tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48040293097278796802024-03-28T18:54:07.735-05:00Café RoxyCafé Roxy is an IDEA for coffee houses, cafés, restaurants, libraries and wherever people gather to eat, drink and have a good time. To attract customers during off hours: <strong>Show Free Movies! </strong> Movie Theaters as well can offer Saturday Matinees for $1.00 and profit off concessions. Public domain programs that include feature films, TV shows, cartoons and serials still hold the power to entertain. <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/">www.fesfilms.com</a>Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.comBlogger188125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-80134485022271288822017-08-06T21:05:00.000-05:002017-08-06T21:42:08.558-05:00What? No More Blog Posts?My last blog entry, which you can read just below, was about "Adventures in Face Book." It was viewed by 550 people who happened to find it by accident or the link at my website fesfilms.com. The simple truth is that I have stopped blogging because I now post 3 times daily at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/moviememorytime"> Facebook.</a> I write comments to go along with every video I put up. These posts which amount to over 20 each week average "reaching" over 20k per week. I can reach so many by sharing each post with 10 to 15 other FB Groups such as 1950s America, Dead Comedians Society and Cinema Cafe.<br />
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The "reach" number is only visible to me, Ron Hall, the Movie Memory Time group creator and manager. Exactly what "reach" means is not clear. I think it means the post flits across their Facebook time lines, and maybe they read the title or the text, but only 10% actually watch the videos. Still, I will take 2,000 views a week anytime.<br />
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I have fallen into a rough schedule of posting an Amos n Andy TV show every Monday; Betty White on Tuesday; Space Patrol episode split up on Wednesday and Thursday; Gale Storm on Friday; and a serial chapter plus a Tex Avery cartoon on Saturday and a Sunday gospel film. Occasionally some post hits a nerve and gets re-shared multiple times. For instance I put up an ordinary Universal Newsreel that "reached" over 10k Facebookers.<br />
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This Ozzie and Harriet excerpt reached 14,670. It is special and I am happy TV fans out there recognized that and enjoyed it:<br />
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Ozzie and Harriet -- RICKY'S FIRST SONG</div>
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And Rick plays the drums and dances in April 1957 when he was only 17! This landmark episode that started Ricky Nelson's career as a pop singer also refers to Ozzie's 1940s career as a big band leader, and features all four Nelsons singing "My Gal Sal" together.</div>
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More info from IMDB:<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"><br />Landmark Episode For Ricky Nelson, by ccthemovieman-1<br />This was a historic episode in the history of this long-running sitcom: the debut of Ricky as a drummer and singer. He even dances, too! Rick winds up sitting in with the "Tommy Jackson Band" at a big charity dance that Harriet and a bunch of people had set up. It's a long story how that happened but older brother David helped Ricky out in a nice way.</span></div>
Here is another example that reached over 6k this week: <span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">GALE STORM SINGS - Again and Again</span><br />
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Two delightful examples of Gale singing 15 years apart. First is a trailer for the 1943 Monogram musical COLLEGE RHYTHM, followed by Gale singing "I Cried for You" from a late 50s episode of THE GALE STORM SHOW / OH SUSANNA (episode title not known).<br />
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So no more blogging. I am having more fun researching and writing about fun film clips EVERY DAY while I reach far more people at the same time and can interact with whoever makes comments.<br />
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Rather than giving more Facebook examples of successful posts, I invite you to simply visit<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/moviememorytime">Movie Memory Time.</a></span><br />
and spend all day scrolling down and watching posts of interest.Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-85797627481155932412017-02-12T11:14:00.000-06:002017-02-12T11:14:00.419-06:00Adventures in FacebookJust over a year ago, around 2/1/2016, I started <b>Movie Memory Time</b> Facebook page. The link is down below. Movie Memories are short video clips followed by questions to encourage recalling one's past and reminiscing about it with whatever friends and family watched the video with you. Some are clips from feature films, trailers, cartoons, "educational" films like they showed in schools, newsreels, TV ads -- basically anything filmed long ago can remind one of where they were in life at that time. If you never heard of Movie Memories, here is how they work:<br />
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I invited all my Facebook friends and about 100 "Liked" the new page just to see what I was doing. I had a stockpile of <b>Movie Memory</b> segments and began posting every other day. Not much happened for quite awhile as far as picking up viewers. Then I started using Vimeo for uploading the videos instead of youtube. I also started re-doing the segments with stills behind the questions instead of a blank screen. I added more off-the-wall humor in the questions such as "What is your favorite ocean?" Here is an original one made for Facebook that has gotten the most views:<br />
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The goal of each post is to "Reach" a lot of people on Facebook. I don't know what qualifies as a "Reach." I think it means that a post flits across one's computer screen as they are browsing Facebook. If you have 500 FB Friends, then you get a whole lot of posts on your timeline every day and might have missed most of mine. I do not repost the same video several times since that can become annoying. Anyone can intentionally come to MMT page to catch up on anything they might have missed, but I suspect few do that as we are all too busy. Only around 10% of those Reached, click on and watch the videos.<br />
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I found I could vastly increase reaches, views and new Likes by sharing my posts with other FB Groups. For instance, this Edsel one was shared with 3 groups who love vintage cars, and also to 1950s America and other nostalgia pages. I only share horror videos to horror groups, TV posts to TV groups, comedy videos to Dead Comedians Society, etc.<br />
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In October 2016 I put out lots of horror movie trailers and clips leading up to Halloween, but still only every other day. I started sharing these wider and picking up more LIKES (700 MMT page Likes as of mid February 2017). While I used to think 400 Reaches was a great success, I began wanting to reach 1K or more every time.<br />
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I started posting favorite film clips without adding questions to turn them into "Movie Memories." No one noticed or cared, and it allowed me to 1) Post more often, 2) Share videos from youtube, and 3) share copyrighted films (all Movie Memories use public domain clips). A turning point came Nov. 20, 2016 when I posted the following excerpt from an Amos 'n' Andy TV show:<br />
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There was WIDE interest in this TV show and it was re-shared by many fans all over Facebook such that the video currently has more than 13k Reaches. I followed up with several more Amos n Andy videos and my Reaches for the week soared over 20K.<br />
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In December I posted a MMT clip about Christmas every day. This routine turned to twice a day in January after I found the very supportive FB group 1950s America. In February I am posting a black musician or comedian tribute every day for Black History Month, plus second posts.<br />
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Discoveries I have made about Facebook and me this past year:<br />
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<ul>
<li>It is like a game to maintain 10K Reaches every week.</li>
<li><br /></li>
<li>I enjoy interacting with everyone who comments on a post by Liking their comment or replying to it.</li>
<li><br /></li>
<li>Youtube is something of a mess. Yes, you can go there searching for Amos n Andy and watch lots of them, except many are so poor as to be unwatchable. However, if a decent quality episode (from me) shows up on your FB Timeline or in a group you check every day, you are much more likely to watch it, enjoy it and re-share it.</li>
<li><br /></li>
<li>Many Groups that I share to mostly post pictures from the members. So my videos stand out and are appreciated, so far as I can tell from the comments.</li>
<li><br /></li>
<li>I have learned a lot about the films by scanning them for clips to use. For instance, I did not know Mantan Moreland was so funny in <b>King of the Zombies</b> until two weeks ago when I made this:</li>
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What do my daily MMT posts get me? When will the money start rolling in (LOL)? A growing presence on the web? Reputation as a film enthusiast? Building "Movie Memory Time" into a brand I might someday be able to sell? Well, it has brought me new friends for sure, and perhaps greater respect from many who have known me for years at the unique film clips I post. Posting is a new hobby I enjoy more now. I do get a daily sense of winning or doing good by maintaining 10K+ Reaches each week.<br />
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To join the fun, please visit facebook.com/moviememorytime/ and LIKE the page.<br />
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Here is a final film clip posted a month ago. I found out it was Phyllis Coates' birthday, realized I had this trailer to <b>Panther Girl of the Kongo</b> serial she starred in, posted it quickly and it has had 2,855 reaches to date. That giant claw in the thumbnail must have intrigued viewers.<br />
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<b></b>Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-24831131531911289252016-12-29T09:45:00.000-06:002016-12-29T09:49:31.165-06:00Christian Movie Classics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: white;">This new website by Bob Campbell and myself is live and ready for your free viewing at ChristianMovieClassics.com. Please share the link with anyone who might be interested.</span></b><br />
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<strong><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">50 Free Film Classics are Streaming Online Right Now, Including THE LIVING CHRIST Series.</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">By Bob Campbell and Ron Hall</span></strong></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">In “No Greater Power”, the life of wealthy tax collector Zaccheus is changed forever when he welcomes Jesus into his home. “Empty Shoes” tells the story of Minister William Carey who journeyed to India in 1793 to spread the Gospel. A priest tries to help restore a man’s faith in God when he turns to alcohol in the Crossroads TV episode “God in the Street”. When the circus comes to town, Charlie (inspired by Charlie Chaplin) sets out to get those clowns to church in “Charlie Churchman and the Clowns”. Who among us has ever even heard of these vintage faith-based films?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">Few today are aware that literally thousands of religious films were produced from the early sound era through the late seventies that chronicle how the Bible was presented to 20th century audiences through the medium of film and television. Now, a team of veteran classic film collectors and distributors are rescuing these lost and rare film treasures from obscurity to reissue them as widely as possible.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wtL8EL7OBmM" style="max-width: 100%;" width="854"></iframe></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">CHRISTIAN MOVIE CLASSICS (CMC) is a new cost-free streaming video website loaded with vintage Christian films and TV shows, and without annoying ads. Many of these powerful examples of our Christian film heritage were crafted by talented Hollywood filmmakers expressly for Christian organizations. Others with strong spiritual themes were produced for mainstream theatrical and television audiences. These remarkable films reflect Biblical history and Christian belief, while addressing topics that remain relevant today.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">But, where did these little-known films come from? Where have they been all these years?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">In 1939, Rev. James K. Friedrich established Cathedral Films studio to produce religious films for movie theaters and church distribution. “The Great Commandment” (1939), about a Jewish zealot who shows mercy on a Roman soldier after hearing Jesus preach, was the first sound feature set at the time of Christ. Cathedral Films went on to produce dozens of short films, as well as a critically-acclaimed 12-part series on “The Life of St. Paul”, followed by the distinguished 12-part color “The Living Christ” Series. The first color, sound feature film about the life of Jesus Christ, “Day of Triumph” (1954), featured a top Hollywood cast.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">In the 1950‚ a secular film producer Sam Hersh founded Family Films to compete in the emerging faith-based market. Hersh explored the trials and temptations besetting modern day Christians in films like “Rolling Stones” (1950), “Front Page Bible” (1959) and “This My Son” (1954). Other Christian studios and filmmakers soon followed such as World Wide Pictures, Gospel Films, Moody Bible Institute, the Protestant Film Commission, National Council of Churches, Broadman Films, Jan Sadlo, Ken Anderson, Rolf Forsberg, and many more.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">Religious films were a natural fit for the new medium of television. In 1951, The Christophers organization recruited many renowned Hollywood stars and talent to create a weekly TV series. The first Christopher episode, “You Can Change the World”, echoed their message and was followed by dramas dealing with the faith of Abraham Lincoln, government ethics, citizen participation in elections, restraining television violence, challenges of atomic energy and other timely topics. In 1955, James Cagney made a rare TV appearance in “A Link in the Chain” as a professor who profoundly influences the lives of his students.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">The TV series Crossroads (1955-57) dramatized the lives of clergymen of all faiths and the problems faced in their professional and personal lives. Hollywood stars like Vincent Price and Pat O’Brien played men of the cloth while youngsters like Michael Landon got their first start in TV. Lutheran Television chronicled the Fisher family in the beloved “This is the Life” series which ran on network TV from 1952 to 1988.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">The reason these thousands of faith-based films are mostly unknown today boils down mostly to bad timing. When home video came along, the major secular film</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">and TV studios were financially positioned to digitize and distribute the retro content in their archives. Such was not the case with Christian film and TV libraries. The 16mm film exchanges around the country that distributed mainly to churches found dwindling interest as cable TV and home video options proliferated. As Cathedral Films, Family Films and others dissolved in the 1990s, their films ended up in the hands of private archives and collectors.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">For the past four years, a collaboration of concerned classic film industry pros, engaged in production and distribution of vintage secular films since the advent of home video, have been tracking down the best surviving 16mm prints and converting them to digital. The Christian Movie Classics website is one way of returning the films to the public.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">CMC is viewer supported by tax-deductible donations and the sale of a series of special DVD Heritage Collections. Our first 4 DVD releases are “Day of Triumph”, “The Gospel Blimp”, a “Christmas Classics” collection, and 4 compelling episodes of “The Christophers” TV show. Details are at ChristianMovieClassics.com/dvds.html. Contributions will go toward acquiring and restoring more films and TV shows for free viewing at the website, and upgrading to HD some films currently on the site.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">Please consider helping spread the Word to family and friends worldwide that this new FREE Christian film streaming website now exists. Fans of classic movies and Bible history are sure to find the films especially appealing. The content remains engaging and inspiring and the films richly deserve to be restored, preserved and made widely accessible.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">You can watch most of the films described above and many more right now, without cost, ad free, and without registration, enrollment or credit card required.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">Click Here to visit <a href="http://christianmovieclassics.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">ChristianMovieClassics.com</a>. </span></div>
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-43378140314354320262016-01-31T15:03:00.000-06:002017-11-16T10:38:18.093-06:00Primeval Television<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXt9FxYe9V8ibgcVGKVnedynrMFvIFP2T1ycmTZYCUjx8yz1F__bYQJwZ5hXA25D3RwzEY2IPgMIZLNuCWLylAeTogkW1jIfEpbXvz8v7NB8stoRYDwmKRyxHJIIBPEWv4DWjyi7jAurk/s1600/DVD+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXt9FxYe9V8ibgcVGKVnedynrMFvIFP2T1ycmTZYCUjx8yz1F__bYQJwZ5hXA25D3RwzEY2IPgMIZLNuCWLylAeTogkW1jIfEpbXvz8v7NB8stoRYDwmKRyxHJIIBPEWv4DWjyi7jAurk/s320/DVD+Cover.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Christmas 2017 SALE: Just send $20 total via Paypal to fesfilms@aol.com. Your 2-disc set containing the 16 TV shows below will be sent right out.</span><br />
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<br />
The Lost and Rare 2-DVD set of <b>PRIMEVAL TELEVISION</b> is finished and ready to go at Amazon.com and the L&R website. The idea was born about 3 years ago when the Lost and Rare team started accumulating rare early TV shows that were not in the market place and that few had seen or even heard of. It is also available at Amazon.com for $24.95 plus shipping.<br />
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The DVD opens with a narrated introduction (by partner Derek Myers) to the 16 films in the collection. This doubles as a prevue trailer that you can watch below. The first film is a 1945 documentary about television, rather than an actual TV show, that sets the stage for the 15 shows to come.<br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Tomorrow Television</span> (1945)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Fascinating documentary looks at television in its infancy: interviews with General David Sarnoff and industry insiders, the science of vacuum tubes and transmission, a look at early studios, sports events and much more. The film was made by Uncle Sam to introduce G.I.s returning from the war to the job openings in the new industry.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Public Prosecutor </span>(1948)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">John Howard stars in a 17-minute mystery. This was the first TV episode ever commissioned to be shot ON FILM, instead of broadcast live like all previous shows. "The Case of the Missing Bullets" is the pilot episode filmed in 1947. ABC then ordered 26 episodes which were made in 1948.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The Comic Strips of Television</span> (1948)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Producer Jerry Fairbanks and Jay Ward made this 15-minute pilot with 3 proposed cartoon characters. Crusader Rabbit was the only one picked up and it debuted on Los Angeles TV in 1949 as the first made-for-TV cartoon series. The pilot also has an early Dudley Do-Right and unknown Hamhock Jones cartoon.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Art Linkletter & The Kids</span> (c. 1950)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Before “People Are Funny,” Art talked with kids in 15-minute episodes.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Playhouse 15 </span>(1952)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Anthology series of short dramas that only ran 12 min. to fit in 15 min. time slots. Actor Jack Klugman is featured in one of his earliest TV appearances in “Backfire.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">A Great New Star</span> (1953)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Dinah Shore became a major recording star in the 1940s and appeared on TV from 1951 to 1994. She sings two songs in this early infomercial/promotion for 1953 Chevy cars.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBUWHllJFSDzAClYs41dqtJLVdYqwnx-9ydOi21YpjgYgixewAbOn2bapAx4K29db9z9Bd-2BuSQOzbINGbiqce4K8Hsd5macL9aRL3D-waNaloJC0grpKKvig9fuDU-TaYSQ8KEkBCo/s1600/backcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBUWHllJFSDzAClYs41dqtJLVdYqwnx-9ydOi21YpjgYgixewAbOn2bapAx4K29db9z9Bd-2BuSQOzbINGbiqce4K8Hsd5macL9aRL3D-waNaloJC0grpKKvig9fuDU-TaYSQ8KEkBCo/s320/backcover.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Top Secret </span>(1954)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Few remember this early 12 minute spy film starring Paul Stewart, Gena Rowlands & the first TV computer!</span><span class="s2"> </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Felix in the Bone Age</span> (1922/’50)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Silent Felix the Cat cartoons with added music tracks were a staple on early TV, used in kid shows hosted by local talent.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Junior Aces </span>(c. 1950)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">We can find no history at all about this children's show about aviation and aircraft. Actor Tom Brown interacts with two onscreen kid sidekicks as well as all the Junior Aces watching at home.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Telenews</span> (1956)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Hearst syndicated this weekly newsreel featuring world events from 1954-1962.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet</span> (1952) </span>First episode of the popular sitcom with Ozzie, Harriet, David & Ricky. A very young David thinks about dating a girl. The only episode released without a laugh track.</div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Martin Kane, Private Eye </span>(1952)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Lloyd Nolan in a “live” broadcast of detective show, this episode is titled “Dope Pushers.” Nolan also does the commercials live by visiting his favorite tobacco shop.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Ed Wynn Show </span>(1949)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Ed Wynn hosted the first comedy/musical/variety show to be shot in Hollywood where it was staged in front of an audience and telecast live. 16mm kinescopes were then distributed to the rest of the country. Buster Keaton is Ed's guest in this episode.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The Magic Clown </span>(1949)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Children’s show with kids, a clown, magic and "product placement" for Bonomo Turkish Taffy!</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Learn to Draw</span> (1950)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Artist Jon Gnagy first appeared live on TV in 1947 drawing an Old Oak Tree. His 15 min. "Learn to Draw" show was widely syndicated 1950 to 1955.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The Beulah Show</span> (1950)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The great Ethel Waters is Beulah, a black maid in a white household. Beulah is the first African-American actress to star in her own TV series. Beulah was later played by Hattie McDaniel and then Louise Beavers.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1">Enjoy a quick peak at each of the 16 films in <b>Primeval Television:</b></span><br />
