It's another disappointing trip to Cartoonland...

Alice Gets Stung (1925)
Starring: Virginia Davis

Director: Walt Disney

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A cat chases a rabbit while bears make music and dance. It just another day in Cartoonland until Alice (Davis) decides to help that cat and then go bear hunting.

The "Alice in Cartoonland" series was an early effort from Walt Disney and a studio of animators. It's similar in concept to Max Fleischer's "Out of the Inkwell" series in that it merges live action footage with animation, but where Fleischer had animated characters invading the Real World, Disney had a young girl have adventures in the animated universe. Sadly, the Disney effort appears to be inferior to the Fleischer films it was modeled after. In fact, the ones I've seen so far are so weak that I am astonished more than fifty were produced and distributed. 

"Alice Gets Stung" is both one of the best entries I've seen in the series so far, as well as one of the worst.

On the plus side, the animation in this installment is very playful and there's some fun and creative use of cartoon physics during the action scenes. Alice also interacts with her environment more than in most of the others in the series I've previously seen, such as picking up and moving a fire hydrant and even getting in on the cartoon physics action (although in a minor, but still quite creative and visually exciting, way). The level of looping and dragging out gags until they stop being funny is also minimal when compared to previous efforts.

On the negative side, the film is little more than a jumble of disconnected visual gags and set pieces. While they are more innovative and wild than in other outings, there needed to  be a little more of a narrative thread tying them together. Then there's the fact that once a story-thread begins to emerge, Alice ends up as the villain in her own series, attacking bears that are doing nothing more malicious than playing music and dancing in the woods. At least, after Alice tries to murder them, one of the bers is able to turn the tables on her... which leads to the event of the film's title. (I can only assume that Walt Disney was traumatized by a dancing bear as a child, because he seems to have a serious hatred for them.)

I know that I am not the audience for the "Alice in Cartoonlands", as I am not a six-year-old in the 1920s, but I am fairly confident that six-year-old me in the 1970s would have strongly disliked Alice. I keep hoping to find timeless, commercial savvy that Disney displayed later on in these early efforts, but so far I'm not seeing it. Life is too short to spend on things I know I'm not going to enjoy, so Alice will get one or two more views before I decide they are best left in the compost heap of cinematic history.

In the meantime, though, you can watch "Alice Gets Stung" by clicking below. You can also tell me if you think I'm being too harsh or have completely missed the point with my review in the comments section. (You can also agree if you like!)

Alice strikes out in the cartoon big league

Alice in the Big League (1927)
Starring: Lois Hardwick
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Alice proves herself to be the worst baseball umpire in Cartoonland.

A few weeks ago, I posted a review of "Alice's Wonderland" (1923).  In it, I commented that I hoped the "Alice" series would improve over its 50+ episode run. By sheer chance, I recently came across the final entry in the series. Titled "Alice in the Big League" in was released in 1927. It was once considered a lost film, but now there are several different versions available on YouTube.

That said, I can't really recommend it. It's like Disney and his animators stretched three-four minutes of material to fill the eight-minute running time with looped animation, by pounding gags to death, and otherwise delivering a product that makes the Van Beuren output from around this same time absolutely brilliant and the conceptually similar "Out of the Inkwell" series from Fleischer the product of the gods themselves.

 
Although the animated characters aren't as creepily lifeless as they were in the early "Alice" episodes--their eyes aren't quite as dead here as they were in "Wonderland--the degree of integration between the live-action footage and animation has not improved at all. It might even have gotten worse. Take a look at the still used at the top of this post and then look at this one: 

You'd think Alice would be somewhere behind the pitcher mound in the long shot of the game, but she isn't. Even worse, the animators drew a shadow for the soap box the pitcher is standing in, but not one for Alice. This persistent continuity glitch annoys probably more than it should, but it's the most glaring sign that this series probably never came close to "Out of the Inkwell" in quality. Even the film's final moment--where Alice flees cartoon characters enraged by her bad calls--is sloppily done.

On the positive side, I found the various visual gags relating to baseball amusing, and, if the various sequences hadn't be dragged out beyond all reason, I think I would have loved the variety of ways the cartoon characters cheated at the game. Naturally, Alice never called them on the cheating though; all of her calls for of the "umpire, are you blind?!?!" variety. Also, a little more effort appears to have gone into the crowds than in early episodes, and I previously mentioned that the characters didn't seem quite as dead inside as those in the first installment did. But I'm not sure if the visual gags and slightly better animation are enough for you to devote eight minutes of your life to watching this weak effort. The only people I could recommend this short film to are those committed to watching EVERY available "Alice in Cartoonland" film, EVERY baseball-based comedy, or those who love baseball gags so much they thought the "NUELOW Baseball Special" equal parts funny and informative. (Actually, and this might be perceived as arrogant and self-serving, but I think this booklet by L.L. Hundal, Sam Hamm, and myself is far funnier than "Alice in the Big League". Some of the same gags are even implemented better in our product than in the cartoon.)

As mentioned above, "Alice in the Big League" was the final entry in this series. Maybe there was less effort put into this one than others for that reason, so there might still be some better ones between the very first "Alice in Cartoonland" and this last one. I will be watching a few more to find out.

 I am hoping that I DO find some better installments of the series. Although we don't get to see much of Lois Hardwick, who plays Alice in the one, we do see enough to give me the impression that she's a better actress than the original Alice. 

If you want to judge the quality of this cartoon for yourself, or want to watch a film that was once considered lost, it's embedded below for easy viewing!

'Alice's Wonderland' isn't wonderful

Alice's Wonderland (1923)
Starring: Virginia Davis and Walt Disney
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Three of Ten Stars

The night after visiting the studio where Walt Disney (Disney) and his fellow animators give life to cartoon characters, little Alice (Davis) is transported to Cartoonland as she sleeps. Here, she's treated like a superstar by the cartoon animals... except for the savage lions who want to make her their dinner!

