Today this blogger's fancy and short attention span turns from silent movies (and the great Raymond Griffith) to the world of sketch comedy. July 1 is Dan Aykroyd's birthday, so we shall doff our always battered fedoras to the prolific comedian, actor and screenwriter.
First and foremost, here are a few of Aykroyd's funniest and most original SNL skits.
Of the dozens of Saturday Night Live players, he is among the few who made a relatively seamless transition from TV to movies.
Trading Places, due to the superb and hilarious character acting from Hollywood veterans Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy, lots of lively interplay between Akyroyd and the brilliant Eddie Murphy - and the presence of such SNL stalwarts as Al Franken & Tom Davis - remains my favorite.
Neighbors was an interesting homage to The Twilight Zone TV show. What makes it interesting? The Aykroyd and Belushi roles are reversed, with Dan playing the lunatic and John cast as a meek, mild-mannered nebbish. The excellent character actress Cathy Moriarty and fellow Second City/SNL alum Tim Kazurinsky are added pluses.
Spies Like Us, co-starring fellow SNL cast member Chevy Chase, is - like many movies featuring Saturday Night Live and SCTV cast members - in the flawed but still mostly funny category.
Dan was teamed with Tom Hanks for the 1987 sendup of Dragnet. All of us who watched the entire run of the unintentionally funny Dragnet 1967 TV show got a few laughs from this flick, and especially from Aykroyd's ability to mimic Jack Webb's distinctive walk and verbal delivery.
Last but not least, Dan produced, directed and co-wrote the creepiest and most nightmarishly disturbing of all 20th century horror-comedies, the Razzie Award winner Nothing But Trouble, a hallucinatory Beetlejuice-influenced compendium of Gothic grotesquerie.
The reviews of Nothing But Trouble were brutal, reminiscent of the In Living ColorMen On Film sketches in which David Alan Grier and Damon Wayans say in unison. . . HATED IT!
Described by Vincent Canby in The New York Times as "a charmless feature-length joke about the world's most elaborate speed trap," this haunted house flick presents an intermittently inspired one-of-a-kind fever dream. In the central role as the hideous 106 year old "hanging judge" of Volkenvania, Aykroyd presides as the ringmaster and frequently ventures into unabashed gross-out territory.
Why Warner Brothers released Nothing But Trouble to theatres in February 1991, instead of postponing it in October and specifically marketing the delirious American Gothic piece as a Halloween "monster movie," nobody knows.
Perhaps the suits concluded that Nothing But Trouble, originally pegged as a Christmas 1990 release, cost so much money to produce, it had to get out in the theatres post-haste to have any chance of recouping the investment. That strikes this writer as both a marketing failure and failure of imagination, as it is clearly a haunted house horror-comedy with a Halloween theme, even though David Lynch didn't direct it and the Three Stooges and Bowery Boys are nowhere to be found.
While Nothing But Trouble is a tad too grotesque to get laughs, it succeeds as American Gothic with garish flying colors, reverb-filled echoes of theremins and imagery a la horror-meister Tod Browning's The Devil Doll, Freaks and West Of Zanzibar viewed through a shattered funhouse mirror. . . with a musical number by Digital Underground thrown in for good measure.
We raise a toast of Crystal Head Vodka to Dan and hope he's doing well on his birthday. Cheers - and thanks a million for the laughs!
For diehard classic movie fans, the love of comedy films produced in the silent era remains steadfast, no matter how old one gets. If silent comedy obsession is regarded as a malady, it remains a disease that cannot be cured. This is not lost upon the international fans of The Silent Comedy Watch Party on YouTube!
Silver screen comedy aficionados will be delighted not only by the recent release (on June 13) of two feature films starring the gifted actor-producer-comic Raymond Griffith, but by the success earlier this month of a Kickstarter for a Blu-ray retrospective devoted to the diminutive yet frequently hilarious Italian-born star of American slapstick comedies Monty Banks a.k.a. Mario Bianchi.
One of many things learned watching numerous movies from the silent era is that comic brilliance is not limited to the Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd trifecta, but actually extends to at least four or five tiers of super talented comedians and comediennes active in the World War I era and 1920's.
