Plane Daffy (1940)

PLANE DAFFY (1940)
Article 4240 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-2-2013
Directed by Frank Tashlin
Featuring the voices of Sara Berner, Mel Blanc, Robert C. Bruce
Country: USA
What it is: Wartime Warner Brothers cartoon

Secret message couriers are falling prey to the irresistible spy, Hatta Mari. In order to defeat her, they send out their resident woman-hater, Daffy Duck.

You know, after sampling some of the cartoons from the other studios, it really is a treat to return to the Warner Brothers studio during their classic period, and here they’re in top form. This one features Daffy in his manic loose cannon period (before he became the all-too-human antihero in the hands of Chuck Jones), and one thing you can say about him during this era is that you never really know what he’s going to do next. That, combined with the exaggerated speed, split-second comic timing, out-of-left-field gags, superb score (Carl Stalling as always) and voice work (Mel Blanc and others), you barely have time to breathe as this one goes through its paces. Though he’s not as famous as Chuck Jones or Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin was one of the masters of the animated cartoon.

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Les invisibles (1906)

LES INVISIBLES (1906)
aka Invisible Thief
Article 4239 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-31-2013
Directed by Gaston Velle
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: A bizarre trick short

A scientist concocts a potion that can turn people invisible for short periods of time. Two crooks steal the potion and go on a crime spree.

Somehow I think it’s rather apt that the opening scene of this one has the scientist blowing his mind – literally. That’s because this early invisibility short goes off on a couple of mind-blowing tangents before it’s all over. Most of the effects are of the Melies variety, but there’s some original tricks here as well; for example, I love the way they concoct a chase scene through the use of silhouettes at one point. A few effects come out of left field; when the scientist puts his potion away, he stores it in the closet where he keeps a skeleton (which is a joke in itself). When the thieves open the closet door, the skeleton comes to life, goes to pieces and does a dance. Still, the strangest moment comes at the very end, and I won’t give it away, but if anyone out there remembers the old animated series “Hoppity Hooper” and recalls a story known as “The Traffic Zone”, you’ll be prepared for the final scene. I thought this one was going to be lost; I’m delighted to see it still exists, because it’s a lot of fun.

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A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus (1907)

A LITTLE GIRL WHO DID NOT BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS (1907)
Article 4238 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-29-2013
Directed by J. Searle Dawley and Edwin S. Porter
Featuring Gitchner Hartman, Mr. Lehapman, Bessie Schrednecky
Country: USA
What it is: Christmas fantasy

A young boy from a well-to-do family befriends a young girl from a poverty-stricken household, and discovers that the girl does not believe in Santa Claus because the latter has never visited her at Christmas. The boy decides to fix that problem by taking Santa prisoner and forcing him to deliver presents to the young girl.

You know, underneath the fantasy veneer of this silent short, there is a real attempt to generate compassion for the poor and down-trodden, which I find commendable. However, the way this particular short addresses the issue is rather problematic. The fact that a poverty-stricken young girl might have a much bigger problem believing in that generous supernatural entity than a young boy who grows up in prosperous surroundings makes a certain amount of sense, but only if you ground it in the assumption that said supernatural entity indeed does not exist. That is counter to the assumption this short makes that he does exist, and the central question that arises from this assumption – namely, why does Santa ignore the young girl in his annual gift delivery? – is never addressed. Is the girl naughty? If not (and the short gives us no reason to believe that she is naughty), why does he ignore her? The short gives no answer to this question. Yes, I may be over-analyzing the one a bit, but nonetheless, these are the thoughts that popped into my mind while watching it, and they did cloud my enjoyment of the short. Yet I do have to give the short some credit for having enough of a plot to lend itself to this analysis; after all, I’ve seen quite a few silent shorts from the period that offer me far less material for any such consideration.

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The Mechanical Handy Man (1937)

THE MECHANICAL HANDY MAN (1937)
Article 4237 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-28-2013
Director unknown
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Animated robot saga

Oswald the rabbit and his pals (a stupid rooster and a dachshund on wheels) offer to demonstrate their new invention, a mechanical handy man, to a dubious farmer by having the handy man milk his cow. However, the mechanical man only succeeds in terrifying the cow and chaos ensues.

