The World Is Safe For Silent Movies Again - Here Are Some Rare Ones!

Now that The Artist has won the 2012 Oscar for Best Picture, classic movie bloggers can feel good about posting ridiculously obscure silent movies with impunity (as if we didn't before). Here are two Christie Comedies featuring the likable, charming leading lady Dorothy Devore.





At the Danish Film Institute, historian Palle Bøgelund Petterson found the following 1919 rarity, His Musical Sneeze, a Fox Sunshine comedy, directed by Jack White and starring Lloyd "Ham" Hamilton, Jimmie Adams and Virginia Rappe.



White, brother of Jules and Sam White - 3 Stooges fans may know the prolific producer/director from his nom-de-plume, "Preston Black", piloted this 2-reeler, which is QUITE the curio! Miss Rappe - now, sadly, known as "doomed Virginia Rappe" - is featured in a supporting role as the ingenue, and a supremely goofy (post-Ham & Bud) Lloyd Hamilton does a series of pretty darn hilarious takes and pratfalls. His Musical Sneeze also includes a "wabbit hunting" subplot involving a wascally proto-Bugs Bunny. I have no doubt that this film absolutely must have been seen by Tex Avery!

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The silent movie enthusiasts at Looser Than Loose have re-issued some equally rare pieces by Lloyd Hamilton on several of their DVD sets.

On the Hamaddenda DVD, you'll find this one, The Simp. There are some absolutely hilarious bits, as well as the makings of Lloyd's schlub persona here. Wanna see where Jackie Gleason got his "Poor Soul" outfit and "everything happens to me" concept? Look no further!

Fat Tuesday Music With James Booker

The man, the pianist, the vocalist, the master of New Orleans music, the Bayou Maharajah himself - the incomparable James Carroll Booker the 3rd!

Sweet.


And extra sweet.

Burt Bacharach Day

Jerry Orbach's rendition of Promises Promises - a tune with more modulations and tempo changes than words - is one of the ages. This recording confirms what the bards on Broadway knew: Orbach, known for his formidable acting chops, may have been even better as a singer.



While Dionne Warwick does not sing Promises Promises at the furious tempo of the Broadway show version, her recording of the song is pretty amazing in its own right.



Then again, Ms. Warwick's hallmark in music was to make a song that would be between difficult and impossible to perform look easy.

New On DVD - And As Randy As Ever: Wheeler & Woolsey

Before I could spring for the upcoming, much-awaited UPA and Paramount cartoon DVD sets, Warner Archive beat 'em to the punch by releasing four vintage comedies starring RKO Radio Pictures' ever-wisecracking 1930's team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey.

Tops among the quartet is Diplomaniacs, which pre-dates the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup and shares with that opus the distinction of "most nose-thumbing, convention and gender-bending, take-no-prisoners American feature comedy" until Mel Brooks' The Producers and Blazing Saddles decades later.

Those who are easily offended or view ancient movies strictly on Level One, PLEASE, don't even bother taking the plastic cover off the DVD on this one. The film's modus operandi is to get away with as much as humanly possible - A.K.A. barbeque sacred cows to a crisp, offend everyone and have tons of fun in the process.

Diplomaniacs was written by Joseph L. Manckiewicz - yep, the same guy who deliciously skewered the world of showbiz in All About Eve - during his "insane pre-Code comedy" phase that began with the following memorable 1932 Paramount Pictures opus, Million Dollar Legs.



Next in line and the only release of this quartet that isn't from a newly restored master is one of three W&W features released in 1934, Kentucky Kernels.

Co-starring in Kentucky Kernels is Our Gang star George "Spanky" McFarland, a pint-sized comedian if there ever was one. While Spanky is quite the scene stealer, he has his work cut out for him sharing the screen with Bert and Bob!

The Rainmakers (1935) and On Again Off Again (1937) present a different proposition: a sanitized, post-Code W&W, as vigorous Production Code enforcement began on July 1, 1934. I personally find both films very funny and entertaining, but enforcement of the hated Production Code arguably harmed Wheeler & Woolsey even more than it straitjacketed Mae West; good-natured lechery was as much a cornerstone of W&W as sexy one-liners defined Miss West

The Rainmakers is also the last Wheeler & Woolsey comedy to cast Dorothy Lee in her invaluable supporting role as pert ingenue. Dorothy brought an incalculable degree of spunk, charm, fun, good humor and likeability to the W&W films and is remembered today as an unofficial third member of the team.