"Alice's Wonderland" (1923) was an early effort from Walt Disney. It spawned a series that ran from 1923 through 1927, with some installments produced... although judging from what's offered in this first one it's a little surprising it even spawned one sequel. 

 
Released as part of the "Laugh-o-Gram" anthology series, each episode "Alice" merged live-action footage with animation in a similar way to what Max Fleischer had been doing with his "Out of the Inkwell" series starring Ko-Ko the Clown. Unfortunately, Fleischer's team did a much better job with this sort of thing that Disney and his cohorts were able to do. In fact, at this stage in the history of animation, and even standard filmmaking, Fleischer & Co. were far, FAR out of Disney's league.

Even at its best--when the live action footage dominates over the animated during the film's first few minutes--this film is clumsy and pedestrian when compared to even early "Out of the Inkwell" installments. From the very beginning, Fleischer attempted to seamlessly merge reality and animation, while Disney barely attempts that, instead mostly keeping the animated characters on a page, even if they are able to interact and acknowledge the "real people" beyond their two-dimensional world. There is nothing like the overlapping of animation and live footage that is commonplace in the Fleischer films.

Where "Alice's Wonderland" truly fails, though, is in the animation department. The jokes and sight gags are uninspired, the character designs are lazy, and the animation is so lazy that it makes the film unintentionally creepy: Most of the animated characters have dead, lifeless eyes and faces. The parade scene from which the still illustrating this review was taken becomes unintentionally creepy because no one blinks, no one shifts their heads to look at Alice as she passes by... they just stand there, frozen. In fact, the parade ends up feeling a bit like some sort of time loop, as the elephant-riding Alice passes the same group of onlookers, over and over, as they stand paralyzed. Alice may be oblivious to the horror of the situation, but I wasn't.

A perhaps even bigger problem is that the second half of the film is made up of sequences that go on entirely too long. Even the amusing climactic chase scene--with Alice fleeing or fighting a pack of hungry lions--goes on and on and on for long enough to become tedious.

"Alice's Wonderland" is yet another early effort from Walt Disney that makes me think he might have been far better at spotting, hiring, and managing creative talent than doing the creating himself. It's another of his early films that has moments, but the overall the bad drags down the good.

But don't just take my word for all of that. Take a few minutes to watch the film for yourself. Let us all know in the comments below if you agree or disagree with my take. (Meanwhile, I'll watch a few more entries in this series to see if they get better and more competently executed as time goes by.)

The Big Cheese has a visit from the Mouse

Big Cheese (1930)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (but there are no important spoken lines)
Directors: John Foster and Manny Davis
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A boxer from the rough side of town trains for the big prize fight while bullying all who crosses his path.

"Big Cheese" is one of the lesser efforts from the Van Beuren animators--there's excessive looping, gags that get dragged out past the point of being funny, and sloppy animation that leads to character's changing appearances for no reason. Oftentimes, such weak efforts are saved by excellent music and/or songs, but that's not even the case here. There are just enough gags that work to hold a viewer's, and there's also a healthy dose of bizarre, surreal, and out-of-left-field cartoon character transformations to keep the "what the hell am I watching" quotient at an acceptable and entertaining level. And the prize match is mostly hilarious--even if they don't quite pull off the ending.

Despite its overall weakness, this COULD have been a Five-Star rated cartoon, or perhaps even a Low Six if someone, at some point during the production process, had said, "Hey... this story-thread that starts when our Mickey Mouse look-alike character shows up? We just sort of drop it when it really should come back around in the big finale! In fact, we set it up perfectly to do so--so why don't we do it?!" (Basically, Mickey Mouse gets bullied by the boxer, gains super-strength, and then wanders around a bit punching things. If someone who worked on "Big Cheese" had even the slightest notion of how to tell a story, he would have been present for the chaotic brawl at the end of the cartoon, and he would have kicked everyone's butt.)

I have perhaps given a mild spoiler above, but I don't think so. At most, I've given you what you need to not waste your time with this one, if you're a Van Beuren fan. (On the other hand, if you enjoy a good boxing spoof, you'll like boxing match during the second half... and if you're on a quest to watch all the appearances of the Van Beuren Mickey Mouse knock-off [like me], then you'll want to check this out by clicking below.)

'Barnyard Melody' is a song of madness

Barnyard Melody (1929)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Directors: John Foster and Harry Bailey
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Animals form a singing group, and a farmer lends his voice to their cacophonous effort.

Among the cartoons you should never watch while high or really drunk is "Barnyard Melody". Even stone-cold sober, in a well-ventilated room, and after a good night's sleep, when it's over, you may find yourself questioning if you really just saw what you think you saw.

The best Van Beuren cartoons are wild rides of surreal weirdness. This one starts promising--with a mouse and a cat roller-skating down the road--but the opening also suffers from what ends up sinking this entire cartoon: There is just one single gag that isn't dragged out beyond the point where it stops being amusing and becomes tedious... and that gag is among the weakest the film has to offer.

There's a lot of very funny moments and/or cute moments in this film, but they are all ruined by the way they are dragged out and just go on and on and on. Some are even just the same animation sequence being looped three or more times. It's like instead of coming up with material, they padded a four-minute cartoon until it ran six minutes. Given that this cartoon feels like it's a two-minute bit (an old man joins some animals in a musical group) that was padded out to short-film length with random jokes and surreal bits that make little sense in or out of the context of the film, the fact that so much of it feels padded is even more frustrating. Since this was already a mess of random stuff that was just thrown together between the opening and closing credits, would it REALLY have been that hard to come up with a few more situations?