In spring 2022, wrote a blog post about a fundraiser for a Blu-ray devoted to the classic films of 1920's Paramount star Raymond Griffith. Griffith's essential screen persona is an always indefatigable and unflappable "Mr. Cool."
On the first day of the Kickstarter, the funding goal of $11,500 was surpassed, so the video restoration process commenced and now two of Raymond Griffith's Paramount features, Paths To Paradise (1925) and You'd Be Surprised (1926), are available on Blu-ray.
Undercrank Productions. much celebrated by Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, has done it again with this Raymond Griffith retrospective.
The restorations were sourced from 35mm nitrate and safety preservation materials preserved by the Library of Congress.
Along with the new 2K digital scans of archival 35mm materials preserved by the Library of Congress, the set also contains a 12-minute video essay, Raymond Griffith: Silent Comedy’s Silk-Hatted Secret, by Crystal Kui and Steve Massa.
The Wikipedia entry on Raymond Griffith adds: "His film debut was for the L-KO Kompany. Many of his starring feature films have long since been lost, but probably the best known of his films today is Hands Up! (1926), a Civil War comedy feature directed by Clarence G. Badger, and co-starring Mack Swain, which was entered into the National Film Registry in 2005.
Also considered a classic is Badger's Paths to Paradise, a caper film that is in all circulating prints missing its final reel. Like many silent comedians, he had a traditional costume; his was a top hat, white tie and tails, often augmented by a cape and/or walking stick. The coming of sound ended Griffith's acting career, but he did have one memorable role in a motion picture before retiring from the screen, playing a French soldier killed by Lew Ayres in the 1930 Lewis Milestone film All Quiet on the Western Front. He then segued into a writing/producing career at Twentieth Century Fox."
First learned about Raymond Griffith, ubiquitous stock company member in dozens of L-Ko and Mack Sennett comedies, in Leonard Maltin's outstanding book The Great Movie Comedians. More recently, I much enjoyed reading Matthew Ross' article on "the silk hat comedian," The Sheik Of Silent Comedy, from his comedy-centric classic movie website The Lost Laugh.
The dapper Griffith, always wearing a top hat and cape with unshakable aplomb, is a very funny and unique talent. Much look forward to watching the suave and debonair "silk hat slicker" in Paths To Paradise and You'd Be Surprised.
It's time again for a post devoted to the world of music at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog! Today's topics: trumpet and trombone aces who sing sing sing! Kicking this off, Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie (and, at the end, Jackie Gleason, who doesn't sing but lends yet more larger-than-life stage presence to the proceedings) . . . In other words, GREATNESS.
I don't know which musicians dubbed in the parts for Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman in PARIS BLUES, but it is an incredible sequence. Pops, as always, is the man of the hour.
From one of this music aficionado's all-time favorite documentaries, Jazz On A Summer's Day (1958), here are Pops & his frequent bandmate Jack Teagarden singing Ol' Rockin' Chair.
Jack, in between stints with The Jack Teagarden Quintet and Louis Armstrong's All-Stars, appeared in Snader Telescriptions (the made for television Soundies which are now much sought after by film collectors).
Another blazing genius among the riverboat rockers, steeped in the culture and music of New Orleans, disciples of Armstrong and Kid Ory, was the great Henry "Red" Allen (1908-1967).
From big band swing, there was no better trumpeter-singer than the Duke Ellington Orchestra's ace in the hole Ray Nance (1913-1976), an entertainer who also could play the violin and cut a rug expertly.
Another gifted swing trumpeter who doubled as an outstanding vocalist: Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge (1911-1989).
While Roy was a key link between the trumpet styles of Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, it's his terrific vocal on Ain't That A Shame that absolutely floors this jazz, blues and r&b fan.
Never to be outdone, Dizzy Gillespie sings On The Sunny Side Of The Street and even induces saxophonist Sonny Stitt to join in the fun.
Among the kings of swing, bluesmen, boppers and crooners in those days, the one who could both sing a ballad like Sinatra and follow it with an absolutely gorgeous trumpet solo was Chet Baker (1929-1988).
Some of Chet's most amazing performances were from his last concerts in the mid and latter 1980's. The soulfulness of his singing is something to behold.
A brass virtuoso who can croon and give Chet a run for his money is Ray Anderson, who can be found these days rocking the house at The Loft in Stony Brook, NY.