Dorothy left the series after Silly Billies in 1936, and by the time the team began shooting in 1937, Robert Woolsey was increasingly suffering from kidney disease.



Robert makes a go of it under difficult circumstances in On-Again-Off-Again, but looked clearly ailing in the subsequent High Flyers.



Although Wheeler and Woolsey stopped making movies in 1937, the team still has devoted fans.

For example, here in 2012, there is a Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey tribute group on Facebook!

L to R: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Milton Berle, Joe Penner, Victor Moore, Benny Rubin

Remembering Jack Benny On His 39th Birthday

by Paul F. Etcheverry

Hugely popular in his day, Jack Benny seems under-rated and somewhat forgotten now, primarily because of the microscopic attention span of our current pop culture, and the fact that his comedy doesn't even show up even on cable TV any more. Could Jack Benny, for decades a king of show business, be on his way to becoming about as well-known as Joe Cook and Lloyd Hamilton? Maybe. Maybe not.



To refresh our memories dulled by "gnats on methamphetamines" attention-spans, here's a clip that demonstrates Jack's ability to get big laughs with a motion, stance or expression - or sometimes by doing nothing - with Groucho Marx.



By the time Benny's popular radio show, which hit the airwaves in 1932, hit television, his characterization - vain, self-obsessed, foppish, insecure and above all, cheap - was very well established. Among the carryovers from the radio shows are his wonderfully appalled reactions to the supporting comics, such true 'third bananas' as Frank Nelson.



Jack's television show, appropriately titled The Jack Benny Program, ran for 244 episodes, from 1950 through the 1964-65 season, and has braved the test of time quite well. The best episodes are hilarious, the equal of the great silent and early talkie short comedies from Hal Roach and RKO. The series differs from Benny's radio work or later TV specials in featuring some wonderful way-out sight gags, enhanced by Benny's reactions and recalling later generations of comics (Ernie Kovacs, Peter Sellers) and such cartoonists as Tex Avery more than Jack's contemporaries.



Paramount among the way-out gags were the show's willingness to "break the fourth wall" and toy with the pop culture images of Jack and his guest stars. While George Burns and Bob Hope also enjoyed revealing that it's all make believe and watched by an audience out there in movie/TV land, Jack and his writers break that fourth wall constantly.



Some of the funniest shows in the series combine both elements, such as one where Raymond Burr, representing Jack as uber-lawyer Perry Mason, is both inarticulate and inept; Perry explains the gross discrepancy by snapping to Jack, "my writers are better than yours!"








The January 22, 1963 episode featuring Peter Lorre opens with Jack assuring all that Peter only plays a sicko onscreen, but is a nice guy off-screen. Peter subsequently . . . well, let's not describe it, let's show it.



Often up-and-coming comedians were the guest stars on Jack's show. Here's one featuring Johnny Carson, not long after he started hosting The Tonight Show.





Jack often incorporated the fact that he didn't make a huge splash as a star of feature films as a joke in his act. He particularly enjoyed making fun of his much-maligned starring vehicle The Horn Blows At Midnight.

While, granted, Jack's milieu was a half-hour program executed with the precision of a race driver, seen today, The Horn Blows At Midnight - Jack's bête noire - has its moments. In stretches, it's quite charming and funny. Perhaps the bar line for comedy was a lot higher then.



Jack did have one prominent feather in his cap in his movie career: his witty performance with Carole Lombard in Ernst Lubitsch's To Be Or Not To Be.



An overdue reevaluation and revival can begin with Jack Benny's prolific radio and television work and include a 35mm archival print of To Be Or Not To Be. Until then, here's a terrific 1992 tribute to Mr. Benny produced by HBO.

This Blog Supports This Worthy Fundraiser

Byron Vaughns and Borge Ring, two stalwart animators we know and love at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, are dealing with catastrophic medical expenses and the destruction of their homes via fire. Fundraisers have been established on their behalf. I donated, and hope lots more movie and animation fans follow suit.

