Stan & Ollie in Toyland

 

 (wikipedia)

MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS-1934-In Toyland, whose occupants include Mother Goose (Virginia Karns), the three little pigs (one is Angelo Rossitto), Jack Horner and the cat and the fiddle,the repugnant Barnaby (Henry Brandon) wants to make Bo-Peep (Charlotte Henry) his wife. She rebuffs him but Barnaby demands The Widow Peep (Florence Roberts) come up with the rent she doesn't have. Two of her tenants Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) & Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy) are toy makers at the local factory. Bo-Peep really likes Tom-Tom (Felix Knight). Santa Claus visits to check out the toy soldiers he ordered but of course Stan got the order wrong and they're fired but not before an errant toy soldier wrecks the place. At one point Stan actually marries Barnaby to stop him from pursuing Bo-Beep! When Barnaby can't get Bo he frames Tom Tom for the murder of one of the pigs. When that doesn't work, he enlists The Boogeymen to conquer Toyland. Scenes of the wooden soldiers coming to life and defeating The Boogeymen is still quite bizarre and unsettling at times. 

As a kid this was a perennial favorite around Thanksgiving. Produced by Hal Roach and based on an operetta by Victor Herbert, two directors are credited: Gus Meins who was also directing “Our Gang” shorts at this time and Charles “Charley” Rogers, a pal of Stan Laurel's, who directed several of their short comedies and later worked with them on THE BOHEIMIAN GIRL.

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Slaptick Dictator

THE DEVIL WITH HITLER-1942-This 44 minute slaptick comedy from Hal Roach studios has Gesatan, the devil (Alan Mowbray) trying to save his job as boss of Hell because the other devils want to replace him with Adolf Hitler! He goes to Earth to try and make Hitler (Bobby Watson) do a good deed. Joe Devlin is Mussolini and George E. Stone is Suki Yaki. There's a lot of slapstick, one liners and jokes about executions. The freaky part is when Hitler talks about how horrible concentration camps are!

It's very much in the vein of the 3 Stooges shorts YOU NAZTY SPY! and I'LL NEVER HEIL AGAIN (both made first). Douglas Fowley plays an insurance salesman and Herman Bing is a Nazi astrologer who's executed. Philip Van Zandt, John Miljan and Rudolph Anders have un-credited roles. In the end Hitler is chased by devils with pitchforks and Gesatan promises: "This is only the beginning, folks!".

Director Gordon Douglas had made SAPS AT SEA with Laurel & Hardy the year before and later made THEM!. Watson portrayed Hitler at least 9 times during the 1940's.

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Happy Easter Triple Play!

PEEPING TOM-1960-A quiet German guy (Carl Boehm) works with a film crew and takes photographs and his own films in his spare time. Unfortunately most of the films are POV shots of him killing women with a tripod like dagger. Other films in his collection show his scientist father used him as an experiment. A female tenant (Anna Massey) befriends him but her blind mother is suspicious.

This is a great unique thriller from director Michael Powell. It also features Moira Sheara (also in Powell’s THE RED SHOES), Esmond Knight and Pamela Green.







SISTERS!-1973-This cult film is Brian DePalma’s first horror outing. It was downhill from there!

Margot Kidder plays French Canadian model separated from her Siamese twin sister who seems to be a psychotic killer. After appearing on a game show called “Peeping Tom” she spends the night with a contestant (while her weird looking husband hangs around outside). The contestant winds up stabbed to death. A local reporter (Jennifer Salt) witnesses the murder but can’t get the police to believe her. The whole thing is very predictable and some of the dialogue is pretty dumb. Also Kidder talks with a French accent that eventually becomes quite annoying.

DePalma hadn’t yet mastered the “ripping off” of Hitchcock but he used other sources (like Thomas Tryon’s THE OTHER and maybe DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT). Also with Charles Durning, William Finley, Barnard Hughes, Dolph Sweet and Olympia Dukakis. DePalma made PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE next.