<span class="s1"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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</span><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="375" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/153432867" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></div>
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<span class="s1">Executive Producers for Lost and Rare PRIMEVAL TELEVISION are Bob Campbell, Ron Hall and Derek Myers. Visit the<a href="http://www.lostandrare.com/" target="_blank"> Lost and Rare Website.</a></span></div>
Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-33317594047331894442015-12-20T21:19:00.000-06:002015-12-20T21:19:19.542-06:00The Lost Cartoons of Carl Urbano<div class="p1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">This is a story about discovering some truly lost, unknown and forgotten theatrical quality cartoons directed by Carl Urbano, and a description of those cartoons. I am certain more of these cartoons are out there, so please comment about ones you know and we will update the Urbano filmography in a future “Part 2” of this article in 2016.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">Animation director Carl Urbano is widely known and well respected for his Hanna-Barbera television cartoon series and features from 1977 to 1992: <b>The Godzilla Power Hour, Super Friends, The New Fred and Barney Show, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Smurfs</b> and many more. In this case, “many more” is an understatement. Just look Carl Urbano up on the IMDB. His early history mentions that he directed “industrial cartoons” for John Sutherland Productions in the 1950s. However, a complete list of the Urbano/Sutherland cartoons from this period does not exist.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">Industrial films were produced by major industries and distributed, often for free, as propaganda films to promote their product, such as <b>A is for Atom</b> about our friend atomic energy. They were shown at sales conventions, given to libraries that loaned out 16mm prints, to schools for educational purposes, to TV stations for filler in the 1950s and ‘60s and were sometimes even shown in movie theaters. Even though free, they had to be pretty entertaining and professional or no one outside of car salesmen would watch them. John Sutherland took pride in producing excellent films that theater audiences would enjoy. The purpose and use of such films is excellently stated in this review of <b>Rhapsody of Steel </b>(1959) at IMDB:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><i><span style="color: white;">The 35mm print was booked into theaters -- that was at a time when cinemas actually SHOWED short-subjects before the feature instead of TV commercials. The 16mm prints (also dye-transfer IB Technicolor) were given to 16mm non-theatrical distributors which specialized in loaning industrial type films like this free of charge to schools and institutions and other non-profit entities. The arrangement benefited the companies that produced them (getting name recognition and sometimes including not-so-subtle advertising content) and it benefited the end-user as it gave schools and the like an inexpensive and welcome means to put together screen entertainment.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;"><span class="s1">Here is how we found 3 lost Urbano cartoons. "We" is me and two partners I work with in a project called "Lost and Rare Film and TV Treasures." </span><span class="s1">Under this banner we have issued DVDs of extremely rare films that are not available anywhere.</span> Our first thematic DVD collections were <b>Sports Immortals, Lost TV Pilots </b>and<b> Golf Mania. </b>The first partner is Bob Campbell, who produced <i>Matinee at the Bijou</i> for PBS in the 1980s. Second is Derek Myers, a film collector and Producer-Director and Senior Video Editor at WGGS TV-16 in Taylors, South Carolina. Derek has a particular knack for finding obscure 16mm films on ebay or private collections that become otherwise available. All three of us specialize in public domain films. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">Early this year Derek acquired a small group of industrial films, which led to us putting six films into a Lost and Rare collection called “Industrial Strength America.” This includes <b><i>The Columbia</i></b> (1942) about the building of the Grand Coulee Dam in the state of Washington, featuring three original songs by Woody Guthrie.<b><i>Unfinished Rainbows</i></b> (1940, color) tells the story of aluminum and features actor Alan Ladd in his first credited role. Both of these are from the Bijou collection, while Derek supplied the other four films. <b><i>Born in Freedom: the Story of Colonel Drake</i></b>(1954, color) is a half-hour story about the drilling of the first oil well and stars Vincent Price. <b><i>Asphalt Through the Ages</i></b> (1957, color) tells the story of ... you guessed it ... Asphalt, and is the only routine industrial on the DVD, where in a mere 13 minutes one can learn the fascinating uses of asphalt in building the Tower of Babel and Noah’s Ark, not to mention roads, roofing, etc.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">Two Carl Urbano cartoons rounded out the collection. The first is <b><i>Destination Earth</i></b>(1956, color) about a martian flying to earth where he discovers the power source of our mobile vehicles - gasoline! This John Sutherland cartoon directed by Carl Urbano is the only one of the six ISA films that is NOT rare, having been issued in numerous cartoon collections and is easily found on youtube. The cartoon is still one of the most entertaining industrials with Hollywood-style animation and many funny cartoon jokes. You can watch Derek’s print here:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;"><span class="s5">The second cartoon that Derek acquired much by accident in that batch of industrial films is <b><i>Fill ‘Er Up </i></b>(1959, color). </span><span class="s1">This lively animated tale presented by the Du Pont Chemical Co. blends petroleum history and propaganda along with cartoon gags starring a genii/muscle-man oil drop character. Fortunately the 16mm print had a copyright notice and date on it since many of them do not. It was never registered and so is in the public domain. Here is where the story gets interesting. We tried to research <b><i>Fill ‘Er Up</i></b> online but found no information at all - no listing on IMDB by title or under Carl Urbano or John Sutherland. In fact, Jerry Beck was totally unfamiliar with it as well. Long for a cartoon at 12 minutes, the extra time is used to first entertain and then expound on the many benefits of gasoline after you get hooked. Here is the opening that may leave you wanting to see more:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">The discovery that <b>Fill ‘Er Up</b> was lost and unknown led us to look for other Urbano/Sutherland industrial cartoons in the collection. Derek says he has boxes of shorts he hasn’t even opened and who knows what treasures might be inside? He does have 16mm copies of these:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Why Play Leap Frog?</b> (1950, color, 10m.) Harding College. No copyright notice or date. Not rare, can be viewed on youtube.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>The Devil and John Q</b> (1951, color, 10m.) 1951 copyright on the film, but never registered. RARE.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>It’s Everybody’s Business </b>(1954, color, 20m.) Copyrighted by Chamber of Commerce of the United States in cooperation with E.I. du Pont de Nemours. Not rare; on youtube.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Destination Earth </b>(1956, color, 14m.) Produced for American Petroleum Industry. 1956 © notice on the film but not registered. Not rare; on youtube.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Dear Uncle</b> (Color, 9m.) Harding College. No copyright notice or date. No info on Internet. Not on youtube. RARE! Several researchers have found it was made in 1952 or 1953.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Fill ‘Er Up</b> (1959, color, 12m.) © notice on the film by E.I. du Pont de Nemours, but never registered. Previously RARE, but now available on “Industrial Strength America.”</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">The films fall into two categories. Two are obvious propaganda for the petroleum industry, while the others are public service films sponsored by Harding College. A foreword to <b>Why Play Leap Frog?</b> explains: “This is one of a series of films produced by the Extension Department of Harding College to create a deeper understanding of what has made America the finest place in the world to live.” Another title card says “Fun and Facts About America.” These films were likely aimed at schools since they truly have educational value about american business and economics.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">Here is an excerpt from <b>Dear Uncle</b>, which we only recently discovered that we had. Can anyone suggest the year it was made? I would guess early 50s since it has more of a 1940s animation style than the sleeker look of <b>Fill ‘Er Up</b>. The subject is as timely as today’s headlines -- the need to pay taxes.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">The third unknown Urbano/Sutherland cartoon that we have is the most interesting one of all. <b>The Devil and John Q</b> (1951) opens with a vivid cartoon depiction of Hell. The Devil himself wants to vex America by spurring inflation and he takes several guises in our world to work his devilish ways. His final disguise is as a southern Senator (a Republican?) who blows his stack. The hero is a meek economist who preaches the need to control inflation.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">Derek had two prints of John Q, but only recently did we notice that they were different versions. Producer Jerry Fairbanks acquired the film in the 1970s for the National Education Program (whoever they were) and planned to update and reissue it with different dialog. The revision does not have a date and we don’t know if it was ever released. Fairbanks’ last production was in 1972 and he died in 1995 at the age of 90. The story goes that just a few years ago one of Fairbanks’ storage facilities was being emptied; some friends found out and rescued this film and many priceless early TV shows from a dumpster, then put them on ebay where Derek found them. Yes, that dumpster thing still happens.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">Here are the openings to both versions. The 1951 version references Communism, the atom bomb and the Cold War, which have all been removed for 1970 audiences.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">Here is a list of Carl Urbano/John Sutherland cartoons that we have been able to compile so far. Since we have in our possession 3 “unknown” ones, we suspect there are a number of others out there. Please comment in this post with corrections or titles and descriptions of additional films. If we get substantial feedback, we will update the list in “The Lost Cartoons of Carl Urbano, Part 2.”</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Make Mine Freedom </b>(1948) Harding College. The dangers of Communism. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=49&v=mVh75ylAUXY" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">On youtube.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Going Places</b> (1948) Harding College. The profit motive. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTs1w6M-sVM%23t=15" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">On youtube</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Why Play Leap Frog?</b> (1949, color, 10m.) Harding College. About economics. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=K3mHv3l_7cE" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">on youtube.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Meet King Joe</b> (1949) Harding College. Economic propaganda. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJf2KcFKh0o&list=PL27A433A8F5E5B615&index=3" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">On youtube.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>The Devil and John Q</b> (1951, color, 10m.) 1951 copyright on the film, but never registered. RARE.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Inside Cackle Corners</b> (1951) Co-directed by Urbano and George Gordon. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwLR6lcRQpg" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">on youtube</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>What Makes Us Tick</b> (1952) The New York Stock Exchange. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmUS5BVr_mY&list=PL27A433A8F5E5B615&index=4" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">On youtube</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>A Is For Atom</b> (1952, 15m.) by General Electric Co. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc2s9q2nh48" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">on youtube.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>It’s Everybody’s Business </b>(1954, 20m.) © by Chamber of Commerce of the United States in cooperation with E.I. du Pont de Nemours. Business economics. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHDyE954l4U&index=5&list=PL27A433A8F5E5B615" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">On youtube.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Destination Earth </b>(1956, color, 14m.) Produced for American Petroleum Industry. 1956 © notice on the film but not registered. Not rare; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd8Dnz72C1Q&list=PL27A433A8F5E5B615&index=6" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">on youtube.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Working Dollars </b>(1956) New York Stock Exchange. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HswMGeG8RxM" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">On youtube</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Dear Uncle</b> (1952-'53, color, 9m.) Harding College. No copyright notice or date. No info on Internet. Not on youtube. RARE!</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Fill ‘Er Up</b> (1959, color, 12m.) © notice on the film by E.I. du Pont de Nemours, but never registered. Previously RARE, but now available on “Industrial Strength America.”</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Rhapsody of Steel </b>(1959) US Steel company <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTd8kdDpCl4" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="s6">on youtube</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">And what did Carl Urbano do between <b>Rhapsody in Steel</b> in 1959 and <b>Scooby’s Laff-A Lympics</b> TV show in 1977? </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">My thanks to Jerry Beck for encouraging me to write this story for <a href="http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-lost-cartoons-of-carl-urbano/" target="_blank">Cartoon Research.</a> Please check out the article there for numerous reader comments about Carl Urbano and John Sutherland.</span></span></div>
Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-41745731828744253982015-10-03T14:40:00.002-05:002017-02-18T11:33:09.417-06:00Meet Rolf Forsberg <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We regret to report that Rolf Forsberg died peacefully in the hospital surrounded by family on Feb. 16, 2017. He was 93. DVD of Vol. 1 of the "Rolf Forsberg Legacy Collection has just been completed and will be released in the next few months. The final cut was on its way to Rolf, who expected to watch it on Feb. 18. He had viewed each individual film with the intros and was excited to see that his legacy was about to be rediscovered by the world.<br />
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Rolf Forsberg is a fascinating, amazing writer/director of numerous independent short films since 1964. Many of his films are religious in nature, yet told with an avant-garde surrealism suggestive of Fellini and Bergman. <b>THE ANTKEEPER</b> (1966) depicts mankind as <b><u>ants</u></b>. <b>ARK </b>(1970), though made 45 years ago, warns of the dangers of man-made pollution and climate change destroying the world. <b>ONE FRIDAY</b> (1973) is about race warfare told through the eyes of a toddler.<br />
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Rolf's very first film is still his most famous -- <b>PARABLE</b> -- since it was made for and shown at the 1964 New York World's Fair as the main attraction in the Protestant and Orthodox Pavilion. It was highly controversial since it depicted Jesus as a circus clown clad all in white. <b>PARABLE</b> was added to the National Film Registry in 2012. In 2015-16 Rolf recorded comments about 9 of his films. These will serve to introduce the films when they are released on DVD. This excerpt will introduce you to the distinguished film director and these four films.<br />
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I am a member of "Team Forsberg" dedicated to restoring and reissuing Rolf's best films, and at the same time bringing awareness of him to the film community and rallying new fans. We plan three stages to achieve the goal. First is to release the four films discussed above in<b> Rolf Forsberg Legacy Collection Vol. 1</b> on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download. Stage 2 will release four more films, probably <b>PEACE CHILD, STALKED, KING OF THE HILL</b> and <b>JESUS ROAST. </b>Eventually we plan to produce a world-class feature documentary about Rolf that will preserve his legacy for future generations.<br />
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This is a costly undertaking. So far we have been working on a zero budget. Extensive interviews of Rolf have already been shot. Films are being restored to higher quality than the current excerpts on the website. But we simply can't finish Stage 1 without some financial assistance. For that purpose an Indiegogo campaign began on Oct. 2. If it succeeds, then <b>Volume 1</b> will be released in November of this year.<br />
<span class="s1"><i><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /> "Most of the films I've made are very much products of the Sixties, as I am. I feel that the span between 1963 and 1971 was one of spiritual seeking, and of iconoclasm. Billy Graham was the leading evangelist throughout the entire world. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Christian clergyman, led mass marches for justice and equality. Theologians made the covers of Time Magazine. And the Beatles sang poetry. We have nothing like it today." </i></span>-- Rolf Forsberg, June 2015<br />
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If you are intrigued about the films of Rolf Forsberg in the two video clips on this page, you can help immensely by doing one of more of these:<br />
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<li>Visit the <a href="http://www.rolfforsberg.com/" target="_blank">Rolf Forsberg website</a> to learn more about Rolf and his filmography.</li>
<li>Visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/rolfforsberglegacycollection" target="_blank">Rolf Forsberg on Facebook</a> and "Like" him.</li>
<li>Visit the Rolf <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rolf-forsberg-the-legacy-collection/x/5455779#/" target="_blank">Indiegogo campaign</a> and purchase one of the inexpensive "Perks."</li>
<li>Share posts from the Facebook page on your own timeline or other FB groups.</li>
<li>Refer any friends who might be interested to this blog, FB, website or Indiegogo</li>
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Here is an excerpt from <b>PARABLE </b>(1964):<br />
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-- Ron Hall, for Team Forsberg<br />
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-30595714075711313812015-09-06T08:38:00.002-05:002015-09-06T08:38:26.975-05:00Gospel Films Direct <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Gospel Films Archive is a growing library of rare and forgotten Christian films from the 1930s thru the 1970s. They include TV series such as "The Christophers," "This is the Life" and "Crossroads," feature films like "Martin Luther," "Reaching from Heaven" and "The Great Commandment" along with literally hundreds of short films made to be shown in churches and on television to tell stories from the Bible, inspire Missionary work or simply explore the problems of Christians in a modern world. All are professionally produced using Hollywood directors and actors. They hold up extremely well today since the stories are timeless, yet few remember the films or know where to view them today.<br />
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Gospel Films Archive is an ongoing project with partners Bob Campbell, Derek Myers and myself, Ron Hall. We owe a great debt to distributor Vision Video for issuing our first 7 <a href="https://www.visionvideo.com/products?query=gospel+films+archive">DVD releases</a> with a special Children's Collection coming soon.<br />
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We are dedicated to educating the public about the films such that they want to see them. We continue to explore getting them on religious TV networks where they could be widely enjoyed. We are seeking grants so we can restore and stream them on the Internet or give away DVDs to all interested parties. A long range plan includes a documentary about these "lost" Gospel films that should be fascinating to secular film fans as well as Christians.<br />
