Is there a better song to feature on this beautiful Spring Musical Monday than "In Bloom"? I should think not!
In Bloom (1992)
Starring: Nirvana and Doug Llewelyn
Director: Kevin Kerslake
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
"In Bloom" is one of my favorite Nirvana songs... and this video makes me love it even more, because it's perfect for this blog. (That said, one can't really fault people for singing along with a Nirvana song and not knowing that the lyrics are pretty gruesome or depressing; Weird Al nailed it in his spoof of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"--unless you're reading a lyrics sheet, it's hard to know what's actually being said half the time.)
Betty Boop and the Little King (1936) Starring: Jack Mercer (voice of the Little King and others) and Mae Questel (voice of Betty Boop) Directors: Dave Fleischer Rating: Six of Ten Stars
A fun-loving king sneaks out of an opera performance and out from under the iron fist of his queen to enjoy a vaudevillian rodeo performance by Betty Boop.
In 1933, producer Max Fleischer approached Kings Features Syndicate with a proposal to turn their Popeye the Sailor comic strip character into an animated character. The Syndicate was dubious, but Popeye proved to be a far bigger hit in animation than he ever was on the printed page. After the demise of the Van Beuren Corporation, which had licensed Kings Features strip "Little King" for use in animation (and had produced a dozen shorts starring him), Fleischer decided to see if he could replicate the success he'd seen with Popeye.
"Betty Boop and the Little King" was a back-door "pilot episode" for a potential "Little King" series, just like "Popeye the Sailor" had been in 1933, and it follows the same template as that previous effort: Betty Boop is relegated to supporting-character status in her own series, as the Little King encounters her performing, joins the act, and triggers additional events and complications.
Unfortunately, the attempt to launch "The Little King" to screen stardom fizzled on the ground. The reasons for this could be many, but obvious ones are plain to see as the cartoon unfolds. First of all, Betty Boop lost her edge when the Production Code made the Fleischers feel obligated to redirect her adventures from an adult audience toward children, so the sly humor and escalating violence of "Popeye the Sailor" is nowhere to be found here. Second, where both "Betty Boop and the Little King" and "Popeye the Sailor" were structured in a way that they introduced viewers who might not be familiar with the source material to the characters, only "Popeye the Sailor" put major effort into building some new, unique, and fresh for the animated version. In fact, the Fleischer cartoon unnecessarily violates a standard of "The Little King" comic strip when they have the King speak. In the strip, he NEVER speaks... and there was no reason for him to do so here, either. Thirdly, while the story is cute and the King is equal parts funny and sympathetic (just like his more proper Queen is equal parts funny and UNsympathetic since she is trying to keep him behaving in a way that is befitting his status), it's generally a low energy affair. The animation is nice--even impressive at a couple of points--but when compared to other Betty Boop cartoons, the gags are weak and prone to overstay their welcome and there's barely enough going on to keep viewers engaged.
"Betty Boop and the Little King" isn't a terrible cartoon... it's just a little too tame and genteel.
This was the only time Fleischer used the Little King in one of his productions. It was probably for the best, since I have a feeling that he was much better suited for the type of fare that the Van Beuren Corporation put out--and with that said, I will have to seek out and watch some of those to see if I'm right or wrong. If anything, I'm fairly certain that the King didn't speak in those shorts, because most of the Van Beuren cartoons were essentially silent movies with elaborate musical scores.
But just don't take my word for whether "Betty Boop and the Little King" is good or not. I've embedded it" below, you can can check it out yourself; it's only seven or so minutes long. If you disagree with my take, I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Here's another look at a supporting player from the Fourth Season of "The Avengers".
PATRICIA HAINES
In "The Master Minds", Patricia Haines played the archery instructor to an exclusive club of super-geniuses.
Born in 1932, Patricia Haines was a familiar face on British television during the 1960s and into the mid-1970s. She had incidental roles in many popular series and was a regular cast member in "The Flower of Evil" (1961), "Six Proud Walkers" (1962), and in early seasons of soap operas "Compact" and "Emmerdale Farm". She also appeared in several films, with her role in the horror film "The Virgin Witch" (1971) being perhaps the most remarkable--as she played a particularly evil villainess.
