Ko-Ko the Clown goes dancing with spooks!

In observance of Friday the 13th, we bring you a haunting cartoon!

Ko-Ko Sees Spooks (aka "Ko-Ko's Haunted Hat") (1925, 1950)

Starring: Max Fleischer
Director: Dave Fleischer
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Ko-Ko and his pet dog enter a mysterious house where they alternately fight and party with ghosts.

As with most cartoons starring Ko-Ko the Clown, this is another fun mix of live-action footage and animation--although less than in others and the live action portions aren't central to the going-ons beyond Ko-Ko initially forming from several 13s doodled by Max the Cartoonist. (That opening sequence, plus the head-scratcher, completely random climax are almost entirely disconnected from anything that happens in the main body of the cartoon--except perhaps as a way to logically explain how Ko-Ko at one point is able to make a dozen or more copies of himself.)

The bulk of the cartoon takes place inside a haunted house where Ko-Ko ends up in a number of situations that you'd expect in a place like that. My personal favorite moments is Ko-Ko convincing his dog to go into the haunted house, and then later when Ko-Ko is making time with a female ghost (who is a hottie in his imagination). There really isn't anything here that isn't goofy, nonsensical fun, and I am sure you'll enjoy this spooky little film from beginning to end.

(The version embedded in this post is the 1950 re-release where it was retitled "Ko-Ko's Haunted Hat". It's the best version of this great short film that we could find on YouTube.)

We're tempting fate...

 ... on this Friday the 13th. Stand clear!

There's a student film project in crisis!

Black and White Short Film (2022)
Starring: Michael Buss, Emma Thurston, and Branden Hume
Director: Branden Hume
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A student filmmaker (Hume) desperately needs an appropriate idea for a class project. He turns to an actor (Buss) brainstorming help... with mixed results.

 "Black and White Short Film" is a comedy that I'm certain every arts student and professional creative can relate to: The problem of needing to fit an idea to a specific length and format, or even coming up with an idea that will fill a specific length and format, on a deadline. Those people "fortunate" enough to be their friends or colleagues will also be able to relate. Meanwhile, those out there with normal lives and "real jobs" will at the very least find the gags here very funny.

This is another of those films I found in an obscure corner of YouTube that I think deserves to be seen. This is a simply made film with naturalistic acting and a concept I found to be very clever. (And which may actually have been borne into existence from the very situation that is chronicled.)

Click below to check it out. I'm sure you will find the next five minutes well spent if you do. 

 

In memory of George Perez

After a lengthy illness, legendary comic book artist and writer George Perez passed away on May 6, 2022. He is best remembered for helping to reshape the DC Universe in the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" mini-series in the mid-1980s--a work so full of impactful imagery that it resonates across the comic book genre to this very day; for reinventing Wonder Woman during the late 1980s and into the 1990s; and for his ability to cram dozens and dozens of heroes and fierce action to pages... and yet it was always crystal clear what was going on.

Perez's career spanned four decades, and, although his style matured and changed over the years, his art remained consistently beautiful and the figures in it always epic in appearance and stature. Today, we present a gallery of his work, in his honor and memory.

You can enjoy some of Perez's portraits of more famous female superheroes by clicking here, and some grand imagery of the Batman Family by clicking here. His portraits of Wonder Woman have also been featured on many Wonder Woman Wednesdays.

It's Opening Night for Cubby the Bear!

Opening Night (1933)
Starring: Anonymous Singers and Voice Actors
Director: Mannie Davis
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Cubby the Bear tries to sneak into the hottest new show in town and ends up conducting the orchestra.

The title of this 1933 entry into Van Beuren's anthology series Aesop's Fables, "Opening Night", can be taken in at least two different ways. The first, and most obvious, the setting is the opening of a new show at the Roxy theatre. Secondly, this cartoon was the first appearance of Cubby the Bear, an attempt on the part of the Van Beuren Corporation to come up with a recurring character for Aesop's Fables. (They were possibly taking this step because the unofficial recurring characters--Milton Mouse and Rita Mouse--were coming increasingly under threat from the Walt Disney Corporation which was annoyed by the way the pair had increasingly come to be off-color copies of their successful Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse characters.)