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Regarding DVD sales, video rental stores are ancient history while Beta machines and Laser Discs are mere whispers. Present viewing trends include free streaming on youtube or subscription streaming on Netflix, Hulu and similar venus, or viewing on Watch TCM, Amazon Prime or HBO-GO. With the exception of TCM, none of these venus stream many vintage films, no matter how good, and especially not religious films that few have ever heard of.<br />
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Another delivery method which we hope is the wave of the present and future (because we have jumped in with our clothes on) is ... Ta-Dah!<br />
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<b><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;">Video-On-Demand</span></b></div>
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<b>under the new GFA label</b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">GOSPEL FILMS DIRECT</span></b></div>
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Anyone with a computer, iPhone, iPad or other device can rent a film for 24 hour viewing at the affordable price of $1.99 or purchase for unlimited viewing for $3.99. The company that hosts our new Gospel Films Direct VOD product line is<b> Christian Cinema</b>, who is currently expanding into Video on Demand in a big way. Christian Cinema sends out weekly emails to 85,000 and has a well visited Facebook page. They will promote our weekly releases far better than we ever could via the GFA Facebook page and website.<br />
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Our ambitious plan, which we are well into, is to release 3 new films every week. Here is a preview trailer of the first four GFD releases: <b>"A Christian in Communist China," "Africa and Schweitzer," "The Gospel Blimp"</b> and a double feature of <b>"This Is The Life" </b>TV episodes. These may be rented or bought from Christian Cinema today:<br />
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Three more films were released the week of August 10. First is the 1955 Christophers production of <b>"Lincoln Speaks for Himself,"</b> introduced by Danny Thomas with closing comments by Father James Keller. Actor Reed Hadley excels with a commanding voice as he delivers speeches from throughout the career of Abraham Lincoln. Stock footage from Lincoln's era plus new staged scenes enhance the high production values. Hadley was familiar to 1950s TV audiences through his lead roles in "Racket Squad" and "Public Defender," while action fans might remember him as Zorro in "Zorro's Fighting Legion" (1939).<br />
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<b>"Empty Shoes" </b>(1956, color) is the story of missionary William Carey who was the first englishman to bring the Gospel to India in the late 1700s. The final film in GFD's "Trio #2" is <b>"Charlie Churchman and the Teenage Masquerade"</b> (1967). Charlie is modeled after silent comedian Charlie Chaplin and is full of genuinely funny slapstick. In this episode Charlie volunteers to be youth director for his church and learns of the real problems facing teenagers behind the masks they currently wear.<br />
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Here is the preview trailer for those three films:<br />
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Click on <a href="https://www.christiancinema.com/digital/search?query=gospel%20films%20direct">Gospel Films Direct Videos on Demand</a> and you will see all our releases to date! Once there, click on any poster/film and you can both read about it and view a trailer.<br />
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We invite you to browse these relevant and related links:<br />
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<a href="https://www.visionvideo.com/products?query=gospel+films+archive">Vision Video's Gospel Films Archive Page</a><br />
<a href="http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/default.php">Christian Cinema</a><br />
<a href="https://www.christiancinema.com/digital/search?query=gospel%20films%20direct">Christian Cinema's Gospel Films Direct Page</a><br />
<a href="http://gospelfilmsarchive.com/">Gospel Films Archive Website</a><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/gospelfilmsarchive">Gospel Films Archive Facebook</a><br />
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<br />Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-54886093277487991342015-06-06T11:54:00.000-05:002015-06-07T15:21:32.847-05:00Lost & Rare: INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH AMERICA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Partners Bob Campbell, Derek Myers and myself launched the <b>Lost & Rare Film and TV Treasures</b> series in 2013 with 4 releases: <b>Lost TV Pilots, Sports Immortals, Golf Mania </b>and <b>Heavenly Christmas Film Classics</b>. Each contained films which were truly rare, not out on youtube or DVD, and were often unknown to even the most ardent film fans. Finding such "Lost" films and organizing them thematically is quite exciting, but we don't find them every day!<br />
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<b>"Industrial Strength America"</b> contains 6 historic energy propaganda films (listed below) from the 1940s and 1950s. Regardless of one's opinion on fracking or oil pipelines today, 70 years ago few opposed the extraction or use of petroleum, aluminum and other natural resources since the products greatly increased our quality of life and the industries created jobs that built a great nation. Hundreds of such films were made and are called "Industrial Films" since industries produced them to promote good will in their products. They can also be called "public service" films since they educated the public and were distributed freely (and maybe for free) to schools and movie theaters.<br />
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5 are in color and all 6 are filmed to Hollywood standards. <b>Born in Freedom </b>(1954) tells an entertaining story about the first oil well and stars Vincent Price, with Andy Clyde and Alan Hale Jr. in prominent roles. <b>Unfinished Rainbows</b> features Alan Ladd in his first credited screen role, and in color no less. (B-western fans might spot villain Charles King in a late scene.) <b>Fill 'Er Up</b> and <b>Destination Earth</b> are superbly animated Technicolor cartoons by Carl Urbano -- <b>Earth</b> is quite funny and <b>Fill 'Er Up</b> by the future director of <b>The Jetsons</b> has a good share of jokes as well. <b>Asphalt Through the Ages</b> and <b>The Columbia</b> are more traditional documentaries, except <b>The</b> <b>Columbia</b> soundtrack is by folk legend Woody Guthrie who sings three original songs.<br />
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We feel we truly have a release that will appeal to film fans, history buffs, schools and library patrons. Our main marketing will be to libraries. Here is more information on the six films.<br />
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Here are some preview scenes from each of the 6 "Lost and Rare" films that are lost no more:<br />
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"Industrial Strength America" DVD is available now for $19.95 from Festival Films. Visit the <a href="http://www.lostandrare.com/">Lost & Rare website</a> to order and for more information on all our releases.Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-51294095402149619512015-05-02T17:55:00.000-05:002015-05-03T08:51:40.572-05:00Edgar, Charlie & Fin<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">MAJOR EDGAR KENNEDY NEWS!</span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We have proposed to Turner Classic Movies that they present an EDGAR KENNEDY DAY Tribute, featuring Edgar biographer Bill Cassara as co-host. The response from TCM was extremely encouraging, concluding with "I do think there’s a very good chance we can make this happen." No date has been set and "Edgar Day on TCM" is not assured, but it seems highly likely. TCM often holds such tributes on a star's birthday, and Edgar's birthday was ... last week! So look forward to April 29, 2016 (a Tuesday) to see 12 hours of Edgar on TCM.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">TCM can include in the tribute classic Hal Roach shorts with Edgar plus features already in their library like <b>San Francisco, Duck Soup, A Star is Born, Unfaithfully Yours </b>and <b>My Dream is Yours</b> with Doris Day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To flesh out an Edgar Day tribute, we are offering TCM 8 of Edgar's best RKO shorts and several f<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">eature films that are not in TCM's library. FLIRTING WITH DANGER (1934) is one Edgar feature we are offering TCM. Three brash and cocky TNT powder mixers -- Robert Armstrong, Edgar Kennedy and William Cagney -- are sent to South America to work at a dynamite plant. This scene shows Edgar mixing a powder batch while his fellow TNT cohorts are busy romancing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">You can help make TCM Edgar Day happen by posting Likes and Comments to Edgar's Facebook page to show TCM your enthusiasm, Like Edgar on Facebook and invite your friends to do the same: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/edgarkennedyshow" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/edgarkennedyshow</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Hal Roach friend, collector and expert Richard Bann presented a program of rare Roach shorts at the final Syracuse Cinefest #35 in March. The excited and large audience was treated to 3 Edgar shorts that none of us had seen before. First was the Spanish language version of the Our Gang comedy "When the Wind Blows" (1930). In the early sound era Roach filmed many of the Laurel and Hardy and Our Gangs in French, Spanish and Italian versions for the foreign marke</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">ts. Jackie Cooper, Mary Anne Jackson, Wheezer and the other kids actually spoke Spanish one line at a time without knowing what they were saying. The most convincing and very funny Spanish delivery was by Edgar as Kennedy the Cop as he tromps through a dark and windy night trying to catch burglars.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">"Crazy Feet" (1929) is an early Charley Chase talkie that only recently had its sound track restored to the picture. When Thelma Todd is struggling with Eddie Dunn in her car, Charley comes to help her. Kennedy the Cop shows up and mistakes Charley for the trouble maker, so Edgar shadows Charley the rest of the film as he tries out various vaudeville acts with Thelma.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">"Dad's Day" was a 1929 Roach All-Star film starring Edgar as a beleaguered father with a teenage daughter and son and their boyfriend and girlfriend. The whole family goes to the beach for the day, but still no respect for poor dad as he loses his bathing suit among other trials. Charlie Hall supervises the changing room and gets to call Edgar "Baldie." The plot is like a pilot film for Edgar's RKO Average Man series, except the family dynamic lacks chemistry. Roach liked Edgar and proposed a Kennedy series to MGM, but their theaters said viewers did not want Edgar. How wrong they were! So Roach started a Harry Langdon series instead, Edgar moved to RKO under Harry Sweet's guidance and the rest is history.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">Laurel and Hardy's little nemesis, Charlie Hall, appeared in cameo roles in 12 of Edgar's RKO shorts, including our recent acquisition "Slightly at Sea" (1940). This is one of the mid-series films with Vivien Oakland as Edgar's wife and short Bill Franey as his father-in-law. Jack Rice plays brother-in-Law in what may be his only film as Franey's son. The series truly tried every combination and this plot required Brother. The funniest gag with Charlie Hall. The joy the two veteran's show playing against each other is clearly evident.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Changing subjects drastically to the Roy Rogers 1948 Trucolor western <b>Grand Canyon Trail</b>... Although the film is in the public domain like more than 60 of Roy's Republic westerns, I had never gotten a decent copy before and so had never watched the film or sold it. It was shot and first shown in Trucolor, which is similar to Cinecolor withou a true blue. However, when Republic released the roy's to TV in the 1950s they only issued it in black and white and DESTROYED all of the color elements, so it is no longer thought to exist in color.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-size: small;">A big surprise in Grand Canyon Trail is the appearance of Jimmy Finlayson as a sheriff in his last scripted and credited comic role. Fin only shows up in the last 8 minutes but zings in some funny one-liners and has comic business with sets of hand cuffs.</span></span><br />
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-31163970116074461742015-03-29T11:25:00.001-05:002016-02-23T15:51:08.599-06:00Strange Case of O. HENRY PLAYHOUSE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>THE O. HENRY PLAYHOUSE</b> was a single season, half-hour anthology TV show released in 1957. No one has seen the show since 1957 or the limited run in syndication shortly thereafter. There are no episodes out on DVD and none on youtube other than the excerpt you can view down below. All episodes are clearly in the public domain since none were registered with the Library of Congress when the show was released to TV. A 1957 show would also need to be renewed 28 years later, and there are naturally no renewals with Library of Congress since no episodes were registered in the first place.<br />
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Late last year a large collection of original network 16mm prints fell into my hands. I was contacted by a TV station manager that I work with who had been given 250 prints from the series. I offered to give him free transfers of each episode in exchange for the right to sell them elsewhere. In due course all 250 prints were shipped off via FedEx to Derek Myers, who received quite a shipment as you can see in all the boxes surrounding him.<br />
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Inside these boxes were indeed 250 multiple prints of only 39 episodes. There were 17 copies of the first episode alone -- "The Reformation of Calliope!" This western story features an all-star cast of Ernest Borgnine, Dick Foran, Beverly Garland and Elisha Cooke, that amazingly no one has seen since 1957!<br />
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How many episodes of <b>THE O. HENRY PLAYHOUSE </b>were made remains a mystery. The IMDB says 39 and we have 39. 39 is also a common number for a 1950s TV season, as in 39 episodes of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">O. Henry</td></tr>
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However, the <b><a href="http://ctva.biz/US/Anthology/OHenryPlayhouse.htm">Classic TV Archive</a> </b>lists 42 episodes and a question mark about a few additional ones (which seem to be re-titled versions of ones in the 39). The 3 titles CTVA lists that we do not have are "Tobin's Palms" (© 5/16/57), "The Count and the Wedding Guest" (©5/20/57) and "The Gentle Grafter" (© 5/23/57). A closer inquiry reveals these are copyright dates by Doubleday for the <i><u>film scripts</u></i> and not for the films themselves. CTVA lists cast or plot synopsis for all episodes except these three. Since no one has seen the show in recent years, their synopses must have come from old issues of TV Guide. This suggests the 3 shows in question were never listed in TV Guide, never ran on TV and <u>possibly were never even made</u>. We seem to have every episode that was syndicated to TV, and very possibly every episode in the entire series.<br />
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Veteran character actor Thomas Mitchell stars in each episode as writer O. Henry himself. In stories that are period pieces like westerns, he discusses with his publisher where he got the idea for the story. But in stories of old New York, Mitchell/O. Henry interacts with the story and meets his characters as he supposedly discovers first hand the story he will later write. In some he tells the story to his publisher and meets up with the real characters at the end of the episode. This rather unique story telling method is made possible by the fame of the author himself and the audience's presumed desire to learn where each story came from, plus the professionalism of actor Thomas Mitchell who makes it all credible.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thomas Mitchell</td></tr>
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Anthologies were quite popular in the 1950s, from <b>Four Star Playhouse </b>to <b>Climax, Suspense, Studio One,</b> <b>One Step Beyond </b>and others. <b>The O' Henry Playhouse</b> is an anthology series, meaning that each show has a complete story and often notable guest stars. Some of the famous actors are paired with others one would never suspect worked together, like Louis Hayward and Johnny Crawford in <b>"Hearts and Hands,"</b> DeForest Kelly and Jackie Coogan in <b>"Fog in Santone"</b> and John Carradine and Charles Bronson in <b>"Two Renegades."</b><br />
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The film clip below is from <b>"Two Renegades."</b> First O. Henry visits Civil War vet and doctor John Carradine who is about to be executed 40 years after the end of the war. He then visits his publisher when soldier of fortune and yankee Charles Bronson shows up to say hello. O. Henry continues relating how Carradine saved Bronson's life when he had jungle fever in latin america and they become unlikely friends. When Bronson is arrested as an insurgent, Carradine bribes his captors with confederate money to get him released, but fails to leave the country before the deception is discovered, and is hence sentenced to death.<br />
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The 39 episodes of THE O. HENRY PLAYHOUSE are not yet for sale. I hope to sell the entire collection to a DVD company that will promote them the way they deserve, and make many sales to libraries, to the education market, to the O. Henry Museum in Austin, as well as to fans of vintage television. Since the stories are also in the public domain, a book collecting some of the stories that were made into TV shows could easily be included for added value. It is quite rare for a TV series unseen for close to 60 years to suddenly turn up. It will come as quite a surprise to the many O'Henry fans out there who at this moment are unaware that many of his classic stories were ever filmed.<br />
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<br />Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-56316793812428267302015-01-04T19:29:00.000-06:002015-01-04T19:34:24.334-06:00Edgar Kennedy Show Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Edgar Kennedy is a superb character actor and comedian who started with Mack Sennett and is one of the original Keystone Kops. Today he is most famous for his part as the street merchant in the Marx Bros. DUCK SOUP, and as Kennedy the Cop in numerous late-silent/early talkies with Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang and the Boy Friends series at Hal Roach Studios. Edgar turns up in many A-classics of the 1930s and 40s such as SAN FRANCISCO, A STAR IS BORN, SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK and UNFAITHFULLY YOURS.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">With Dot Farley and William Eugene in "Lemon Meringue" (1931)</td></tr>
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Every year from 1931 and the release of the now-lost LEMON MERINGUE short to 1948, RKO released six Edgar two-reelers for a total of 103. On top of this he had the same "Family" and supporting cast from beginning to end. This included Florence Lake as Edgar's ditzy wife, Dot Farley as his nagging mother-in-law and a brother-in-law played by William Eugene and later Jack Rice. In the late 30s when these actors were busy elsewhere, RKO experimented with Vivien Oakland as Edgar's wife and Bill Franey as Vivien's father. Then they returned to the original family format. This series in which audiences came to know and love a family year after year essentially established the television sit-com format that became TROUBLE WITH FATHER, MY LITTLE MARGIE, I LOVE LUCY and is still with us today.<br />
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Virtually every film fan loves Edgar Kennedy, and yet few are aware of or have seen many of his "Average Man" series for RKO. The big news is that most of them are screamingly hilarious even today. We invite you to watch many of them at the <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/clips.html">Edgar Kennedy website</a> and see for yourself.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Ed & Family in "I'll Build It Myself" (1946)</td></tr>
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Me and my partners Bob Campbell and Derek Myers have been trying to tell the world about Edgar's 103 RKO shorts for several years. Our ultimate plan is to bring these Edgar shorts to TV and DVD audiences in "The Edgar Kennedy Show." We tried premature campaigns to raise funds on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo in 2013. We have an active <a href="https://www.facebook.com/edgarkennedyshow">Facebook page</a>. In November and December we picked up over 100 Likes on Facebook, so online audiences continue to find us and help spread the news to other Edgar fans. We know there are thousands of film fans who do love Edgar and would love to see his RKO shorts.<br />
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The Library of Congress holds original 35mm negatives and positive prints on 88 of the Edgar RKOs. These were contributed in the late 1950s. We are in touch with the donor who can OK our use of the prints. Of course transferring 35mm material to video is a costly endeavor. We also have original 16mm prints that were widely run on TV in the 1950s and 60s. You can view many at the website. These 16mm prints can be transferred to high def digital format today with excellent results.<br />
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The exact format "The Edgar Kennedy Show" might take has not yet been determined. Most Edgar shorts run from 17 to 20 minutes. Our initial idea was to create 24-min episodes to fit a 30-min commercial TV time slot, with the extra time devoted to brief original segments showcasing Edgar's brilliant career and rich film legacy. Again, a noble but costly idea.<br />
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So we begin the new year 2015 in fresh pursuit of a viable broadcast or webcast partner and home video affiliation. In the short run and a quite logical goal, we would like to persuade Turner Classic Movies to program an Edgar Kennedy day tribute and include 8 or 12 of the RKO shorts that we can provide. TCM could include some of the Hal Roach shorts that feature Edgar, plus Edgar's feature films that they already have in their library. Author of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Edgar-Kennedy-Bill-Cassara/dp/1593930186/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420413821&sr=1-1&keywords=edgar+kennedy">Edgar biography,</a> Bill Cassara, could appear with Robert Osborne to discuss the films. This could easily fill a day of Edgar.<br />