Haines appeared three times during the six seasons of "The Avengers", playing a different character each time. In addition to her role on "The Master Minds", she was in "The Nutshell" (1963) and "Who's Who???" (1967).
Although a talented actress, Haines is more frequently mentioned as the one-time wife of Michael Cain. (They were married in 1954 and were divorced in 1962.)
Haines, a smoker since she was in her teens, passed away from lung cancer at the age of 45 in 1977.
Cone of Silence (aka "Trouble in the Sky") (1960) Starring: Michael Craig, Bernard Lee, Peter Cushing, Elizabeth Seal, Gordon Jackson, George Sanders, Noel Willman, Marne Maitland, and Andre Morell
Director: Charles Frend
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
An aging pilot (Lee) is blamed for a near-crash with the latest passenger jet design, the Phoenix. While the designer of the jet (Willman) and a pilot-turned-airline-executive (Cushing) are pushing all the blame onto pilot error, a training pilot (Craig) starts to discover evidence that the problem may be with the aircraft design.
"Cone of Silence" is a nice little drama that revolves around the business and politics involved in running an airline and the processes by which mistakes and accidents are investigated, blame is assigned, and steps are taken to understand why the mistake or accident happened and how they can be prevented from occurring again. In the hands of less talented people, and with a cast that wasn't comprised entirely of top-notch actors--with even smaller roles being filled by the likes of Gordon Jackson, George Sanders, and Andre Morell--this could easily have turned into a preachy melodrama. Instead, we're treated to some nice performances by talented actors and a character-driven story that's made even more suspenseful by the fact that the audience knows there's going to another plane crash (or several) than just the one that got pinned on old Captain Gort (played with great charm by Bernard Lee) at the outset.
One interesting aspect of the film is that none of the major characters are ever acting out of malice--every character has blind spots/fatal flaws that contribute to the film's chain of events, but there isn't anyone who can truly be described as villains. Everyone is acting in a way that they believe forwards the greater good, and in the interest of truth and public safety. (There is one character who remains as apparently shady and misguided at the end of the film as he seemed at the beginning, but even he is more arrogant than outright bad.)
Further, with the plane crashes that have been dominating the news about the airline industry in recent years, this sixty year-old movie still has relevance today. I suspect that you'll find the exact same personalities in those same jobs, performing the same functions, today as you did back then... and I think that they'll behave in much the same fashion and be motivated by the same outlooks as those in "Cone of Silence."
If you have some time, you can watch "Cone of Silence" from this very post. I think you'll enjoy it. It's got fine performances from Elizabeth Seal, in her only starring role, as a dutiful daughter hoping that her father's name will be cleared; Michael Craig striking a nice balance between earnest and smarmy as a cocky pilot; and Peter Cushing as a "company man" trying to find a truth that is most beneficial to growing the bottom line. (It may be because I'm a huge fan of him, but I think that out of all the cast Cushing gave the most excellent of performances. He communicates more with a shift in body language, a darting of the eyes, or a slight change in tone than pages of dialog might reveal about a character. I don't recall ever seeing him give a bad performance, but he is particular excellent in this film.)
Lykke Li is a Swedish singer/songwriter who spent her childhood globe-trotting with her family. As an adult, she settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she began her musical career.
Lykke Li's music is mostly danceable pop with an undercurrent of darkness and a strong indie flavor. She joins us today to get your week started with a bit of video madness--and one that in some ways sums up the nature of this blog--and a song with lyrics that have multiple layers of interpretation.
Actress and model Amanda Righetti--best known for her roles on the television series "The O.C." (2003-2005), "Reunion" (2005-2006), "The Mentalist" (2008-2015) and "Colony" (2017-2018) was born on April 4, 1983. Here are some photos in celebration!
