'The Genii of Fire' is hot stuff

The Genii of Fire (1908)
Starring: Anonymous Actors
Director: Georges Méliès
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

In ancient Persia, a wealthy couple trespasses in a temple for the worship of fire genies... and are punished for it. 

"The Genii of Fire" is another great fantasy film from Georges Méliès, a guy who was making better movies before they'd even been fully invented than most filmmakers working today. He had been making these short films for over a decade at this point, and it shows. 

In this film, Méliès stages complex scenes involving a dozen actors interacting with each other as well as facilitating the film's effects which are a mix of the now-expected appearing and disappearing creatures and items, with some very nice pyrotechnics thrown in. It's rare that I am impressed with performances from actors in a Méliès film, but here we have an exception. While there are a few moments of what I assume is unintentional comedy, we are also treated to a bit where the cultists arrive in the temple, find the couple checking it out, and have an absolutely hilarious "what the hell are these two idiots doing here?" reaction. What makes the reaction funny is that it is subtle--there's none of the over--emoting or mugging or any of the typical early silent movie "acting techniques" but just good, solid acting. 

"The Genii of Fire" would be a solid Ten if Méliès had come up with a better way to end it. On the one hand, it's nice to see some honest-to-God story structure since so many of his films are, at best, vignettes, but on the other hand... well, I don't want to spoil anything for those who rightly take a few minutes to watch this great little film.

Happy Birthday. Milo Manara!

Milo Manara is an Italian comic book artist who is perhaps best known for writing and drawing "mature" comics that are equal parts sexy, surreal, and silly. Among his most famous works are "The Ape", the "Adventures of Giuseppe Bergman" series, and the "Click" trilogy (which formed the basis of a movie starring Jacqueline Lovell). He has also illustrated a number of historically based comics, such as "El Gaucho" and "Indian Summer" (written by Hugo Pratt), dabbled in sci-fi and fantasy... and sent a host of people running for the fainting couch over a "Spider-Woman" cover and other art for Marvel Comics a couple years back.

Manara turns 75 years old today. Shades of Gray hopes he has a happy birthday, and that he enjoys many more. We also thank him for the decades of beautiful art and interesting reading material.

In celebration and honor of Manara and his creative works over the past several decades, here's a small gallery of his drawings.

Saturday Serial: Jenna of the Jungle

Continuing Don Hudson's "Jenna of the Jungle" (and including a random bonus jungle girl afterwards). Click on any panel for a larger version, and come back next Saturday for Part Eighteen.


JENNA OF THE JUNGLE: PART SEVENTEEN
By Don Hudson

To Be Continued...

Girls of the Jungle

By Frank Frazetta

The argument in favor of cutting police funding

There are politicians and activists all across the United States who are pushing to have police department budges cut by 50 percent or more. Today, Anita Page is here to demonstrate why it's a good idea:

With only half the budget, police departments will only be able to afford half the uniforms.

And here's Chad, showing what a 90 percent budget cut at police departments would look like...

Grampy requests your presence

Betty Boop and Grampy (1935)

Starring: Mae Questal (Voice of Betty Boop)

Director: Dave Fleischer & Dave Tendlar

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Betty and the Gang are invited to party at Grampy's house... and, BOY!, do they party!

"Betty Boop and Grampy" stars a Betty in the process of transitioning from her wild flapper days to a homemaker. Betty still favors the short skirts, but they aren't as short as they used to be... and instead of visiting Crazy Town with her boyfriend, or going to see the Old Man of the Mountain against everyone's advice, she's happily doing domestic chores around her happy home. Still, there's more than just a little spunk and wildness left in Betty, so when she gets in invitation to come to Grampy's house for a party, she picks up four total strangers while crossing town (including a fireman and a police officer) and invites them along.

Grampy, a bald, white-bearded inventor of weird gadgets with a talent for jury-rigging devices on the spot that puts MacGyver to shame, joins Betty Boop's supporting cast with this installment. With Fleischer having to tone down the more mature aspects of their popular "Betty Boop" cartoons, they were trying different things and wacky Grampy was one of them. 

"Betty Boop and Grampy" is an entertaining bit of nonsense. It's got excellent music (starting with the "Betty Boop Theme", which Betty hums while tending to household chores; continuing through "Over at Grampy's House", which is sung by Betty and the guys she picks up while heading to the party; and "The Tiger Rag", which the characters sing and dance to, as it is played by a makeshift mechanical orchestra that Grampy constructs out of his kitchen appliances. The animation is up to the usual high standards to the Fleischer studio, and the gags are all well timed. It's not a high point in Betty's catalogue, but it's well worth your time.