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Here is a short video to introduce the "Edgar Kennedy Show."<br />
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Please share this video with any online friends. Visit Edgar and Like him on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/edgarkennedyshow">Facebook. </a>Visit the <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/edgar.html">Edgar Kennedy website</a> for more information and view many of Edgar's RKO shorts.<br />
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-61184689628363357792014-12-10T08:26:00.000-06:002014-12-12T07:11:24.284-06:00Christmas Time Is Here!My favorite Christmas song is "The Christmas Waltz," written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Stine for Frank Sinatra in 1954. It became the back cover song for Frank's new version of White Christmas. It may be my favorite since I don't hear it that often, yet it has been recorded by dozens of pop artists. I also can never recall the lyrics in full so I put down the first chorus here to aid future memory lapses:<br />
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Frosted windowpanes<br />
Candles gleaming inside<br />
Painted candy canes on the tree</div>
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Santa's on his way<br />
He's filled his sleigh with things<br />
Things for you and for me</div>
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It's that time of year<br />
When the world falls in love<br />
Every song you hear seems to say<br />
"Merry Christmas<br />
May your new year dreams come true"</div>
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And this song of mine<br />
In three quarter time<br />
Wishes you and yours<br />
The same thing, too</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 16px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-size: x-large;">GFA Christmas Collection DVD</span></span></span><br />
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We produced this superb collection of rarely seen Christmas shorts and released it two years ago as <b>Heavenly Christmas Film Classics.</b> However, the team forte is acquiring and releasing rare films; it is not in marketing them properly and so sales to date were slow. This year everything has changed with the new DVD cover, new menu on the DVD, new promo video (just below) and most importantly massive marketing by our distributor, <a href="https://www.visionvideo.com/">Vision Video</a>, who I believe is the largest distributor of Christian Videos in the world. Vision Video has an extensive printed catalog mailing as well as website where they list our other <a href="https://www.visionvideo.com/search_by_text.taf?_function=text_list&keyword=gospel+films+archive">DVD releases</a> and they supply to numerous third parties. Buy from Amazon.com if more convenient.</span></span><br />
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I am delighted to explain my 3-way partnership with the rest of the GFA (Gospel Films Archive) team. Bob Campbell is the driving force who makes and expands new contacts in areas I would never seek myself. Bob produced the original Matinee at the Bijou series on PBS in the 1980s - a big hit! Bob is working to bring back to the public these vastly overlooked and pretty much lost Christian films that were shown in churches, on TV and for missionary work in the 1950s-1970s. Bob f</span></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">orged the alliance with Bill Carroll and Bill Curtis at Vision Video and is pursuing TV possibilities. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Bob arranged a large donation of GFA films from Paul Marks of the former library of Visual Aid Center. </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Paul is currently the Director of Operations of the International Christian Visual Media Association. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Another invaluable ally that Bob befriended is Kirk McCrea, who works with the Salvation Army in Ypsilanti, MI. I re-print Kirk's Christmas message below the video.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Our second partner is Derek Myers, who is a producer and tech guy at a Christian TV station (WGGS TV-16) in Taylors, SC. Derek houses the 16mm GFA collection, does all our video transfers and voice overs for any needed preview videos. He is just finishing transferring the donated films from Paul Marks, and we are expecting another large donation soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Both Bob and Derek are devout Christians. I was raised Lutheran and then Baptist in high school, but while I try to live my life by those teachings I do not attend any church. So at times it feels odd devoting time to Christian videos, but I can assure one and all that these are for the most part professionally made, highly entertaining short films that richly deserve to be restored to the public. One I watched recently -- <b>And Then They Forgot God</b> -- is a sci-fi film set in the future with a shock ending worthy of the Twilight Zone ... and I couldn't figure out what it had to do with religion at all. I guess a warning that some future utopia may forget God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">My family celebrates with a Christmas tree, presents and family. Wife Chris, her brother Scott, sister Nancy and husband Greg and their sons, and my son Jeff is coming in with wife Amanda from Silicon Valley where Jeff is a programmer for LinkedIn. It should be a full house, a great meal and a happy gathering. May each of you share similar joy this holiday season!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Here is the preview for the GFA Christmas Collection. More info about each films is at our <a href="http://www.gospelfilmsarchive.com/xmas.html">GFA website.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Merry Christmas!</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">All year we work with children caught in poverty and the lack of associated opportunity. The most amplified effects of poverty, however, are not seen in the children, but in the parents -- who themselves were raised in poverty by parents who, most likely, were raised in poverty -- and so on and so on. All of these people routinely face a large portion of society holding a clenched fist, railing that they are not "entitled" to anything, that charity only "enables" them their poverty (and pre-judged life style), and that they would never hire them, anyways, because of those same reasons. Jesus seems to have a different idea, however, stating throughout His written word that He came to bring them to the gospel, that they should be visited, hydrated, clothed, and sheltered; that they are rich in faith; that He will lead them out of their "captivity;" that they are blessed; that He will exalt them and raise them to sit with nobles; and that those with means are to give with an open hand.</span></div>
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In a thousand languages, the world continually demands “justice!,” but Jesus says that one’s own need for mercy followed by extension of that mercy to others is the only way to live. He will provide justice in His time. Right now, He brings people new hearts that are full of joy, love, and hope – during the best of times, and the worst of times (and compared to eternity - hardly any time).</div>
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Please consider supporting the Ypsilanti, MI Salvation Army Corps (or any Christian ministry) as they administer the love of God through both temporal and spiritual efforts.</div>
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All the blessings of His Christmas to you!<br />
Kirk McCrea<br />
<a href="http://www.onlineredkettle.org/kirkmccrea" style="background-color: white; color: blue; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" target="_blank">http://www.onlineredkettle.org/kirkmccrea</a></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-45108028627957184892014-11-28T13:31:00.000-06:002014-12-06T10:24:21.353-06:00TARZAN ESCAPES revisited once againEvery few years I pursue my quest to find the Giant Vampire Bats in TARZAN ESCAPES (1936). It was the climax of the third Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film that MGM set out to make bigger and better than TARZAN AND HIS MATE (1934). Yet today fans dismiss TARZAN ESCAPES as mediocre or worse... because they have never seen it all.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn48w1pYreV70q-4mOV4mXjbR3Bzz_9r8zFwlaWyT3IaMVJHxL5jTnFerzf3oXUgZDKvSynDyBT4opamH7Uh-ZoMhMsxuJWjyJKLhmpdeOiHcRabbI_zNa99ZaxFv_uqIeIDxMKMPbpvo/s1600/czech_tarzan_escapes+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn48w1pYreV70q-4mOV4mXjbR3Bzz_9r8zFwlaWyT3IaMVJHxL5jTnFerzf3oXUgZDKvSynDyBT4opamH7Uh-ZoMhMsxuJWjyJKLhmpdeOiHcRabbI_zNa99ZaxFv_uqIeIDxMKMPbpvo/s1600/czech_tarzan_escapes+copy.jpg" height="640" width="310" /></a></div>
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To re-cap the ending everyone has seen... to escape blood thirsty natives who had just torn several natives in two by the bent tree method, Tarzan leads the safari into a forbidden ju-ju cave that the bad natives are afraid to enter. Why is never explained. The cave is actually a tunnel through the mountain to freedom. Inside we see dead trees, a narrow path and a bubbling swamp with a few gila monsters. Jane almost falls in the swamp. Another native does and is swallowed up. In less than two minutes they emerge from the other end. Tarzan forces evil Captain Fry back into the cave where he quickly falls in the swamp. The film then ends a few minutes later as Jane stays in the jungle with Tarzan.</div>
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What follows are my current memories of seeing the film in 1954. This re-telling may add fresh details or at least credulity to my story. I had never seen a Tarzan film before since they had never been on TV. I had not been exposed to any horror films before and the Tarzans are intense. This may explain the vivid memories today, whereas if I had seen the film a few years later I might recall little at all.</div>
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My mother simply dropped me at a downtown theater in Madison, Wisconsin and came back 4 hours later. That's what parents did in those innocent days, drop off young kids on their own in a big, safe city. I must have begged to see it, but that is not part of the memory. Another odd family practice at that time was being dropped off in the middle of the film. You watch till the end, then see the other feature or shorts and then the complete film you already saw the end of. So coming into the middle of TARZAN ESCAPES, I saw the bat climax <u>twice</u> that momentous day.</div>
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I have a strong memory from that day of greatly preferring TARZAN ESCAPES to TARZAN THE APE MAN. The first film is slower in its pacing and does <u>not</u> contain the attack of the natives at the foot of the Mutia escarpment or the giant alligator fight. These were both first used in TARZAN AND HIS MATE. Sure, I saw stock footage from MATE but did not know it at the time. In APE MAN I was frightened by the scene where Tarzan fights and kills two lions and of course the giant gorilla in the pit at the climax.</div>
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On to the memories of what few have ever seen...</div>
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In APE MAN Tarzan goes off to get dinner. He kills an antelope, gnu or similar edible beast. As he is cutting off the meat a lion attacks and he kills it in hand-to-hand combat. He staggers up and another lion attacks with similar results. It is quite an intense and convincing battle even today and can be seen in the first Weissmuller film. Now in TARZAN ESCAPES Jane similarly sends Tarzan off to get dinner. He kills another animal and swings away with the meat back to the tree house. In the ESCAPES that I saw the double lion fight is repeated. I am absolutely positive of this since I had just seen the footage, and been scared by it, in APE MAN just an hour earlier. This was my first recognition of stock footage.</div>
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Second lost sequence is quite short but equally vivid. Toward the end Tarzan is caged and sent ahead with a group of Fry's natives so that Jane will not know what is going on. This group is ambushed by the bad natives who either shoot arrows or blow gun missiles into their foreheads. Since this scene was cut, it is unclear in the surviving version how the bad natives got hold of the cage with Tarzan.</div>
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The horror/action climax is the greatest loss -- until we find it! Here are the specific shots or scenes that I recall today inside that ju-ju cave.</div>
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<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEATfOr-nSlKlaf1ddN974S9Wrcv-FLS1CJOzTJMDmNFOgQyQjfY2sM95TfQm4ZKpTtaW5XFBc3ALuLdHTiBJVmbF-h3YdSekxoBN7dAEakpQE9uxlifHQZmNb8DYjRhO2IaMXlj96dmA/s1600/aat2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEATfOr-nSlKlaf1ddN974S9Wrcv-FLS1CJOzTJMDmNFOgQyQjfY2sM95TfQm4ZKpTtaW5XFBc3ALuLdHTiBJVmbF-h3YdSekxoBN7dAEakpQE9uxlifHQZmNb8DYjRhO2IaMXlj96dmA/s1600/aat2.jpg" height="249" width="320" /></a>
<li>The safari of around 40 natives enters the cave without having time to make torches.</li>
<li>They proceed on ledges above the swamp as seen in surviving footage.</li>
<li>Tarzan cautions someone with hand signals to be quiet. He points high above to an aerie full of giant bats.</li>
<li>Someone dislodges a stone on the path and it rolls down making noise.</li>
<li>The giant vampire bats attack.</li>
<li>Tarzan and natives take a stance on a ledge with backs to the camera. </li>
<li>The bats fly at them from back to foreground. They fend them off with spears but not very effectively.</li>
<li>One bat grabs a native around the waist with his talons and flies him up to the aerie with arms and legs flailing. This is the scariest shot.</li>
<li>Tarzan tells everyone to get into the swamp. They slide down slopes to oblige and re-gather in the still shown here.</li>
<li>Eventually Tarzan pulls down one bat and knifes it to death.</li>
<li>Rescue comes in a tribe of pygmies bearing torches that repulse the bats.</li>
<li>The pygmies lead the remnants of the safari to safety and are suitably thanked.</li>
<li>When Captain Fry is forced back inside the cave, a bat knocks him into the swamp.</li>
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An unusual side memory of the sequence is that I wondered how the pygmies could have been enemies in TARZAN THE APE MAN but friends in TARZAN ESCAPES.</div>
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Here is a brief re-cap about why the vampire bats disappeared. In 1935 MGM made THE CAPTURE OF TARZAN that was reportedly too poor to release for various reasons like Jane rescues Tarzan at the end instead of the other way around. No tree house, they lived in a cave. Includes Great Apes like the first two films. Scenes with dozens of lions and elephants, etc. CAPTURE is a completely lost Tarzan film! The plot is in the Big Little Book of Tarzan Escapes and makes fascinating reading. In the middle of the story a safari moves <u>through a swamp</u> at night and the bats attack. When the decision was made to remake CAPTURE, the bat attack was the only part kept but moved to the cave setting, where one can see clouds in a night sky in a few shots.</div>
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At a 1936 MGM preview showing before release of TARZAN ESCAPES the story goes that children "ran screaming in terror from the theater." Mothers objected and MGM hastily cut some of the violence including the climax. However, prints with the vampire bats were shown in parts of the country because numerous newspaper ads exist that advertise the bats, and if you say you got bats then you sure better have 'em. So both negatives were kept in the vault. In 1954 MGM picked the uncensored negative and made around 60 35mm safety prints for distribution in the USA. This re-release was also widely shown in South America and Europe as depicted on many foreign posters and lobby cards, so if any foreign archive kept a print, look for the bats there. Since the foreign versions were subtitled, they may have been used for foreign VHS releases in the 1980s.</div>
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In the 1960s when MGM made up prints for rental by Films Inc. and for television, they picked the censored version, probably by accident, and that is all that has survived since.</div>
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If any Tarzan fan saw the 1954 re-release double feature when I did, please write to me, Ron Hall, at fesfilms@aol.com so we can compare notes.</div>
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I wrote much more about the lost vampire bats in an article for Erbzine, the Edgar Rice Burroughs website, about 8 years ago. Please read about it <a href="http://www.erbzine.com/mag21/2141.html">HERE. </a><br />
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This trailer was made for the unreleased 1935 version of TARZAN ESCAPES, aka CAPTURE OF TARZAN. It promises giant vampire bats, but sadly not even a second of film footage. The MGM promo that follows the trailer contains a brief shot of Jane with a Great Ape from Escapes (there are no great apes in the 1936 release.)<br />
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-58764025243694358062014-09-06T12:22:00.000-05:002014-09-06T12:26:15.163-05:00What's New to Preview?My apologies for falling OUT of the blogging habit in a big, big way. If anyone has checked me out ten times and seen the same old discussion about Rare Italian Films, then you deserve to get one for free. Send proof that you visited ten times to ....<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Coming soon -- <b>Halloween! </b></span><br />
By special request I amended my old Monster Mania DVD chock full of two hours of horror trailers and a couple of cartoons to make it half-and-half. Yes, more than half the running time is now cartoons and the rest is ... well, here are the entire contents:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrsxFSIw_7IjiezK54YYTegqjihOKTKNvD9NnlBNjS6l2XIn6X-fltfymTrEgOzTm8vI6iesdW0ar5YfZutqfYHfVWQ3QKu4M7RbnLn5b69uObZZiT8spBer47VpSiW6vkM4_NA4H1Gw/s1600/spook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrsxFSIw_7IjiezK54YYTegqjihOKTKNvD9NnlBNjS6l2XIn6X-fltfymTrEgOzTm8vI6iesdW0ar5YfZutqfYHfVWQ3QKu4M7RbnLn5b69uObZZiT8spBer47VpSiW6vkM4_NA4H1Gw/s1600/spook.jpg" height="320" width="247" /></a>Spook Show Opening</div>
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Casper in<b> BOO MOON</b></div>
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<b>Phantom Creeps</b> - Robot attacks Chapter Ending</div>
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Pathe Freres "Red Spectre"</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px;">Felix the Cat cartoon: <b>SURE-LOCKED HOMES</b></span></div>
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<b>"Phantom of Opera"</b> Highlights</div>
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<b>Robot Monster</b> Trailer</div>
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<b>White Zombie </b>Trailer</div>
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Oswald Rabbit cartoon: <b>MECHANICAL MAN</b></div>
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<b>Giant Claw </b>Trailer</div>
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Betty Boop Cartoon: <b>IS MY PALM RED?</b></div>
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Superman cartoon: <b>UNDERGROUND WORLD</b></div>
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<b>King Kong </b>trailer</div>
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Cartoon: <b>GYPPED IN EGYPT</b></div>
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Shrunken Heads Toy</div>
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Trailers for <b>Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein</b></div>
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Cartoon: <b>MAD DOCTOR</b></div>
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Trailers: <b>Frankenstein, The Wolf Man</b></div>
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Superman Cartoon: <b>THE MUMMY STRIKES</b></div>
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Trailer: <b>Frankenstein Meets Wolf Man </b>and <b>Mummy's Hand</b></div>
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Buster Keaton silent short (with music): <b>THE HAUNTED HOUSE</b></div>
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Trailer: <b>House of Frankenstein</b></div>
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<b>Godzilla Ad</b> for Dr. Pepper</div>
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This was custom made for a movie theater that is having an open house at Halloween. They plan to run the show (with or without the sound) while other events take place in the theater. They can also run selected portions before a regular film show. Them, and YOU, can use the poster any way you like - print it out or download the Jpeg for your own website from the Festival Films Website. Just go to <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/cafe-roxy/shows/monster.html">this page</a>, scroll down to the poster, drag it to your desk top and open full size.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Movie Memories</b> -- November 1</span></div>
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In a major break through, Movie Memories segments will be carried into 1,600 Senior residences by <a href="http://www.in2l.com/">It's Never Too Late</a>. http://www.in2l.com/ is the developer of customized, state-of-the-art adaptive computer systems for nursing homes, assisted and independent senior living communities, memory care settings and adult day programs. Ten or more new Movie Memory segments will be rotated in every two months, starting around November 1. Because the first batch will run through December, half of them will be Christmas related. This is the chance I have been looking for to see Movie Memories enjoyed by tens of thousands of seniors. Check my website to see how <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/movie-memories.html">Movie Memories</a> is a unique Activity for seniors that could become a part of their daily lives just like Bingo and "The Price is Right."</div>
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Here is a totally revised video about How Movie Memories Work. Voice over narration is by Derek Myers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZ-xskv6GLlv_hXXXSfQeDmYp6xagVhypGnDCff7oDGOBsFlwTAQl043lCdQ79HsJhF6-dpK_cm4zJc_VjdeS16tFvKhM0Zeyxub74rEQp4i6ExXMvA5YS_XIrrKAoQWHeZbj5bD5rGA/s1600/GFA+Xmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZ-xskv6GLlv_hXXXSfQeDmYp6xagVhypGnDCff7oDGOBsFlwTAQl043lCdQ79HsJhF6-dpK_cm4zJc_VjdeS16tFvKhM0Zeyxub74rEQp4i6ExXMvA5YS_XIrrKAoQWHeZbj5bD5rGA/s1600/GFA+Xmas.jpg" height="200" width="141" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">And then <b>Christmas!</b></span></div>
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Joy to the world, and buy the Gospel Films Archive Christmas Collection. These are the same six films that we tried to market ourselves in 2011 as "Heavenly Christmas Film Classics." </div>
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The big difference is that the DVD re-release is being exclusively distributed by the largest wholesaler of Christian films in the country -- Vision Video. You can read about the six films at the <a href="https://www.visionvideo.com/detail.taf?_function=detail&a_product_id=37428&refurl=/search_by_text.taf?_function%3Dtext_list%26keyword%3Dgospel%2Bfilms%2Barchive">Vision Video</a> website. The DVD is available to purchase right now.</div>
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The discount price is around $12 and should be for sale from numerous online dealers as well as in many top Christian book stores. It now has the chance to sell many thousands of copies for the simple reason that everyone needs new presents to give to friends and family at Christmas time. Here is a trailer for the collection:</div>
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-17752114509426481572014-06-01T13:09:00.000-05:002014-06-01T13:13:23.307-05:00Rare Italian Films - First Time on DVD!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmD6Erww5yQ2MRT6LTMuCj3I3d5EqmT0xwbj1gSw8zlJX_22JCXYQzbqVlJzq1zdZbbeGxYzPnarSKRyGKD51tTS-pHOL5SeGR1QUOS0R8UUGhiFWnRUZDSL-27h04_sd5Ax1XpzT6HA0/s1600/5101+HnhHYL._SY300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmD6Erww5yQ2MRT6LTMuCj3I3d5EqmT0xwbj1gSw8zlJX_22JCXYQzbqVlJzq1zdZbbeGxYzPnarSKRyGKD51tTS-pHOL5SeGR1QUOS0R8UUGhiFWnRUZDSL-27h04_sd5Ax1XpzT6HA0/s1600/5101+HnhHYL._SY300_.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Region 2 "Iron Crown" Release</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Before the year 2000 or so I sold lots of obscure, rare and wonderful foreign films on VHS to colleges and video stores. The video sales were mainly thru large wholesalers Facets Multimedia, Tamarelle Films and a few I can't recall now. This was back when video stores were flourishing and progressive ones near colleges wanted foreign classics to stand out from competitors. The pricing was good compared to now, with suggested retail at $59.95. This meant, very roughly, that I sold to the middle man for $30 and they re-sold for $42. Those were good years and fun ones.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Believe it or not, major classics of world cinema were public domain in the USA because they had not been properly registered and renewed as required for US copyrighting: <b>Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Exterminating Angel, Open City, Paisan.</b> In fact I sold all of these to colleges on 16mm before home video started around 1980.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Focusing this discussion to Italian films, here are some I sold on video: <b>Triumph of the Will,</b> </span><b>Il Sorpasso </b>with Vittorio Gassman<b>, White Nights </b>with Marcello Mastroianni<b>, La Grande Guerra </b>with Gassman<b>, Joyful Laughter </b>with Anna Magnani<b>, </b>the wonderful medieval fairy tale <b>The Iron Crown, Children are Watching, Voyage to Italy, Stromboli </b>and many other Rossellini films.</div>
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In 1994 a new worldwide copyright law was passed -- <i>Copyright Restoration Under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act</i> -- that came to be called GATT. This said that foreign film makers could reacquire rights to their films by filing papers with Library of Congress. Most of them did. Some filed who had no connection with the films, like an individual in Mexico who claimed to own hundreds and eventually went to jail over it, or so I heard. They were supposed to file within a few years of 1996 but applications were accepted for at least ten years. </div>
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So I stopped selling those Italian films. Criterion is an excellent company that bought rights, restored and reissued many of them, although someone claimed rights to <b>The Iron Crown </b>(1941) but has still not been released it in the USA. With no video stores and declining DVD sales, it is no longer viable for the owner to issue on DVD. The constitutionality of re-protecting public domain films and music was challenged by Stanford University Law School in a suit that lasted roughly from 2002 to 2012 and ended as a loss in the Supreme Court. I was part of that lawsuit.</div>
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Although GATT ended a thriving business for me, not every single foreign film was properly reclaimed and it is now too late to do so. Only recently did I become aware that Roberto Rossellini's thrid feature film, <b>Man with a Cross,</b> was not protected under GATT. I just posted it for sale at Amazon and expect to sell through Alpha Video and Movies Unlimited.</div>
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<span class="s1">I also acquired two Italian comedies from the late 1950s that have never been issued on video in the USA. An official search revealed </span>no original registration with Library of Congress, no renewal, and no GATT filing in the late 1990s to reclaim rights. These are the English dubbed versions with complete credits and no copyright notices (©) anywhere. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDbJMSBAIVXFn__nAeCuMlvuP01ZirV_6eHPoXonuszuNYJAGLjDvcx-WGgRCr2Q6t-OjAJ5fpb-kjz6yV8lE_P7mIKZHkojvfFvQH7-FZmgbQYEhBzxZAsyI0_bb_PK5o0GVkYClUz9Q/s1600/Larceny+box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDbJMSBAIVXFn__nAeCuMlvuP01ZirV_6eHPoXonuszuNYJAGLjDvcx-WGgRCr2Q6t-OjAJ5fpb-kjz6yV8lE_P7mIKZHkojvfFvQH7-FZmgbQYEhBzxZAsyI0_bb_PK5o0GVkYClUz9Q/s1600/Larceny+box.jpg" height="320" width="267" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b></span><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1">Love </span><span class="s2">and</span><span class="s1"> </span>Larceny</span></b></span></div>
<i>(1959, Italy) 92 min.</i> Directed by Dino Risi. English dubbed version released in the USA in 1963. Starring Vittorio Gassman, Dorian Gray, Peppino De Filippo, Anna-Maria Ferrero. <br />
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<b>Love and Larceny</b> is a delightful, charming comedy about happy-go-lucky Gerardo. To pick up easy money he is caught in a con and goes to prison where he learns how to swindle creatively. He then embarks on one petty scam after another, from stealing shoes and Christmas pennies to bilking motorists posing as a cop. His long-time girlfriend tries to get him a real job, which he purposely muffs. He forms an alliance with the crook who sent him to jail and they escalate into jewelry thefts and a complicated swindle involving a general and fake air force contract. Impersonating Greta Garbo to scam photographers brings his first girl back into his life, who now wants to be his accomplice, she says, but the plot only thickens.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcumXzewG6HVZF_54f9-KLwGvqj27gZ8jaoLGizOkXnzZjSK-ncgYPu36EoIfFK_BMbpLJHlud2TeIS2CYeZ6nYU_cY2m1cWiVkbHdGQ7VhfwfeylZCNLn-1Te_Nph9XPa9bPgqodLxl8/s1600/Angel+box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcumXzewG6HVZF_54f9-KLwGvqj27gZ8jaoLGizOkXnzZjSK-ncgYPu36EoIfFK_BMbpLJHlud2TeIS2CYeZ6nYU_cY2m1cWiVkbHdGQ7VhfwfeylZCNLn-1Te_Nph9XPa9bPgqodLxl8/s1600/Angel+box.jpg" height="320" width="254" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b></span><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1">Angel in </span>a Taxi</span></b> </span></div>
<i>(1958, Italy) 87 min. </i>Directed by Leon Viola. Written by Leon Viola and Mario Monicelli. English dubbed version. Original Italian title: <b>“Ballerina e Buon Dio.” </b>Starring Vera Tschechowa, Marietto, Gabriele Ferzetti, Roberto Rossi and Vittorio DeSica as God.<br />
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<span class="s1"><b>Angel in a Taxi</b> is a charming comedy/fantasy in the tradition of <b>Miracle in Milan</b> that tells the story of a precocious and endearing six-year-old orphan boy, Marietto, who imagines that his lost mother is a ballerina whose picture he saw in a newspaper. When adoptive parents take him home, he runs off and joins acrobats, still harboring the dream of finding his beautiful mother. When he does locate her at the opera, he moves right in with an easy grace that brings Camilla under his spell and her life choices into focus. When Marietto feels rejected and disappears, Camilla’s true feelings surface.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Guiding Marietto’s quest and surprising destiny is an angelic figure played by the great Italian director Vittorio DeSica in three separate roles. First he is a policeman who helps Marietto pay for pastries, then a messenger who suggests he visit the opera where his “mother” is rehearsing, and finally a philosophical taxi driver who reunites Camilla and Marietto while performing a minor miracle.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhloJVLX-fVjZv0HG6xTD8u1ysuJshql1bgMnwom65lXv3YEekVbWGcyHUgsxgb-Y2fbMP_jLqmAYHu-gLs96jteYZi7hkNmsu3RPXbEaoiuQCblG8uMqXU2XybQhLc9JvhhanEDJgHQDY/s1600/Man+box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhloJVLX-fVjZv0HG6xTD8u1ysuJshql1bgMnwom65lXv3YEekVbWGcyHUgsxgb-Y2fbMP_jLqmAYHu-gLs96jteYZi7hkNmsu3RPXbEaoiuQCblG8uMqXU2XybQhLc9JvhhanEDJgHQDY/s1600/Man+box.jpg" height="320" width="255" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: yellow;"></span></b></span><b><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Man With a Cross</span></b> </span></div>
<i>(1943, Italy) 72 min.</i> Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Italian language with English subtitles. Original Italian title is <b><i>L'Uomo Dalla Croce.</i></b><br />
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<span class="s1"><b><i>The Man with a Cross</i></b> is a 1943 Italian war film directed by Roberto Rossellini and starring Alberto Tavazzi, Roswita Schmidt and Attilio Dottesio. It was only Rossellini’s third feature film and the final part of his "Fascist trilogy" following <b><i>The White Ship </i></b>(1941) and <b><i>A Pilot Returns</i></b> (1942). </span><span class="s2">To this period belongs his friendship and cooperation with Federico Fellini and Aldo Fabrizi. The Fascist regime collapsed in 1943 and just two months after the liberation of Rome (June 4, 1944), Rossellini was already preparing the anti-fascist (<i>Rome, Open City</i> 1945).</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The film is loosely inspired by Reginaldo Giuliani, an Italian military chaplain who had been killed on active service. The film is set in the summer of 1942 in Ukraine where Italian troops are fighting those of the Soviet Union. A military chaplain volunteers to stay behind with a badly wounded Italian soldier, even though this means certain capture.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">All three DVDS are for sale at Amazon, or from <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/Rare-Italian.html"><span style="color: yellow;">Festival Films</span></a> directly.</span></div>
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-30564429527773750892014-05-17T10:34:00.004-05:002014-05-17T13:25:12.462-05:00Gospel Films Restoration Project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While some Gospel Films of the 1950s-'70s era were shot in 35mm for television -- like <b>Crossroads</b> being a fine example -- many from Family Films and others produced for the church market were shot and distributed as 16mm film rentals. This movement was spurred along by the thousands of 16mm projectors left over from entertaining the troops during World War-II. No longer wanted, the projectors were donated to churches. Religious rental companies sprang up in every major city. This trend continued until the advent of home video in the early 1980s.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of the films were not issued on VHS, they were simply put in storage and viewed less and less as the years went by. The messages never dated, but the films were considered "old hat" or not delivering the gospel quite the way that present generations embraced. Exceptions that were issued on VHS and later DVD are color films about the life of Christ like <b>"I Beheld His Glory"</b> and the 12 part <b>"Living Christ"</b> series by Cathedral Films made in 1951. The Loyola Films parables from the Bible were shot in black and white and so did not make the transition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many films in Gospel Films Archive are these 16mm film prints once distributed to churches. The producing companies went out of business years ago. There are no known master film negatives. There are only the 16mm prints that GFA and other archives like Wheaton College, Regent University and Notre Dame have acquired. Unless a film was shot on Kodachrome film stock, like the rare print of <b>"This My Son"</b> that GFA has, the color fades in time.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is hope! Color can be corrected and scratches can be removed utilizing amazing but costly technology! The cost to acquire, transfer from film to digital, restore as needed and reissue each GFA film averages $500. We have a goodly number of worthy films that deserve to be seen again, but we can't issue them until they are restored.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This dilemma gave birth to GFA's <strong>"Adopt-A-Film" </strong>program. We invite you or your organization to pick a specific film to support. A Sole Sponsorship is $500, or for $250 you can become one of two Co-Sponsors of a restored film. We will send you our <a href="http://www.gospelfilmsarchive.com/rest.html" target="_blank">Unrestored Films Packages </a>plus copies of other films awaiting reissue for you to choose from. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">When the film is released on DVD and shown on television, your Sponsorship will be acknowledged onscreen in a special slate at the end of the film. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Here are brief scenes from 6 of these inspirational films that currently await color correction and scratch removal. Please watch the video and read below how you can help GFA get these and many more Christian films back into circulation:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Film restorations are performed by the expert team at </span><a href="http://www.thetransferstation.com/" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Film and Video Transfers, Inc. </a><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">using enhanced Rank Cintel and Wet Gate technology. Doug and Susan have been serving the restoration needs of Hollywood's classic film industry since the dawn of home video. Here is a sample of their restoration work on one needy GFA film: "Man on a Skate Board."</span></span><br />
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Further information about the films you can help restore with a donation is at the GFA <a href="http://www.gospelfilmsarchive.com/rest.html" target="_blank">"Adopt-A-Film" </a>web page. Please share this post with Friends and Family and "like" us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/gospelfilmsarchive">Facebook.</a>Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-48890093433168696402014-04-19T11:18:00.000-05:002014-05-05T14:30:04.044-05:00Gospel Films Archive - Off and Running!<title>Gospel Films Archive: a project to restore the films and TV shows that spread the Gospel to 20th century audiences and reissue them in historical context
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Gospel Films Archive has made major jumps this year, with great help from my partners Bob Campbell and Derek Myers. The biggest news is that we have a DVD distributor -- <b>Vision Video</b> -- the largest, most respected seller of Christian videos for 40 years. <b>Gateway Films/Vision Video</b> produced <b>"The Cross and The Switchblade"</b> with Pat Boone way back in 1970. <b>VV</b> has an extensive website, printed catalog and many thousands of followers. An artist designed the professional boxes as you can see. <b>VV</b> is also producing the DVDs and boxes, promoting them along with their other catalog films and filling orders. <br />
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We don't need to search for the audience that <b>Vision Video</b> has built up for years. Our future role will be to acquire more films for the Archive, restore them as needed and program them into thematic DVD packages. We are planning two or three Christmas releases now of rarely seen shorts and TV shows.<br />
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The first five DVD collections of vintage Gospel films (1940s thru 1960s) have already been released! <br />
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First is <b><span style="font-size: large;">The Missions Collection</span></b> with four rare films concerning Christian missionary work in the mid-20th century. <b>Africa and Schweitzer</b> is a rarely-seen, excellent documentary made while Albert Schweitzer was still alive. Narrated by Lowell Thomas and photographed by Ingmar Bergman's cameraman, Sven Nyquist, it gives a revealing look at the great humanitarian. <b>A Christian in Communist China</b> dramatizes a 1960 story that is just as timely today - the difficulty of preaching the Gospel inside China. <b>No Greater Love</b> is about a dentist volunteering service in India against his wife's wishes. It stars TV detective Richard Denning and his wife, 1940s film star Evelyn Ankers, in her last film. <b> Wings to the Word</b> is a documentary about a young minister in Brazil who flies his airplane to spread the word of God.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Family Films Collection</span></b> tells contemporary stories (1950s era) of Christians struggling with problems of faith and family. They are each produced by Hollywood professionals and peopled with actors you have seen a hundred times. Dick Jones, who began as a child actor in 1934, took time out to make <b>This My Son</b> (1954) between westerns stints on <b>Range Rider</b> and <b>Buffalo Bill Jr. </b> <b>Son </b>is a modern re-telling of The Prodigal Son story (as you can see in our video preview down below). Dick also stars in <b>Missionary to Walker's Garage</b> (1961) as a devout Christian who works in a garage and inspires customers and co-workers. He wants to become an automotive engineer although his parents would like him to enter the ministry. Actress Gale Storm, between a 10 year career starring in B-movies and TV fame in "My Little Margie," stars in <b>Rim of the Wheel</b> (1951) as a young housewife so wrapped up in daily living that she drifts away from her faith. <b>Honor Thy Family</b> (1951) is about strife between father and son in an Italian immigrant family.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Christopher Films Collection</span></b> is a fascinating look at a movement that appealed to Hollywood stars and seems almost secular in its messages that each of us can help "Change the World" by doing good deeds and that we should get involved in government as one way of making a difference. Father James Keller gathered 9 Hollywood stars together in Jack Benny's home to explain it all in <b>"You Can Change the World"</b> (1951). The other famous stars are Rochester, William Holden, Loretta Young (who credits this film experience for her move to television), Irene Dunne, Anne Blyth, Paul Douglas, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. <b>A Link in the Chain</b> (1957) stars James Cagney in one of his few TV appearances as an aging professor who recalls how he made a difference in the lives of 3 students. <b> Government is Your Business</b> is the film version of Father Keller's novel about the need to get involved to better the world. An idealistic young man decides to run for office in the face of corruption already entrenched.<br />
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The last two collections tell rarely-seen Bible stories. <b><span style="font-size: large;">Loyola Films </span></b>were produced by Loyola University in Los Angeles and directed by B-movie veteran John T. Coyle from 1946 to 1948. We have 8 of the 16 films produced and are looking for the others. Loyola themselves has little knowledge of the series and none of the films. <b> Boyhood of Jesus</b> dramatizes his birth and first 12 years of life. <b> The Good Samaritan </b>is the familiar parable fleshed out with more story and character background. <b>The Rich Young Man</b> as recorded in Mark 10 meets Jesus and is told to give away his wealth. <b>The Unmerciful Servant</b> is a parable about true forgiveness.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Cathedral Films </span></b>has a long history starting with <b>The Great Commandment </b>feature film in 1939. Their most lasting achievement that is still shown today is the 12-part, color <b>"Living Christ" </b>series that relates all of Jesus' life. <b>No Greater Power </b>(1942) tells the Bible story of conniving tax collector of Jericho Zaccheus who meets Jesus and is transformed. <b>Ambassador for Christ</b> (1949) is one of Cathedral's "Life of St. Paul" series and tells how Paul and Barnabas take the Gospel to Antioch. Paul preaches that all people, even slaves, are equal in the eyes of God. <b> I Beheld His Glory </b>(1953) is the story of the last days of Jesus' life told from the perspective of a Roman Centurion who witnessed his trial, crucifixion and resurrection and then converted to Christianity. The color film was first shown on TV during Easter week in 1953 and is the only one of the 18 films in our first five collections that has been widely available before.<br />
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Here is a preview trailer of some of these 18 films:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Please visit the Gospel Films Archive <a href="http://www.gospelfilmsarchive.com/" target="_blank">WEBSITE</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Like the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/gospelfilmsarchive" target="_blank">GFA on Facebook</a> to receive updates on new releases.</span><br />
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<br />Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-24474678481511387322014-02-01T10:00:00.000-06:002014-02-03T14:03:41.864-06:00"Missions to the World" & "Family Films" DVD Releases!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Since my last blog post, the Gospel Films Archive team has released the first 5 collections on DVD. Quality is very good to excellent on each film and, while they could be improved by new transfers to High-Def, they really only need that kind of restoration for television. Rather than ask for contributions, we can now reward any help at the $25 level with DVDs of forgotten Gospel films. Any profits on the DVD sales will help acquire more films and begin needed restoration of many that would benefit from color correction, clean-up, etc.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"Missions to the World"</span></b> contains 4 films about Christian missionary work, and yet they will have wider appeal to secular audiences as well. All are expertly made by Hollywood professionals.<br />
