Large Association of Movie Blogs
Large Association of Movie Blogs

Sunday, December 26, 2021

Happy Boxing Day!



Kicking off Boxing Day, which doesn't actually refer to post-Christmas bargain-hunting shopping or fisticuffs but to Premier League soccer, the United Kingdom's national pastime will be the always iconoclastic and un-cuddly comedy team of Bobby Clark & Paul McCullough.



While this 1929 opus actually features very little slapstick, Clark & McCullough being fast-talking verbal comics, the boxing sequence in Waltzing Around is hilarious.



The ill-fated Paul McCullough gets a lot more to do here than he does in the team's subsequent RKO Radio Pictures series, and he is quite funny.



This indicates that their 1928-1929 Fox comedies may be superior to the later RKO series. Enjoy this super rare Fox 3-reeler!



One of the great vaudeville, stage and radio comedians was Joe Cook (1890-1959), whose blend of acrobatics and tongue-twisting verbal humor remains unequalled. While Joe Cook appeared in Frank Capra's entertaining 1930 feature Rain Or Shine, a tale of life in the big top, the comic's cinematic legacy remains defined by a series of short subjects he starred in for Fox and Educational.



In the following, THE WHITE HOPE (1936), Joe co-stars with dialect comic and cartoon voice artist George "How Do You Like That???" Givot, who plays the most unlikely and unenthusiastic of pugilists.



Cook's 2-reelers for Educational, produced by Al Christie, are consistently very funny and original. Too bad Joe didn't make more movies!



Boxing Day wouldn't feel right without Harold Lloyd's pugilistic prowess in THE MILKY WAY, directed by Leo McCarey.



Greatest boxing film ever? Hands and gloves down, and taking nothing away from the incomparable Robert Wise film The Set-Up and the last Humphrey Bogart flick, The Harder They Fall, it's the outstanding Warner Bros. cartoon Rabbit Punch, directed by Chuck Jones!



Bugs Bunny, as usual, rules, as do Chuck, writer Mike Maltese, voice artist Mel Blanc, music man Carl Stalling, animators Ken Harris, Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan and Abe Levitow (who is also known as the guy who directed this writer's all-time favorite holiday season TV show, Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol).



We close today's Boxing Day post and this blog's contributions for the year 2021 with a thanks a million to historian, classic movie expert and collector Ralph Celentano, for making several of the excellent comedy rarities seen here available on YouTube.

Friday, December 24, 2021

Merry Christmas 2021 from Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog


Here we are, downright amazed to be here with the second-to-last post for 2021 - and delighted to wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thrilled to be cheerful and drawing breath on Christmas Eve - and quite busy redefining what can be considered Christmas music.



Sincerely hope that nobody brings fruitcake to your Christmas Eve or Christmas party.



The temptation is to simply recycle our 2016 Christmas Eve post every year, but instead Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog shall go through a few holiday favorites, after swilling Borden's Egg Nog spiked generously with two double shots of Myers Rum and brandy!



Of course, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog have already listened to Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song, one of our favorites, penned by none other than the ridiculously talented vocalist-actor-drummer-songwriter Mel Tormé.



Now MUST listen to Nat's entire Christmas album and Sinatra's The Christmas Waltz twice!



Dearly love The Chairman of the Board's 1957 album A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra - and especially "The Christmas Waltz".




This great tune, our all-time favorite, was first released on Capitol Records epic Merry Christmas To You! compilation LP (Capitol T-9030).



The great jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin (1931-1970) waxed this blogger's favorite rendition of Irving Berlin's White Christmas in 1966, on his outstanding Structurally Sound album.



Booker's fellow tenor saxophonist and occassional collaborator Dexter Gordon waxed this jazz fan's all-time favorite cover of The Christmas Song.




We now turn to some Christmas-themed animation, starting with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.



Across the pond, former Disney director David Hand made cartoons for Gaumont British Animation. Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus is his studio's contribution to the 2021 Yule log.



The late, great Gene Deitch made many fantastic cartoons, first at UPA's East Coast branch, then at Terrytoons and afterwards from his studio in Prague. Gene directed and/or produced a slew of original and strikingly designed animation gems. One of the best is THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY.