This first outing for Cubby is a little uneven quality-wise. After a mystifying opening scene involving Santa Claus (probably an artifact of the film's original release date), viewers are treated to a series of repetitive and barely amusing gags as Cubby tries to sneak into the theatre. Once our pint-sized hero gets inside and ends up in front of the orchestra, things start getting better and a lot funnier. 

As is almost always the case with a Van Beuren cartoon, the best part is the music. the cartoon opera (which I think is a hybrid of "Carmen" and "Faust") is hilarious and the action is perfectly matched with the music and the singing. They didn't quite go as far as I think they could have gone with the diminutive romantic lead and the big-breasted diva during the operas climax; if they had gone even more risqué, I think the bit would have been even funnier.

In fact, this might be problem with "Opening Night" in general. The best Van Beuren cartoons are usually so wild that they enter the realm of the surreal. Here, although there are several impossibly bizarre moments, none rise to the level of crazy that one can find in the best "Tom & Jerry" entries. As a result, we've got something here that's a bit slow at the start and eventually gets into the silly and cute territory, and which ultimately feels like it never reaches its full potential.

"Opening Night" was the first of somewhere between 17 and 20 short features starring Cubby. I'll eventually get around to watching and reviewing all of them in this space. In the process, I will also discover which source is correct on the number of Cubby cartoons that were produced. 

For now, I invite you to check out the subject of this post by clicking below. I hope you enjoy it. If you do (or if you don't!), feel free to leave a comment.

Bones Coffee's Paradise Pie

Does coffee taste better when you're not wearing pants? We here at Shades of Gray have been conducting a study, and we reveal our findings at the end of this post. But before that, here's another review of a flavored blend from Bones Coffee Company--one that is marketed to drink while not wearing pants!

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: PARADISE PIE

The Paradise Pie blend is one of the many flavors that come and go from the line-up offered by Bones Coffee either through their website or at Amazon.com. The fun with this one begins before you open the bag, because it's among the many of their offerings that features a drawing of the Bones Coffee mascot in a funny situation. In this case, our skeletal friend is relaxing in a hammock while eating pie and not wearing pants. 

When opening the bag, there's a sweet smell of sugary key lime that is definitely reminds one of key lime pie flavor that this blend is supposed to reflect. That aroma is also faintly present in the air as the coffee brews: It's not as strong as what can be experienced with other Bones flavored blends, but it mirrors the aroma of the coffee as its poured.

When I tried to coffee black, the key lime flavor was present as a slight sweetener blended in with the mellow medium-roast flavor. It wasn't quite enough to make me want to drink this blend without adding milk or creamer, but I think people who like their coffee with just a touch of sweetener (be it sugar, honey, or some variety of fruit juice) will like this just as it is. Further, as the coffee cools, the key lime flavor grows more evident.

I put this blend through the usual taste tests that I do with coffees I drink for these posts. As mentioned above, I start with trying it black. I then move onto Unsweetened Almond Milk and then sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. All three versions are consumed hot, as they cool to room temperature, and iced.

I found that I liked the Paradise Pie blend best when it was mixed with the Unsweetened Almond, and I really liked the way the key lime flavor seemed to grow stronger as the coffee cooled. The key lime flavor mixed less well with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer; it was okay when the coffee was hot, but as it cooled, the flavors mixed poorly and caused the drink to taste as if I'd made it wiht sour milk. To make sure this wasn't a fluke, or that somehow my creamer had actually spoiled, I tried a second cup with the same mix... and the result was the same.  

Interestingly, the flavors were almost the same when I drank this blend iced, whether I had mixed it with almond milk or the creamer. Naturally, the blend with the creamer was a sweeter than the one with the unsweetened almond milk, but something reminiscent of the graham cracker crust that would be on a key lime pie had crept into the mix. Whether it was this additional flavor--which was little more dominant in the cup of iced Paradise Pie with Unsweetened Almond Milk--or just that the drink was chilled further, the sour milk taste that was present at room temperature was no longer in evidence. I am also happy to report that this is not one of those Bones blends that have a strong saltiness when iced. I should also note that this blend is also quite pleasant straight black when iced.

