Viewed December 13, 2006
Perhaps Thanksgiving Day would have been a better day for seeing Let’s Talk Turkey, as it is basically a comedic guide to carving a Turkey. I’m told that it a fairly standard comedy short from producer/narrator Pete Smith, who worked on around 200 films from 1931 to 1955.
This mini-epic begins with […]
Viewed December 4, 2006
Think Bela Lugosi lowered himself by appearing in Ed Wood movies? Maybe so, but if The Gorilla is any indication, he was already willing to hire himself out to anybody back in 1939. To understand the circumstances, you should know that the stars of The Gorilla, the Ritz Brothers, were […]
Viewed October 23, 2006
Donald really starts to hit his stride here, as the animators have obviously begun to really define what works for him and what doesn’t.
Officer Duck is a nifty crime caper short that has Donald disguising himself as a baby to infiltrate the lair of a wanted criminal, Tiny Tom (essentially the eternal […]
Viewed October 12, 2006
Sea Scouts finally fulfills the promise that the “nephews” series had in it all along. Huey, Dewey and Louie have shed most of their “little brat” attitudes and are much more like they were portrayed in the comics. Here, they are truly trying to be helpful to Donald, but their […]
Viewed October 8, 2006
Anyone who thinks Bela Lugosi was a one-hit wonder just needs to see Son of Frankenstein. Not only does it sport a ripping good story and beautiful sets, it features one of Lugosi’s greatest characters (and one that people seem to seldom remember he created): Ygor. But he’s no […]
Viewed October 7, 2006
In Old Caliente is a formulaic western starring a pre-Dale Evens Roy Rogers and his usual sidekick from this era, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes. The most interesting aspect of the film is the portrayal of racial tensions between the Hispanic populace and incoming white settlers.
It’s basically a typical story of treachery and […]
Viewed September 26, 2006
I’m beginning to understand why I came to like Donald so much. If these cartoons are any indication, he was much put upon. In The Hockey Champ, Huey Dewey and Louie (they’re becoming omnipresent, aren’t they?) once again torment Donald and get the best of him because of his temper. […]
Viewed September 17, 2006
Definitely the most dissapointing day of Donald cartoon watching so far, The Fox Hunt starts things off on the wrong foot with a poorly executed “comedic” fox hunt. Donald is again paired up with Goofy and, again, they spend most of the film apart from each other. Goofy is participating […]
Viewed May 3, 2006
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh made his historic solo flight across the Atlantic. It touched off an aviation frnzy, as the public became insatiable for the latest and greatest flyers. Naturally, this infatuation spilled over into the popular culture, with movies, books and comics devoted to the activity. One of […]
Viewed February 22, 2006
Love Affair is the kind of movie that can cut right through my hard, acerbic, wise-cracking exterior and expose my soft, romantic underbelly.
The story (later remade as An Affair To Remember (1957) and again as Love Affair (1994)) is somewhat melodramatic, but the humor brought to it by the leads more than […]
Viewed January 15, 2006
So I was all set to watch The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), when I stopped the film about five minutes in and noticed that a movie was starting on my local PBS station. That film, Mr. Moto’s Last Warning, was instantly more engaging than Scorpion (which I will finish […]