Month: July 2020

Rabbit Punch (1948)

RABBIT PUNCH (1948)
Article 4789 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-29-3015
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and Billy Bletcher
Country: USA
What it is: Bugs Bunny cartoon

When Bugs heckles a brutal boxing champion, he finds himself tossed in the ring and forced to go several rounds with him.

Though I have a slight preference for the partial remake (BUNNY HUGGED), this is still an example of prime Bugs Bunny. As usual, Bugs is up against an all-brawn no-brain adversary (whose name is McGook if I heard the opening announcement correctly) who finds himself befuddled by Bugs’ stratagems. Oddly enough, Bugs doesn’t always come out on top in this one, but he proves far more competition than the champ ever expected. One gets the sense this cartoon could have gone on forever if it didn’t make a bizarre detour into a surreal world in the final round, where it turns from a parody of a boxing match to something that looks like it was out of an old time serial and ends with a gag worthy of Tex Avery. This one is great, solid fun.

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Porky’s Poppa (1938)

PORKY’S POPPA (1938)
Article 4788 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-25-2015
Directed by Robert Clampett
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and Robert Clampett
Country: USA
What it is: Warner Brothers cartoon

When Porky’s father gets a mechanical cow, Porky tries his best to get the old cow on the farm to produce more milk so she won’t be turned into hamburgers.

Warner Brothers hadn’t quite hit their stride yet, and this isn’t one of their better known Porky Pig cartoons, but it’s one of those cartoons where you can see where the studio was going. The most interesting thing about this one is the speed with which it trots out its various gags; you’re barely through with one gag and they’ve already started on the next, starting with a parody of “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and ending with a furious chase scene where both cows vie for all the hay on the farm. I quite like that some of the gags are unexpected and rather bizarre. It’s also nice that the mechanical cow adds some further fantastic content on top of the usual anthropomorphic animals. There’s a duck who bears a little resemblance to Daffy, though his voice (Robert Clampett) sounds more like Donald. All in all, this was a fun watch.

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Liebe muss Verstanden Sein (1933)

LIEBE MUSS VERSTANDEN SEIN (1933)
aka Love Has Its Reasons
Article 4787 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-21-2015
Directed by Hans Steinhoff
Featuring Rosi Barsony, Max Gulstorff, Kathe Haack
Country: Germany
What it is: Comedy

When a flighty stenotypist is tasked by her boss to put some money in the bank so he can invest it in an inventor, she flubs the job and loses some of the money. She tries to hunt down her boss, but he has gone out of town. She goes to the hotel where he will be staying in the hopes of catching him, but gets caught up in a series of comic mishaps.

My copy of this German comedy does not come with English dubbing or subtitles, but I did find a couple of plot descriptions to help me along. However, the plot is quite involved, and even though some of the humor is visual, much of it is verbal, and being in a foreign language, much of it escaped me. As a result, I can’t give a definite evaluation of this one. However, I can make a few observations. The presentation seems energetic and fast-paced; if the jokes are decent, this one could be a lot of fun. Also, Rosi Barsony is a lively and vivacious presence, and she’s quite fun to watch. As you may guess, the fantastic content is tied to the inventor; he’s created a robot/automaton/mechanical doll. I am a little disappointed that the plot ends up involving what was by now a pretty old trick; the woman ends up having to take the place of the doll. However, Barsony’s dancing as the doll is wonderful, and the scene where she performs is the definite visual highlight of the movie. It’s always nice when I can find things to enjoy in movies that I can’t otherwise fully appreciate.

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Petit Jules Verne (1907)

PETIT JULES VERNE (1907)
Article 4786 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-20-2015
Directed by Gaston Velle
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Whimsical tribute to Verne

A little boy reads an adventure story by Jules Verne before going to bed, and dreams about him afterwards.

This is a cute tribute to Jules Verne that references a few of his works; the opening bit in which a train goes around the world probably refers to “Around the World in Eighty Days”, and it’s followed by an outer space sequence that probably refers to “Around the Moon”. Then the boy takes a trip in a balloon; this could refer to any of a number of Verne stories. Then he ends up on the bottom of the ocean, which would have referenced “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” if a submarine had showed up; instead, he encounters a group of dancing underwater nymphs (which references nothing from Verne, but was typical of shorts from this period) and wrestles an octopus. It’s a pretty typical special effects film of the period, but it is nice to find one that actually mentions by name a man who inspired so many of them.

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Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend: The Pet (1921)

DREAMS OF THE RAREBIT FIEND: THE PET (1921)
Article 4785 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-19-2015
Directed by Winsor McCay
No cast
Country: USA
What it is: Animated short

In a dream, a woman adopts a strange pet with an insatiable appetite and a tendency to grow at a rapid rate.

As far as movies go, Winsor McCay is primarily famous as the director of GERTIE THE DINOSAUR; outside of movies, he was known as the artist and writer responsible for the comic strips LITTLE NEMO and DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND. He adapted the latter comic strip to a series of animated shorts, and this one is perhaps his most striking animated short after GERTIE. Though it starts out as comic in tone, it takes on a horrific turn as the story progresses, and in some ways, it can be seen as a forerunner to KING KONG and to the science fiction monster movies of the fifties. There’s a lot of impressive detail work as the gigantic pet makes its way through a modern city. Of course, it’s all a dream, but it’s a very striking one, and this is a very enjoyable silent short.

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Parcel Post Pete’s Nightmare (1916)

PARCEL POST PETE’S NIGHTMARE (1916)
Article 4784 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-18-2015
Directed by Tom E. Powers
No cast
Country: USA
What it is: Early cartoon

Parcel Post Pete encounters a lion who chases him.