The only real complaint I have is that Betty shouldn't have been picking up random strangers in response to Grampy's invitation. It would have been nice to see Koko and Bimbo at the party, since they're actually "the gang" mentioned in the letter. I know that Fleischer had removed the anthropomorphic elements of Betty's world by now, but it still would have made the Continuity Geek in me happy.

As is my habit with most of the short films I review, I invite you to take few minutes to brighten your day by watching the subject I've discussed. 

Trivia: In addition to working in animation, Dave Tendlar also illustrated comic books. I edited and wrote some material for a collection of his "Ginger and Snap" stories from NUELOW Games.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

We're down to the last few Wednesdays before the revised postponed release date of "Wonder Woman '84", so it seemed like a good time to feature some portraits of our favorite Amazon that accentuates what comes to people's minds when they think of her.

By Lee Weeks

By Chris Samnee

By Steve Leiber

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.

Musical Monday with The Golden Filter

You may still be feeling the summer heat, but the nights are getting cooler and autumn in just around the corner. On this Musical Monday, we bring you the Golden Filter with a hauntingly beautiful song and a chilling video that may send a shiver down your spine and prepare you for what's coming in October...

The Golden Filter is a two-person band, consisting of singer and composer fronted by vocalist Penelope Trappes and musician Stephen Hindman. Originally from New York City, they are currently based out of London, and they specialize in electronica with shadowy undertones.

Coercion (2019)
Starring: Penelope Trappes and Chloe Trappes
Director: Agnes Haus
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

'The New York Hat' crowns Mary Pickford's stint at Biograph

The New York Hat (1912)

Starring: Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Charles Hill Mailes, and Madge Kirby

Director: D.W. Griffith

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A village parson (Barrymore) triggers mean-spirited, self-righteous gossipers when he buys an expensive hat for a teenaged girl, Mollie (Pickford). 

I usually don't have the patience for silent dramas., especially the ones from the early 1910s. More often than not, when I try to watch one, I give up a few minutes in. I'm usually turned off by the pacing, the disorganized and uninspired staging of most scenes, and the style of acting which seems laughably over-the-top to my modern eyes.

When it comes to the dramatic short films helmed by director D.W. Griffith, however, I have yet to disappointed. He's three for three in holding my attention, as well as showing that he deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest directors of the silent film era.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Griffith understood how to frame a scene and how to place actors within it to get the greatest impact; it's like he's creating paintings that move instead of just recording stage plays with indifferent blocking. And speaking of stage plays, Griffith also seemed to understand that if he just let stage actors give their usual kind of performances, he'd get all the impact that was needed, with the audience being more than able to pick up on the action. Griffith had a feel for the film media that was far superior to many of his contemporary, and this is why these short films are worth watching today.

And this is very much true of "The New York Hat". Aside from being a showcase for Griffith's ability to frame a scene, his ability to let actors be their very best is also on brilliant display here, with Mary Pickford convincingly portraying the hurt and excitement of a naïve young teen, despite the fact she was 20 when this film was made; and with Lionel Barrymore being allowed for the first time to show he could do more than comedy in film. (While this film was a first for Barrymore, it was a last for Pickford--it was the last film she'd make at the company that launched her film career in 1909... but far from her last collaboration with Griffith.)

In addition to great performances from its stars, "The New York Hat" is filled with other excellent performances, ranging from bit parts by customers at the hat shop to church elders; to minor players, such as the "mean girls" and the three town gossips; and supporting characters like the hat-shop clerk (Madge Kirby) and Mollie's skinflint, domineering father (Charles Hill Mailes). In fact, the only thing that isn't excellent about this film is the ending which is just a little too pat for my liking.

I invite you to take a few minutes out of your busy day and check out this great movie, right here from this post. 

Saturday Serial: Jenna of the Jungle

Continuing Don Hudson's "Jenna of the Jungle" (and including a random bonus jungle girl afterwards). Click on any panel for a larger version, and come back next Saturday for Part Seventeen.


JENNA OF THE JUNGLE: PART SIXTEEN
By Don Hudson

To Be Continued...

Girls of the Jungle

By Mitch Foust