This is often the point in a review of a Van Beuren cartoon where I often talk about how great the music is. Generally, even the most wretched, badly animated, plotless messes from the shop at least has spectacular music that is artfully coordinated with whatever is unfolding on screen. The music here is... well, interesting. As always, it's well integrated with the action on screen, but in this case that means it must, out of necessity, be intentionally bad. It should come as no surprise that animals who aren't birds aren't that great at singing. The music in this short is up to the usual Van Beuren standards and fits the cartoon perfectly, but this means it's more whacky than what a sane person would describe as "good".

There's a lot to like about "Barnyard Melody", but it's almost overwhelmed by the sense of tedium that replaces the initial amusement or curiosity that you'll feel when a new scene begins. The fact there are some good and fun ideas here made me give this Four Stars. I still think it's worth seeing if you've liked other Van Beuren releases, or if you just want to experience something a little strange. (And, hey, maybe you should watch it high or drunk? I could have it backwards--maybe being in an altered state is the BEST way to experience this one!)

Click below to check out "Barnyard Melody".

Note: The bearded farmer in this film appears in a bunch of the Aesop Fables cartoons. I've seen the character referred to as Farmer Grey or as Al Falfa in writers about the Van Beuren releases, but I've not yet seen one where his name was spelled out. Time will tell if this is a Milton & Rita-type situation where the name is identified in sources other than the actual cartoons, or if I will come across actual mentions as I view more of Van Beuren's output.

'Sinister Stuff' doesn't deliver enough

Sinister Stuff (1934)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Director: Steve Muffati
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Cubby the Bear must save his lady love from the villainous wolf who holds the mortgage to the home she shares with her aged mother.

"Sinister Stuff" is one of at least 18 cartoons featuring Cubby the Bear that appeared during the run of the the Aesop's Fables cartoon anthology series. Like pretty much everything from the Van Beuren animation shop, the episodes vary greatly in quality. This one is at the lower end of the scale; there are worse ones out there, but there are also far better ones.

The strong points of "Sinister Stuff" include the music. As is often the case with Van Beuren efforts, the music is excellent and it's very important in this film where the characters don't sing, but they do all speak in verse and rhymes. The end result is the sense that we're watching a weird operetta, and it feels very appropriate since it's a spoof of old-time melodramas. 

The animation here is also superior to what is present in many Van Beuren efforts, with details both in the backgrounds and foregrounds as characters go through their antics. This better-than-average animation also augments and elevates the hilarity and oddness of the several bicycle gags featured (even if one is dragged down slightly by some looping).

The supporting characters are also a lot of fun, from the villain's three sidekicks (who must be related to the weirdos that stiffed Tom & Jerry for cab fare back in 1931) to the fretting mother about to be homeless. In fact, the three sidekicks are the center of the film's funniest moments.

Unfortunately, the bad in this film outweighs all those good parts... and the bad all revolves around story. It starts off well enough as a straight-forward spoof of the stereotypical melodramas with a mustache-twirling villain kidnapping the hero's lady love and putting her in an extreme danger than only he can rescue her from. As it builds toward the climax, however, it begins to fall apart: Jokes are set up that don't pay off, the cartoon-comedy battle between the villain and the hero ranks among the lamest I've ever seen, and the ending just sort of falls flat (although it does reflect the late Pre-Code period in which this film was produced.

Perhaps the most damning thing about "Sinister Stuff" is that as I was watching it, I found myself thinking that Van Beuren's team had done a similar thing much better back in 1929 (and even that effort wasn't all that good).

But don't just take my word for it. If you have a few moments, click below and watch "Sinister Stuff"... if nothing else, I think you'll enjoy the bits with the three sidekicks.

'Laundry Blues' may not be for youse

Do you like using the word "problematic"? Do you think everyone and everything (including you) is racist?

If you answered "yes" to those questions, you should NOT watch the cartoon embedded below. We here at Shades of Gray tend to roll our eyes whenever someone starts bitching about how problematic and racist everything is... but even we found ourselves somewhat shocked by this... um... Chinese-themed cartoon. And "shocked" is not an overstatement.

Seriously: If you see racism in all things and/or find yourself gasping and looking around for the fainting couch when you encounter racist stereotypes, don't watch "Laundry Blues". By the time its 8-minute running time is over, you will  in a fetal position on the floor, blubbering incoherently. (If all the Oriental racism doesn't get you, the random out-of-left-field Jewish gag will.)

Actually, even if you aren't overly sensitive to issues of race and stereotypes, you might want to skip this one. Even if you try to set aside the societal changes that have taken place in the decades since "Laundry Blues" was released, this is one of the weaker efforts from the notoriously inconsistent quality-wise Van Beuren animation department. There's no plot to get in the way of the barely amusing, not terribly creative gags. The animation is okay--and there's a little more effort put into backgrounds than in many Van Beuren cartoons--but there's nothing that's particularly memorable. There isn't even much of the surrealism that often elevates Van Beuren cartoons in this one... plus, it's yet another one that features that creepy bit where multiple singing characters merge into one being via their mouths. (Why, John Foster? Why did you love that "gag" so much?)

All in all, "Laundry Blues" is a cartoon that time may have left behind. Like most Van Beuren efforts, it's got some great music, but sometimes it's hard to enjoy even that because what's on screen is so outrageous when viewed through 21st Century eyes. (Heck, even in 1930 there must have been some people in the audience who thought this was a bit much.)

We're giving this one a low Four Rating, with the nicely done musical score and songs lifting it up from a low Three.

As always, we invite you to check out the Van Beuren cartoon we cover here by clicking on the embedded video below. Maybe you can even share your opinion in the comments section. Just don't say we didn't warn you!

Laundry Blues (1930)

Starring: Anonymous Singers

Directors:  John Foster and Mannie Davis

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

'The Law of the Tong' is saved by its interesting main characters

The Law of the Tong (1931)
Starring: Phyllis Barrington, Jason Robards, John Harron, Frank Lackteen, and Dot Farley

Director: Lewis D. Collins

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

An honorable Chinese gangster (Robards) has a chance encounter with a dancehall girl (Barrington) that ends up changing both their lives forever.