One good reason for a modern viewer to watch this short film is for its succinct telling of the 13th century story of the man who was watching Jesus drag his cross through Jerusalem on his way to be executed--and this man not only refused Jesus's plea for water but also mocked him. As a result, he was cursed to wander the earth, without rest, until God renders Final Judgement on all humans who ever lived.
It's been a story that's fascinated me since I first heard it as a little kid, so I am predisposed to liking adaptations of it. This one I enjoyed because it is very literally in its interpretation of the Wandering Jew not ever being able to rest... and that not only do angels enforce the curse, but devils do as well. This is a nicely done adaptation that relates the core of the original story in a clear and straightforward fashion. Another sign of its effectiveness is that it once again made me wonder why the man remains cursed, given the central theme of Jesus's sacrifice and Christianity in general.
As always, you're invited to take a few moments to watch this historic short film right here, from this post.
In the Park (1933) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actor (although this is basically a silent movie) Directors: Frank Sherman and George Rufle Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Tom and Jerry's quiet afternoon in the park is disrupted by a bratty baby.
"In the Park" is another Tom & Jerry adventure that shows those in charge of this series weren't clear on who the target audience for this series was. We have a little mature humor at the beginning and end, framing a series of cute and mildly amusing antics by our heroes and the baby they find themselves suddenly taking care of. I suspect that if I were nine years old, I would find the various visual gags absolute screamers, but at well over five times that age, they just make me smile. It's not that the jokes are bad... they're just juvenile and not set up as effectively as they could be. All that said, the gags come in a steady, constant stream and none drag on past the point of being funny. Even if the baby is annoying.
(The adult in me--and possibly because I'm a 2020s adult instead of a 1930s adult--also kept thinking that our heroes were going to be arrested for kidnapping or for being perverts, since they just started playing with a random baby that showed up. There was also a brief twinge of "don't they see the baby carriage 20 feet their right", but then I decided I was REALLY overthinking things. Plus, the cute squirrels that Jerry was feeding were coming from the opposite direction, so they never really looked that way. [Yeah... still overthinking...])
As with many of the "Tom & Jerry" films, the music is excellent. It's not a mini-musical like some of them are, but rather a silent movie with a great score that's perfectly timed to what unfolds on screen. For all the inconsistencies that plagued this series vis-Ã -vis tone, possible target audiences, and animation- and story-quality, the musical scores were almost always of the highest quality.
Animation-wise, this is both one of the best AND worst in the Tom & Jerry series. In the positive column, the sequences involving the cute squirrels are well done and very cute. We are also treated to honest-to-god backgrounds throughout most of this episode, something the animators working on "Tom & Jerry" too-often didn't bother with. In the negative column, the characters are sloppily drawn, especially Tom. He literally changes shape more than once and for no reason, with his arms and legs sometimes getting longer or shorter even within the same sequence. Similarly, the obnoxious baby seems to be bigger or smaller from scene to scene. It's distracting, and it's incomprehensible as to why there wasn't a little more quality control going on... especially when the extra effort to draw backgrounds.
And speaking of that obnoxious baby... I wonder if the Van Beuren company wasn't testing out a possible headliner for another series. It's one of only two recurring characters in the series--aside from Tom & Jerry themselves--and it always had a major role. (The Bratty Baby can also be found in "Pots and Pans" and "Puzzled Pals". The other recurring, more minor character, was a horse that appeared in "Rabid Hunters", "In the Bag", and "Hook and Ladder Hokum".)
In balance, "In the Park" isn't a brilliant effort, but it's among the better "Tom & Jerry" installments. It's worth checking out if you have nothing better to do with the next few minutes. Just click below and sit back.
And with this, every installment in Van Beuren's Tom & Jerry series has been reviewed and can be watched here at Shades of Gray. Click here to see an index of all them, as well as easy links through which to check them out.
After giving up on becoming a ballerina, but before she turned to modeling and acting, teenaged Brigitte Bardot found fame as Paris' only human dart board.
Among the many other unique posts on this blog, you can read about the unknown histories of actresses Bessie Love and Joan Blondell. We here at Shades of Gray are committed to bringing you nothing but the most serious, well-researched posts.
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