The Paradise Pie blend is a drink of extremes that works best when it's hot or iced, whether you drink it black or mixed with milk or creamer. Overall, I think it counts as another win for the Bones Coffee Company, even if it's not quite as versatile as some of their other blends. (Although, speaking of versatile, I did try a cup of it iced with vodka. That was also an excellent combination.)

As for the question that an answer was promised to at the top--does coffee taste better if you drink while wearing pants or if you drink it when not wearing pants? Everyone at the Shades of Gray offices were drafted for a very scientific study. See the bottom of the post for the results.

 

The Science Is Settled: Coffee Tastes Better When You're Not Wearing Pants!

The Love Quarterly: Happy Birthday, Steve!

It's my birthday today, so feel free to take the day off and do whatever you want to observe it. I encourage you to start the tradition of buying yourself something special, or treating yourself to a fancy dinner in observation of the day that I was put on this Earth!

Bessie Love has baked a cake, but she only put on a fraction of the candles that should be on it. And even with that amount, she is concerned that it might catch the Shades of Gray offices on fire...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

 Anita Page invites you to celebrate with music and more!

Just don't party too hard... or you'll end up like Anita does every year!

Wonder Woman Wednesday

The legendary, trailblazing artist Neal Adams, who influenced an entire generation of comic book artists and who was a tireless advocate for creator rights, passed away at the age of 80 on April 28, 2022. In his memory and honor, we are featuring Wonder Woman sketches and portraits that Adams drew.

Adams is remembered mostly for his work for DC Comics, on Batman and Deadman stories in various titles, on the "Green Lantern & Green Arrow" series, as well as dozens of amazing covers for titles such as "House of Mystery" and "The Phantom Stranger". He was also responsible for interesting characters such as Toyboy and Valaria for his own company, Continuity Comics. We'll be presenting a gallery or two of Adams' more iconic work at some point in the future.

'To Save Her Soul' turns terrible at the end

To Save Her Soul (1909)
Starring: Mary Pickford, Arthur V. Johnson, George Nichols, and William Beaudine

Director: D.W. Griffith

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A beautiful young woman with an equally beautiful voice (Pickford) is put onto the path of a successful showbusiness career after a chance encounter with a theatrical producer (Nichols). A young pastor in her hometown (Johnson) is in love (or maybe just in lust) with her, and he follows her to the big city, in hopes of convincing her to return with him.

I generally don't have the patience for silent dramas, because the pacing combined with the overwrought performance styles and melodramatic pantomiming used by the actors to communicate emotions either bore me or make me laugh. 

A notable exception are short films from D.W. Griffith. Every one of them I've seen so far has moved along at a breakneck pace and has been augmented by staging and framing of scenes that are at the same time reminiscent of renaissance paintings and modern-feeling. Griffith was one of the early masters of the cinematic medium, and that's what makes his short films entertaining to this day.

"To Save Her Soul" is no exception. It clips along at a quick pace. While there's plenty of overly dramatic emoting and even some overacting, the two leads--Pickford and Johnson--have enough presence and charisma that their screen presence shines through that. Pickford is, as always, excellent in her part. 

With that said, I'm going to break format and present "To Save Her Soul" for your viewing pleasure here in the middle of this post instead of at the end. This is because the rest of this review reveals the film's ending and thus may spoil it for you.

The story of "To Save Her Soul" is fairly engaging... and it becomes even more so when the handsome lead makes a transition from a concerned would-be suitor to the young singer to a crazed stalker and religious fanatic who is going to murder her, ostensibly to save her soul (as the title implies) but more basically because if he can't possess her completely and wholly, she cannot be allowed to live.

But, ultimately, that character transition is what undoes this movie. Instead of treating the pastor like the vicious monster that he is, the film sets him up as a literal savior: After he literally points a gun at Pickford's character's face and threatens to murder her if she doesn't surrender to his whims and desires (and his whims and desires alone), the young woman surrenders to him completely, leaving behind the life of sinful showbusiness to be his sex slave before the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay, I probably put a far darker spin on the film's final moments than Griffith intended, but the ending of "To Save Her Soul" is seriously messed up. Even when allowing for more than a century of shifting social standards, the "hero" of this film should have been a villain that one of the show biz folk wrestled with, and ultimately shot with his own gun. That is how this film should have ended, and I would have given it Eight or Nine Stars.