"The Man Who Lost Himself" 1941 is a cool little Universal "B" picture and I was lucky enough to buy a nice 16mm original print for my last birthday! Love these little "B" flicks! My release print which was struck in 1947 was from Variety Film Distributors, they had changed the main credits and removed the words "Universal Pictures". Variety Film Distributors was formed in 1938 and was headquartered in New York City on Fifth Avenue. They were the exclusive foreign distributors of both Reliable Pictures Corporation and Majestic Pictures Releases. They had offices in Tokyo, Paris and Calcutta. They were confidential advisers to foreign buyers, South America excluded. They were still in operation in 1951, and the only thing I could find about them was the basic corporate information most of which I have related here. Apparently Universal Pictures still holds the copyright on "The Man Who Lost Himself" so contrary to popular belief it is not in the public domain, even though there is a copy of the entire film on You Tube, also with the Variety Film Distributors main title. About the picture, there is an interesting scene when actor Brian Aherne is sitting at the table in the nightclub with the double of himself, playing both rolls as John Evans and Malcolm Scott. For this scene they used an early "traveling matte" or "Blue Screen" as it was known then by, special effect. When the character on the left side of the table bends down you can see part of the traveling mattes edges it almost looks like a video effect! Last night we screened the print for the second time on the big screen! This picture was excellent! Love S.Z. Sakall - he's always a rip in any picture! Kay Francis was a beautiful woman! Brian Aherne was a top notch fine actor! The plot has been done a few times, once by my good friend and former boss Richard L. Bare and his fine picture "This Side Of The Law" 1950 for Warner Brothers. Of course the sexual innuendos in both films are hilariously bazaar! Think about it, getting to have sex with a woman you have never seen before who thinks you are her husband!? Sounds good to me! At 72 minutes it's a gem of a picture! Love it when she puts her high heel in Aherne's face in the back seat of the car near the end of the picture! Suck it baby! Best of all, here comes my standard comment: There are no woman with colored hair, no actors covered with stupid tattoos, no bad language, no cell phones, I-phones, smart phones, dumb phones, computers, covid-19 masks, ridiculous car chases, dumb teenagers, horrible rock music, rap music, new country music (which is just rock 'n roll) no television sets, sex scenes, people yelling at each other for no reason, and no unnecessary diversity in the cast, unlike movies now, you've got to toss in everything from women from Swahili to LGBTTQQIAA++++! (Whatever that means?) I give it ten stars for that alone! No political correctness in my screening room, no way! Now where did I put that Covid-19 mask? How are
we going to eat the bird with a mask on? Happy Thanksgiving 2020!