"The Law of the Tong" is a somewhat dull affair with a story that features a mix of interesting and inexplicably stupid characters, as well as equal parts halfhearted moralizing, nonsensical Orientalism, and underdeveloped intrigue.

The film would be unwatchable if not for a pair of interesting characters at its center--Joan (Phyllis Barrington), and Charlie Wong (Jason Robards). Wong is a Chinese gangster whose agendas and ultimate goal is utterly inscrutable. He is clearly operating a human smuggling ring, and he is involved in a gang war, but he claims that his objective is to bring poor Chinese people into the United States where they can enjoy the better life he has found. He is also never anything but courteous and respectful toward Joan and he goes FAR out of his way to help her and turn her life away from an inevitable slide into prostitution. Meanwhile, Joan emerges as a fascinating character when she become caught in the middle between her friendship with Charlie Wong and the nerdy, self-righteous undercover detective Doug (John Harron) who is going to get himself killed while trying to bring down Wong's smuggling ring. In a better, slightly longer film, there would probably have been more development of Wong and Joan... I for one would have enjoyed getting to know both of them better.

I think this film also shows that it's a shame Phyllis Barrington only made a dozen or so movies. She lights up the screen whenever she appears, and her charisma shines brightly both opposite Robards and Harron. 

And speaking of Harron: The third main character in the film, Doug, is interesting only insofar as he is not as bland and uninteresting as the supposed romantic leads in these sorts of films tend to be; otherwise, he is merely the catalyst that leads to Joan's fateful first encounter with Wong. I might have included Doug in the reasons that makes the film worth watching, but the usual blandness is replaced by self-righteousness augmented by stupidity. (He follows Joan to work at the dancehall and then gets outraged--OUTRAGED!--when she dances with customers.)

Aside from its underdeveloped main characters and story, this film is also harmed by the habit of having white actors in "yellow face" portray Asian characters. It's something that looks strange to modern viewers, and, as good as Jason Robards is as Charlie Wong, and Frank Lackteen is as the villainous Yuen, I've no doubt that there were equally talented actors of some East Asian extraction that could have filled those roles. (Heck, one only has to look to "The Secrets of Wu Sin" (1932) for proof of that. Both films are on the same double-feature DVD from Alpha Video.)

Of Wolves and Girls in Hoods: Walt Disney

Before he ascended into legendary status as a producer and entertainment industry mogul, Walt Disney was himself an animator and created his own cartoons. Based on his "Little Red Riding Hood" adaptation, we think he made the right decision to move from being a creator to the guy who hired and managed the creators, and eventually to managing those who managed those who hired the creators. He had great talent for the latter, but not so much for the former.

Case in point: Walt Disney's adaptation of "The Little Red Riding Hood" fairy tale.

Little Red Riding Hood (1922)
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Little Red Riding Hood leads to Grandmother's house, but the Wolf sets his lustful sights upon her.

"Little Red Riding Hood" takes the well-known fairy tale and updates it to modern (well, 1920s modern) times. It's an animated short film of historical significance because it's an early work of Walt Disney--the first of six he made for the Laugh-O-Gram series. (We already reviewed the last one he made... because we're all organized and stuff.) Beyond that, there isn't much to recommend you spending time on it; there are some good ideas here, but they are mostly badly executed.

The opening sequence with a creative donut-making method goes on for too long, and it's a shade of things to come: There isn't a portion of this film that doesn't outstay its welcome, no matter how cute or clever it seems at the outset, be it Red Riding Hood's dog-powered car, the Wolf making his way to Grandmother's house, or the climactic rescue sequence where the Wolf ultimately gets what's coming to him. If this six-minute film had been three or four minutes long, it may have been far more entertaining. As it is, it just drags on and on and on...

And that's a real shame, because the ideas in each those bits are actually quite good and had all sorts of potential. The aforementioned donut-making sequence starts out funny and ultimately leads to an amusing, if a little macabre, gag, but it drags on and on. Gags that take place during the driving sequences featuring either Little Red Riding Hood or the Wolf are amusing, but they are also padded beyond their ability to be entertaining.

The one saving grace of the film is its villain. We don't get to see much of him, but what we do see paints him as an obnoxious womanizer with cool magical powers. He's also clearly a rapist who intends to force himself on Little Red Riding Hood, but she fend him off in an epic battle that literally threatens to blow the roof off Grandmother's house. Of course, we don't get to see any of it this fight--only the outside of the house in which it takes place, because that might actually be entertaining.

If you have a few minutes to waste, you can check out Disney's "Little Red Riding Hood" by clicking below. 

 

Early Disney version of 'Cinderella' disappoints

There's a new version of "Cinderella" debuting on Amazon Prime on September 3. To prepare, we're watching and reviewing some of the more obscure versions of the tale from yester-year. This time, it's an early effort from Walt Disney!

Cinderella (1922)
Director: Walt Disney

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

It's a modern-day (well, modern-day in 1922), slightly wonky retelling of a classic fairy tale about the abused girl who gets the prince with the help of a magical Fairy Godmother.

This is a cartoon that's really hard for me to like. Maybe it's because this isn't 1922. Maybe it's because I'm an adult... but between our introduction to the supposedly charming prince involves him massacring a clan of dancing bears who were literally just partying at their cave, and badly thought-out scene where the Fairy Godmother makes Cinderella's "carriage" appear inside her house yet Cindy gets in it and drives away with no issue, I was almost completely turned off by this before it had even reached the halfway mark. 