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Africa and Schweitzer</span></b></span><span class="s2"> </span><span class="s3">(1961/27m Cathedral Films) Superb documentary on Albert Schweitzer's Christian missionary work in Africa. Narrated by Lowell Thomas and exquisitely photographed in the Belgian Congo by Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman's famed academy-award winning cinematographer. This forgotten film (can't find any reference to it on the Internet) includes footage of the legendary Schweitzer at work in Africa just four years before his death.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">A Christian in Communist China</span></b></span><span class="s2"> (1961/color/19m Film Services) A defiant Chinese Christian pastor, who has been conducting secret religious services in Communist China, is discovered and tortured. He escapes, but as he sails into Hong Kong harbor in a small fishing boat and hears a church choir singing in the distance, he decides to turn back to the people in his homeland who have looked to him for faith. The subject of this 53-year-old film is still relevant today.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">No Greater Love</span></b></span><span class="s2"> (1960/color/30m Film Services) Richard Denning and Evelyn Ankers in the dynamic story of a nurse who opposes her doctor husband’s desire to volunteer with other Christian professionals for work in the mission fields. They travel to Madagascar where the story ends with heartfelt impact and a call to Christian dedication and service.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">Richard Denning was an early TV star in the mystery-comedy<b> "Mr. and Mrs. North"</b> (1952-'54), and the hero of 1950's sci-fi films like <b>"Creature from the Black Lagoon."</b> <b> "No Greater Love" </b>was made just before his solo private eye series <b>"Michael Shayne"</b> in 1961-'62. Denning was married to Evelyn Ankers, horror film queen of<b> "The Wolfman"</b> and other Universals of the 1940s. Ankers came out of retirement to work with her husband in what became her last screen appearance.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">Art Linkletter also appears in the film to moderate a seminar that convinces Denning to volunteer his dentistry skills in Madagascar. Many celebrities contributed their time and talents to these films, or worked very cheaply, because they believed in the messages.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Wings to the Word</span></b></span><span class="s2"> (1951/30m Protestant Film Commission)</span></div>
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<span class="s2">Narrated by Alexander Scourby. The Reverend Rodger Perkins, a Presbyterian missionary to Brazil, portrays himself in this true story of a young missionary flyer who travels between remote villages in an impassioned campaign to use "wings to speed the Word of God."</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"Family Films"</span></b> was founded by entrepreneur Sam Hersh in 1946 to create entertainment for the entire family. Top Hollywood talent enhances these 4 inspired mini-movies. Former Child star Dickie Jones stars in the first two, which are not included in this IMDB filmography. Dickie first appeared as a young child in 1934, played a teenager in several Gene Autry westerns of the late 1940s and sidekick in<b> "The Range Rider"</b> TV show 1951-'53. Still very much a TV cowboy star, he played <b>"Buffalo Bill Jr."</b> (1955-'56) <u>after</u> these two films for Family Films.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><b>This My Son</b></span><span class="s2"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">(1954/30m/color) Dick Jones plays a modern day prodigal son from Luke 15. A young son is seduced by big city life and sells his interest in the family ranch to his father and brother. Strong acting and production values enhance this fine film commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention. Release prints were in black & white and this is the only known color version. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Missionary to Walker's Garage</span></b> </span></div>
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<span class="s1">(1954/28m)<b> </b>Dick Jones plays Mark, who wants to be an automotive engineer and a Christian businessman. His parents want him to join the clergy. An inspired and literate script brings to life the "all things work together" message of Roman's 8:28 "</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><b>Rim of the Wheel</b></span><span class="s2"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">(1951/23m</span><span class="s3">) </span><span class="s1">Gale Storm, after ten years as a star in Monogram features and right on the brink of TV fame as <i>My Little Margie</i>, shows off her considerable acting chops. The story of a young wife who is on a constant round of social activities and neglecting her home and family. Through the fatherly advice of an elderly neighbor, she comes to realize that religion has a definite place in the home and that the church is important in her life.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Honor Thy Family</span></b></span><span class="s2"> </span></div>
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<span class="s1">(1951/27m) A cast of familiar faces adds fun to this comedy-Drama about an Italian immigrant father and son learning to appreciate each other. The script is a charming blend of the prodigal son of Luke 15 and the "Honor thy father and mother" message of Ephesians 6:2. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I will discuss our other 3 first releases next time - Christopher Films, Loyola Films and Cathedral Films. </span><span class="s1">You can read about them now at <a href="http://igg.me/at/gfa" target="_blank">Indiegogo</a> or the <a href="http://www.gospelfilmsarchive.com/" target="_blank">GFA Website</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="s2"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />This large body of outstanding, professionally made "church" films that helped spread the Gospel in the 20th century is unknown to most today. The films are still powerful and inspiring and well deserving of re-release. They will have wide appeal to both film fans and Christians who are unaware of this lost history. P</span>lease help spread the word by telling any friends, bloggers, websites, etc., who might also be interested. Help us get these films back on television where they can reach a wide audience. We thank you!<br />
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-45938722636774049972014-01-20T13:10:00.000-06:002014-01-21T21:29:59.396-06:00Gospel Films ArchiveA truly "Lost & Rare" library of films comprises the many religious films produced by Cathedral Films, Family Films, Loyola Films, The Christophers and others to distribute as audio-visual aids to churches (hence sometimes called "church films") and use in missionary work overseas. My partners (Bob Campbell, Derek Myers) and I have been building such a library that we call <b><i>Gospel Films Archive</i></b> or <b><i>GFA.</i></b> These films were primarily made and widely shown in the 1940s thru 1960s. Since each generation slightly alters their views on what to preach and how, churches felt that a 1950 film was too dated to keep using and that a 1980, or 2014, re-interpretation of Christian stories and beliefs would somehow be more relevant. This is largely why many of the vintage films slipped out of use and out of the public consciousness. <br />
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These forgotten Gospel films educated and enlightened millions around the world in the 20th century. They constitute a lost history of Christian outreach, and this historical aspect will interest many. Since the films are as powerful and inspiring as ever, which may come as quite a surprise, reissuing them with introductions that put each film into context will not only chronicle this history but inspire modern viewers with their timeless messages.<br />
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Many of the films in Gospel Films Archive do not look dated at all in style or content. Bible stories are period pieces set more than 2,000 years ago. Many of the GFA films are in color. Many were crafted by some of Hollywood's most talented and prestigious producers, directors, writers and actors expressly for Christian denominational organizations and faith-based groups. Other films tell engaging stories with strong spiritual themes and were produced by film and TV companies primarily for secular audiences.<br />
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<span class="s1"><b>A Christian in Communist China</b></span><span class="s2"> </span><span class="s3">(1961/color/21m Film Services)</span><span class="s2"> could have been made today. Doesn't the title alone make you curious about seeing it?</span><span style="background-color: #990000; color: #404040; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"> </span>A defiant Chinese Christian pastor, who has been conducting secret religious services in Communist China, is discovered and tortured. He escapes, but as he sails into Hong Kong harbor in a small fishing boat and hears a church choir singing in the distance, he decides to turn back to the people in his homeland who have looked to him for leadership and faith.</div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Boyhood of Jesus</b></span><span class="s2"><b> </b>(1947/30m Loyola Films)</span><span class="s3"> In 1946 Loyola University commissioned veteran B-movie filmmaker John T. Coyle to assemble a pool of Hollywood actors and technicians to create 16 half-hour Bible films faithfully based on scripture. This one from the Gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus' birth and life to age 12. We contacted Loyola University and discovered that no one there even knew the films had been made, despite having a film archive, or bunch of films in a room, that had seemingly never been looked at. All of the Loyola Bible films were made in 1947-'48.</span></div>
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<span class="s3">John T. Coyle began his career in the 1930s doing special effects at Mascot and on Republic serials like <b>Dick Tracy</b>. His crowning achievement was the 12-part color<b> Living Christ</b> series in 1951 for Cathedral Films. Cathedral has a long history and one <b><i>GFA</i></b> rarity is<b> "No Greater Power"</b> from 1942 in original sepia color.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>No Greater Power</b></span><span class="s2"><b> </b></span><span class="s3">(1942/24m Cathedral Films)</span><span class="s2"> The story of Zaccheus as recorded in St. Luke 11 shows him as an impoverished potter who takes advantage of circumstances to gain the exalted position of tax collector in Jericho. He uses his wealth and power to further his own selfish ends, but everything changes when Jesus comes to supper. The film was shot by veteran cinematographer John Alton (Elmer Gantry) and is notable for its effective use of light and shadow, most notably when Jesus is strongly backlit giving a halo effect. </span></div>
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<span class="s2">So we have accumulated quite a library, and rapidly growing, of little-known films that will be of interest to many film buffs and Christians. Rather than put them out on standard DVD in their present form, we hope to restore them to pristine condition and transfer to Hi-Def. Future plans include DVD releases arranged around themes, preparation of "Gospel Films Showcase" for television and eventually producing a series of documentaries about the films. We are supported in this endeavor by The Christophers, Vision Video, Wesscott Distributing, </span>Loyola Films, Christianfilms.com and others who believe these films should be restored and returned to the public.</div>
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<span class="s2">The first step is film restoration, which can be costly. To get going we have just launched a fund-raising campaign on Indiegogo. You can greatly assist us to spread the word by visiting the <a href="http://igg.me/p/594165/x/5455779" target="_blank">IGG page</a> and telling friends who share your interest to pay us a visit as well. More news is at the <a href="http://www.cineqwiz.com/gfa.html" target="_blank">GFA website</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/gospelfilmsarchive" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">Film clips and future <b><i>Gospel Films Archive</i></b> plans are in this short video. Thanks for watching!</span><br />
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Please visit the <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gospel-films-archive" target="_blank">Indiegogo Campaign</a> and spread the word!</center>
Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-27387220504776222552014-01-04T13:41:00.000-06:002014-01-04T13:44:12.863-06:00New Finds of Old Films!Every January First the number of american films entering the public domain is a big fat -- Zero. However many rare films that happen to be public domain are found, restored and made available to film fans every year. Here are my reviews of some obscure but quite fascinating forgotten gems that are newly available from Festival Films.<br />
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">KING OF THE CIRCUS</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">aka THIS WOMAN IS MINE (1935)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Circus movies nurture the dream of joining a world of glamour, excitement and sudden danger. Many have tapped into this fantasy world from Chaplin’s <b>The Circus</b> (1928), <b>The Greatest Show on Earth</b> (1952), <b>Trapeze </b>(1956) to the recent <b>Water for Elephants </b>(2011). Conflict often centers on the most colorful headliners -- the trapeze artists, magicians, clowns and lion tamers -- who still draw crowds today.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>King of the Circus </b>(1935) is set in the world of European circuses where the artistes are as acclaimed as opera stars. A permanent arena replaces the familiar big top and the evening performances are attended by adults only. Pompous Nikita (Gregory Ratoff) is the star attraction, a lion tamer who acquires a ferocious lioness, Caprice, who killed her previous trainer. With the lion comes the daughter of the victim, Lida, who Nikita raises from child to young woman. They inevitably marry but without real love from Lida, whose pain and confusion are evident to all except her husband-to-be. Enter a matinee-idol magician named Trelawyne (John Loder) to challenge Nikita for star billing and the affections of Lida, while Caprice paces her cage awaiting revenge.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Gregory Ratoff was born in Russia in 1897 and entered the Moscow Art Theater after fighting for the Czar in World War-I. Ratoff had a long and respected career in Hollywood playing comedy foreigners with heavy accents from <b>I’m No Angel </b>(1933) to <b>Exodus </b>(1960), with his most famous role being Max Fabian in <b>All About Eve</b> (1950). He was also a prominent writer and director from Ingrid Bergman’s first american film<b> Intermezzo: A Love Story </b>(1939) to <b>Oscar Wilde</b> (1960). </span></div>
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<span class="s1">It is both a surprise to see Gregory Ratoff starring in a dramatic role (that he wrote for himself) and a true delight at how effectively he portrays the obsessed Nikita. His compassion at raising an innocent Lida to adulthood turns to blindness to her revulsion and fear at marrying him. At heart a good man, he can not conquer his raging jealousy. The film was originally titled “This Woman is Mine,” which accurately nails the raw theme. Retitling it “King of the Circus” may have attempted to reach a wider audience, but make no mistake -- this is one circus film that is not for children!</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i><b>KING OF THE CIRCUS</b> </i>(aka. This Woman in Mine) 1935. 69 min. Directed by Monty Banks. Written by Gregory Ratoff. Cast: Gregory Ratoff, John Loder, Benita Hume, Kathryn Sergava, Richard Bennett. A USA/UK joint film production for Allied Pictures. Released by Paramount.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">MISSOURI NIGHTINGALE</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">aka St. Louis Woman (1935)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Athletic, likable and movie-star handsome, actor Johnny Mack Brown started at the top but soon descended into the “B” films he is famous for today. MGM signed him to a contract in 1926 that found him playing opposite Marion Davies (<b>The Fair Co-Ed</b>, 1927), Norma Shearer (<b>A Lady of Chance</b>, 1928), Joan Crawford (<b>Our Dancing Daughters</b>, 1928), Mary Pickford (<b>Coquette</b>, 1929) and four films with Greta Garbo. However, with the advent of talkies Brown’s acting limitations became evident along with his southern accent. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">When John played the title role in King Vidor’s 1930 <b>Billy the Kid</b> an attribute emerged that type cast him the rest of his career -- he looked good on a horse! After starring in the 1933 Mascot serial <b>Fighting with Kit Carson</b> and <b>The Rustlers of Red Dog</b> for Universal in 1935, he went on to make countless “B” or series westerns for Monogram Pictures and other small companies. When the Saturday Matinee and B-western died with the advent of television in the early 1950s, Brown semi-retired and only made a few TV guest appearances.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Missouri Nightingale </b>(1935) is a rare chance to see John (as he is billed here) in a dramatic role before becoming a cowboy. It opens with him winning the big college football game, which was the sport that brought him to Hollywood. Invited to a night club John meets blonde chanteuse St. Louis Lou (Jeanette Loff) who gets friendly to persuade him to play professional ball, but breaking training causes him to be kicked out of school and lose any chance of becoming a doctor. His professional career gets off to a rocky start when his team sabotages every play, but Lou intervenes and he makes good. As she falls further in love she hatches a plan to get John back into college.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Jeanette Loff was a promising singer with a pleasing personality. She sang three numbers in <b>King of Jazz </b>(1930) but only appeared in “B” pictures like this one the rest of her short career that ended in a small part in Monogram’s <b>Million Dollar Baby </b>(1934). Both stars click with engaging chemistry, one on the way to early retirement while the other is about to ride the range on a twenty year quest to uphold justice. Johnny’s many fans are glad he learned to ride.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>MISSOURI NIGHTINGALE</i></b> (aka. St. Louis Woman) (1934) 62 min. Directed by Albert Ray. Cast: Jeanette Loff, John Mack Brown, Earle Fox, Roberta Gale, Tom London. Produced by Screencraft Productions.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: large;">WOMAN TO WOMAN</span></b></span> (1929)</div>
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<span class="s1">In interviews actress Betty Compson always sited <b>Woman to Woman</b> as her favorite of all the films she made. They failed to ask her which version, since the 1923 silent film for which she was paid $3,500 a week appears to be lost and this 1929 early talkie remake has been unavailable for many years. Both were based on a 1921 stage play by English dramatist Michael Morton. The 1923 version was produced in England and gave Alfred Hitchcock his very first writing credit.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Betty entered vaudeville in 1915 at the age of 18 in an act “The Vagabond Violinist.” Comedy producer Al Christie spotted and hired her to make dozens of one and two-reel slapstick comedies which he also directed. Her big break came in 1919 when she was cast opposite Lon Chaney in <b>The Miracle Man</b> and the film became an enormous hit boosting both of their careers. She appeared in 58 films in the 1920s, most for Paramount Pictures and usually top billed. Her fame is largely forgotten today since so many films fall into the “lost” category. One fact that attests to her box office draw is that she was paid $5,000 a week at the height of her popularity.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Compson’s acting skills may be appreciated as a prostitute in Josef von Sternberg’s <b>Docks of New York</b> (1928), in her Oscar-nominated role in <b>The Barker </b>(1929) with Milton Sills and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and as the dancer obsessed over by egocentric ventriloquist Erich von Stroheim in <b>The Great Gabbo</b> (1929). <b>Woman to Woman</b> was released right after <b>Gabbo</b>. Having made a successful transition to sound films, but over the age of 30, Betty found herself on the brink of a swift decline. Brief RKO and Warners contracts in “women’s pictures” gave way to smaller parts at poverty row studios Chesterfield, Continental and Monogram before she retired in 1948.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Woman to Woman</b> is a four-star tearjerker that shows Betty at the peak of her skills. As a cabaret dancer in Paris during WW-I she meets and falls for a young English officer. They have a night of love and plan to be married the next day, except he is called to the front, gets amnesia in battle and disappears. Four years later Betty is a celebrated dancer performing in London who runs into her love again and restores his memory, but alas he is married to a shrewish wife who will not budge. They have a four-year-old son and other complications escalate from there to a heart-breaking, surprising climax. <b>Woman to Woman </b>can only add to Betty Compson’s legacy that has been unjustly forgotten.</span></div>
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<b><i>WOMAN TO WOMAN</i> </b> (1929) 77 min. Directed by Victor Saville. Cast: Betty Compson, George Barraud, Juliette Compton, Margaret Chambers. A Tiffany-Stahl Production.<span class="s1"></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">CHEATING BLONDES</span></b> (1933)</div>
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Shop girl Thelma Todd is implicated in a murder, so to hide out she visits her twin sister who is a night club singer who wants a vacation. They switch places and Thelma sings one musical number outfitted as the Butterfly Girl, shown in the film clip below. The scene where the two Thelmas meet is missing from the extremely rare print that I found and supplied to Alpha Video/Oldies.com. Thelma's reporter/boyfriend tries to expose her new life just for the story, and she justly jilts him at the end. Includes a nice role for Hal Roach actress Mae Busch. Produced, but never registered, by the obscure Equitable Motion Pictures Corp. The two Thelmas must be the "blondes" in question, but despite the title there is no "cheating" by either of them! </div>
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Visit my website at <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/" target="_blank">Festival Films</a>.
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-79419331582981253442013-12-14T10:06:00.003-06:002014-01-06T13:53:25.638-06:00Christmas Movies are Magic!<center style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #990000; color: #ffe599;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tis the Season to watch movies, happy vintage films from childhood past!</span></span></center>
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<span style="font-size: 0.8em;"><img alt="DVD Cover" class="float_left" src="http://www.fesfilms.com/img/HHCover.jpg" height="240" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin-right: 10px; padding: 7px;" width="180" /></span><span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><b>Heavenly Christmas Film Classics</b></span><br /><span style="color: #ffe599;">6 rare films in an exclusive DVD that makes a nice Christmas gift! </span></span><span style="background-color: #990000; color: #ffe599;">Special price to blog readers -- just $15, postage included!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong><i>Silent Night: Story of the Christmas Carol</i></strong><br />(1953) 13 min., color. Beautifully told true story of how Franz Gruber created the iconic 1818 Christmas carol.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong><i>Christmas is Magic</i></strong><br />(1953) 24 min. Robert Hutton plays a war vet with amnesia who is taken in by widow Frances Rafferty and her son on Christmas Eve. You can watch the complete film below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong><i>Star of Bethlehem</i></strong><br />(1956) 12 min., color. The Nativity told using the silhouette animation style of Lotte Reiniger.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong><i>Three Young Kings</i></strong><br />(1956) 28 min. Episode of “DuPont Theater.” In Latin America three boys follow a village tradition of carrying Christmas gifts to the mission church children dressed as the Three Wise Men. In the poor section of town they give the presents to the ragged children instead, causing a crisis in conscience over the true meaning of giving.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong><i>Star of Bethlehem</i></strong><br />(1954) 26 min. Produced, directed by and starring James Mason. After Mason reads sections from the bible that lead up to the birth of Jesus, the Nativity is enacted starring a cast of children. A heartfelt, inventive and personal religious project by a Hollywood star.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong><i>Starlight Night</i></strong><br />(1939) 30 min. Opulent British docu-drama about the creation of the famous Christmas carol centers on a stern father estranged from his daughter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: #ffe599; font-size: large;">Order from Ron Hall -- fesfilms@aol.com -- or 952-470-2172</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-size: large;">Religious Films</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: #ffe599;"><b>I recently added a page of </b><a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/public-domain/rel.html" target="_blank"><b>RELIGIOUS FILMS</b></a><b> to my website and list them here. Most of these have been available for some years. However, in 2014 we plan to release many similar but much rarer films for the first time on video. Details soon! </b></span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-size: large;">Feature Films:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1961, color) 120 min. Cornel Wilde. Somewhat fictionalized dramatic account of Late Roman Emperor Constantine, his rise to power, and his establishment of religious tolerance among Roman subjects.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>DAVID AND GOLIATH</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1960, color) 92 min. Orson Welles stars as King Saul. The story is adapted from the Old Testament: The Philistines declare war on the Israelites and wrench the Arch of the Allience from them. Saul, the king of Israel, listens meanwhile to the words of the prophets who tell him that the new king will be a young shepard called David. But still David has to fight the enemy in form of their mighty giant Goliath.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>ESTHER AND THE KING</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1960, color, Italy) 109 min. Joan Collins stars in the biblical story about Esther, an orphan raised by a relative named Mordecai, as she is chosen from all the maidens in the land to become queen. She must risk her life to save her people from a treacherous plan of the charmingly wicked prince Haman.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><b>THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW</b> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1964, Italy, subtitled) 130 min. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini's celebrated life of Christ story stars Enrique Irazoqui as Jesus. Filmed in the actual locations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>MARTIN LUTHER</strong></span></span><span style="background-color: #990000; color: #ffe599;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1953) 106 min. The first motion picture portrayal of the incendiary beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. This excellent film brings to life Luther's growing realization that the religion, to which he had dedicated his life, was flawed. His character is shown to mature in believable stages, culminating in acts of ferocious courage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>THE OLD TESTAMENT</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1962, Italy/France, color) 89 min. The Jews of Jerusalem are driven out by their Syrian rulers. They gather their forces, and return to drive out their oppressors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>SAUL AND DAVID</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1964, Spain/Italy, color) 113 min. The story of the relationship between David the slayer of Goliath and Saul the King of the Israelites.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><strong><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Church Films</span></strong><br /><span style="color: #ffe599;">Films by Family Films, Cathedral Films and similar religious groups to spread the Gospel. These were shown primarily in churches or on Sunday morning TV. Many were intentionally released into the public domain to find the widest possible audience.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>ALL THAT I HAVE</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1949, Family Films) Dr. Charles Greyson is a famous and wealthy former surgeon. His nephews take him to court to challenge his competency, due to his recent inexplicable gifts of large amounts of cash to the church. Message being that all that we are we owe to God, and the profits gained from our God-given abilities require care and thought before sharing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>THE LIFE OF CHRIST <span style="font-size: x-small;">(aka. The Living Christ Series)</span></strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1951, color) 300 min. Cathedral Films. Each of the twelve 20-30 min. programs faithfully illustrate aspects of the teachings and the ministry of Jesus Christ, in chronological order, from the Nativity in Bethlehem, to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Last Supper. <strong>The Life of Christ </strong>gives historical context with maps and graphics, and the believable dialogue makes these Bible stories come alive. Robert Wilson gives a strong, sensitive performance as Jesus Christ. Here is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Christ_Series" target="_blank"><b>more info.</b></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1955, color) 212 min. Concordia/Family Films series relates stories from the Old Testament: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Ruth, Samuel, David, Solomon and Elijah.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>PILGRIMAGE PLAY</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1949,color) 92m. A Roland Reed Production tells the story of the life of Jesus Christ, starring Nelson Leigh as Jesus.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>REACHING FROM HEAVEN</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1948) 80 min. Drama with strong spiritual overtones that concerns itself with the eternal question, "Can the God whose hand formed the sun and the moon and the stars be concerned about the lives of little men?" In a small American town we meet one such "little man," a European immigrant long-separated from his wife by the war.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>POWER OF THE RESURRECTION</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1958, color) 60 min., Family Films. A young man, facing torture and possibly death for his Christian beliefs, confesses his fears to Peter, who awaits a similar fate. Peter tells him of fear he felt in following Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethesamene, when he denied knowing him three times - and yet Jesus told him that he would be the rock upon which the Church was built. Peter goes on to relate the events of the passion week, including the Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.</span></span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white; font-size: large;">The Gospel on Television</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: #990000; color: #ffe599;">Mainstream TV shows with a religious theme that often showed around Christmas or Easter.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>HILL NUMBER ONE</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1951) 57 min. Family Theater Production. A respectful interpretation of what might have happened among Jesus's followers in the three days before Crucifixion. The story is told in the modern context of an US Army company stationed in Korea during the Korean War.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>THE NATIVITY</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1952) 59 min. Hurd Hatfield, Robert Shaw, Paul Tripp in dramatization of the birth of Jesus was produced for television by Studio One.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>PICTURE OF THE MAGI</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">25 min. In 1956 Communist-dominated Hungary young Aranka (Judy Morris) stumbles across the hideout of three ruthless blackmarket smugglers. When the girl discovers one of the men is named Melchoir (Walter Coy) she believes they are actually the Three Wise Men.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>PONTIUS PILATE</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1952) 59 min. Episode of Westinghouse Studio One TV series. Cast: Geraldine Fitzgerald, Cyril Ritchard, Francis Sullivan. The tale of Pontius Pilate, the Roman administrator of Judea and the man charged with trying and sentencing Jesus to death, in spite of his reservations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>A STAR SHALL RISE </strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1952) 29 min. Raymond Burr stars in the story of the birth of Jesus and the visit of the three wise men.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPnkc4w4httH-FlsLbXQB3kP7u5cmU7_HrBf32L99s2sI8EhbwBK61F8XPRkRxcRSlQTWIk4qOkOanOql1wWew_kqjqlIPB22sfpfYr7EALPN8_6RoACbHdZuDk3cM2KIgVCIId1SEK2s/s1600/cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPnkc4w4httH-FlsLbXQB3kP7u5cmU7_HrBf32L99s2sI8EhbwBK61F8XPRkRxcRSlQTWIk4qOkOanOql1wWew_kqjqlIPB22sfpfYr7EALPN8_6RoACbHdZuDk3cM2KIgVCIId1SEK2s/s200/cross.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><strong><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Crossroads</span></strong><br /><span style="color: #ffe599;">(1955-'57) Half-hour TV anthology series dramatizes the lives of clergymen of all faiths and the problems they face in both their professional and personal lives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>A Bell for O'Donnell</strong> -- A reverend learns a lesson in forgiveness when is is swindled by a fast-talking con man (Edmond Lowe).</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>Cleanup</strong> -- A pastor (Vincent Price) exhorts his parishioners to take back their city from the gangsters and corrupt politicians who have taken it over.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>Call for Help</strong> -- Richard Carlson plays a priest who works with troubled youths, when a gang fight leads to a fatal shooting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>Dig or Die, Brother Hyde</strong> -- A new preacher on the harsh Dakota frontier is severly tested. With Hugh Marlow.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>God's Healing</strong> -- Vincent Price plays a priest who heals an old woman's embittered heart.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>The Good Thief</strong> -- US Army chaplain (James Whitmore) is tortured by Red Chinese captors for ministering to his fellow prisoners of war.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>The Judge</strong> -- Brian Donlevy does double duty in a lawless town as a preacher and a judge.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><strong>Mother O'Brien</strong> -- A police detective is torn between family and duty when his younger brother is involved in a petty crime.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><strong><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">A Christmas Mystery....</span></strong></span></div>
<i><b>Christmas is Magic</b> </i>is one of the six films on our <b><a href="http://www.lostandrare.com/xmas.html/" target="_blank">Heavenly Christmas Film Classics</a> </b>DVD release promoted at the top. An extraordinary discovery was brought to our attention last Christmas by a customer the day before Christmas Eve -- a vision of the face of Jesus Christ appears several times. The face of Jesus is clear to both Christians and non-believers alike in numerous scenes.<br />
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Because the Face appears more than once, it <i>may</i> have been an intentional although subliminal insertion by the film's producer, Sovereign Films. Another theory is that it is an artifact of the 16mm to video transfer process. Yet others may claim that we altered the film to attract publicity, and I can assure everyone that is not at all the case. The DVD was released by Festival Films over three months ago and today is the first time I and my two partners became aware of this phenomena.<br />
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<b><i>Christmas is Magic </i></b>was the Christmas episode of an anthology TV series called <i>Your Jeweler's Showcase</i>. It was first shown on television on Dec. 13, 1953, and may have been syndicated on 16mm prints for a few years. Our source is an original 16mm syndication print.<br />
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A WW-2 war veteran (Robert Hutton) with amnesia gets off a train in a town he never heard of on Christmas Eve. In the village square he meets a young widow (Frances Rafferty) whose husband was killed in the war and her 8-year-old son. The son and man, who calls himself John Doe for lack of his real name, quickly bond and he goes home with them to wait for Santa to arrive. The mother and son pray together in a moving scene not often found on television. Later John Doe helps trim the tree while the widow helps him remember his past. Miracles happen.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Robert Hutton and Frances Rafferty</td></tr>
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If indeed a Face of Jesus Christ was inserted secretly into a 1953 television show, then why has it taken 59 years for anyone to notice? I don't have an answer. I do have a theory as to what <i>might</i> happen next in this wonderful age of the Internet when social media has the power to spread unusual news at the speed of light. Word about this sighting of the Face of Jesus might attract many viewers to see for themselves. Interest in unexpected images of Christ is always high. While deciding yeah or nay, coincidence or intentional, or what it all might mean, viewers will experience a profoundly moving Christmas story about love and childhood and memories and renewal. Was the Face from 1953 intended to focus world attention on <b><i>Christmas is Magic</i></b> on this Christmas week in 2012? Stranger miracles have happened at Christmas time.<br />
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We urge you to watch the film from the beginning to end first to experience the full effect of the story, then explore the Face. Still pictures do not capture the Face of Jesus Christ very well. It is much more apparent in the youtube video just below. Most will see it -- eyes, nose, nostrils, beard and hair in the traditional image of Christ as depicted on the Shroud of Turin and in religious paintings. One can see faces in almost anything, but this has symmetry, does not disappear after a few frames and is, of course, a very special face. Look closely at the fabric of Robert Hutton's tweed suit from 14:00 to 14:25. Once you see the Face you will spot it in other scenes both before and after. The indication of a face could be a coincidence or it could have been woven into the fabric on purpose. You decide. By all means, tell your friends! Spread the mystery. Spread the word. Spread the joy. Foremost, enjoy the film!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And the merriest of all Christmases to every one of you!</span><br />
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Visit my websites at <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/" target="_blank">Festival Films</a> and <a href="http://www.lostandrare.com/" target="_blank">Lost and Rare.</a>Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-62724527858559467072013-11-02T12:26:00.000-05:002013-11-02T12:41:58.806-05:00First BUCK ROGERS Film Re-Visited Once Again!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjRU1HvqmL0xRv2p64Df2dewmV4XTCuf3KbgZigPfirW7Ai0fFSUnEpebzbUsS7tRYHtHjBjU_bkhNFg-LP7i4ioLT4jNcXS8qLU1CCwqle6xaKKwguqmao8EVV2B3pW0fhf-5Wy1hGU/s1600/Buck+top.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515682263550439026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjRU1HvqmL0xRv2p64Df2dewmV4XTCuf3KbgZigPfirW7Ai0fFSUnEpebzbUsS7tRYHtHjBjU_bkhNFg-LP7i4ioLT4jNcXS8qLU1CCwqle6xaKKwguqmao8EVV2B3pW0fhf-5Wy1hGU/s400/Buck+top.jpeg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 115px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The first version of this article appeared in the <a href="http://matineeatthebijou.blogspot.com/" target="_top">Bijou Blog</a> on May 16, 2008, and the second version in my blog on 9/11/2010. At that time I re-uploaded the First <span style="font-weight: bold;">Buck Rogers</span> film to the Cafe Roxy Youtube channel where it has just been viewed more than 10,000 times. You can view it below. The film is also included on the free Café Roxy Sampler disc. It is on that DVD last, so that you don't need to show it if your audience is not hip enough to enjoy "campy" fun.<br />
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Recent research uncovered these tickets required to see the Buck Rogers "Show." I had always assumed the movie was shown free since it is so short and amateurish, but one actually had to pay. Since admission for children to get into the entire 1934 Chicago World's Fair was only a quarter, it seems doubtful they would have charged more than a dime for any midway attraction.<br />
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In 1934 an obscure movie short called <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Buck Rogers in the 25th Century -- An Interplanetary Battle with the Tiger Men of Mars </span></span>was released, but not in theaters. David Stelle accurately describes it in the IMDb: <span style="font-style: italic;">“A signal from Buddy Deering on Mars warns Earth that the Tiger Men of Mars and their cruel king have broken their treaty and are attacking. Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering go to rendezvous with the Earth battlefleet before setting off to fight the tigerships. Baldpated genius inventor Dr. Huer uses the ‘cosmic radiotelevision’ to watch the space battle. Which side will be victorious? The tigerships and their paralysis ray? Or our Earth forces, armed with the flash ray and Dr. Huer's new magnetic ray?”</span><br />
