Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story

Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story (2002)

**** (out of 4)

This documentary, taken from Leonard Maltin's book, tells the story of how short films were a major force behind the studios from 1926 until the late 50s. The movie takes its time in showing all of the studio and what films they were working on. We see clips from Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Three Stooges, Pete Smith, Joe McDoakes, Traveltalk, Crime Does Not Pay and various other popular series. This documentary does a great job at telling the story of these films and we also get all kinds of information that I didn't really think about before. There's also talk of how many of the shorts are what drew people to the theaters instead of the actual feature. There's a lot of stories being told and I'm sure each of these series could have gotten their own documentaries but this film is a good place for people to start. You get audio interviews from Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach as well as live interviews from various members of the Our Gang series as well as current stars. Chevy Chase narrates.