Among other films, Byron directed the very funny Nickelodeon series Johnny Bravo, which is among my favorite animation shows since John K's Ren & Stimpy completed its original 1990's run.



He also wrote and directed some terrific work for the Oh Yeah series.



If you've seen any of Borge Ring's films, you know what an outstanding and witty draftsman he is. And if you haven't, you're in for a treat. So enjoy the following three treats: Oh My Darling, Anna & Bella and Run Of The Mill.







Here are links to the fundraising efforts for Byron and Betty Vaughns and Borge and Joanika Ring - thanks!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday From Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog

How shall we celebrate the wonderful NFL gladiator spectacle of the Super Bowl? With my favorite comedy clips and classic cartoons involving football, thank you very much. We'll start with The Four Marx Brothers!



And now to Our Gang. . .



Next up: the pride of Canada, SCTV. While Saturday Night Live was busy melting down publicly and gruesomely in 1980-1981, the performers and writing staff on SCTV took their formidable game to the next level. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas moved on in 1982, soon to be followed by Catherine O' Hara, but Martin Short came on board and Eugene Levy, John Candy, Andrea Martin, John Candy and Joe Flaherty were still there and creating great, classic comedy, week after week.





And now for some classic cartoons, courtesy of stalwart comedy creators Tex Avery and Jack Kinney.

We finish with some sage wisdom from standup philosopher George Carlin.

Remembering Alfred Lion (1908-1987)

"Alfred Lion knew just what he wanted and he took the time to get it," Rudy Van Gelder, recording engineer for Blue Note Records


"Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression. Hot jazz, therefore, is expression and communication, a musical and social manifestation, and Blue Note records are concerned with identifying its impulse, not its sensational and commercial adornments." Alfred Lion (1908-1987)

Alfred Lion, with ever-ebullient jazz legend Dexter Gordon and Francis Woolf


As Black History Month in 2012 started in a truly rotten way with the tragic deaths of gospel and R&B singer David Peaston and "Soul Train" host/founder Don Cornelius, I will bring attention to an individual who also was tremendously important to African American culture and music. He passed away 25 years ago today: Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. The very well-written and comprehensive New York Times obit is still available online, and yet just scratches the surface of Mr. Lion's influence and impact.

Alfred Lion, with Francis Woolf and ace soundman Rudy Van Gelder, was personally responsible for producing a gargantuan chunk of 20th century recorded music and innovative, hard swinging jazz history.

The story began when Mr. Lion attended the Carnegie Hall Spirituals to Swing Concert on December 23, 1938. The concert changed Albert's life; utterly blown away by the two-fisted piano heroics of boogie-woogie gurus Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, he arranged to record the duo. Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis were recorded session on Jan. 9, 1939, and a few dozen pressings were made. The word got out and he had to press more, then followed the recordings up with an album by Sidney Bechet leading the Port Of Harlem Jazzmen. With Bechet's masterful version of "Summertime", Blue Note Records was off and running.

Fast forward a few years, after Mr. Lion's WW2 service and discharge from the Army. Lion and partner Francis Woolf re-started Blue Note and got the ball rolling in 1947 by recording one of the most innovative, original musicians and composers of all: Thelonious Sphere Monk.

The label soon followed this up with equally groundbreaking recordings by the cutting-edge musicians of the day: Bud Powell, Tadd Dameron, Miles Davis, Milt Jackson, Herbie Nichols.

Blue Note, to a significant degree, made its reputation in the hard-driving genre known as hard bop: the red-hot unholy spawn of blues, gospel and bebop.



The originators of hard bop, powerful and charismatic drummer Art Blakey and pianist Horace Silver, played at fever-pitch intensity, with style and panache to match. Former members of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and Silver's bands - Johnny Griffin, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan - would carry the hard-swinging torch in their solo albums (which often featured Art himself on the drums).

The list of outstanding musicians who recorded for Blue Note is a Who's Who of 20th century jazz: pianists Monk, Bud Powell, Horace Silver, Herbie Nichols, Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill and Cecil Taylor; trumpeters Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan; saxophonists John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Sam Rivers, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Ike Quebec, George Coleman and Gato Barbieri; bassists Paul Chambers, Reggie Workman and Jimmy Garrison; drummers Tony Williams, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones and Joe Chambers; among many others.