A musician as both gifted and tragic as Baker (and Charlie Parker and Fats Navarro and Sonny Berman and Serge Chaloff and Elmo Hope and Emily Remler, etc.) but also quite brilliant was Frank Rosolino (1926-1978).
A trombonist who mastered the modern sound and played compelling music in international genres was the one, the only Roswell Rudd (1936-2017), here singing and blending his highly original trombone approach with the hard rock of Sonic Youth.
Is there anyone currently who plays brass instruments a la the New Orleans masters and sings? Yes. That would be Trombone Shorty, whose Orleans Avenue band plays a rousing blend of rock, jazz, funk, r&b and ska.
Trombone Shorty and his ensembles remind me of the talented group of San Francisco Bay Area musicians known as the Jazz Mafia, led by trombonist-electric bassist-songwriter-arranger Adam Theis, who recorded "Brass, Bows & Beats" and other excellent albums. Both are steeped in funk and soul.
Pondering all this devastatingly great music over these eight decades, and extending into the 21st century, the jazz aficionados at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog say C'EST SI BON! Big thanks and big love to all the singing brass players!
Cartoon Carnival producer Tommy Stathes elaborates: It's officially the beginning of June with Getting Warmer, a selection of vintage cartoon films that take place during spring and summer. Come enjoy outdoorsy frolics at the beach, shenanigans in the park, dust-ups at the picnic, and other assorted gallavants under the sun.
Spanning the 1920s through the ’40s, this assortment showcases classic characters such as Farmer Al Falfa, Cubby Bear, Van Beuren’s human Tom and Jerry, Molly Moo-Cow, Porky Pig, and others.
The 60 minute film program will be followed by a live Q&A session.
Shall follow this with a generous compendium of classic cartoons and ask whether we can find forgotten cartoons we love but have not posted here before in 1200+ posts. Good question. We'll start with one we definitely have posted, featuring the non-forgotten Betty Boop as a mermaid.
Did a double take after seeing a copy of Ted Eshbaugh's Goofy Goat Antics IN COLOR, both on Archive.org and YouTube. Have a soft spot for Ted's animation due to his very enjoyable cartoons The Wizard Of Oz, Sunshine Makers and Japanese Lanterns
This "color" version of Goofy Goat Antics is a fake but a nice try and appears to be the product of someone scanning the B&W version and running it through color filters in Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro.
The following is an example of what a Ted Eshbaugh cartoon that was actually produced in color looks like.
We're also big fans of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, especially the bizarre and weirdly imaginative early talkies produced by Walter Lantz.
We note Tex Avery's name in the credits of the following 1933 Ozzie cartoon.
Then there's Binko The Bear Cub. produced by the short-lived studio of Romer Gray. Supposedly four Binko cartoons were produced before the studio closed in 1931. This one, HOT TOE MOLLIE, is the only Binko opus I've seen. Who worked on Binko for Romer Gray's studio? Among others two of the McKimson brothers, Bob and Tom, both of whom would end up at Warner Brothers animation.
The Charles Mintz Studio, like it or not, is responsible for Scrappy, the king of forgotten misbegotten cartoons, frequently posted here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog.
Am I as much a fan of pre-Code Scrappy cartoons, loaded with the rubbery, way-out animation of Dick Huemer, as I was when I first started writing about them a gazillion years ago? Yes.
One of the best of the numerous Charles Mintz Studio/Columbia cartoons in the 1930's to spotlight movie star caricatures is Scrappy's Party.
Preceding Scrappy at Mintz: Krazy Kat.
Animator and historian Milton Knight has posted several very good entries from the series on his YouTube Channel.
Closing today's post: a few classic cartoons by the Van Beuren studio!
Are the New York studio's Aesop's Fables and Tom & Jerry/Dick & Larry/Cubby Bear cartoons crude, primitive, goofy, in bad taste and often hilarious? Yes.
Do we love it when Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman whip out Fender Stratocasters, Gibson Les Pauls and Flying Vs and proceed to rock? Yes, very much.
That thought, invariably, brings to mind a fellow who played Frankenstein and rocked a Flying V with panache: one of the all-time movie greats, Christopher Lee (May 27, 1922 – June 7, 2015).