There are some very cute bits--almost everything involving Cinderella's talking cat sidekick, the portrayal of Cinder and Prince Charming's relationship, and a gag involving a duck near the end--and the way Cinderella reverts from an enchanted, high-fashion flapper girl to a down-trodden scullery maid is a cleverly and amusingly animated. These all add up to make this cartoon entertaining enough, but the opening sequence with the prince and bears--one that I have a hard time imagining anyone one but a psychopath finding that amusing--casts a shadow over everything that follows.

But perhaps I am reacting too strongly a bit of harmless fun. Why don't you take a few minutes to watch it and let us know what you think? If nothing else, "Cinderella" is worth checking out due to its historical significance: It's one of Walt Disney's earliest animated efforts... and I'm sure everyone will be able to appreciate that his output (and that of the army of animators he eventually had on the payroll to create the famous, feature-length remake of this short in 1950) was much, much better.

Click below... and watch the animated creatures go!

'Plane Dumb' is... well... it's complicated

Plane Dumb (1932)
Starring: F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles

Directors: John Foster and George Rufle

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

While trying to circumnavigate the globe in a plane, Tom & Jerry (Miller and Lyles) crash in the ocean near Africa. Disguised as black people, they hope to blend in with the natives... with predictable results.

I've been putting off reviewing "Plane Dumb" for quite some time. I decided to post about all the "Tom & Jerry" cartoons here at Shades of Gray, partly because I wasn't clear on how I would accurately describe something that's both innovative and absolutely awful at the same time; it goes in a direction that no other entries in the series go... but it is also terribly stupid and inexplicably racist in so many ways that it must have even surprised many audience members even back in 1932. 

It turns out that putting this one off was a Good Thing, because a little research and reading the excellent book by Hal Erickson about the Van Beuren productions gave me insight into how "Plane Dumb" came to be that softened by stance as a reviewer (but not necessarily as a viewer): The fact is that this cartoon didn't start out as "Tom & Jerry" cartoon goes a long way to explain a number of its flaws.

According to Erickson's book, and other sources, the Tom & Jerry cartoon we know as "Plane Dumb" actually began production as "All Wet". There is some speculation that it may have been intended as part of a series featuring animated versions of the popular African-American comedy team Miller & Lyles, but the project fell apart... most likely due to Aubrey Lyles' death shortly after voice work on "All Wet" is believed to have been completed. Not wanting effort (and money) to go to waste, Van Beuren seems to have had the existing footage and recorded dialog from Miller & Lyles combined with an ill-considered opening scene where Tom and Jerry transform themselves into two black guys.

Anyone who's seen more than one "Tom & Jerry" installment before this one--and who paid attention--will find their transformation baffling and annoying. Unlike what some commentators may lead you to believe, Tom & Jerry did actually have distinct personalities. Through all the ups and downs of inconsistent quality across the various installments, you could always count on Tom to be the more grounded and cautious (even cowardly on many occasions) of the two, while Jerry is an aggressive risk-taker whose actions often create more chaos than is good for anyone. In "Plane Dumb", however, their personalities have inexplicably changed--inexplicable until you learn that this tall and short duo were never intended to be Tom & Jerry. The personalities exhibited line up with the characters usually portrayed by Miller and Lyles, with the tall one being the aggressor and the short one being the reactor, so, given the fact these characters weren't originally Tom & Jerry. (Actually, what I am saying is not completely accurate; when it comes right down it, both Tom and Jerry are somewhat cowardly, but overall, their personalities are reversed when considered in the context of the overall series.)

Part of me wants to excuse the shift in personalities, because, back before I realized that this cartoon is a patchwork of fresh and recycled material, I thought it was something of an innovation for the series: Most "Tom & Jerry" cartoons might as well be silent films there is so little meaningful dialog--but here there are back-and-forth comedy routines, spoken jokes, and puns that tie into visual gags. It was an amazing departure for an entry in this series--which, of course, is because most of the material here didn't start out as a "Tom & Jerry" episode--but even apart from that, "Plane Dumb" is remarkable because of the nature of the dialog. 

Few cartoons were driven by spoken exchanges in the early 1930s, so it was quite remarkable that Van Beuren teamed up with a pair of comedians known for their verbal back-and-forths for what COULD have been a bit of trail-blazing. The Miller & Lyles bits are interspersed among the usual surreal, visual nonsense consumers of Van Beuren cartoons would be accustomed to, but the main driver was the dialog. 

Why Van Beuren's deal with Miller & Lyles fell apart remains unknown to me. I found a couple explanations, but nothing solid. One suggestion is that the pair were simply too busy and broke the contract, while another posited that they were unhappy with the quality Van Beuren's animators were producing, as well as the rate at which the pair was being paid. Either explanation seems plausible to me. At the end of it all, what we're left with is a cartoon that's equal parts awful and innovative... and one that has NOT aged well. The bits with Tom and Jerry stranded at sea and their battle with the creatures there is fun (even if the bit with the octopus is a bit of headscratcher), but it's mostly downhill from there... with rock-bottom being our heroes fleeing from hostile African natives who are literally spear-chuckers.

The Four Rating I'm assigning "Plane Dumb" is the lowest possible, and even that may be generous--and it's entirely because of the innovative nature of the use of dialog. It's interesting to consider if this cartoon had seemed as outrageously racist if whatever the original set-up that caused Miller & Lyles' fast-talking jokesters crash their plane in the ocean had been intact. Would it have seemed less racist?

"Plane Dumb" is the worst entry in the "Tom & Jerry" series. I can't recommend watching it, but I am embedding it below anyway, so you can form your own opinion. (And if it differs from mine, I hope you leave a comment to tell the world what it is.)

'Stone Age Stunts' leaves something to be desired

Stone Age Stunts (1930)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (but this is basically a silent movie)
Director: John Foster and Mannie Davis
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Pre-historic mice (who are basically Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse clones) go dancing at a club, get into a fight with a bully, and end up literally bringing the house down.