This rather interesting animated cartoon about a robot falls squarely into the “technology runs amok” category. Once you see the mechanical handy man in action, you’ll be squarely on the side of the cow, as the handy man’s grip is so strong it causes the corn on the corncobs to pop, and his method of accosting the cow (yanking on its tail) is hardly inviting. The handy man’s roughness is actually a bit disturbing, and it gives this short an unexpected (and possibly unintentional) darkness. One other odd aspect is that the mechanical handy man is not shaped like a man; it looks like a mechanical ostrich. I suspect that this latter touch may be a result of the fact that the short was written by animator Charles R. Bowers, whose own stop-motion shorts often featured metallic birds. All in all, I found this to be an amusing short, though the dark undercurrent may leave one feeling a bit queasy.

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Kaidan Saga Yashiki (1953)

KAIDAN SAGA YASHIKI (1953)
aka Ghost of Saga Mansion
Article 4236 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-26-2013
Directed by Ryohei Arai
Featuring Takako Irie, Yoshitaro Bando, Kikue Mouri
Country: Japan
What it is: The Ghost Cat Begins

When her son is killed as part of a conspiracy, and old woman commits suicide, giving rise to a vengeful ghost-cat.

So many ghost-cat movies were made in Japan during the fifties that there must be a reason for its popularity. I think one of the reasons may be this particular movie; it was (if I have my information correct) the first of the ghost-cat movies, and based on what I’ve seen so far, it’s easily the best. Given that my copy is once again in Japanese without subtitles, I do have problems following the story line, but once the story progresses far enough so that we can get some vengeful ghost-cat action, the movie takes off; it is genuinely eerie. The movie does a better job of incorporating the cat-like nature of the ghost into the proceedings, there are some creepy transformation sequences, and the scene here where the ghost-cat forces one of its victims to undergo a series of tumbling exercises (which usually comes off as strange but silly) is quite unsettling; I could see this time that we were dealing with tendency of a cat to play with its victims. I’ve begun to realize now how the other movies I’ve seen are essentially retreads of this one, lacking the atmosphere that makes this one work. It’s always nice to see a movie that helps you to put others you’ve seen into context.

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The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914)

THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ (1914)
Article 4235 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-25-2013
Directed by J. Farrell MacDonald
Featuring Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Raymond Russell
Country: USA
What it is: Fantasy adventure

When a magician uses a powder to bring a patchwork girl to life, his new creation ends up using a petrification powder on several people. In order to restore their friends to life, a quest is undertaken to find the items that will make a magic potion to restore the petrified ones.

It looks like L. Frank Baum, the author of “The Wizard of Oz” as well as several sequels, became a movie producer at one point and produced a few Oz movies based on his books. I’ve seen a few of them, and though I wouldn’t exactly call them great, I do think it’s interesting to see how the world of Oz was envisioned before the famous 1939 movie version of the first novel became a nearly insurmountable cultural artifact; any Oz movie made afterwards is under that one’s shadow, while these earlier ones were made outside of it. I do like the sense I get that Oz is a much larger place than envisioned in the 1939 movie, and even though several of the characters from “The Wizard of Oz” reappear here, they are minor characters and aren’t part of the main story. I like some of the strange creatures, especially the part cat-part box creature called the Woozy, and we get to meet a few of the other races of Oz, such as the one-legged hoppers. The story meanders at times, especially in scenes involving a mule-like creature and one of those flying monkeys. Still, the costumes are fun and the acting is energetic, and though it’s a bit of a mess, there is some fun to be had here. The movie isn’t complete; there’s a reel missing near the beginning, but you’ll figure out what happened.

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The One-Man Band (1900)

THE ONE-MAN BAND (1900)
aka L’homme orchestra
Article 4234 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-22-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Early trick short

A man creates a musical combo by duplicating himself.

I like the English title for this one; the phrase “one-man band” conjures up a vision of a guy marching around holding and playing several instruments with a bass drum attached to his back. This movie is Melies’s take on the concept, in which each musician is a duplicate of himself, thus still proving to be a “one-man band”. The movie ends with a few other amusing tricks involving the chairs the men were using. It’s a typical Melies trick short, but one of his more entertaining ones.