On the short list of celebrated movie and television actors who also had a music career, among other things, Sir Christopher Lee led his own metal band and made a bunch of excellent records.
The promo videos for Christopher Lee's Metal album are appropriately operatic.
After all, he does sing Symphonic Metal.
Here, submitted for your approval, are just a few trailers from Sir Christopher Lee's many, many classic movies.
Not surprisingly, the coming attractions begin with Hammer Films.
Director, classic cartoon, sci fi and psychotronica buff Joe Dante waxes poetic about Hammer Films' Gothic epic The Curse Of Frankenstein.
Content to not just play Frankenstein and Dracula at Hammer Films, Lee also portrayed Sherlock Holmes!
In closing, we doff our top hats that could have been worn by Count Dracula or Vic Frankenstein to the genre-busting career of Christopher Lee.
Alas, for the umpteenth time in 2023 - and we haven't even hit Memorial Day yet - the gang of reprobates and rapscallions here end a post by noting the passing of yet another legend from the world of music. That's powerhouse entertainer Tina Turner, like Mr. Lee Simply The Best. Go here right now and watch Tina's bravura performance of River Deep Mountain High from her 1989 induction to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, then check out her appearances on Late Night With David Letterman.
Time to relax on a Sunday with some cheesy but super fun musical short subjects, early 1930's style, from none other than Vitaphone!
Kicking this off: excerpts from Vitaphone's teenage dancin' sensations Hal Le Roy and Mitzi Mayfair in TIP TAP TOE (1932) and USE YOUR IMAGINATION (1933).
Later in the 1930's, the Vitaphones teamed Hal with Toby Wing and June Allyson, but, alas, neither could match Mitzi Mayfair's formidable terpsichorean mojo. Too bad she didn't make more movies in addition to these Vitaphone short subjects and the WW2 musical Four Jills In A Jeep.
Hal's breakthrough was in the Ziegfeld Follies and, all these decades later, his rubber-legged moves and tap dancing remain amazing. He was a heckuva entertainer.
Hoofin' Hal continued working well into the television era and tapped his way through The Ed Sullivan Show. Here he is doing a spirited throwdown with fellow tap guru Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates.
Next up: Phil Spitalny & His Musical Queens (a top-notch group)! There weren't nearly enough symphony orchestra and big band jobs for exceptional female musicians during the Great Depression, so Mr. Spitalny (who I first heard about when perennial nogoodnik Boris Badenov made a reference to him in the Rocky & Bullwinkle Wossamatta U series) happily hired them, a few years before the formation of The International Sweethearts Of Rhythm.
A recording artist who starred in terrific musical short subjects in the pre-code era was Ruth Etting a.k.a. The Sweetheart Of Columbia Records.
The excellent Ruth Etting musical short ARTISTIC TEMPER (1932) is distinguished by an extended sequence that takes place in an automat and sets up her subsequent songs.
That clip got me thinking of Lisa Hurwitz' outstanding 2021 documentary THE AUTOMAT. It's a great slice of 20th century history and, naturally, Mel Brooks' appearance is immensely enjoyable. I want some automat coffee, NOW!
Back to splendid songstress Ruth Etting, this film buff wonders if a collection of her musical short subjects produced by Vitaphone and Paramount Pictures is available on DVD or Blu-ray.
If there is, we'll buy it - she was great!
One of our favorite Vitaphones, PLANE CRAZY (1933), stars the pert comedienne Dorothy Lee, key onscreen cohort of RKO Radio Pictures' sprightly comedy team of Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey and especially wonderful in PEACH O' RENO (1932), HIPS HIPS HOORAY (1934) and COCKEYED CAVALIERS (1934). Dorothy's megawatt charm, wiseguy comics unconvincingly portraying aviators and (of course) cheesy production numbers rule the day.
In last weekend's KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival we ran a hilariously cheesy and shameless Soundie from the early 1940's about a gas station staffed by showgirls and mostly patronized by unapologetically pervy guys. The budget in the following Vitaphone musical (in glorious Technicolor) about a showgirl service station, Service With A Smile, is significantly higher so the outfits are a lot better.
Better yet, the 1934 gas station customers, unlike their 1940's counterparts, are not leering lechers!