In the 1950's, Blue Note pioneered a blend of gritty r&B and jazz, powered by the mighty Hammond B-3. These were smokin' virtuosos who could rip up and down the keyboard with their hands while tapping out a walking bassline worthy of Ray Brown with their feet. Jimmy Smith, Big John Patton, Baby Face Willette and the innovative Larry Young were four Blue Note artists who could make that Hammond B-3 sing. Offering inspired support: guitarists Grant Green and Kenny Burrell.

In the early 1960's, Blue Note started taking on modern jazz. The recordings weren't as far out as those incendiary leaps into the unknown by saxophonist Albert Ayler, but got quite a bit of bold, groundbreaking experimentation into the mix. Many featured sidemen from the Miles Davis and John Coltrane Quintets. In particular, the recordings of multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers and pianist Andrew Hill took listeners on quite a wild sonic ride. Brilliant keyboardist Larry Young took the mighty Hammond B-3, threw some Trane style "sheets of sound" into the mix and took the funky instrument in a completely different modernist direction with his provocative yet propulsive recordings, both as a leader and with guitarist Grant Green.

Original thinkers and diehard modernists Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor would join the label in 1965 and throw down the gauntlet yet further.

The label was bought and sold several times, but thankfully still exists. Heroes Charlie Lourie and Michael Cuscuna formed Mosaic Records and got to work immediately on archival re-issues of unreleased masterpieces by Monk, Powell, Nichols, Hill and more. Many of the classic Blue Note albums have been reissued.

In recent years, such superb artists as guitarist Charlie Hunter have valiantly carried the torch, but it's a different era now, more corporate - and much more hostile - to both improvisational jazz and the fearless "out-of-the-box" trailblazing that created this music in the first place.

Now, more than 45 years later, nobody is doing anything like this, except in the indie and DIY recording world. Nobody.

Happy Birthday, Roy Eldridge!

Born January 30, 1911: music giant Roy Eldridge, A.K.A. "Little Jazz".

Well, shame on me, I missed the centennial a year ago, but will make up for it with my personal selection of the most blazing LE JAZZ HOT clips.

Roy, A.K.A. Little Jazz was the trumpet ace who followed King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke - and paved the way for Dizzy Gillespie and the next wave in the post-WW2 era.

His style, here in 1937, comes directly from Satchmo and, like Louis, is unrelentingly swinging and quite beautiful.



Roy was, like forward-looking bandmate Coleman Hawkins, the up-and-coming Charlie Parker and pianist-bandleaders Duke Ellington and Mary Lou Williams ("The "Lady Who Swings The Band"), a multi-genre kinda guy - and his trumpet had sass, swing, swagger and joie de vivre to burn.

On that count, relish these two two cuts from the amazing Roy & Diz album. The trumpet derring-do of Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie can't be beat. Neither can the superb backing of Oscar Peterson (piano), Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass) and Louie Bellson (drums).





Here's Roy, blowing the freakin' roof off of Carnegie Hall with fellow trumpeter Charlie Shavers on September 13, 1952. Without a doubt, when jazz got genteel, safe, sanitized and refined, a devastatingly gorgeous pulsating multi-hued light went out in the world.











In his six decade career, Roy tackled New Orleans, Big Band And Small Group Swing, Standards, Blues and Bop with panache, nailed it, hit that music outta the park every time.








Swing swing swing - and swing some more!



This is eternal music.

This Saturday At The Historic Bal Theatre: A Mini-Psychotronix Film Fest

Monsters! Go-Go Girls! Newsreels! Trailers From Bad Movies! Classic Commercials! Warped Cartoons! That's what will be on hand when Sci Fi Bob Ekman and Paul Etcheverry, co-founders of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival bring a slice of Psychotronic movie mayhem, hosted by the wonderfully ghoulish Lord Blood Rah and Miss Misery, to the Historic Bal Theatre this Saturday night, January 28, 2012 at 7:00 PM.

Bay Area Film Events presents a program of celluloid rarities unearthed and archived by collectors Bob Ekman, Paul Etcheverry and Tom Wyrsch. The show's piece-de-resistance will be some some Creature Features and Bob Wilkins clips so rare even we haven't seen them.