Based on "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame," THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY is narrated by none other than Boris Karloff and adapted from the Anatole France's book by R.O. Blechman.




Next up: the National Film Board of Canada. We tip our Santa hat respectfully to friend of this blog, archivist supreme and showman Sci Fi Bob Ekman, who is responsible for this blogger seeing this terrific NFB cartoon, Christmas Cracker.



That said, it's comedy for the writer of this blog throughout the holiday season - and it just wouldn't be Christmas without favorite comedy sketches. Leading off, invariably, from SCTV, is Ed Grimley in The Fella Who Couldn't Wait For Christmas. . . I must say.



We'll raise that SCTV sketch with Liberace's Christmas Special!



Arguably, the single greatest pure physical comic ever to be a Saturday Night Live cast member was the late great Chris Farley.



In the SNL Christmas sketch pantheon, love seeing Chris' motivational speaker character, Matt Foley, as a department store Santa!



And then there's A Debbie Downer Christmas Eve, co-starring one of our all-time favorites at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, the one, the only Jack Black. Quality time spent with Tenacious D is guaranteed to cheer this blogger up!



That sketch invariably brings the Debbie Downer out of this blogger.



Have mixed emotions about the Christmas holidays and especially the supercharged commercialization, stressing buying stuff you don’t need in the first place. Stan Freberg’s Green Christmas still resonates in a big way.



On the one hand, love the holiday season and especially love hanging out with friends and family. On the other hand, for those whose family members have either all passed away or are gravely ill, the unrelenting ultra-sentiment regarding family gatherings seems quite cruel.


Noting that for those who lost their jobs and/or are stone broke, the mass onslaught of advertising represents a big upraised middle finger, the Debbie Downer "bwaa bwaa" sound effect is definitely in order. Now, after asserting that feline AIDS is the number one killer of domestic cats, it's time for more Stan Freberg records.



We wish all a safe and Merry Christmas, with a touch of mambo!



The Christmas Eve closer: a Season's Greetings calypso from Robert Mitchum.

Friday, November 26, 2021

Losing Sondheim AND Will Ryan Means. . . A VERY Bad Week


As we studiously avoided any and all shopping malls on Black Friday, got the news that Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, an artist whose unrealized projects alone constituted three lifetimes of work, passed at 91. He was not only still working but appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert just a few weeks ago.



It is tough to even begin to express the impact Stephen Sondheim had on Broadway, musical theatre, film scores and the artistic frontiers of pop culture, extending well into the 21st century.



The Dramatists Guild Foundation interviewed Mr. Sondheim at length.



Received the lousy news about the passing of cartoon voice ace, singer-songwriter-guitarist and prolific actor on stage, recordings and radio Will Ryan via Greg Ehrbar's piece, The Wondrous Will Ryan (1949-2021) on the Cartoon Research website and Mark Evanier's November 19 post on News From Me.



As was the case with Norm Macdonald's passing in September, this remains a bit of a shocker. Swear I just watched an interview that Amber Jones did with Will and Katie Leigh on her YouTube channel!



I did not know Will but did meet him ever so briefly a couple of times. He was a pal to several friends of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog.



Adieu and thanks, gentlemen, for the music, a-ha moments, laughs and inspiration.

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving 2021 from Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog


While much missing those friends and family members who are no longer with us, we are nonetheless preparing to enjoy a delicious turkey dinner later today!


There will be two video selections for 2021 Turkey Day that originally appeared on NBC's Saturday Night Live way back when. First is a Thanksgiving sketch from the SNL show hosted by Pee-Wee Herman, which originally aired on November 23, 1985 - and, indeed, this blogger taped it on the ol' reliable VHS recorder!



It's the third show of the generally spotty Season 11.



Love the sketch co-starring Jon Lovitz' inimitable Tommy Flannagan a.k.a. "The Liar." Both worked together in The Groundlings, as did future cornerstone of SNL Phil Hartman.



The Pee-Wee Herman SNL, in the opinion of the sketch comedy nuts at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, remains tied with the excellent episode featuring George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppolla as hosts (in which, as a running gag, Coppola takes over the direction of the show) as the favorite from the 1985-1986 season. Here's SNL meets Pee-Wee, in its entirety - enjoy!



To some degree the mostly young Season 11 cast was not necessarily all that well-suited to Saturday Night Live back in 1985, in large part due to the constrictions of the program itself. This would subsequently be confirmed by the non-prototypical performance of Robert Downey Jr. as most non-prototypical superhero Iron Man, any Damon Wayans sketch from In Living Color and all stage, screen and TV presentations featuring Joan Cusack and Obie Award winner Danitra Vance (1954-1994). Squeezing these expansive talents into the fairly rigid parameters and format of SNL turned out to be problematic.

Nonetheless, there was no shortage of talent both in front of behind the cameras and on the writing staff in this season noted for the return of Lorne Michaels.



Much of the 1985-1986 season's cast made their mark after leaving SNL, while others would return for Season 12 and be involved in the series' late 1980's - early 1990's resurgence. For more, check out the SNL Review Index from Nova Scotia writer/photographer Bronwyn Douwsma's Existentialist Weightlifting website.


The second Happy Thanksgiving video selection, Wally Ballou Interviews a Cranberry Grower in Times Square, features a comedy team beloved by Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog and KFJC's Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show, "the two and only," Bob & Ray.



This was from a special produced by the SNL crew and featuring the comediennes from the cast. It aired on NBC in the Saturday Night Live 11:30 - 1:00 a.m. time slot.



This was not the only time the team was slated to make an appearance in the late-night comedy universe. In a 1980 pilot, From Cleveland, Bob & Ray are deejays in their own radio station and introduce sketches starring Eugene Levy, Catherine O Hara, Andrea Martin and Dave Thomas from SCTV. This would appear to have been shot in the break between season 2 and season 3 of SCTV, after Global dropped the series and before ITV picked it up.



Tomorrow morning, shall drink a pot of coffee and enjoy the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We'd like Mr. and Mrs. Patton Oswalt to host - that would be great!



Strongly suggest avoiding family discussions, especially those involving current events, and either binge-watching football, talking baseball Hot Stove League or doing the following instead.



We wish all a happy and safe Thanksgiving!


Thursday, November 18, 2021

This Saturday: 16mm Cartoons Take Manhattan



This blog has frequently plugged vintage film screenings over its 14 year run - and this blogger has been feeling as diminished (or half-diminished) as a Joe Pass guitar chord since lockdown began and fun nights “at the movies” stopped.


While this is definitely a First World problem, the loss of movie fun with friends is just one of a myriad of reasons why 2020-2021 has been a very difficult couple of years. It would be an understatement to note that the guy who writes this blog, having curated DIY film shows and schlepped 16mm projectors and boxes of reels to various venues his entire semi-adult life, misses running movies for an audience more than he could ever express.

Now, at long last, it looks - knock on wood - like actual film screenings with actual audiences are starting to return. There will be an excellent matinee of classic cartoons at New York City's Metrograph on Saturday, while other classic movie programs are re-emerging ever so tentatively around the country.



The 2021 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, CA, curated by author, showman, scholar and film historian Alan K. Rode, returned with its customary terrific cinematic lineup a few weeks ago. This gives this noirista hope for a Noir City Film Festival at San Francisco's Castro Theatre sometime in 2022.



Accompanist and ambassador for silent movies Ben Model is back doing silent film screenings and Steve Massa, his collaborator in The Silent Comedy Watch Party (nothing less than a beacon and absolutely indispensable throughout those many months of lockdown) will be shortly as well. This is great news for silent film aficionados. For more info, see Ben’s website and the Silent Comedy Watch Party shows on YouTube.


Silent Comedy Watch Party logo by Marlene Weisman



As far as animation goes, we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog feel strongly that any post which mentions cartoonologists Tommy José Stathes, Steve Stanchfield, Mark Kausler, Jerry Beck, Greg Ford, Keith Scott and Michael Barrier is all right by us! All are on the short list of historians who made outstanding contributions to film and animation history.



So, it pleases us that Tommy will be back on Saturday with a program of classic 1920's and 1930s cartoons, rare 16mm prints of early animated films from his collection.



The 60 minute program shall be followed by a Q&A.



The show, Metrograph on 7 Ludlow Street in NYC. Showtime is noon.



Space is limited. Since the October animation screening at Metrograph sold out darn near immediately after tickets first went on sale,move quickly and buy advance tickets if you plan to attend Saturday's matinee.



My cohorts in the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival would agree that it’s all about the audience and the laughter, and hearing an SRO crowd have a blast from the past.



Do we wish we had a Star Trek teleportation device so it would be possible to watch cartoons and hang out with Tommy and the East Coast animation dudes and dudettes - and also time-travel to Palm Springs four weeks ago and take in a delicious double dose of film noir? Absolutely.



And, if one can't be at NYC and sing “I’ll Take Manhattan” with the likes of Felix the Cat, Betty Boop, Popeye, Porky Pig, and Koko the Clown on Saturday afternoon, there will be online events presented by the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum this weekend.



Let us hope that there will NOT be a forthcoming coronavirus variant 5.0 that sends us back into lockdown indefinitely. The celluloid-crazed at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog miss going to such incredible movie palace venues as the Castro Theatre and the Stanford Theatre for big screen fun - and really miss doing 16mm Psychotronix Film Festival extravaganzas at Foothill College tremendously.

Logo by Judy Zillen

Sunday, November 14, 2021

And This Blog Loves Dick Powell (and Dick Fowl)


Today, we celebrate the natal anniversary of the great Dick Powell, born November 14, 1904.


In a career both in front of and behind the cameras, Dick Powell excelled in movies, TV and, with the Richard Diamond, Private Detective series, radio. First became aware of Powell via his starring roles in a slew of 1930's Warner Bros. musicals, starting with 42nd Street.





These vehicles for musical stars Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, the occasional WB leading man (Jimmy Cagney, Warren William) and a host of memorable character actors (Aline MacMahon, Ruth Donnelly, Ned Sparks, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert) would be shown frequently on TV back in the 1970's, causing viewers' jaws to drop precipitously upon watching the mind-blowing production numbers concocted by genius/madman Busby Berkeley.



Gold Diggers Of 1933, the followup to the wildly popular 42nd Street, exemplifies the phrase pre-Code and is featured on this Trailers From Hell video.





One of this writer's favorite Busby Berkeley spectaculars from DAMES is the I Only Have Eyes For You number.



The ultimate silver screen tribute to Dick Powell is that he got caricatured in animated cartoons.



Said caricature of Dick Powell gets a "Buzzard Berkelee" musical number in the 1938 Merrie Melodie cartoon, A Star Is Hatched, directed by Friz Freleng.



A host of Hollywood star caricatures populate A Star Is Hatched, especially starting at 3:20.



Arguably, Dick Powell's crowning achievement in his stretch as Warner Brothers cornerstone would be the infamous CONVENTION CITY, still (amazingly) a lost film, which we hope turns up and turns out to be even more scandalous and risque than imagined.



Even more than his performances in classic musicals, we love Dick Powell's contributions to film noir, starting as a very unconventional Phillip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet.



He co-stars with Evelyn Keyes in Johnny O' Clock, written and directed by Robert Rossen.



Pitfall is a prime example of that film noir sub-genre, "don't mess with Lizabeth Scott."



We thank the Film Noir Foundation big time for restoring Cry Danger.



Starring Kirk Douglas as an extrenely ruthless but highly effective film producer, The Bad And The Beautiful, directed with panache by Vincente Minnelli, is a fascinating look at the making of movies and an all-time favorite classic film of the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog. Dick Powell and Gloria Grahame are outstanding in juicy supporting roles.



In Susan Slept Here, directed by Frank Tashlin, he excelled at comedy and co-starred with Debbie Reynolds.



Thanks to YouTube, one can watch his extensive work in television through the 1950's and early 1960's, including Zane Grey Theatre, Four Star Playhouse and his own series, The Dick Powell Theatre.

Finishing this tribute, we note that the king of 1930's Warner Brothers musicals and (after Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, John Garfield and Bogey) film noir even waxed an album, The Dick Powell Song Book, in 1958. Will listen to it now, raise a toast to Mr. Powell and wish everyone a Happy Sunday!