It's Tom and Jerry... and they're in 'Trouble'!

Trouble (1931)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors and Singers
Directors: John Foster and George Stallings
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry are ambulance-chasing attorneys looking for a way to drum up business for their firm.

In "Trouble", we see Tom and Jerry making a go at being lawyers, one of the many professions they will work in over the course of the series. Out of their various career choices, this may be the most ill-considered, given they live in a world inhabited by rubbery beings who can transform physically on a whim and who can fall from great heights, get blown up, sink to the bottom of the ocean, and otherwise have disasters happen to them that should be fatal but doesn't leave a scratch or a bruise. 

During the six-minute running time of this film, we get to see our heroes sing about their law practice, engage in a clever attempt at guerilla marketing, and literally chase an ambulance when they think they have a lead on a client who is about to fall from the top of the Empire State Building following a botched docking attempt by a zeppelin. The concluding (and funniest) gag is at once a masterful bit of fourth-wall humor, as well as a reinforcement of my opening thought: Accident lawyers in Tom and Jerry's world have a difficult time making a living.

As "Tom and Jerry" cartoons go, this one is pretty mild. The music is fairly unremarkable, the gags mild and, with the exception of the one at the end, predictable. Nothing here is bad... it's just average. (But you can judge for yourself; take a few minutes and watch "Trouble" right now!)





One general thought about most cartoons of this era (late 1920s through the early 1930s) that often occurs to me but I forget to mention when writing these posts, is how they are essentially silent movies. Yes, there's music and singing and sound effects, but what passes for dialogue in minimal and often nothing more than sounds that are word-like but not actual words... or just stay words mixed in with mumbles and squeaks. I wonder how aggressively the studios that produced them pursued foreign markets. While there are unique American cultural and political references in them, it still seems they would have works almost as well in European nations.)

Firearms Friday with Dolores Brinkman

Okay... so today's post may have been more suitable as part of a Ranged Weapons Wednesday series, but since this is Friday and Valentine's Day, I couldn't pass on the chance to present these pics of Dolores Brinkman hamming it up as a gender-reversed Cupid.

Born in 1910, Brinkman began acting as a young teenager. Her brief film career consisted of appearances in roughly a dozen movies made over the six year period from 1924 to 1930. Her final film appearance was in the comedy "Whispering Whoopie". She held her own opposite comedy legends like Charley Chase and Thelma Todd, and it shows that she had plenty of talent.

But, in 1930, Brinkman walked away from performing and spent the rest of her life trying to avoid the public eye. She was so intent on anonymity that she requested no obituary be published upon her death.

 Dolores Brinkman passed away in 2003. You can read what may be the most complete biography of her that anyone will ever be able to write by clicking here.

I finally saw an important bit of film history...

Steamboat Willie (1928)
Starring: Walt Disney (as the voices of all characters)
Directors: Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Mickey and Minnie perform "Turkey in the Straw" using barnyard animals as instruments while on a riverboat.

Thanks to Disney Plus, I've finally seen "Steamboat Willie" (1928). If not for the place it holds in the history of animation and the film industry in general, I wonder if "Steamboat Willie" would be remembered at all. It's the first appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse... and it's first cartoon with sound. All those are, of course, enough to secure this film's place in history, but compared to other cartoons of the period, and certainly to ones that followed from Walt Disney's production house and his competitors, this is pretty unremarkable.

Maybe it's because I'm not a kid, or maybe because it's not 1928, but I found the story and the gags to be cute but not much more than than. My favorite bits were Mickey creatively using the crane to get Minnie aboard the boat, and the goat turning into a musical instrument after it eats some sheet music and a ukulele. The second incident  is the foundation for the second half of the film which is a performance of "Turkey in the Straw" on various items and animals. On the downside, though,, this part of the film became less amusing as it went on, because it's a festival of animal cruelty. By the end, I was happy to see Mickey get punished by the steamboat's angry cat captain.

On the other hand, I've had "Turkey in the Straw" lodged in my head since I watched "Steamboat Willie"... and I think after listening to this, it may be stuck there forever.

(It should be noted that for the Disney Plus release, "Steamboat Willie" has been restored to how it was when it was first released. It was edited in the 1950s for its theatrical re-release, removing part of the bit where piglets and a mother pig are used as instruments by Mickey. I also noticed that Disney has uploaded the restored version to their YouTube Channel. I've embedded it below, so you can check it out, in case you have a hole like mine in your film history knowledge.)

The Swank Quarterly

Hillary Swank is cheering, because she's joining the ranks of great actresses--like Bessie Love, Milla Jovovich, and June Collyer--who've been featured as Quarterlies here at Shades of Gray.

Born in 1974, Hilary Swank was an accomplished high school athlete who began acting professionally in her teens, with roles on a variety of television series during the early 1990s, with her starring role in "The Next Karate Kid" (1994) being the film that first garnered her lots of public attention. After starring in a string of thrillers and horror movies during the late 1990s (as well as recurring roles on a number of television series, such as "Beverly Hills 90210"), she earned an Academy Award for "Boys Don't Cry" in 1999. Today, Swank continues to split her time between  television and horror/suspense films. Her forthcoming projects are the horror film "The Hunt" and the sci-fi television series "Away" (neither of have projected released dates yet).

Will the future just hold pretty pictures of Swank, or will she be revealed to be a secret superhero or robot-fighter? Stay tuned!a

Musical Monday with Beyonce

"Single Ladies" is Beyonce's 2008 smash hit that is still well worth listening today; it's a song that will have you dancing your way into your work week. Meanwhile, the video for the song is another perfect illustration of this blog's unifying theme. Enjoy, and Happy Monday to you!



(Valentine's Day is coming up later this week, so maybe someone out there will find this song inspiring and "put a ring on it"!)

'His Royal Slyness' at 100 years

His Royal Slyness (1920)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Gaylord Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Harry Pollard, Marie Mosquini, Noah Young, Gus Leonard, and Helen Gilmore
Director: Hal Roach
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A door-to-door salesman (Harold Lloyd) with an uncanny resemblance to the crown prince of a small European nation (Gaylord Lloyd) is convinced to take his place after the prince decides he'd rather stay in America with his sexy girlfriend (Mosquini) than return home for an arranged marriage with the princess of a neighboring kingdom (Davis).

"His Royal Slyness" is a fun twist on the old "Prince and the Pauper"-type tale, as well as a spoof of the Communist revolution. It's a supremely silly film without a single straight-man in sight. Just about every character is goofy, horny, dimwitted, or some combination of the those. The only character who has the slightest bit of class and integrity in the film is the princess played by Mildred Davis... and that might just be because there wasn't time for her to reveal another side to her.

The film is in many ways a caricature of the peasant/worker revolution that was unfolding in Russia when it was made, with its cartoonish nobles and peasants, but it's also a great vehicle for Lloyd's standard womanizing character. One of the film's funniest running gags involves him taking down phone numbers in his Little Black Book for every woman he meets, including that of the austere queen to whose daughter he is to be married. (On a perhaps purely personal level, borne from my years developing fictional settings for roleplaying games, I was fascinated by the fact that the royal court of Thermosa exclusively employed young women instead of boys as pages. I found myself wondering what the greater society in that nation might be like as a result. Of course, the real reason for why producer/director Hal Roach made this choice was to have plenty of women in short skirts wandering around the scenes... but I still wonder what went on in Thermosa to make it so different from the norm.)

As I post these comments, it's exactly 100 years since "His Royal Slyness" was first seen by audiences in movie theatrers. Considering that, it's obvious to wonder if it's still worth seeing today... and my answer is an emphatic YES! The humor in this fast-paced comedy has held up extremely well, and the political undertones may resonate a little differently than they did in 1920, but they still feel fresh and relevant--which may be a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the 21st Century.

But don't just take my word for it! You can watch the movie below, embedded here in this very post, and make up your own mind.

The Top Tens

Here are lists of the actors and actresses who've been covered the most here at Shades of Gray, as of the beginning of 2020. The number behind their name reflects the number of posts with reviews of movies they've appeared in, or with photo galleries featuring them. Those numbers will, of course, change as we move forward into the next decade.


TOP 10 ACTORS
Bela Lugosi - 40
Boris Karloff - 32
Buster Keaton - 16
Abbott & Costello - 15
George Zucco - 14
Charley Chase - 13
Harold Lloyd - 13
Harry Pollard - 11
Lon Chaney Jr. - 11
Peter Lorre - 11

Top Tenners Harry Pollard, Bebe Daniels, and Harold Lloyd

TOP 10 ACTRESSES
Thelma Todd - 62
Milla Jovovich - 32
Ann Miller - 24
ZaSu Pitts - 20
Bebe Daniels - 19
June Collyer - 13
Bessie Love - 12
Dorothy Granger - 12
Patsy Kelly - 11
Myrna Loy - 9

'The Mysterious Knight' brings the movie magic!

The Mysterious Knight (aka "Le Chevalier Mystère") (1899)
Starring: Georges Méliès
Director: Georges Méliès
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A sorcerer (Méliès) brings a chalk drawing of a head to life.

During the earliest days of filmmaking, Frenchman Georges Méliès made dozens upon dozens of short fatasy films that pioneered cinematic special effects. Some have plotlines and tell weird, phantasmagorical stories, while others are created for no reason other than to show off trick photography.

"The Mysterious Knight" is in this latter category. While most 21st Century viewers may not be "wow'ed" by this little film, the straightforward, exuberant presentation makes it a joy to watch. My favorite part of the film are the transformations of the head, as well as the way the character "proves" to us that it really is a disembodied head.

But don't just take my word for it. Why don't you brighten your day and take a minute to check out "The Mysterious Knight", right now from this post?

Princesses of Mars: Part 33

In February of 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs gave the world its first introduction to John Carter and the love of his life, the Martian Princess Dejah Thoris. Here are some portraits in honor of that anniversary.

By Sandy Plunkett

By Kewber Baal

By Mark Schultz

By Frank Frazetta

Musical Monday with the Correspondents

   L.L. Hundal (of NUELOW Games): So you're posting a music video every Monday. Cool.
   Steve Miller (of Shades of Gray): I think so. There are lots of great black-and-white music vids to spotlight!
   Hundal: You still do that 'The Unifying Theme' bit with pics?
   Miller: Yep.
   Hundal: I wonder if there's a 'Unifying Theme' video out there.
   Miller: …
   The Correspondents: Hold our tray of tiny masked dancers and watch this.



The Correspondents is British music duo consisting of front-man Ian Bruce and keyboardist/DJ Tim Cole. They have a sound all their own that's best described as a cross between electronica, blues, jazz, funk, and whatever else happens to strike their fancy at any given moment. Their first appearance here at Shades of Gray has them performing their 2016 song "Inexplicable", with a video directed and produced by Christina Hardinge. The entire package that mixes old and modern and weird sums up this blog perfectly... and we hope this bit of supreme weirdness gets your work-week off to a fun and funky start!

The Correspondents will be filing other reports here at Shades of Gray on future Musical Mondays, so stay tuned!