All of this pungent treasure trove will be brought to you on glorious 16mm film, presented as a sleep-deprived, psychedelics-addled DJ would spin discs.

East Bay residents, get ready for our customary delirious romp through B-movie trailers, commercials, off-the-wall comedy shorts, Soundies, Scopitones, training films, cartoons, snack bar ads and public service announcements: that under-the-radar world of entertainment that mainstream Hollywood would rather forget..

The Historic Bal Theatre is located at 14808 E. 14th Street in San Leandro (south of Oakland and north of Hayward). Buy tickets here. The theatre's phone number is 510-614-1224.

The Return Of Noir City

Eddie Muller's tribute to all hard-boiled world-weary cinema chiaroscuro, Noir City, celebrates its 10th anniversary January 20-29, 2012 at San Francisco's Castro Theatre. Special guest star Angie Dickinson, who will be interviewed by Mr. Muller (A.K.A. The Czar Of Noir) in between screenings of Don Siegel's THE KILLERS (1964) & John Boorman's POINT BLANK (1967), headlines the 10-day festival of dark, corrosive and foreboding-filled celluloid rarities.

This year's extravaganza will include the Film Noir Foundation's recently completed preservation of Michael Curtiz' The Breaking Point (starring John Garfield), as well as brand new 35mm prints of the 1949 version of The Great Gatsby and Naked Alibi, co-starring Sterling Hayden and Gene "Burke's Law" Barry with perennial favorite blonde bad girl bombshell Gloria Grahame. Brian Darr's Hell On Frisco Bay blog covers the 10th anniversary lineup in detail.

Tickets are available online via Brown Paper Tickets. For more info, visit the Noir City website.

Raising Our Tankards To Oliver Norvell Hardy On His 120th!

On the topic of celebrating the birthdays of those who have not been physically present here with us for quite a few decades, I am hard pressed to think of another person who brought more joy and laughter to the world than Mr. Oliver Norvell Hardy, A.K.A. "Babe" and "Ollie", born on January 18, 1892.

This scene from The Boys' 1937 feature Way Out West gets me every time.



Unfortunately, the classic comedy films of Laurel & Hardy, once the toast of every capital and a box office hit in the farthest corners of the globe, have receded somewhat in the age of 2500 cable TV channels - and that's too bad.

That is due to the spotty availability of their films, as well as a culture with a very short attention span; the last time Laurel and Hardy comedies were shown regularly on television was nearly 20 years ago (on Sunday mornings, by the American Movie Classics channel).



Until the recent Laurel And Hardy - The Essential Collection DVD release, their films remained largely out of circulation.



Laurel & Hardy silent comedies, including the hilarious You're Darn' Tootin' and Liberty have been posted on Hulu.



Film & Television Archive has launched an ambitious restoration project devoted to Laurel & Hardy. I have posted the piece on the restoration effort by film historian Leonard Maltin before - and it bears repeating.

Clip Of The Day: Chet Atkins, 1954

The topic has been guitars and guitarists in the postings thus far in 2012. The thread has included music by Hank Garland, Roy Clark, Django Reinhardt and Joe Pass.

Today's posting, featuring the amazing Chet Atkins, is dedicated to the late and much missed San Francisco Bay Area guitarist Ted "Lightnin' Fingers" Kratter.

I don't know what television shows or movies these excellent, fingerpickin' good clips come from, but the quintessential Nashville Sound of Chet is never less than a rare pleasure to listen to.







Thanks for the music, Chet - you made the world a better place!

More Golden FIngers And Fun On The Frets For January 2012

My guess is, in the immortal words of John Lennon, the following guys, guitar virtuosos all, have "blisters on their fingers", although more discreetly than he did.






While the legendary Django Reinhardt, by all accounts, loathed playing the electric guitar during his 1946 performances with The Duke Ellington Orchestra, I've always wondered how those gigs sounded. As it turns out, the recordings from them have circulated, and are available, due to the wonder of YouTube. The answer to that question is. . . "gadzooks - this is indescribably wonderful", as well as signature Django.





Listen and learn.

