BBC Nine O’Clock News #3 (film #11 in the News section of TVArk). [Category: News]

Another opening credits sequence and first few seconds of the BBC Nine O’Clock News, this time from 1978. We get to see footage of a prime minister who lost the majority trying to patch things up, Margaret Thatcher commenting on it all, and, for the first time, a female newscaster. For its length, this packs in lots of late 70s Britain.

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

Campaign in Europe (film #2 on Side A of Disc #2 of WWII: The Ultimate Collection DVD Boxed Set (Brentwood Home Video, 2004)). [Category: Military & Propaganda]

This WWII German propaganda film documents the German takeover of Poland in September of 1939. The Germans first portray themselves as victims of “Polish Terror,” stating that Germans in the city of Danzig were treated badly by the Poles. Although the goals of the invasion were first explained to be the “liberation” of limited areas of northwestern Poland, once it gets going, all concepts of limitation are forgotten, and we see the German war machine relentlessly blast through the entire country, decimating the Polish military in a matter of weeks. This is all portrayed in an extremely stark, deadpan style, with occasional narration in British English. This film gives you a good idea of what the Germans were saying in their propaganda, as well as showing how relentless the German war machine was in its early days.

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

Chevrolet Leader News, Vol. 2, No. 1 (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #298 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]

More silly “news” from Chevrolet, this time featuring the latest swimsuit fashions, ski-jumping, a ferryboat run with a Chevrolet engine, more animal abuse as hunting dogs are shoved into a car trunk, a traffic school with kindergarteners in kiddie cars a la Tomorrow’s Drivers, a Chevrolet pulling a glider made by a high school student, and a chimp driving a car, in what has to be revenge for all the animal abuse that’s gone on in this series so far. This one is even more lightweight than the others so far, which is saying something.

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

Battle of Mafeking (film #26 on Edison Film Archive). [Category: Early Film & TV]

An old-fashioned battle ensues, involving lines of soldiers running towards each other, swords hacking, and the cavalry galloping through the foreground. You won’t see this kind of battle footage again. Still looks pretty violent, though. A 1900 Edison film.

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

Babette Goes to War Trailer (film #8 on SabuCat Movie Trailers). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]

Sexist trailer for a 60s Brigitte Bardot comedy. It seems that this was made to introduce Bardot to a wider audience of women as well as men, but with lines like calling Bardot the “cuddliest doll in the world,” or calling the women of the audience “75 million American girls,” I wouldn’t bet on it.

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

Christmas Circus (film #166 on Open Source Movies). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]

This sign-language version of a cartoon is more straightforwardly done and less weird, even though it also uses the box on top of a character effect. The cartoon itself is mildly strange, though, featuring animals who give a circus on Christmas. The way the interpretation is done seems to make more sense here, or maybe I’m just getting used to these interpreted cartoons.

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

Hard Shoulder (film #18 in the Public Info. Films section of TVArk). [Category: Public Service]

Straightforward British PSA warning motorists not to stop on the shoulders of superhighways unless it’s an emergency. The couple that stops to argue over the map is mildly ditzy, but mostly this is ordinary.

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

Air Enforcement (film #14 in the Action section of Brickfilms. Also, film #13 in the Comedy section of Brickfilms). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]

Simple object lesson on the dangers of speeding when “Speed Limit [is] Enforced by Aircraft.” An unpretentious little film that made me smile.

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

BBC Nine O’Clock News #2 (film #10 in the News section of TVArk). [Category: News]

Another standard opening credits sequence and first few seconds of a BBC Nine O’Clock News broadcast, this time from 1974. This one is a bit more interesting, as it includes the evening headlines, giving you a snapshot of events in Britain in 1974.

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

The Big Lift (film #1 on Side B of Disc #6 of War Classics DVD Megapack). [Category: Military & Propaganda]

Montgomery Clift and Paul Douglas star in this fictionalized account of two air force men involved in the Berlin Airlift, when the U. S. Air Force flew in food and supplies to Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city. What is unusual about this film is that all the other American military personnel in it were played by the real GIs involved in the airlift. The story is personal, however. It involves the two main characters each getting involved with women in Berlin. Clift almost gets suckered into marrying a woman who is trying to get into the U.S. so she can hook up with her German lover there, while Douglas, who is anti-German after having had traumatic experiences as a P.O.W. during the war, becomes more sympathetic to them after teaching a German woman what democracy is all about. The film is intelligently made for the most part, showing the complexities of the situation in post-war Berlin. It shows that the roots of many of the German’s corrupt and unethical behaviors come from post-war social disintegration, the need to survive, and the corrupt values they were taught as children in Hitler’s Germany, yet it also doesn’t let them off the hook for them. It also shows that a desire for revenge, though understandable, can nevertheless have painful consequences if it is acted out, in a disturbing scene where Douglas beats up a German man who may have been a prison camp guard who tormented him (the film doesn’t totally tell us whether the man actually was the guard, or whether he just looked like him––this makes the scene far more disturbing), then discovers that he feels worse instead of better from doing that. A few other scenes are a bit farfetched and pat, especially the scene where Douglas’ girlfriend finally “gets” the Constitution, but they are outnumbered by the more intelligent sequences. An interesting, if Hollywoodized, portrait of post-war Berlin, and the American military’s experience of it.