An entry in the long-running Aesop's Fables anthology series, "Stone Age Stunts" is seven minutes of crudely animated nonsense. Along the way, there are some scenes that will make you squirm if you have any sensitivity to the issues surrounding domestic violence. (There are riffs on the old cartoon caveman hitting his mate over the head with his club and dragging her off, but they are taken to uncomfortable extremes here.)

The saving grace (and only thing that makes watching this worthwhile) is the music. The animation and the music go perfectly together, and the only humorous that aren't uncomfortable to watch, grotesque, or inexplicably weird (or some combination of all three) are those involving music. The cavemouse suddenly being able to use his club as a flute is amusing, and the sequence that starts at roughly the halfway mark with a band of cartoon animals using other cartoon animals as instruments and a hilarious nightclub act make sitting through the more unpleasant bits worthwhile.

As I always try to do with the Van Beuren productions I review, you can watch it for yourself, right here in this post, and see if you think I'm right or wrong in my estimation of this one. Just click on the video below.

(Trivia: Although the amorous mice who are the stars of "Stone Age Stunts" had been appearing in Aesop's Fables episodes since the early 1920s, their appearances changed to be similar to that of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse once those characters became hits for Disney. Eventually, the Walt Disney Company filed suit against the Van Beuren Corporation. Disney didn't see damages--they just wanted Van Beuren to stop putting Mickey and Minnie look-alikes in crude situations in crudely animated cartoons.)

Tom & Jerry flame out as firemen

Hook & Ladder Hokum (1933)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Directors: George Stallings and Frank Tashlin
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry are firemen trying to rescue top floor residents of a building that's burning down.

The Tom & Jerry series was erratic in quality level and apparent target audience from, literally, the very beginning of the series, but few feel as uninspired as "Hook and Ladder Hokum". The gags are tepid and repeative; the jazzy wall-to-wall music, which is often the saving grace of the weaker entries, serves its purpose but is mostly unremarkable; and the whole affair feels derivative of previous Tom & Jerry adventures, as if no one involved with the series was even trying anymore. 

Perhaps "Hook and Ladder Hokum" was more entertaining to 1930s audiences than it is the modern viewer, because of some of its relevance by the passage of time? Much of the material here is poking fun at silent comedies and dramas about firemen (like "The Garage" from 1920), and there's one bit that feels like a reference to a public figure that movie goers in 1933 was assumed to know: A portrait comes to life and mocks Jerry for losing to Tom in a game of checkers, and it's animated in a different style than all other characters in the film, and the voice sounds like it's intended to be a spoof of someone, but this 21st century viewer has no idea who that someone was. (If some of you out there better versed in 1930s pop culture can identify the mystery target of spoofing, please fill me in down below, in the comments sections... after watching the cartoon embedded right here in this post.)

Given the inconsistent nature of the Tom & Jerry series, it's impossible for me to tell whether the lackluster nature of "Hook and Ladder Hokum" was there from the beginning or is the result of eighty years of pop culture evolution. On the one hand, there is some fine animation here--Tom & Jerry have rarely looked better--but on the other hand, there's the recycled gags. Whatever the reasons, this fourth-from-final entry in the series is among the weakest. 

The Case of the Disappointing Perry Mason Movie

The Case of the Black Cat (1936)

Starring: Ricardo Cortez, Garry Owen, Jane Bryan, June Travis, Harry Davenport, George Rosener, Nedda Harrigan, Carlyle Moore Jr., Bill Elliott, Clarence Wilson, Craig Reynolds, and Guy Usher

Director: William McGann and Alan Crossland

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A very rich, very grumpy old man (Davenport) dies in a mysterious fire after ordering his attorney, Perry Mason (Cortez), to change his will to completely cut his granddaughter (Bryan) from receiving any inheritance while tying other bequests to the continued employment of the mansion's caretaker (Wilson) and the continued well-being of his pet cat. When the heirs object to the will, Mason finds himself with a cat as his de-facto client... but eventually ends up defending the granddaughter's husband (Moore) for murder.

I have read that the creator of Perry Mason, Earl Stanley Gardner, hated Ricardo Cortez as the famous lawyer. I can see why. Although his portrayal of Mason is vaguely similar to that of Gardner's reportedly favorite Mason, Raymond Burr, it has twice the smarm and barely a fraction of the charm that Burr brought to the character. Cortez, however, is far from the worst thing about this movie.

The biggest problem with "The Case of the Black Cat" is that it may be the stagiest movie ever released. The framing of many scenes and the placement of actors within those scenes feels like their on stage, and the way every line is delivered so as to not step on the line delivered prior to it--including ones where one character is supposed to interrupt another--highlights this feeling even more. I am generally forgiving about this to films from the early days of sound, but by 1936, the technology was solid enough, and the actors should have been comfortable enough performing within its strictures that my patience is a bit short. Perhaps I could have been less bothered by the stageyness of it all if there had at least been a solid adaptation of the Gardner story here, but even that is lacking. Although Mason and Paul Drake solve the mystery, they don't really do a whole lot to do so... and the most important thing poor Della Street gets to do is babysit a cat. Worse, the court-room finale consists mostly of bad acting, worse dialogue, and Perry Mason summarizing the film's convoluted mystery plot without proving anything in particular or even answering some very key questions... and yet the judge dismisses the case without raising those questions.

It's a shame this film is so flawed, because Ricardo Cortez and June Travis were actually quite good as Perry and Della. Cortez's smarm was dialed back in scenes shared with her and their banter was among the most genuine-seeming dialog in the film. It's a shame that this was the only film they appeared in together, because think they could have done some excellent work.

"The Case of the Black Cat" was the fifth of six Perry Mason films produced by Warner Bros. during the mid-1930s, all loosely adapted from Gardner novels, and it was the only one where Ricardo Cortez wore Mason's suits. All of them are included in a reasonably priced collection, with two films to disc.

Angels and Fairies and Toys--Oh My!

The Grandmother's Story and the Child's Dream (aka "Grandmother's Story") (1908)
Starring: André Méliès
Director: Georges Méliès
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

An angel descends and whisks away a child (André Méliès) to a magical land of living toys and fairies. Or was it all a dream?

"The Grandmother's Story and the Child's Dream" (1908) is one of Georges Méliès lesser efforts. It's slow to get started, it's got sloppy blocking, and the trick photography is less precise than is the standard set by other films. I think the main problem here is that it was under-rehearsed, with its large cast not hitting their marks quite right and not standing still enough for Méliès in-camera special effects to work properly. That more rehearsal was needed also seems evident in how some of the fairies seem clumsy or listless, and how an adult actor yanks the "dreaming child" back to his mark in one scene.

It's a shame the performers in this film weren't steadier, because I like every idea present, I like the visualizations of the fairy-realm, and, other than the slow start, I appreciate that Méliès lets this film unfold at a less frenetic pace than many of his other works.
As always with these Méliès reviews, I encourage you to take a few mintues to check out the movie for yourself, right here in this post. You might find my take completely wrong--in which case I hope you'll let me know in a comment below.

'Treasure Blues' is lacking

Treasure Blues (1935)
Starring: Patsy Kelly, Thelma Todd, and Arthur Housman
Director: James Parrott
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Patsy (Kelly) inherits a diving suit and a map, so she takes Thelma (Todd) and a drunken sea captain-turned-plumber (Housman) onto the high seas to retrieve a sunken treasure.

"Treasure Blues" is one of weaker Thelma Todd/Patsy Kelly comedies. It's unfocused, not very funny, and, to make matters worse, it extends its good parts to the point where they become bad. This film is so weak that I thought "that's stupid" at some parts that had the live actors behave like they were in a cartoon universe--and I usually LOVE that sort of absurdist humor.

Unfortunately, as cartoonish action is employed in this film, it merely ruins what was up to that point a cute and fairly effective way to make it look like the characters were on the ocean floor--and this was after director James Parrott showed us, yet again, that he'd never seen a gag he couldn't drag out to the point where it went from amusing to lame.

The Four rating I'm giving this film may be a little on the generous side, but the cast members all perform admirably, especially given what they're working with. Todd is amusing, Kelly is charming (which is a rarity, since her onscreen persona in most of these pictures is like nails being dragged across a chalkboard), and Housman is amusing as his usual charicature of a drunk. It's a shame their efforts are taking place within such a poorly made film.

"Treasure Blues" is included with all of the films Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly made together in a single three-DVD collection.

'Sinners in Paradise' should be left there

Sinners in Paradise (1938)
Starring: John Boles, Madge Evans, Bruce Cabot, Milburn Stone, Willie Fung, and Gene Lockhart
Director: James Whale
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

When a plane bound for China crashes in the South Sea, the surviving passengers--a motly group of killers, criminals, and the criminally annoying--are stranded on an uncharted island. They soon discover they aren't alone, but that the mysterious Mr. Taylor (Boles) and his Chinese servant Ping (Fung) are already living there... shunning civilization for reasons of their own.

"Sinners in Paradise" is a movie that time has passed by. Not only is it a story that I've seen done far, far better (Will Eisner told this type of story several times in his "Spirit" comic strip, and although he may have been drawing inspiration partly from Whale's picture, his tales are better), but the dramatic portions of the story come across as eye-rollingly stupid to contemporary audiences.

This film was far from James Whale's finest work. None of the creativity that was so evident in the productions of "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" can be seen here. Although this film probably had a budget far smaller than any of those other films, it still would have been nice to see something that was a little beyond "get the shot and move on."

'One Track Minds' is off the tracks

One Track Minds (1933)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Lucien Prival, George McFarland, Billy Gilbert, and Jack Rube
Director: Gus Meins
Rating: Four of Ten Stars


While traveling by train to California for a screen test, Thelma (Todd) finds herself in the same train car as the pompous film director (Prival) who will decide her future movie career.

"One Track Minds" was the last film that Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts made together, and I wish I could say their team-up ended on a high note. It did not. Pitts' contract with the Hal Roach Studio was up, and she was ready to move onto other things... and I think that maybe this film was a casualty of a desire to get one last contribution from the Todd/Pitts team as ZaSu was on her way out the door.

I say this because this is not so much a film as a series of gags thrown together with train travel as a kinda-sorta uniting theme. Not a whole lot of effort appears to have been put into developing any sort of coherent storyline, nor even many of the jokes themselves.

The though-line of the film is mockery of Hollywood's celebrity culture, with ambitions, dream-filled starlets and arrogant, self-absorbed movie directors, but the film meanders through several rail-traveling "slice-of-life" scenes involving Pitt's child or little brother--it's never established what their relationship is--and Pitt and Todd's interaction with various other kooky people in the train. The end result is that this feels more like a collection of vaguely related sketches than a coherent movie, a feeling that's underscored by the fact the film doesn't have an ending; it just ends, with none of its plot threads resolved, or even developed, to any degree whatsoever.

It's a shame the film isn't more coherent and the jokes aren't better developed, because the cast are all doing their absolute best with what they have to work with. The greatest shame, though, might be that because the film is so unfocused, Pitts and Todd are almost crowded out of their own movie. Lucien Prival (as the stuck-on-himself, flamboyant film director), Billy Gilbert (as the conductor who has to deal with the nuts on his train) and Jack Rube (as a deaf beekeeper who is traveling in the passenger car with his bees) all have more interesting parts than the two stars. In fact, Todd has virtually nothing to do in the picture.