The Golden Fingers Of Hank Garland And His Successors

Yesterday's posting about Peter Frampton regaining his long-lost favorite guitar after 31 years led my music-obsessed subconscious directly to another guy who knew his way around a custom Gibson: the incredible Hank Garland, ace session guitarist on recordings by Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison and more.

In this clip from Country Style, U.S.A., Hank's distinctive "country jazz" radiates joie de vivre while demonstrating awe-inspiring guitar mastery.

Hank Garland's bouyant music brings to mind one other album for me: the 1993 pairing of jazz guitar guru Joe Pass and veteran country-western entertainer Roy Clark.


 
Joe and Roy's summit meeting of serious pickin' and grinnin' over the simple yet supple, challenging and enduring music of Hank Williams, Sr. recalls a certain phrase again: Joie De Vivre.

ATTN: Guitar Geeks Of The World

A question and subsequent story to warm the hearts of guitar geeks everywhere: what if your personal favorite guitar was lost for 31 years and then somehow returned?

This happened to rock and pop songwriter-guitarist-bandleader Peter Frampton, of Frampton Comes Alive who was, indeed, reunited with his favorite axe after 31 years. Indeed, to quote the title of a Peaches N' Herb song I never liked, "reunited and it feels so good."

Peter's vintage 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom was literally the only survivor when a cargo plane that crashed on takeoff in Caracas, Venezuela. Of course, Peter didn't know this, as the instrument circulated in the three decade interim and ended up in the hands of a guitarist, customs agent and tourist board member on the island of Curacao.

Now, I heard Peter play in those days and recall a lengthy and very enjoyable set, propelled by the ringing tones and melodic conception of his rock guitar stylings. All these decades and many subsequent fearless plunges into complex, dark, dissonant modernism later, I still find that Peter's upbeat, tuneful British Invasion-influenced sounds - with 1960's popsters The Herd, his Frampton's Camel band, as a sideman with sonic chameleon David Bowie, and a member of Steve Marriott's hard rockin' Humble Pie - brings a big smile to my line-enhanced face.





Now, frankly, gorgeous as the varied Les Paul models are, I'm more of an SG and L-5 man, myself!

Then again, if the very Les Paul Jr. played with steamrolling abandon by Luther "Ariel Bender" Grosvenor in Mott The Hoople were to fall into my hands. . .

One Year Of Cartoons In Five Minutes, Eleven Seconds (A.K.A. Crack For Toonheads)

I designated the topic of classic cartoons as no more than a tertiary landing point for this blog, largely because there are so many terrific blogs on animation, several by the best historians in the country. All are by ambitious enthusiasts who are anything but Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog. However, today I'm compelled to call attention to something astounding on 1930's animation I viewed via hard-working blogger Ted, mastermind of the comprehensive Cartoons Of 1939 and Cartoons Of 1943 sites.

Ted compiled the highlights from Cartoons Of 1939 - dozens of animated theatrical shorts from a year that also brought Pinocchio, Gulliver's Travels and a preponderance of classic live-action feature films - into the following kaleidoscopic and blindingly fast 5:11. It doesn't just concentrate on Disney and Warner Brothers: every studio is represented.



And here are the main title cards from these Cartoons Of 1939:



Ted will soon start reviewing the Cartoons Of 1935 - and completing that task will take the remainder of 2012. What will he have to say about the many strange, surreal and rather dark cartoons that were released that year? We'll find out, and I look forward to it!

Released To Theaters 75 Years Ago Today

While it's tough to, when it comes to starting a new year right, equal Ernie & Edie, as well as George & Gracie, here goes. . .

Friz Freleng and the boys at Warner Brothers created this "Frankie and (Abusive Dirtbag) Johnny" tale, released on January 2, 1937. It's obvious that Friz had been wanting to break loose from seven years in the "all talking, all singing, all dancing" artistic strait jacket, so this Merrie Melodie - unlike the cartoons Tex Avery and Frank Tashlin were producing at that time - presents a Depression-era melodrama, hardly "merrie" and at times stark. And the stars are. . . MICE. Yes, rodents, seven decades before Pixar's Ratatouille.



Enjoy this subversive animated poison pen letter and bear in mind that John Hubley would get - and keep - the last word on the "Frankie And Johnny" genre 15 years later with his UPA cartoon, Rooty Toot Toot.

Happy New Year From Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog