Aim (available for viewing in the TV Commercials 1970-1975 section of TVParty).

Dorky 70s commercial for Aim toothpaste, in which a father forgets the toothpaste on a camping trip and asks a neighboring family to borrow theirs. When the mom hands him a tube of Aim, he turns it down, saying his daughter needs to use a fluoride toothpaste, despite the fact that one day of brushing without fluoride will hardly make a difference, and the word “FLUORIDE” is printed in huge letters on the toothpaste tube. Fortunately, the mom sets him straight, and the little girl decides that she likes it. Hey, Mikey! He won’t brush with it, he hates everything!…Sorry, a 70s flashback hit me, and it wasn’t pretty.

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

Fools of Fate (film #12 on The Origins of Cinema, Volume 4: The Arrival of D. W. Griffith (Video Yesteryear, 1995)).

Fools is right. Our hero starts things off by shooting a gun from a standing position in a canoe, so you know he's not exactly Harvard material. Of course, he can't swim, but a bystander rescues him despite what this would do to the gene pool. Little does our hero know, though, that his benefactor has been having an affair with his wife. He eventually finds out the truth when his wife leaves him, leaving behind a "Dear John" letter. He follows his errant spouse to the home of his rival, but when he finds out it is the same guy who saved his life, he goes home and kills himself, and the gene pool is saved. Ah, cruel fate! I guess you could say, though, that it has to be cruel to be kind. A 1909 D. W. Griffith film.

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

Ann and Eve Trailer (extra on The Toy Box/Toys Are Not for Children DVD (Something Weird, 2002)).

Lurid, over-the-top, slightly trippy trailer for an X-rated 70s Swedish film featuring two bad girls looking for sexual thrills. This is just what you’d expect, though it gets mildly campy in its over-the-top attempts to draw in the raincoat crowd.

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

Auto Accident: What to Do Afterward (available for viewing on A/V Geeks. Also available for download on Veoh).

This 70s film tells us what to do and what not to do right after a car accident happens. Unlike accident prevention films, the accident shown is a minor fender-bender, rather than a blood and gore fest. The straightforward, dry narration of a situation where emotions usually run high is mildly campy, as is the moment when a sleazy, ambulance-chasing lawyer shows up and tries to drum up some business at the accident site (we are told not to talk to him or sign anything, good advice if ever there was some). Though rather dry overall, this should make good msting fodder under the right circumstances.

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

Kill or Be Killed (track #1 on Americans in War (NFV, 1990)).

War really is hell. This World War II training film will totally convince you of that fact. The main message here is, "The enemy fights dirty, so you've got to fight dirty, too. Here's how." We're introduced to such fine weapons as the sawed-off shotgun, the blackjack, and brass knuckles and shown graphically how to use them. At first, I was incredibly appalled by the message of this film, but then it hit me that it was necessary under the circumstances, which is even more appalling. I consider this film to be the closest thing to real combat. I frankly don't know how soldiers survive it (real combat, not the film) without going insane. I also consider this film to be one of the most historically compelling pieces of ephemera I own. NOTE: This film is not campy in any way. It will disturb you. Not for the faint of heart.

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

The Abominable Snowman – Location Clips (extra on Disc #2 of Doctor Who – Lost in Time: The Patrick Troughton Years DVD (Warner Bros., 2004)).

This is a location film, made in 1967, showing actors and crew members of “Doctor Who” checking out the outdoor location sites for the episode “The Abominable Snowman.” This plays like a silent home movie, with people occasionally mugging for the camera. Probably the most interesting part is seeing the actors playing the Yeti trying on their costumes. A fun little extra with historical interest for "Doctor Who" fans.

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

La Paz (available for download on Open Video Project. Also available for download on Prelinger Archive).

Standard-issue travelogue on La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Since this was made by the government, it focuses more on the various cultural groups and on economic development than on touristy things. The stuff about the different cultural groups is pretty interesting, actually, as are the oddities related to La Paz’s extremely high altitude. I would love to get a bunch of those miniature items that the natives are shown selling during a particular festival. Mostly, though, this is pretty ordinary.