Once you get away from some of the better known names in early animation (like Emile Cohl and Winsor McCay), one finds a severe dropping off of quality; in fact, many of them come across as barely more than slightly animated comic strips. This one at least has a certain amount of action to it, there’s more footage of the lion chasing the postman around than there is of people speaking words in comic strip balloons. Still, the animation is very sloppy (though the poor quality of my print and the choice of anonymous-sounding “silent movie” music bear part of the blame) and the comic timing is nonexistent. As for the fantastic content, some of the action is patently impossible (characters running across telephone wires, for example) and there’s a scene where the lion doubles in size (though, quite frankly, you’re not sure whether it’s an intentional effect or a side effect of the sloppy technique). In short, this one is best appreciated for its historical value; beyond that, there’s little reason to give it a viewing.

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J’accuse (1919)

J’ACCUSE (1919)
aka I Accuse
Article 4783 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-17-2015
Directed by Abel Gance
Featuring Romuald Joube, Severin-Mars, Maryse Dauvray
Country: France
What it is: Anti-war epic

A poet is in love with a married woman who is married to a brutish and jealous man. When war breaks out, the woman is kidnapped by German soldiers, and both the poet and the husband join the army, and end up in the same unit.

Like the last feature length silent movie I’ve seen (CIVILIZATION), this is an anti-war movie. However, there are at least two major differences between the two movies. Whereas the earlier movie was made before its American audience got involved in World War I, this one (intended for French audiences) was made after the war had ended and people were ready to take stock of the event. Also, whereas the earlier movie suffered from preachiness and a tendency to be simplistic, this one chose instead to anchor itself in a solid story and to take a good look at the cost of the war to the human soul. Usually I don’t care for movies where the central plot element is a love triangle, but they’re rarely used to as good an effect as this one does. I’m impressed that the movie goes in unexpected directions; for example, when the poet and the husband end up in the same unit, I wasn’t expecting that their love for the same woman would end up actually making them bond. I also admire the way they ultimately manage to make the brutish husband a sympathetic character and one capable of growth. I also think the ultimate message of the movie is more complex than simply “War is Bad!”; rather, it seems to saying that if there is war (and there will be), than it is up to the survivors to live their lives in a way that actually made it worth being fought. As for the fantastic content, there is a certain grotesque feel to some of the scenes, and there’s a repeated visual motif of dancing skeletons. However, the primary content occurs at the climax, but since it’s the most famous scene of the movie, it’s not a huge spoiler; those who died in the war rise from their graves and march on the living, and even though it may be a mass hallucination, the movie leaves the reality of the event rather ambiguous. I found this one powerful and immensely moving.

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Orphan’s Benefit (1934)

ORPHAN’S BENEFIT (1934)
Article 4782 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-15-2015
Date: Burt Gillett
Featuring the voices of Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, Florence Gill
Country: USA
What it is: Mickey Mouse cartoon

Mickey Mouse hosts a benefit for orphans.

My last encounter with Mickey Mouse also featured orphans, but this isn’t a sequel to MICKEY’S ORPHANS; the orphans this time are all mice rather than cats. Still, they’re as rambunctious as the orphans in the earlier short, and since this is a revue-style animated short that features several different characters, it gives them the exact foil I’d suggested in my review of the earlier cartoon; they take on an early version of Donald Duck, and from what I gather, this was the first cartoon where he loses his temper. The revue numbers including recitations from Donald, a ballet featuring Goofy, Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar, and an aria by Clara Cluck. The gags are somewhat more creative this time, and this is much funnier than the early short; my favorite moment is the orphan’s final attack on Donald. This short would be remade seven years later with the characters redrawn; these early versions look somewhat different than their later incarnations.

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Cupid’s Pranks (1908)

CUPID’S PRANKS (1908)
Article 4781 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-14-2015
Directed by J. Searle Dawley
Featuring Violette Hill, Mr. Barry, Marie Murray
Country: USA
What it is: Whimsical fantasy

Cupid decides to play matchmaker at a dance. Will he be successful?

This short has some cute touches to it. I like the fact that we see Cupid making his own arrows at a forge. I also like the effect of him taking off in flight. I also like some of his antics, especially the fact that in order to get two people together at the dance, he lassos one to drag him towards the lady (with what can no doubt be called his “lariat of love”). However, the short has severe pacing issues; even a ten-minute movie can drag if it should only run about five minutes, and several of the scenes either go on longer than they need to or could be cut entirely. The worst offender is a scene where Cupid waits outside the dance hall for two potential partners to show up; in general, scenes of people waiting around don’t make for energetic cinema, and the whole sequence could have been cut without damaging the story. All in all, this is a cute idea that could have used some editing.

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The Oracle of Delphi (1903)

THE ORACLE OF DELPHI (1903)
aka L’oracle de Delphes
Article 4780 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-13-2015
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Supernatural retribution

A cask is stored in the tomb of the Oracle of Delphi. A thief attempts to steal it, but must then contend with the ghost of the Oracle.

I always thought the Oracle of Delphi was someone who made ambiguous pronouncements about the future; here he’s just a ghost who curses would-be thieves. Maybe that’s what he does in his spare time. Unlike Melies’s magic shorts, this one actually has a story of sorts, though with a running time of a minute and a half, you can’t expect a complex story. Basically, a treasure is put in the tomb, a thief breaks in to steal it, the ghost appears and makes the thief return the treasure, and then the thief must endure a curse which transforms his head. There’s really not much here, but it’s efficiently told and fairly entertaining. Still, it’s pretty minor Melies.

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