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jlewis77-1

Joined Dec 2008
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jlewis77-1's rating
Desert Killer

Desert Killer

5.1
6
  • Mar 18, 2011
  • The "killer" is just one big pussycat.

    Five year old "injun" Little Sure Foot has trouble guarding his flock of sheep against a marauding mountain lion in the mountains of Arizona. His daddy passed away recently and mom is too busy trying to earn a meager living selling her beaded crafts to tourists. Using a roly-poly puppy as a "gift exchange", he gets help from his grown up friend Marvin Glenn and his teenage son Warner, professional puma patrol.

    What results is a one-reel outing that closely resembles the couple "bring 'em back alive" shorts (also done by Warner Brothers, as well as Paramount) featuring Florida's Ross Allen roping bobcats in the Everglades. Then again, the Out West cougar seen here looks a trifle less ferocious (despite the dubbed African lion sounds) than those smaller Easterners, even if his prey comes from the sheep and cattle herds. As usual, he does what most felines do best: climb a tree to flee the hounds and chew off his ropes.

    With hokey cowpoke narration by Art Gilmore (previously heard in Joe McDoakes comedies and other "Sports Parades"), you just know the kiddies in the movie audience were hardly frighten by the heart-stoppin' adventures here. (In fact, most of you will question why this actually got Oscar nominated.)

    Won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that this was made by the same director as several fluffy Walt Disney pics, like STORMY, THE THOROUGHBRED WITH AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX and the Oscar winner THE WETBACK HOUND. He alternated between Disney and Warner Bros. during the early fifties, also doing for Warner a cute seal-and-girl story STRANGER IN THE LIGHTHOUSE and a less critter friendly, but another nominee two years later, BEAUTY AND THE BULL featuring bullfighter Bette Ford.
    Spills and Chills

    Spills and Chills

    6.7
    10
  • Mar 18, 2011
  • Definitely lives up to its title... and only ten minutes long!

    Time-Warner is finally, if slowly, releasing some of these "docu-shorts" that Robert Youngson made before his popular feature THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY. In the late forties and fifties, critics at the time routinely praised these above even the "March of Time" and Disney "True Life Adventures" and Oscar nominations were frequent. Now, that three titles have made it to DVD as "extras", it is easy to see what all of the fuss was about. They cull the very best newsreel clips, presented with enthusiastic narration, fast-paced editing and swirling orchestration that only a major studio could provide.

    Think of these as Ken Burns TV shows sped up on caffeine. Even the opening titles pack a lot: SPILLS AND CHILLS rolls its credits over aerial shots of New York City shot from a daredevil's point of view. The fact that the footage is even older today (dating circa 1916 to mid '40s with the twenties emphasized) makes it all the more fascinating, since most modern viewers will be new to folks like Lillian Boyer, John "Jammie" Reynolds, Mildred Unger and many others who will leave your jaw dropped to the ground.

    This title is definitely NOT for those afraid of heights, speed or extreme temperature. We have a very young Mildred riding the top of a balloon, Lillian performing trapeze stunts under a plane without a parachute, Paris bridge jumps, a prize fight high over Manhattan, jump-roping on a skyscraper scaffold, human "flies" scaling buildings and "teeter-tottering" chairs along rooftop edges. Some additional motorcycle and car crash scenes here (like the famous one crashing through a shed) may have inspired the comic gags with Gene Kelly early in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. This was an era when most Americans weren't at all terrified by death, the insurance agencies hadn't taken charge yet and the filmmakers had super strong stomachs watching through their lenses.
    The Alphabet Conspiracy

    The Alphabet Conspiracy

    7.5
    8
  • Mar 31, 2010
  • Over-the-top, but highly entertaining, Bell Science installment

    The Bell Science TV specials that feature Frank Baxter as "Mr. Research" have certainly etched themselves in a great many Baby Boomer and Generation Xer minds, being a regular part of the US public (and private) school curriculum well into the 1980s. To the cinema enthusiast, they have plenty of interesting credits and can conveniently be split into two "phases". The first four were produced and directed by Frank Capra on a somewhat modest scale, with just an "imagination screen" where most of the action takes place, and are a trifle more preachy and "religious" in tone. The later four came from Warner Bros. (with its in-house animators and directors like Owen Crump) and, despite their more straight-forward and "secular" approach, boast over-the-top art direction and production sets that only a major Burbank studio can provide.

    It is obvious which batch THE ALPHABET CONSPIRACY belongs to. Frank Baxter, the ever smiling bald host, takes homework-ridden Judy into a dream-like fantasy-land full of over-sized books and assorted props that the WB set department must have loved working on. Hans Conried provides high comedy as the Mad Hatter in a spoof of Lewis Carroll, as he attempts to destroy the alphabet and "words" in general. (Both he and Frank Baxter were veteran voices of "old time" radio: check out "CBS Radio Workshop: Joe Miller's Joke Book" from 11/4/56 for a half-hour program which sounds just like an "audio" Bell Science show.) What results is a history and study of human speech and dialect, starting with baby talk and including such novelty subjects as whistling calls in the Canary Islands. Great use of Warner's stock footage (from its many live-action short subjects in addition to outside sources) and funny animation from the Friz Freleng unit (done in between Bugs Bunny cartoons) adds to the light-hearted lecturing.

    What makes all of these shows so endearing is Baxter's enthusiasm for the material he presents, as well as his attempts to "fit in" with the current generation. Case in point is his hilarious attempts to speak "beat jive" to Shorty Rogers, the jazzy "dig it" hip-cat. (We could easily picture him attempting hip-hop lingo had this been made in the eighties.) Most importantly, he never talks down to his audience, but "shares" with them the Big Bright Wonderful World he's exploring.

    Fans of this series often have mixed opinions of THE ALPHABET CONSPIRACY, because it is the most over-produced of the bunch, with the material being a bit too "sugar-coated" and less "in-depth" than the others. Apparently there was some criticism back in 1959, since the following production THREAD OF LIFE was made in a much more low-key manner (with people on TV monitors conversing with Baxter). THAT one proved too "dry", so they returned to the Over-The-Top treatment (but with some moderation) in ABOUT TIME.
    See all reviews

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