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

Drug Abuse: The Chemical Tomb (available for download from Open Video Project. Also available for download from Prelinger Archive. Also available for viewing on You Tube).

This 60s anti-drug film would never fly today, as it includes lots of detailed scenes of teenagers using various drugs, enough so it could be accused of teaching drug abuse techniques. Although a law enforcement drug expert and the narrator drone on and on about how terrible drugs are, what we see is kids rolling joints, close-ups of shooting up, and even a scene of gradeschoolers sniffing glue using a washcloth. There is, of course, the obligatory scene of a drug trip, and plenty of footage of 60s kids partying, which should bring back memories for those who were teens during that time. Despite this campiness, the film actually has a sensible message in that it points out that you can hardly change society if you are stoned out of your gourd most of the time. For that particular generation of teens, that probably had some leverage. That is, if its intended audience wasn’t too busy taking notes on all the using techniques shown.

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

Flower Fantasies (film #9 on Melies III: The Search for Munchausen (A-1 Video)).

And now, for the ladies in the audience, Melies presents some dainty magic tricks involving beautiful women and beautiful blossoms. Rather dull, but it might be better if the print was not so terrible and if the ending wasn't cut off. A Melies film.

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

Keep 'Em Rolling (film #38 on Hey Folks! It's Intermission Time, Vol. 4 (Something Weird). Also, film #16 on V for Victory WWII Cartoons & Shorts Show (Something Weird, 1996)).

This is another stirring wartime sing-along film, urging on production workers in the defense plants. Stirring scenes of Industry Creating the Arsenal of Democracy illustrate the song "Keep 'Em Rolling". The one spot of weirdness is the lyric "work your head off, so you can keep your head." Some neat examples of wartime propaganda posters appear during the opening and closing credits.

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

Knife-Thrower and Children (available for download on Prelinger Archive).

Can you spell “child endangerment”? I thought you could. In this newsreel featurette, a mom who’s a circus performer throws knives at her two daughters, ages 5 and 2 1/2. Now I know she’s a skilled performer and the point is that she misses, but don’t scare me like that!

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

Florida (available for download on Universal Newsreels).

Brief newsreel story about the launching of a communications satellite. A blip from the early space program.

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

The Dropout (available for download from Open Video Project. Also, film #4 on Our Secret Century, Vol. 5: Teenage Transgression CD-ROM (Voyager). Also available for download from Prelinger Archive).

Robert drops out of high school, finds that he can't get a job, and generally crashes and burns. This film epitomizes the concept of "downward spiral", accompanied by an unsympathetic narrator. The film's one purpose was obviously to scare teens into staying in school, so Robert's future is shown to be essentially hopeless. This would make a good short for a film noir double feature, say Double Indemnity as "A" and Detour as "B". Its abrupt, unresolved ending is a good lead-in to a couple of dark, feature-length noir films.

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

British H-Bomb Fired as Debate on Atom Test Ban Rages (available for download on Universal Newsreels. Also available for viewing on You Tube).

Britain’s first H-bomb blows up real good, leaving spectacular mushroom clouds in this 50s newsreel. Also included are stories on atrocities in Algeria, helicopters in Washington, DC, farming techniques in Israel, and model airplanes in New York City. Basically, this is a typical 50s Cold War newsreel, but if you want mushroom clouds, this film has ‘em.

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

A Florida Enchantment (film #2 on Origins of the Fantasy Feature (The Library of Congress Smithsonian Video, 1995)).

