Wednesday, December 24, 2008

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!



HAPPY DAYS-1926-This silent comedy features the comic strip character Winnie Winkle but the main focus of this short is her brother Perry and his rag tag baseball team “The Rinky Dinks” (obviously inspired by “Our Gang”). They play a team of black kids but some of them are obviously whites in black face and some racist type humor is shown. There’s a fat kid too. The funniest part is when a dance instructor tells the gang to follow exactly what he does and then a frog goes down his shirt and he gyrates crazily and the kids copy his every move.

The comic strip Winnie Winkle (also called “The Breadwinner”) was created by Martin Branner (who also wrote this short) and had an incredible run of over 75 years! Star Ethlyn Gibson played Winnie Winkle in around 10 silent productions. Billy Butts is Perry.

Director Arvid E. Gillstrom was originally from Sweden and made over 100 films, most of them silent.



FELIX THE CAT SAVES THE DAY-1922-This is a great example of early animation featuring Pat Sullivan’s feline character. The animation is crude but this was 1922! It uses live action scenes and still photos (and a little racist humor) to tell the tale of how Felix saves a big baseball game after getting his pal Willie thrown in jail. Amazing! Sullivan was also the producer. The un-credited director is Otto Messmer who directed many more silent Felix films that I'd like to see!

Thanks for reading!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Bettie & Jack

First things first:

RIP Bettie Page....



Now for a movie:



KILL A DRAGON-1967-Mercenary good guy Rick Masters (Jack Palance) agrees to help some old Chinese men return some special cargo to Hong Kong. He gets help from frustrated tour guide Aldo Ray (who was in RIOT ON THE SUNSET STRIP the same year), Don Knight and some Karate guy (Hans Lee). Fernando Lamas is Patrai the “mafia of Macao” who wants the cargo. Ray appears in drag in one scene!

Director Michael D. Moore was a second unit director who made a few other movies including 2 movies starring singers: Roy Orbison in THE FASTEST GUITAR ALIVE and Elvis in PARADISE HAWAII STYLE.

According to The Internet Movie Database he was also a child actor in silent films!

"Even if you’re on the right track you’ll get run over if you just sit there"-Will Rogers

Thanks for reading!

Monday, December 8, 2008

RIP FJA



Forrest J. Ackerman-Rest In Peace