And, as is the case in the Vitaphone Technicolor short subject Good Morning Eve, the celebrated Ziegfeld Follies comedian Leon Errol, veteran of a gazillion RKO 2-reelers (The Jitters) and a memorable appearance with fellow comic and boozehound W.C. Fields in NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK, is on hand.
In another fun Technicolor musical short from this Vitaphone series, Wini Shaw, the super splendid songstress who sang the Lullaby Of Broadway in GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935, co-starred with goofy dialect comedian El Brendel and scantily clad showgirls dressed, barely and implausibly, as Native Americans. I'm not kidding!
In closing, way back on pre-lockdown February 8, 2019, Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's post was devoted to, in large part due to the untimely passing of the driving force begin The Vitaphone Project, Ron Hutchinson, the rediscovery of the incredible 1920's time capsules known as Vitaphone Varieties. Posted Vitahone Varieties then, but to finish today's Vitaphone-centric post, we shall give 'em an encore. Here are a slew of Vitaphone Varieties - enjoy! And thanks again to the late Ron Hutchinson!
After experiencing a painfully extended period that included more than a year of lockdown and NO SCREENINGS, ZERO, ZILCH, ZIP, NADA, NONE, it boggles the mind that in 2023 one can find multiple classic film events in one geographic area on the same day. Last December, we were THRILLED and DELIGHTED to return to Foothill College for the 30th anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival.
Had a blast last Saturday night presenting one delightful, delirious and de-lovely KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival featuring an appearance by special guest John Stanley, author, prolific film reviewer and exceptional horror host from Creature Features.
Among other things, last Saturday's show presented a chance for yours truly to break out his collection of ultra-cheesy Soundies!
Yes, cheesy Soundies are a specialty of this festival!
Always enjoy running vintage 1950's commercials for a capacity crowd in the 21st century!
Trailers from my favorite B-movies and genre films are always fun!
We screened some excellent blooper reels, including glorious gaffes from Dick Van Dyke and Get Smart, although not the following compendium of vintage 1960's screw-ups.
The Psychotronix Gang shall be back at Foothill College next fall with more blasts from the past!
Until then, Sci Fi Bob Ekman and Scott Moon carry on the Psychotronix spirit with shows at the Orinda Theater.
I'm very proud of the work I have done over the past 25+ years with Sci Fi Bob and Scott, both talented, knowledgeable, resourceful, creative and inspired film collector/curator/programmers. Keep an eye on the Orinda Theater website for details on their upcoming events.
Can't say I'm exactly nutty about the royals and would not want to be in King Charles' spats, but am positively thrilled and delighted that, a week from today, the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival will be back at Foothill College's Room 5015 with a night of big screen fun: cheesy movies, cartoons, commercials, trailers, Scopitones and Soundies!
When: Saturday, May 13, 2023 at 7:00 PM
Where: Room 5015, Foothill College campus 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills (El Monte exit off 280) Why: We're suckers for this stuff, LOVE IT!
It is a festival of the wildest and weirdest flotsam and jetsam from 20th century pop culture.
As far as the coronation goes, the gang here likes cartoons about coronations a lot more than actual coronations.
My regal cat and official mascot Raymond disapproves strongly of the following cartoons because King Looney XIV is a feline and, worse yet, horror of horrors, mice beat up cats!
These Terrytoons strike as a primitive precursor to Mighty Mouse (created a few years later), even though the rowdy rodents are more along the lines of "Mickey Rat."
Arguably, way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's all-time favorite cartoon about kings is the wonderfully eccentric 1942 Columbia Color Rhapsody King Midas Junior. John Hubley and Paul Sommer co-directed offbeat, interesting and unusual cartoons for Screen Gems, at least before Hubley left with Dave Hilberman and Zack Schwartz and formed UPA.
We will no doubt have Incredibly Strange Cartoons, among many other things, in the KFJC Psychotronix Film Fest on May 6 - see you there!
KFJC "listen & obey" poster by Judy Zillen. "Greetings from the Psychotronix Film Festival" and "Batman & Robin" graphics by Scott Moon. KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival "Evolution" and "King Zor" graphics by Sci Fi Bob Ekman.