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

Chevrolet Leader News, Vol. 1, No. 3 (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #297 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]

More silly “news lite” from Chevrolet, including the wonder of self-mixing cement trucks; the controversy over which house in St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest house in America; more lame yux about old car ads; a bizarre-looking experimental car that looks like it may be Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Car (or a rip-off thereof); jewelry inspired by auto design; a lame joke about car interiors that block out noise; military vehicles made by Chevrolet; and, in yet more animal abuse news, using a live Chihuahua as a hood ornament. The most interesting segments are the experimental car and the one just mentioned about the poor dog who is not only forced to be the first smashed in a crash, but must wear dorky-looking glasses as well. PETA, where were you back in the 30s?

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

Bathing at Atlantic City (film #15 on America at Work, America at Leisure. Also, in the Historical section of Open Video Project). [Category: Early Film & TV]

It looks like back in ought-one, the beaches were just as crowded as they are today. But the people wore a lot more clothes in the water. A slice of turn-of-the-century life. A 1901 Edison film.

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

Babes in Toyland Trailer (film #7 on SabuCat Movie Trailers). [Category: Commercial]

Trailer for the 30s version of Babes in Toyland, starring Laurel & Hardy. This is quite fun to watch, as the graphic design is wonderful and some of the most visually striking moments are chosen to show, particularly the stop-motion animated wooden soldiers. A great relic from the 30s.

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

The Chocolate Princess (film #69 on Open Source Movies). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]

Sign language version of a 70s cartoon with an anti-racist message, narrated by Bill Cosby. In this one, they experiment not just with having the interpreter break in at various points, but with inserting boxes on top of the characters with interpreters, in costume, playing the various roles in sign language. This gives the film a weirdness the other interpreted cartoons don’t have. The Chocolate King looks especially strange and surreal. It’s also curious that although the cartoon has an anti-racist message, the girl playing the sign-language “Chocolate Princess” is white, as are all the other sign-language actors. They deserve points for getting creative here, though.

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

Guide Dogs for the Blind (film #1827 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Public Service]

Newsreel clip from the 50s about the training of guide dogs for the blind. Pretty straightforward, with some nice images of the dogs.

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

After the Taping Was Over (film #2 in the Lucy’s Backstage Battles section of TVParty). [Category: Outtakes & Obscurities]

Clip from an episode of “The Lucy Show” in which Joan Crawford guest-starred. In the text of the page, they mention that Crawford sounded drunk in this performance, and they’re right, though I might not have noticed it if I hadn’t been alerted beforehand. The one who really made me laugh, though, was Gale Gordon. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that he was the real comic talent in “The Lucy Show.”

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

BBC Nine O’Clock News #1 (film #9 in the News section of TVArk). [Category: News]

Opening credits and the first few seconds of a BBC Nine O’Clock newscast from 1973. Straightforward, with some historical value.

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

The Battle of San Pietro (film #2 on Side B of Disc #12 of War Classics DVD Megapack (Treeline Films, 2004)). [Category: Military & Propaganda]

This film documents the Battle of San Pietro, one of the most bloody and difficult of the Italian campaign in WWII. For the most part this is rather slow-moving and dull. However, there are some striking images of bodies being put into body bags, and multiple graves being dug, giving you an idea of just how bloody this battle was. And the ending, in which we see the townspeople of San Pietro emerging from the caves where they had been hiding, is fairly moving. Mostly, though, this is straightforward, and it could have had at least 15 minutes of it edited out without really losing anything. Unless they were trying to show us the boredom of combat, in which case they succeeded.

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

Atlantic Imperial Gasoline Promo Film (film #6 on Sell Sell Sell DVD (A/V Geeks)). [Category: Industrial]

This clip from a film for gas station owners is pretty darn strange. Similar to The Battery, it combines female objectification with bizarre attempts at humor. The most jaw-dropping moment is a scene where an obviously insane woman wheels out a clean carburetor and treats it like a baby, chewing the scenery in the process. Other highlights include stock footage of Castro and Kruschev dubbed to sing the praises of Atlantic Imperial gas, and supposed “hidden camera” footage of various weirdos who pull into gas stations. I wish they had included the whole film––it looks like a winner.

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

Bass Fishing (film #14 on America at Work, America at Leisure. Also, in the Historical section of Open Video Project). [Category: Early Film & TV]

A nattily-dressed turn-of-the-century dude trolls for bass in a mountain stream. Eventually, he catches a nice specimen. But you should have seen the one he caught when the camera stopped rolling. A 1903 Biograph film.

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