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Superbug, Secret Agent (1972)

SUPERBUG, SECRET AGENT (1972)
aka Ein Kafer gibt Vollgas
Article 4233 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-20-2013
Directed by Rudolf Zehetgruber
Featuring Rudolf Zehetgruber, Joachim Fuchsberger, Kathrin Oginski
Country: West Germany / Switzerland
What it is: Alleged comedy

Jimmy Bondi and his enhanced car, Dodo (aka Superbug) become embroiled with a gang of counterfeiters.

Given the fact that the primary human character of the Superbug movies has the name of Jimmy Bondi, it’s no surprise they should take a stab at the superspy genre. Still, the James Bond series weren’t quaking in their boots with the encroachment of the Superbug series into their territory any more than the Herbie the Love Bug series did. I can’t honestly say that the movie disappointed me, but that’s because I’ve seen enough Superbug movies to keep my expectations where they belong (extremely low), and the movie was just as bad as I expected it would be. For the uninitiated, Superbug is a Volkswagen with a personality; it talks, and assaults anyone that insults it by hitting it with tires, hood ornaments, door handles, etc. It’s big trick this time around is that it travels on water, and the movie is obsessed with showing this footage as much as possible. The movie is sluggish and painfully unfunny. However, I would like to make a few observations.

1) The part of the movie that most successfully makes an attempt to amuse me involves a villain being whacked on the head by Superbug’s hood ornament, leaving a VW signal imprinted on his forehead.

2) In the English dub of this movie, someone had the good sense to redub the car with the name of Dodo, because even being called a name of an extinct bird known for its stupidity is better than its original name, which is Dudu.

3) For several minutes the movie turns into a travelogue of Lisbon. In most other movies, that would be filler; here it is a high point.

4) Two repeated phrases would make for a good true/false quiz on the movie. The false statement – “I may look stupid, but I’m not.” The true statement – “That’s not funny!”

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A Nightmare (1896)

A NIGHTMARE (1896)
aka Le cauchemar
Article 4232 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-18-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Very early trick film

A man dreams that a beautiful woman appears on his bed… but she turns into a minstrel and then a clown, and then things get weird.

One of Melies’s common motifs was of the innocent bystander (or, in this case, bysleeper) who is befuddled and put out by the transformations made possible by the use of special effects. This may be the first such example of this type of movie, as our sleeper is startled by the sudden appearance of a beautiful woman, who suddenly turns into a minstrel singer, and then a clown. Then the moon tries to eat his arm, so the sleeper has to punch the moon back to its proper place in the sky. It’s simple and short, and sets a template that he would return to several times. As such, it is historically one of his more important films, and it is quite entertaining in its own way as well.

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Kaliya Mardan (1919)

KALIYA MARDAN (1919)
aka Kalia Mardan
Article 4231 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-17-2013
Directed by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
Featuring Neelkanth, Mandakini Phalke
Country: India
What it is: Hindu mythology

The childhood of the Hindu deity Shree Krishna is portrayed.

Shree Krishna is one of the avatars of Vishnu, and is often portrayed as a flute-playing child and a prankster. For most of this movie, that would have been the sole fantastic content I would have found, but near the end, Krishna does battle with a giant underwater snake, and that serves as definite fantastic content for one who has no idea who Shree Krishna is. Granted, I don’t have the background to fully appreciate all of this episodic movie, but I will make certain observations. One is that much of the movie’s appeal is due to the performance of Mandakini Phalke (the director’s eight-year-old daughter) as Shree Krishna; she is so expressive and energetic she is fun to watch. I was also curious to see how a Indian cinema (which is replete with music and dancing) would fare in the pre-sound era. Well, it may be a silent movie, but I suspect if any culture would definitely have had music playing during their silent movies, it would be Indian culture. And the movie is filled with opportunities to do so, as we have Krishna playing the flute during one scene, as well as quite a bit of dancing. Even when the dancing is not explicit, much of the movement has a certain rhythmic, musical quality. Again, cultural differences hamper my ability to fully appreciate the movie, but I do think this makes for interesting viewing.

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