ONE MILLION B.C.-1940-This Hal Roach produced prehistoric story tells the tale of two cave tribes, Except for some opening intro scenes there is no distinguishable dialogue. The cave tribes’ minimal speech is mostly grunts and hand gestures. QUEST FOR FIRE used the same device 40 years later.

Victor Mature stars as the egotistical Tumak who is banished from his tribe by his father/leader (Lon Chaney Jr.) who rules with an iron hand. Tumak wanders around and eventually meets Loana (Carole Landis) and The Shell Tribe who are less aggressive and like to share things. They fall in love and he takes her back to his people. The special effects are very good and the scenes of real lizards fighting each other in miniature sets were re-used in countless later low budget movies.

The opening sequence features former silent screen star Conrad Nagel relating the story to some travelers but after we meet the prehistoric folk the story never goes back to him.

Lead caveman Victor Mature was one of the worst actors ever to become a star. And he never denied it. Here he was still a contract player but he’d attain stardom six years later in John Ford’s MY DARLIN’ CELMENTINE.

Co-star Carole Landis should have become a star to but languished in B-movies most of her career and committed suicide at age 29 in 1948.

As the head of Tumak’s tribe Lon Chaney Jr. really throws himself into the role. He’d caused a stir just a year before with his poignant portrayal of Lenny, doomed rabbit loving strongman in the movie version of John Steinbeck’s OF MICE AND MEN. A year later his life would be forever changed with the lead in a little horror movie called THE WOLF MAN!

Both Hal Roach Sr. & Jr. are the credited directors. Is this the only time and father and son co-directed a film?

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The Fur Flies

WHO KILLED DOC ROBBIN?-(1948)-This is a Technicolor haunted house mystery produced by Hal Roach and starring a bunch of "Little Rascals" wannabes. There's a freckled face coward, a smart guy, the tough leader, 2 girls and two younger black kids "affectionally" called Dis & Dat which takes ethnic stereotyping to new heights (or depths). "The Gang" spends a lot of time in the haunted home of a dead scientist, where they are terrorized by an ape (guy in a costume ), trap doors and other nonsense. In a flashback we learn "Doc" is a suspicious doctor (George Zucco) who wants the invention of an old man who is a friend of the brats. Although it is dated 1948 some "war time" references to Japan seem to say it might have been made earlier.

If you want to see low budget color mysteries watch SCARED TO DEATH instead. Not only does it have Zucco but it's Bela Lugosi's only color film...and it's narrated by a dead woman!!!!

CATMAN OF PARIS-(1946)-Republic Studios was best known for their low budget westerns and serials but occasionally ventured into adventure, action or like this entry, horror.

Carl Esmond (a US actor born in Austria who had a short Hollywood career) plays author Charles Rene who may turn into a catman due to a bout with tropical fever. Douglas Dumbrille plays his friend. Lenore Aubert (later in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) is his fiance'. He has bouts of amnesia and can't remember where he was when a murder occurs (so you know right away he ain't the killer!).

He has a wild fight in a cafe with four guys (including Anthony Caruso and John Dehner). It turns out that the cat like creature appears every once in the while when the planets are aligned a certain way. Massacre of Christians, Middle East wars and the victims of Ivan The Terrible are all blamed on him! The wild police team of Gerald Mohr and Fritz Feld try to figure it all out.

A creature does show up at the end ("It really is a catman" declares Mohr) with furry face, fangs and pointy finger nails. Everyone has terrible French accents. Director Lesley Selander was an assistant director from 1925 to 1936 before he directed his first film. He made over 130 movies until his retirement in 1968. Star Esmond was later in low budget stuff like FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and AGENT OF H.A.R.M. Douglas Dumbrille usually played villains or corrupt officials several times against The Marx Bros. and Abbott & Costello. Gerald Mohr was an actor and narrator who voiced "Reed Richards" in the first FANTASTIC FOUR cartoon show in the '60's.

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