Wealthy young heiress Lillian (no relation to Airy Fairy Lillian), while vacationing in Florida, finds some magic seeds which change the gender of whoever eats them. Since she is in a snit over her fiance flirting with other women, she tries a seed and finds it effective––soon she finds herself smoking and flirting with pretty gals like any man. The seed doesn't affect her appearance, only her behavior, though one morning she does wake up with a mustache, which she immediately shaves off (I don't see what the big deal is about that––after all, it's happened to me befo––wait a minute...forget I said anything). She gives her maid a seed as well, which turns the maid into a raving maniac for awhile. Lillian then breaks off her engagement and returns to New York with her now masculine maid. While in New York, she orders men's clothes for herself and her maid and assumes the new identity of Lawrence Talbot (no relation to the famous werewolf) plus valet. Returning to Florida in women's clothing, she goes on a riverboat trip with her former fiance, gives him the brush-off one last time, then she and her maid change back into men's clothes and gleefully throw their women's clothing overboard. Later, when the clothes wash up on shore, her fiance comes to the conclusion she's been murdered. More comic antics ensue, culminating in the fiance's taking a seed and turning into a prancing ninny. As the plot description implies, this is a very silly film. A 1914 Vitagraph film.

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

Collision Rescue (available for viewing on A/V Geeks. Also available for viewing on Veoh).

This 70s film shows us a family driving along in a car, when….hey, is that an accident up ahead? Let’s pull up and look at it! Holy cow, what a crack-up! Let’s get a good look at it! OK, folks, this is actually a film for rescue workers on how to get accident victims out of their smashed-up cars, but it feels a bit like you’ve been allowed to rubberneck all you want at an accident scene. It’s actually pretty interesting watching the rescue workers use different tools like the Jaws of Life to further destroy the damaged cars so that the people can be safely taken out of them. The first half of the movie shows the whole process at normal speed, then one of the rescue workers explains the whole process to a curious fireman step-by-step (while, we assume, his co-workers get to deal with stabilizing the victims and getting them ready for the hospital without him). One of the more interesting training films for rescue workers. All right, folks, move along now. Nothing to see here.

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

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (Castle Films) (available for viewing on You Tube).

This is sort of a Reader’s Digest Condensed Movie version of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. They managed to trim down an 83 minute movie to a little over 8 minutes, mostly by showing us only the scenes that contain plot development. Unfortunately, you don’t really watch an Abbott & Costello movie for the plot; you watch it for the comedy bits, which are absent here, with the exception of a bit of slapstick schtick during the chase scenes, and the amusing ending, which I wont’ give away. Still, this has some historical interest in showing us what people watched at home on their movie projectors in the days before home video.

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

Kamikaze (film #1 on disc #1 of Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941 DVD (Madacy Entertainment, 2001). Also available on WWII: The Ultimate Collection DVD Boxed Set (BC!)).

This 1951 film documents the U.S. war against Japan in the Pacific, starting with Pearl Harbor and ending with the Kamikaze attacks and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What's fascinating about the film is that it is told from the Japanese perspective and much of the footage is taken from Japanese films, both fiction and nonfiction, of the period. Perhaps most chilling are scenes of Japanese children getting military training and playing elaborate war games. Although this is not a WWII-era film, the Japanese footage gives it ephemera value. And for a 50s film, it's pretty gritty. Not for the faint of heart.

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

Bicentennial Minute (available for viewing in the Classic TV Blog section of TVParty).

I had forgotten all about CBS’s “Bicentennial Minutes” that aired sporadically during the mid 70s, until TVParty posted this one. Jessica Tandy tells a little-known pre-revolution story of the Liberty Tree. This has historical interest both in its content and its documentation of the hoopla surrounding the Bicentennial during the 70s.

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

Junior Rodeo Daredevils (MST3K Episode #407: The Killer Shrews, Also available on The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 2 (Rhino). Also available on The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 7 (Rhino). Also available for viewing on You Tube).

This film pretends to have a plot about Old-Timer Billy Slater (he's always referred to that way) organizing a Junior Rodeo to keep kids out of trouble, but it's really just an excuse to show some dull footage of a 4-H rodeo. The kiddie matinee Western feel is slightly campy, though, and the msting is great.

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