning to dance. This is a very well-made film that shows an unusual degree of understanding of its troubled protagonist and of the importance of psychological factors in physical rehabilitation. It is one of the better examples of a public service film; one that manages to stimulate empathy in the viewer for the struggles of the people it portrays.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Air Head Videos 2 (film #303 on Open Source Movies). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
More Stupid Lego Tricks. The giant baseball is pretty cool, though, as well as the metamorphosis scene.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm (film #47 in the Featured Clip Archive section of WPA Film Library). [Category: News]
Fairly exciting newsreel story about the early-60s shipwreck of the Andrea Doria after she collided in the fog with the Stockholm. This has lots of historical value, as well as striking footage of a ship sinking below the waves.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
And on the Seventh Day (film #8 in the Cities section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Military & Propaganda]
Residents of Jerusalem flash back to painful experiences from the Six-Day War in this 60s film. Unfortunately, it’s in French, so I couldn’t understand the narration, but even given the language barrier, the film has impact. This is one I really wish the archive had provided English subtitles for.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Felix the Cat Swtiches Witches (film #7 on Felix the Cat, Vol. 1 (Video Resources, 1994)). [Category: Hollywood]
It's Halloween night, and Felix goes around pulling pranks. Just when you're wondering why he is fooling around with a lame old jack-o-lantern instead of manipulating reality, he starts switching the front and back ends of various animals and inanimate objects. Now that's a prank! The cartoon ends with Felix getting his fortune told and being chased by a witch, which is not nearly as much fun as the pranks, but still, this is a great cartoon.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Desert Venture (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #420 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]
This 40s film, made by Standard Oil of California, documents the initial search for oil in Saudi Arabia, and how its discovery was so beneficial for Americans, Arabs, starving war victims in Europe, and, oh, everybody all over the world. The film itself is fairly straightforward and unsurprising, but the ironic baggage it carries in light of future events is humongous. Perhaps the most ironic moment is a map that turns arrows pointing from North and South America to Europe, indicating the flow of oil, to a huge arrow going from the middle east to Europe. Point that arrow everywhere and you pretty much have today’s oil situation. Beyond that, there are some mildly fun scenes of the totally unassimilated American community in Saudi Arabia, complete with housewives buying convenience foods in supermarkets; and lots of scenes of sand, oil drilling, camels, and Arabs.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Alice Gets in Dutch (film #3 on Disc 1 of Disney Rarities DVD (Disney, 2005)). [Category: Hollywood]
Alice gets in trouble at school for participating in a prank involving a balloon and a bottle of ink, and so has to sit in the corner with a dunce cap on her head. There she falls asleep and has a dream about jamming with some barnyard animals. The jam session is interrupted by the Evil Cartoon Teacher and her evil anthropomorphic textbooks and the inevitable war ensues. Superior firepower is ultimately overcome by creativity and a junk pile. This cartoon is a great deal of fun, featuring delightful characters, excellent acting by the girl playing Alice, and wonderful soundtrack music that enhances the action on screen. Kudos to Disney for digging these “Alice” toons up and restoring them so well. For 20s toons, they hold up remarkably well today.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.
Children of Japan (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #314 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Educational]
Considering the year this was made, 1941, I at first thought it was a WWII propaganda film. But no, this is a charming children’s educational film made just before the war about life in Japan. We follow two siblings, Taro and Yukiko, as they go through their day with their family, at school, and going to a cherry blossom festival. It looks pretty realistic, though in simplified form, about Japanese life at the time, and everything seems peaceful and well-ordered. Look at all those strange but nice people from another culture, children! Don’t be afraid––they may seem different to us, but deep down they’re really like you and me. How quickly that would change! In fact, I wonder if this film got any showing in classrooms at all, considering how quickly its tolerant message became outdated. I could swear I saw the scene of Japanese boys practicing fencing at school in a later propaganda film. Here, it’s shown as another charming Japanese cultural practice, but in the other film it was shown as proof of Japanese indoctrination of children in military values. Overall, this is an interesting snapshot of our attitudes towards the Japanese just before we went to war with them.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *** (gets an extra star for the fact that it just begs for msting about Godzilla). Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ***.
Beulah (film #6 in The Beulah Show section of TVParty). [Category: Early Film & TV]
This clip from the early 50s sitcom “Beulah” features Oriole, Beulah’s vapid neighbor, in a stereotyped performance that is painful to watch today. Let this serve as a reminder of what we don’t want to go back to.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Batman (film #13 in the 1966 ABC Fall Preview section of TVParty). [Category: Commercial]
Campy, brief clip from the 1966 ABC fall preview show featuring Batman and Robin doing their schtick. Lots of fun if you like your Batman campy.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.
Adullam (film #10 in the Rural Settlement and Security section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]
Short 50s film in Hebrew documenting the settlement and development of Adullam, one of Israel’s frontier areas. This is pretty straightforward footage of surveying, building, and planting, and though I can’t understand Hebrew, I somehow suspect the narration contains few surprises. Some cool-looking model buildings provide a few moments of interest in the middle of the film, though.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: *. Historical Interest: ***. Overall Rating: **.
The Big Moment (film #10 in the Jewish Communities section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive. Also, film #12 in the Rural Settlement and Security section of the State of Israel section of Stephen Spielberg Jewish Film Archive). [Category: Public Service]
This 50s film uses Hollywood stars and filmmaking techniques to solicit contributions for the United Jewish Appeal. Robert Young narrates three stories about fictional displaced Jewish people who are helped by agencies funded by the United Jewish Appeal. The stories are fairly touching, though in a Hollywood way. Somehow Donna Reed fails to be convincing as a displaced Jewish woman on an Israeli settlement. I’m not sure, though, whether a more documentary approach would have been more effective, as the Hollywood approach certainly has emotional appeal. The film is an interesting historical record of how charitable funds were solicited during the 50s, as well as being an interesting anomaly from a time when anti-Semitism was acceptable, though nice people didn’t talk about it much.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.
Air Head Videos (film #302 on Open Source Movies). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]
Look, Ma! I can make my Lego guys do tricks! And to disco music! That’s basically the point of this brief brickfilm, which means there’s not much point to it, but it’s lively.Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
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Better Reading
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