It's Friday the Thirteenth!

Wynne Gibson and the rest of us here at Shades of Gray all hope all visitors and readers make it through this Friday the Thirteenth okay. With the recent full moon, unfolding global pandemic, and contestants from "The Masked Singer" roaming about, anything can happen on a day like this!

'Half Shot at Sunrise' is more than halfway decent

Half Shot at Sunrise (1930)
Starring: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Leni Stengel, George MacFarlane, Edna May Oliver, and Jack Rutherford, and Edgar DeLange
Director: Paul Sloane
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A couple soldiers (Wheeler and Woolsey) are having the time of their lives AWOL in Paris during WWI, ducking MPs and happily hitting on every woman they see. When one of them  falls in love with the Colonel's teenaged daughter (Lee), and she decides to help his military career, things start to get complicated.

"Half Shot at Sunrise" is a supremely silly movie  that is light on plot but heavy on shenanigans and clever quips and offhanded double-entrendres. You'll hardly notice the lack of plot though, as Wheeler and Woolsey keep the jokes and tricks flowing non-stop, and when Dorothy Lee is added to the mix things get even wilder. If you like madcap military comedies, I think you'll enjoy this film quite a bit.

That said, it's not a perfect movie. The main drawback are the songs/musical numbers--which are . They are not all that good, and they interrupt the film's momentum and stop it dead in its tracks. I did enjoy the goofy dance routines that came with each song, but they were not enough to make up for the lameness of the music. These dragged my rating of this otherwise fun movie down from a low Eight to what was almost a Six on my 0-10 scale.

Another flaw was a serious romantic subplot involving the colonel's oldest daughter and a straight-laced Army lieutenant that ran along side the antics of the three main characters. While it served as a nice counterpoint to the Wheeler/Woolsey/Lee clown show, and brought a little dimension to some of the supporting characters, it really just made me wish for more of the clown show. It wasn't as damaging to the flow of the film as the weak musical numbers, but it didn't really add that much in the final analysis.

"Half Shot at Dawn" is one of nine films included in the Wheeler and Woolsey: RKO Comedy Classics Collection. That collection is a broad sampling of their films for RKO that stretches from the beginning of their contract until its end, and it includes some of their biggest hits.

Happy Birthday to Thora Birch!

Actress Thora Birch was born March 11, 1982. She landed her first major role at the age of 6 on the sitcom "Day By Day". Birch worked steadily throughout her childhood, with starring roles in numerous television series and movies and theatrical films ranging from "Patriot Games" (1992) to "Monkey Business" (1994).

In her late teens, Birch played what are arguably her most famous roles to this day, appearing in the films "Ghost World" (1999) and "American Beauty" (2001). She successfully navigated dangerous career waters that mark the transition from child to adult actor, and she remains a busy and sought-after working actor to this day. Most recently, she's starred in "Above Suspicion" (2019) and has had a recurring role in the latest batch of episodes of the "Walking Dead" television series.

Here are a few pictures of Birch through the years in observation of her 38th birthday.

Musical Monday with Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway was a singer, dancer, songwriter, and band leader without whom we wouldn't have had any number of more recent pop stars... with Michael Jackson being prime among them. He had such a unique and enviable style about him that many have borrowed from him and added it to their own routines. To this day, Calloway stands as an unmatched giant in the history of American dance and popular music. (In these parts, we celebrate him primarily for his contributions to three of the Betty Boop animated shorts.)

Calloway co-stars in this week's Musical Monday feature, as he is joined by an equally amazing pair of performers--tap dancers Nicholas Brothers. In this self-contained performance from the 1943 musical "Stormy Weather", Calloway and his band swing away with the tune "Jumpin' Jive", while the Nicholas Brothers deliver one of the most spectacular dance routines ever put on film.



If you enjoyed that clip--and if you didn't what's wrong with you?!--you might enjoy the movie it came from. It features a veritable who's who of top African American singers and dancers from the 1940s, with Lena Horne leading the cast.

International Day of the Spider-Woman

By David Yardin

It's time for more portraits of the greatest Spider-Woman of them all--Jessica Drew! Yes... it's once again Spider-Woman Sunday at Shades of Gray!

By Arturo Mesa

By Frank Cho

By Guile

We've all had mornings like this... right?

It may be 120 years old, but "How He Missed His Train" is as relevant and important as ever. After all, we've all had mornings like the poor fellow in the film, and we've all had to call into work with this exact explanation as to why we were going to be late. We have, haven't we? I can't be the only one...

How He Missed His Train (1900)
Starring: Georges Méliès
Director: Georges Méliès
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

(This is an impressive and hilarious bit of trick photography filmmaking from the father of special effects. It's both simple and complex and it's near-flawless in execution. Even better, I'm sure it's relatable to anyone who's gotten up on the "wrong side of the bed.")

Wonder Woman Wednesday

On June 4th, 2020, there'll be another big-screen Wonder Woman adventure hitting movie theaters. Here are some drawings of her from great artists to get you warmed up for it!

By George Perez

By Gary Martin

By Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

Betty Boop for President!

It's Super Tuesday here in the U.S., which means several states are holding their primary election to see who they will nominate for the presidential election later this year. I don't know if the folks at the Fleischer Studios were psychic, or if the 2020 presidential hopefuls were inspired, en masse, by this cartoon...

(Political snarking aside, this is a fun cartoon with catchy music, and I think you'll enjoy watching it!)


Betty Boop for President (1932)
Starring: Mae Questel (voice of Betty Boop)
Director: David Fleischer
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars


(Oh... and if anyone is still of the habit of writing in Mickey Mouse if you don't like any of the candidates, I suggest you switch to using Betty Boop. She has a better platform/manifesto... when has Mickey Mouse ever promised: "... a lot of Hi-De-Ho!, Boopy Doops and chocolate ice cream!"?)

Mohammed Monday

Once upon a time, Mohammed Mondays were a regular feature around here. Now, they are special events, reserved for when I come across a particularly amusing cartoon featuring the Prophet Mohammed, or some other noteworthy occasion.

On this Mohammed Monday, I bring you the latest from artist Bosch Fawstin, who may well have brought more images of the Big Mo into this world than any other single human being. (Click on the image to see a larger, more easily read version.

Fawstin has released a color version of this cartoon as a limited-run print. One hundred signed and numbered copies are available at Fawstin's online store. For more information, or to order your copy, click here.

Musical Monday with Woodkid

Here's a little something to kick off the week for my fellow D&D players and other lovers of fantasy! It's a neat song and an excellent music video that features some great visualizations of what it must be like when the evil priest calls down a rain of fire upon the heads of that pesky adventuring party!


Woodkid (2011)
Starring: Willy Cartier, Agyness Deyn, and Matvey Lykov
Director: Yoann Lemoine
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars