Wonder Woman Wednesday

By Ronnie Del Carmen

We're offering up another batch of portraits of everyone's favorite Amazon by great artists. There's a unifying theme this time around. See if you can figure out what it is!

By Sebastien Dardenne

By Rebeka Hann

By Michael Netzer

By Ramona Fradon

It's International Nude Day...

... and we're getting as close to celebrating it as we can get away with here at Shades of Gray!

Musical Monday with Daisy Gray and Chris Isaak

In 2015, a young singer named Daisy Gray uploaded her cover of Chris Isaak's 1989 "Wicked Game" to YouTube. It became popular, and she followed it with several more songs. Five years later, in February of 2020, she uploaded a rather nicely done video for the song that she described as a tribute to the one that supported the original Isaac song back. But, instead of focusing on Gray's beautiful voice and the artistic photography in the video, many YouTubers of 2020 instead went into hysterics over the fact that she's--GASP!--smoking cigarette in the video!

Personally, I find it far more troubling that she's gone to the beach in her underwear... but then I'm not prone to hysterical outrage over every little thing. Here's Gray's beautiful cover, as well as her new video to go along with it.



Here's the original video and Chris Isaak's original song. Personally, I find that I prefer Daisy Gray's version, but take a listen/look and tell me what you think.

The Return of the Tuba Tooter

The Tuba Tooter (1932)
Starring: Uncredited Voice Actors and Singers
Directors: John Foster and George Stallings
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

The whole city celebrates, with Tom and Jerry leading the festivities, when famous tuba player Schultz returns to his hometown in Germany.

"The Tuba Tooter" is one of the best "Tom and Jerry" cartoons. It's got the catchy music that most of them have (I find myself humming the main song, "Schultz is Back Again", as I type these words), it's got some cute bits... but, more importantly than almost anything, the animators seem to have actually put in the time and effort to move this from merely good to excellent. All the characters in any given scene are moving, very few are in obvious loops, and the backgrounds are detailed and also animated in some cases. If this much care had gone into all the installments in this series, maybe it wouldn't be a mostly forgotten relic and commercial failure.

(The rest of my review swerves into "spoiler territory" as I comment on the ending. As is my habit with these "Tom and Jerry" posts, I invite you to watch the subject I am commenting on. In case you want to enjoy the wacky cuteness without me ruining the fun by overthinking it, I am embedding the cartoon right here. My comments continue afterwards.)



As good a job as the Van Beuren crew did on this outing, it wouldn't be "Tom and Jerry" if they didn't drop the ball in some kind of major way. In this case, following five minutes viewers watching cheerful and/or surreal scenes of an community setting aside differences and coming together in celebration of music and the musician who creates it, the police show up, break up the celebration, and arrest Schultz. There's no logical reason for this that I can see--even if authorities were upset with the noise, I would think they'd appreciate that everyone in the city--including those who should be fighting or preying upon each other like dogs and cats and mice--are united in harmony and love of Schultz's music. Perhaps I'm naïve, or perhaps I don't understand the totalitarian mindset that is probably being mocked with this film's ending, but I just can't wrap my mind around how it fits in with what has gone before. The police officers even appear to be sad that they are arresting Schultz, based on the look on their faces as they drive away with him. (And yet, Tom and Jerry are as cheerful with Schultz being hauled off as they were with him coming back...).

Perhaps I'm just looking for meaning where there is not--this IS a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon after all. Maybe I would have been better off just enjoying the spectacle of a singing dog and his tuba-tooting owner who can bring everyone together in harmony. (Well, until a bunch of sad-faced cops break it all up...)

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 Nine.


JENNA OF THE JUNGLE: PART EIGHT
By Don Hudson

To Be Continued...


   Girls of the Jungle

By Dave Stevens

Firearms Friday with Brigitte Bardot

Born in 1934, Brigitte Bardot was in her teens and training to be a ballet dancer when she, over her parents objections, turned to fashion- and photo-modeling. Around that same time, also over her parents objections, she began dating a much older man. She soon turned to acting, and by the early 1950s, she was well on her way to being one of Europe's most celebrated movie stars... and known for her roles as sexually liberated women. And, yes, you guessed it... it was over her parents' objections.

By the dawn of the 1960s, Bardot was a world-renowned actress. Over the next decade or so, she appeared in a range of genres opposite a galaxy of top American, British, and French male film stars, while also launching a successful musical career. In 1973, just shy of her 40th birthday, she retired from acting and performing, still at the height of fame.

Since retiring from show business, Bardot has devoted the past several decades to animal rights activism, and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals remains one of the world's leading forces in the animal rights movement.

It's early movie magic with 'The Magician'

The Magician (1898)

Starring: Georges Méliès

Director: Georges Méliès

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

An old magician (Méliès) turns himself into a young clown... and then things get really weird.

"The Magician" is one of groundbreaking filmmaker's Georges Méliès early efforts, and it's more of a vignette than a proper short film. As with many of his efforts, it's made primarily to be a magic show up on film, creating the illusions primarily with in-camera film editing and other trick photography instead props and sleight-of-hand. I usually find those to be among the least interesting of Méliès' efforts, but there's an exception to every rule... and this is that exception.

As is my habit with these Méliès reviews, I'm embedding the film I'm talking about in this post. Unlike my usual habit, it's going to be here in the middle instead of at the end, because I'm going to "spoil" the film with the comments that follow. (Watch it now if you want to watch the surprises unfold as Méliès intended, and then continue reading below.)

As I've already mentioned, "The Magician" is one of those plot-free offerings where Méliès is mostly (and joyously) showing off his special effects trickery, using stage magic as his point of departure. and However, it's slightly more interesting than most of them.

First, the trick photography effects here are executed with amazing precision, especially taking into account how early this film comes from, both in Melies time as a filmmaker and the art of filmmaking in general.

Secondly, because he includes elements of fantasy here. As this vignette unfolds, we watch a gray-bearded wizard turn himself into a young, starving harlequin. He is then transformed by an artist by the devil--an artist who creates living sculptures whom he falls in love with. Ultimately, the devil returns and, literally, kicks his ass. And that's where it ends.

 And with that sudden non-ending ending (the devil kicks the artist, he flies off-camera... and we have no wrap-up or even a hint as to what happened to the magician ultimately), it occurred to me that maybe there IS a plot in this film. Maybe it's a story about an old man who tries to recapture his youth through magic, but as he relives his life and grows from a foolish child into a worldly man, the devil and even death--and final oblivion--catch up with him anyway.

I could be reading something into this film that's not there--sort of like a cloud might look like a dragon, or an ink blot test might look like two men with hammers--but maybe it's the exact story/message that Méliès was trying to convey. What do you think out there? What's your take on "The Magician"?

Musical Monday with OMD

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (or just OMD) is a British band whose focus has mostly been on synthesizers-driven pop  music. They achieved great popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s, disbanding in 1996 and reforming ten years later in 2006. They continue to crisscross the globe on tours to this day, wowing audiences everywhere they play.

In 1991, OMD recorded one of their greatest songs, "Pandora's Box". The title was drawn from a 1929 silent movie, and the song was a touching tribute to that film's star, Louise Brooks. These facts, plus the spectacular video made to support the song on its release--with all of its genuine footage of Brooks interwoven with new material of OMD front man Andy McCluskey engaging in Louise Brooks-oriented scrap-booking--makes it a perfect selection for our Musical Monday series here at Shades of Gray. We hope you enjoy this beautiful song and masterfully crafted video.


Pandora's Box (1991)
Starring: Andy McCluskey and Louise Brooks
Director: Andrew Doucette
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Betty and Jimmy get a work-out

Betty Boop and Little Jimmy (1936)
Starring: Mae Questel
Director: Dave Fleischer

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Betty (voiced by Questel) is working through a personal fitness and weight-loss regiment when Little Jimmy (also voiced by Questel) causes a workout machine to malfunction. With Betty trapped in it, Jimmy rushes off to get help, but is repeatedly distracted along the way. 

By 1936, Betty Boop's best years were behind her as a cartoon character. The morality clauses of the Motion Picture Production Code instituted in 1934 had drained her adventures of the adult-oriented surrealness and not-so-thinly veiled sexual references that had made them unique, and Betty was left starring in cute and mildly amusing features. The wild-child of the animated world had settled down and become domesticated, and, as if to drive that fact home, she was paired in several films with the child character of Little Jimmy. (For more on Little Jimmy's origins, see my review of "Baby Be Good" by clicking here.)  

"Betty Boop and Little Jimmy" is a fairly typical example of these on-the-downhill-slope efforts. The voice acting is great, the animation is top-notch, the music is fun and catchy... but the story is entirely without any of the edgy sparks that were flying left and right back in early 1930s. What we have here is a series of cute, harmless, and mildly amusing gags that are almost entirely free of anything that would cause upset. (That said, there are a couple of moments that might "trigger" some of the hyper-sensitive modern viewers out there, but anyone who is psychologically well-balanced should weather the experience just fine.)

One thing that really sets it apart, however, is the unsettling, nightmarish territory that this cartoon heads into at the end. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it--other than it is completely out of tone with everything that leads up to it. It's so inconsistent that I find myself wondering if maybe veterans from the "Tom and Jerry" series dropped by for the story concept meetings, because, like the "Tom and Jerry" series, it's as if the creators here couldn't settle on a tone or an audience for their efforts.

Why don't you take a few minutes out of your day and enjoy a bit of 1930s fun and weirdness? Maybe you have a different take on the ending than I do, and then you can set me straight with a comment! 

Happy Independence Day, U.S.A!

We hope all our American friends, no matter where they are in the world, have a safe and happy Fourth of July during these unusual times! Here at Shades of Gray, Gloria Shea and Joan Blondell are sporting their matching Uncle Sam outfits while Grace Bradley is testing her Social Distancing Fireworks Display.