While this was the last film Todd and Pitts made together, it won't be the last of their pairings I'll be covering as the Year of the Hot Toddy continues. I jumped to the end of the cycle, because I've been somewhat disappointed in their quality. Thelma Todd made some excellent shorts with Charley Chase, but only one where she was teamed with Pitts was even close to as good. I hoped that by the end whatever wasn't clicking had clicked... but "One Track Minds" has bigger problems than any of the previous Todd/Pitts films (Although I also felt they were crowded out of their own picture in their first official teaming in "Catch-As-Catch-Can", so maybe this was a common thing?

'The Pajama Party' was a bust

The Pajama Party (1931)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Eddie Dunn, Elizabeth Forrester, Donald Novis, and Charlie Hall
Directors: Marshall Neilan and Hal Roach
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

ZaSu and Thelma (Pitts and Todd) attend a decadent party after its hostess (Forrester) runs their car off the road and into a lake. Things go from strange to miserable when it turns out their boyfriends (Dunn and Novis) have been hired to provide musical entertainment, and the guys think they are being two-timed.

"The Pajama Party" runs 20 minutes, but it feels longer. Few of the jokes are funny, none of the gags come off quite right, and rather than feeling amused, you're probably going to feel embarrassed on behalf of ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd as they try to fit in among the childish, spoiled high society people they have been forced to spend time with. Further, while usually films of this type usually see the snobbish upper-crust get deflated, we don't even really get to enjoy that here.

The high points of the film (such as they are) involve Pitts and Todd interacting with the maids charged with cleaning them up after their water-logged traffic mishap, with Todd responding to the non-English speaking maid in Pig Latin being a cute bit. Charlie Hall is also amusing as he stumbles his way through the party as a drunk attracted to ZaSu... but Hall is only a bright spot because everything else is so weak.

"The Pajama Party" is one of 17 short films included in the two DVD set Thelma Todd & ZaSu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection 1931 - 1933, and I hope it's the low point of those films. The commentary by Richard M. Roberts paints a picture of a troubled production, helmed by a director/producer whose personal and professional life was falling apart, and who was fired before the film was fully completed, so that could explain part of why this is such a weak effort. Even allowing for that, I am starting to fear that Hal Roach made a big mistake when he took Todd away from Charley Chases' production unit to have her anchor a series of her own. Her films with Chase were spectacular, and so far none of the Pitts/Todd series have been as good.

'Torchy Blane in Chinatown' is misnamed

Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939)
Starring: Barton MacLane, Glenda Farrell, Tom Kennedy, Patric Knowles, and Richard Bond
Director: William Beaudine
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A shadowy group of Chinese assassins are killing those involved with stealing Jade burial tablets from a powerful family. Will police detective Steve McBride (MacLane) stop the killers before they finish marking names off their hit-list, and will his girlfriend and reporter Torchy Blane (Farrell) keep her promise about keeping the details of his investigation of of the papers?

"Torchy Blane in Chinatown" is a major step down quality-wise from the five previous installments of this series. While it mostly avoids the racist stereotypes you'd expect from a film of this time period, it doesn't deliver anything that the title promises... unless the title character Torchy Blane spent all the time she was missing from the screen in Chinatown.

Yes, despite this supposedly being a film about Torchy Blane in Chinatown, no time is actually spent in Chinatown, and comic relief character Gahagan (Tom Kennedy) has more impact on the action than Torchy does. (Well, not quite; there's some dialogue at the end that tells us that Torchy was doing things off camera, but that's no way to treat what is supposed to be the main character).

As bad as it is that we get to see very little of Glenda Farrell and Torchy in this picture, it's even worse that the mystery here is so simple that I had it mostly figured out as of the first of three murders. But what pushed this film down to a Four Rating--and only its brief running-time of barely an hour, combined with Torchy not ending up as a damsel in distress like in the last two films saved it from getting Three Stars--was the way the story only worked if the characters behave like complete idiots and contrary to all common sense. Twice, the villains' master plot should have been stopped dead in its tracks, but the lazy scriptwriters just turned off the brains of all the characters so it would work. (Hell, the investigation would have taken an entirely different direction--and the movie would have been even shorter--if Torchy Blane hadn't been off-screen in Chinatown for as much as she was, because she had a key to the solution early on. She even tried to tell McBride about it, but he just brushed her off with "I'm too busy to talk to you"... as he gets into his chauffeured car in which Torchy could have ridden along and told him the clue she had uncovered.)

I have been irritated by some of the far-fetched, should-have-been-career-ending shenanigans that Torchy got up in previous films, and I have been frustrated when the filmmakers made her a spectator and/or damsel in distress during the climaxes of the movies bearing her name, but none of the previous films inspired the borderline anger that this one did. I literally felt like my intelligence was being insulted--I tried to think of it as a film made for kids instead of adults (which it isn't), and I still felt it was a lazily written, badly executed story. And to add insult to injury, Gahagan is portrayed as so mind-blowingly stupid in this film that it's hard to believe he even has a job as McBride's driver. He is so dumb, in fact, that he's not even all that funny.

As for the performances and technical aspects of the film, everyone does a good job. Barton MacLane seems engaged with his part again, and the various supporting players--both the ones portraying characters unique to this film, or the returning characters at the police station--all do excellent jobs. As always, Glenda Farrell is lots of fun as Torchy... it's just a shame she doesn't get to do more, or even have a single important scene. (That's not entirely true... in retrospect, the scene where Steve McBride tells her he's too busy to talk to her is an important one, but not in a good way.)

"Torchy Blane in Chinatown" is one of the nine films included in the "Torchy Blane Collection." I think it's the first one that I've had a hard time coming up with something good to say about, so in balance, this is still a series worth checking out if like Girl Power stories and fast-talking 1930s reporters. There are two more installments in the series for me to watch... and I really hope they get better rather than worse.