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You might well ask -- “What the heck is this anyway?” -- either before or after you watch it. One viewer at youtube thought it might be a recently photoshopped in-joke. While not exactly a Hollywood movie, it is a jaw-dropping curiosity.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAKn8mxUCQ1uDozeOeL0pzavQl0RntNbzPt8txzlX-CK3nzb3W9HqYTTDx0iWKtMbl6KyELYYC6HcmOTRDd9WYNLPE_gRl4c3qAHOoltcyJz-RyP0OAzP_cx_rPjiI__N9Nfj1L7iyxQ0/s1600/worlds+fair.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515684803445882770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAKn8mxUCQ1uDozeOeL0pzavQl0RntNbzPt8txzlX-CK3nzb3W9HqYTTDx0iWKtMbl6KyELYYC6HcmOTRDd9WYNLPE_gRl4c3qAHOoltcyJz-RyP0OAzP_cx_rPjiI__N9Nfj1L7iyxQ0/s320/worlds+fair.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 236px;" /></a>The first <span style="font-weight: bold;">Buck Rogers </span>film was shown to the public during the second year, 1934 edition, of the Chicago World's Fair. The Century of Progress International Exposition was held in Chicago in 1933 and 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation. Its motto was "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms" and its architectural symbol was the Sky Ride, a transporter bridge perpendicular to the shore on which one could ride from one end of the fair to the other. After a winter break, the 1934 Fair ran from May 26 through Oct. 31 and included a new Island Midway area that faced Lake Michigan. The "Buck Rogers Show," as it was called on admission tickets, was located on the Enchanted Island playground for children, at #125 on the left hand section of the 1934 Fair Map. It is unknown whether this film was the entire show, or if fans were treated to some live action event as well for their dime. It is certain that after watching the movie, visitors could purchase the very same toy spaceships and ray guns they had just seen. Pretty tricky, huh?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidDWgpzXUEdwZL7WgPUt2Qja8p16GKhixa9ZKZQnBLc8dRkn-MdKSDO7ltuJ9MFAI7diXtlaNRrUQwTwp_OnACWFC3APyEdC4chyYGc-LjeZnKU_rO8DNIpqTr36KvqnRvzHyeRVitvJA/s1600/BLOG+buck-easel.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515707294775324930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidDWgpzXUEdwZL7WgPUt2Qja8p16GKhixa9ZKZQnBLc8dRkn-MdKSDO7ltuJ9MFAI7diXtlaNRrUQwTwp_OnACWFC3APyEdC4chyYGc-LjeZnKU_rO8DNIpqTr36KvqnRvzHyeRVitvJA/s320/BLOG+buck-easel.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 237px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 307px;" /></a>Buck first appeared as Anthony Rogers in an issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories in August, 1928. John F. Dille, president of the National Newspaper Service syndicate, saw the potential of the futuristic adventure and arranged for the author, Philip Francis Nowlan, to turn it into a comic strip for Dille's syndicate. The strip was re-named "Buck Rogers," inspired by the name of cowboy star Buck Jones, and that name was used for the character from then on. Dille assigned staff artist Lt. Dick Calkins (shown here) to the project, and he successfully drew the strip for the next 18 years.<br />
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The 1934 film on a zero budget resembles a “home movie” hastily thrown together with lots of spirit but little skill by amateurs. It was in fact produced by the John F. Dille Co. and filmed in the studios of the Action Film Company of Chicago. Dick Calkins appears briefly at his drawing board.<br />
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The actor playing Buck is John Dille, Jr., the son of the strip’s owner! While Junior looks the part, his, um acting, um, speaks for itself. The actress playing Wilma Deering was Junior’s girlfriend when the film was being shot. Their onscreen chemistry hints at the length of the relationship. The listless delivery of her last line -- “Oh, Buck, wasn’t that a battle!” -- is priceless. Dr. Huer is played by Harlan Tarbell, a stage magician and illustrator, who also “directed” the film but never directed or acted in any other film. His baldpate make-up positively flops around on his head. The sets and special effects are equally impressive. This camp classic must be seen to be believed, so we won’t give away more of the fun!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1934 Chicago Midway where Buck Rogers could be seen!</td></tr>
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The film may well have thrilled fair goers, particularly young kids who had never seen anything quite like it. The futuristic serials <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Phantom Empire, Undersea Kingdom and Flash Gordon </span>did not hit movie screens until 1935 and 1936, while the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Buck Rogers</span> serial with Buster Crabbe came later in 1939. Also keep in mind that Buck’s fans in 1934 avidly listened to his weekly radio exploits. The narrated space battle sounds much like a radio show and is actually more exciting, though far less funny, with your eyes closed! If the spaceships in the big battle look like toy models, that’s exactly what they are, and darned good ones we all wish we had today. To top it off, the show neatly fit into the futuristic theme of the Century of Progress.<br />
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There is no indication this first <span style="font-weight: bold;">Buck Rogers</span> film was ever shown in movie theaters, where even matinee audiences might have found it laughably amateurish. The June 1936 issue of the trade magazine “Toys and Novelties” reports that the film had a second life by being shown in department stores to promote Buck Rogers merchandise. More Buck toys were sold in the 1930s than Mickey Mouse, with countless games, puzzles, figurines, Big Little Books, ray guns, spaceships and even a full costume for boys. Toy stores devoted entire sections and Christmas displays to Buck and the film doubtless attracted even more customers.<br />
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A granddaughter of John Dille discovered a 35mm print of this forgotten film in her basement around 1983 and donated it to UCLA, who struck a new print. It was unleashed on the modern world at the 1984 Cinecon convention in San Francisco. The auditorium rocked with laughter. UCLA gave me contact info to the granddaughter, who sent me a VHS copy and I reviewed the film for "Movie Collector's World" in 1984.<br />
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The 1935 © notice must have been added for department store showings, since it was definitely first shown at the 1934 World's Fair. Despite this copyright notice, the film was never registered with the Library of Congress and so is in the public domain for all the world to enjoy.<br />
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Then blast off to my website at<a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/" target="_top"> Festival Films</a> and request the <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/cafe-roxy/sampler-dvd.html" target="_top">Free Roxy Sampler DVD.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih0ZEE98U-dtmEQY0mNu_Vvz8MK1EsyrgxI2Gd5m1BGzSwrIIfLL5BOPQC5Oc3UE6FvzLWvzN86O8ZYvhJPTh6S_VGXv4Q3B5ErelukOHG9WLoe9m1r0mIuuGaNJCWVnaAV9sDMPdg2jQ/s1600/buck+wide.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515707492144479554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih0ZEE98U-dtmEQY0mNu_Vvz8MK1EsyrgxI2Gd5m1BGzSwrIIfLL5BOPQC5Oc3UE6FvzLWvzN86O8ZYvhJPTh6S_VGXv4Q3B5ErelukOHG9WLoe9m1r0mIuuGaNJCWVnaAV9sDMPdg2jQ/s320/buck+wide.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 154px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a>Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-15105162287750287542013-10-26T16:04:00.002-05:002013-10-26T16:07:43.797-05:00Blazing WESTERNS!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have found increasing interest in (public domain) westerns this year, so much that I created a second Matinee Series called "Blazing Westerns." I feel the films are slightly better than in the first "Sagebrush Saga" series. I will give links to both pages below.<br />
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The serial that unites the 12 week series of features and shorts is <b>"Zorro Rides Again"</b> from 1937, starring John Carroll as a dashing modern-day Zorro who encounters trucks, planes and skyscrapers as he helps complete a railroad line to Mexico. The fast riding and stunts feature Yakima Canutt behind the mask, while Republic's two best serial directors took turns behind the camera -- William Witney and John English. One of the best chapter endings has Zorro's foot caught between train tracks, with escape seemingly impossible, as a speeding locomotive runs him down.<br />
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A second mini-serial in episodes 2-3-4 is the first 3 episodes of <b>The Lone Ranger </b>TV series starring Clayton Moore from 1949. This tells the origin story about how the Ranger's outfit was ambushed, he was found and nursed back to health by Tonto, then acquired his horse Silver and eventually captured the bad guys that killed his buddies.<br />
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Five of the twelve features in <b>Blazing Westerns</b> series are in color. The first and last are Trucolor Roy Rogers films -- "Springtime in the Sierras" and "Under California Stars" from 1947 and 1948 and both with Jane Frazee as leading lady and Andy Devine as the main sidekick. Roy's future TV comic sidekick, Pat Brady, is prominently featured as one of the Sons of the Pioneers singing group. Many of Roy's late-40s color westerns no longer exist in color, only 3 public domain ones survive in color, and "Springtime" was only restored recently not only in color but uncut at 75 minutes. Here's a review from Imdb:<br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: white;"><i><b>Springtime In The Sierras</b> finds Roy Rogers trying to help Harry Cheshire who is animal lover and conservationist against out of season poachers. Cheshire runs an animal shelter and hospital from his place in the mountains where he also has a crusade against those who poach. Cheshire is convinced that there is an organized gang of poachers operating in his woods. His investigation proves right and he's killed for his troubles. That brings Roy into the picture big time.</i></span></span><br />
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<i style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Roy has two women in this film good girl Jane Frazee whose brother Harold Landon is mixed up with the poachers and Joan Lorring who heads the poachers along with her number one aide, perennial western villain Roy Barcroft. In the climax Roy and Roy mix it up along side a dandy chick fight with Jane and Joan. I also have to say that Lorring is one evil villain in this film.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Andy Devine who did several Rogers films in the Forties is in this one in his usual befuddled state. Andy was a good ally to have, but he was kind of slow and there isn't a Roy Rogers film in it where he doesn't to have Roy patiently explain the situation. Of course it's a plot device to make sure the Saturday afternoon kids understood exactly what was happening, still it made Andy look stupid. </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">As someone who is not particularly fond of hunting other than as a means for food and regulated at that, I have a soft spot in my heart for this particular film. I wish I had seen a full length version, but what I saw was cut down for television back in the day.</span></span></i><br />
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The other three color films are <b>"Daniel Boone: Trail Blazer" </b>from 1956 with Bruce Bennett and Lon Chaney Jr., and big budget "A" westerns <b>"Rage at Dawn"</b> (1955) in which Randolph Scott tracks down the Reno Brothers gang, and the railroad construction story <b>"Union Pacific"</b> (1953) starring Sterling Hayden. Daniel Boone program includes an episode of the 1956 TV series <b>"Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans"</b> in which Lon Chaney also plays an Indian. <b>"Union Pacific"</b> has an episode of Republic's 1954 <b>"Stories of the Century"</b> TV series which is also about a railroad investigator.<br />
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<b>"Ghost Town Gold"</b> (1936) is the second film in Republic's popular Three Mesquiteers series and the first with ventriloquist Max Terhune rounding out the trio with Ray Crash Corrigan and Bob Livingston. We learn how Max won his dummy Elmer in a rigged carnival game. In <b>"Trailing Double Trouble"</b> (1940) the 3 Range Busters take care of a baby and search for its mother. This series copied the 3 Mesquiteers with Crash Corrigan and Max Terhune (now called Alibi instead of Lullaby) joined by John "Dusty" King.<br />
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Other features in the Blazing Westerns series are Gene Autry's <b>"The Old Corral" </b>(1936) with the Sons of the Pioneers (Gene and Roy Rogers actually have a fist fight!), two of John Wayne's 1934 Lone Star westerns: <b>"The Star Packer"</b> and <b>"Blue Steel,"</b> and a third Roy Rogers <b>"Song of Texas"</b> (1943). <b>"Trouble in Texas"</b> (1937) stars Tex Ritter and Rita Hayworth when she was still billed as Rita Cansino. Rita is an undercover federal agent and Tex is after the same bad guys who killed his brother. Lots of authentic rodeo action. In this scene Rita dances, followed by a face-off between Tex and Yakima Canutt.<br />
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The <b>Blazing Westerns!</b> series is designed to be shown in small, vintage movie theaters as Saturday Matinees or evening fare. They also fit well with creative programming by small, indie TV stations. The old westerns still pack a whale of a punch, real action by stuntmen rather than special effects and solid family values. Check out our two series at <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/cafe-roxy/shows/blaze.html" target="_blank">Blazing Westerns</a> and the original <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/cafe-roxy/shows/west.html" target="_blank">Sagebrush Sagas.</a>Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-91139016737785253472013-10-05T11:12:00.001-05:002020-09-26T09:25:16.825-05:00Discovering Edgar Kennedy
<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’m certain the first time I ever saw Edgar was in the Universal serial “The Great Alaskan Mystery,” one chapter a week in a summer park series in the tiny Wisconsin town of Deerfield. I was 8 or younger at the time. Of course I did not know Edgar Kennedy from the hero, Milburn Stone. Edgar was just the hero’s pal who survived a sinking ship, a glacier turning over, a crashing plane, a shack blowing up and a plunge down a mine shaft. Edgar did not play a comic sidekick like Smiley Burnette, but a likable good-guy with character. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">TV programming in the 1950s depended on the whims of local stations, and they never showed Laurel and Hardy or Our Gang in the Madison area when I was young. Unbelievable! Minneapolis was flooded with Hal Roach shorts and New York saw Edgar’s RKO shorts in a 1970s show called “Reel Camp.” Not in Wisconsin. We got The Three Stooges, B westerns, some serials and Paramount features, and I’m not complaining about those. So outside of “The Great Alaskan Mystery” I had only noticed Edgar in “Duck Soup” by the time I entered high school. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">My interest in silent films began with <b>“Silents Please”</b> on TV in 1960 and I soon found Blackhawk Films. The first film I ever bought was the 8mm <b>“Leave ‘Em Laughing”</b> with Laurel and Hardy and, quite by coincidence, good old Edgar, though the Boys got all the laughs. We moved to Madison for my high school and college years, which opened up film society showings at the University of Wisconsin. Among my most memorable viewings ever, a film class ran <b>“When Comedy Was King”</b> one evening and opened it up to the campus. The packed lecture hall held more than 400 who laughed until they fell off their chairs. I mainly recall the “Big Business” finale with Laurel and Hardy, but an earlier highlight was the ice cream mayhem with Edgar from “A Pair of Tights.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">My introduction to Edgar Kennedy’s “Slow Burn” came in 1967 on the cover of Leonard Maltin’s fanzine “Film Fan Monthly” and in the article inside. Leonard’s 1972 “The Great Movie Shorts” had a brief synopsis of all 103 Edgar “Average Man” shorts. </span></span>I could read about the RKO comedy shorts but had no way to view very many until nearly 30 years later. The first one that made an impression was <b>“Feather Your Nest” </b>that I saw on “Matinee at the Bijou” on PBS in the early 80s. Edgar must find a chicken that has swallowed an engagement ring, but a wily chicken farmer and yard full of white birds conspire against him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I caught up on Laurel and Hardy when I moved to Minneapolis in 1969 where they were still on TV. I watched most Our Gang shorts for the first time when I bought a 16mm collection from a TV station. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Edgar shines in supporting roles in many late silent and early talkie Hal Roach shorts with Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, Charley Chase, Thelma Todd and The Boyfriends. But let’s face the truth, Edgar was second banana in these films. Jimmy Finlayson and Charlie Hall got more laughs, and Kennedy the Cop was easily replaced by Tiny Sandford. The comic genius of Edgar Kennedy only blossomed in the sound era when he turned 40 and struck out on his own.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Fortunately, someone envisioned Edgar in a new kind of comedy, a domestic situational comedy that mixed family problems with slapstick. That man was writer, director and Edgar’s good friend Harry Sweet. Harry borrowed Edgar from Roach to make “Next Door Neighbors” for Pathé in 1931 and quickly followed with “Rough House Rhythm” released by the newly-formed RKO Radio Pictures. In “Rhythm” Edgar was married to ditzy blonde Florence Lake, who was his screen wife 103 shorts later in 1948. RKO wanted more and turned out six Kennedy shorts every year through Edgar’s untimely death in 1948 of cancer at the age of 58. In “Lemon Meringue” (1931) Dot Farley was added to the cast as Edgar’s bossy mother-in-law and Billy Eugene as Florence’s “Brother,” as Edgar called him. Both sponged off poor Edgar and hindered more than helped in their mutual endeavors. Although actor Jack Rice soon replaced Billy Eugene, the family dynamic began an unprecedented 17-year run that set the stage for all the TV sit-coms from 1949 to today.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I only really discovered Edgar’s “Average Man” series about ten years ago when I began watching them on DVD. They are rarely shown on Turner Classic Movies, so vintage film fans have had little chance to see them and never in pristine quality. The Edgar RKOs are so darned inventive, hilarious and relevant today because Edgar always did and still does epitomize the average modern man beset with problems outside his control. Naturally optimistic and likable, he takes on every challenge with a smile to sell vacuum cleaners, install a hot water heater, decorate a house or run a gas station, but his family and the world conspire to crush all well-meant intentions. How long will his temper last? Will pressure build until he explodes? No, he accepts life's indignities by slapping his face and wiping it in his signature "slow burn" of frustration.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">I have been discovering Edgar Kennedy my entire life and have much more to see. I would love to see him as Daddy Warbucks in “Little Orphan Annie” (1932), in “Charlie McCarthy, Detective” (1939), in the 1938 mystery “The Black Doll” and in “Carnival Boat” (1932) in which Edgar and Harry Sweet play sidekicks to William Boyd and Ginger Rogers. These are not lost films, merely gems to watch for on TCM or at a Cinecon. </span>Publicity for Edgar and success with the project may lead to unearthing the lost “Lemon Meringue” short, which reportedly contains the largest pie fight ever staged. My greatest hope is that “The Edgar Kennedy Show” will start others on the same joyous path of discovery. </div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span class="s1">Edgar’s RKO shorts are sure-fire crowd pleasers TODAY that every film fan will love to discover for themselves. Try it! You can watch many hilarious Edgar <a href="http://www.fesfilms.com/clips.html" target="_blank">"Clips of the Week"</a> starting with <b>"Rough on Rents."</b> However, the challenge of getting new fans to watch anything old, from Laurel and Hardy to the Charley Chase, is immense, and fewer have even heard of Edgar Kennedy. This is where all of you can help! Please visit Edgar on</span> <a href="http://kck.st/19g2l0y" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a>, show your support and pass the link along to friends. More information is in this <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11185808.htm" target="_blank">Press Release</a> which may also be shared to help spread the word.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000;">Many thanks for helping to restore <b>"Thanks Again"</b> (1931) as the first step toward rediscovering Edgar Kennedy, his Slow Burn and his RKO sitcom short subjects.</span></div>
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804029309727879680.post-34538958953798208602013-08-31T07:30:00.003-05:002013-09-01T14:19:01.806-05:00Edgar Kennedy in Cartoons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Comedian Edgar Kennedy joined Mack Sennett in 1913 as an original Keystone Kop in "The Bangville Police." He both acted and directed with Chaplin, Arbuckle, Ben Turpin and all the Sennett comics in the early days. In 1928 Edgar went to Hal Roach and is well remembered today as Kennedy the Cop and other roles with Laurel and Hardy, Thelma Todd, Charlie Chase and Our Gang. His most famous part is the lemonade vendor in the Marx Brothers "Duck Soup." <br />
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Edgar hit his stride in the 1930s and '40s appearing in dozens of features while starring in his own Average Man RKO series that produced 103 two-reel comedies from 1931 to 1948. Edgar became world famous for his slow-burn/face-wipe reaction to life's indignities. It comes as little surprise that such a comic icon made his mark in cartoons as well.<br />
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Newspaper cartoonist Fontaine Fox created the comic strip "Toonerville Folk" in 1908. It's look at the oddball denizens and foibles of a small town on the edge of a big city (i.e. suburbs) became so popular that the strip ran until 1955. The Toonerville Trolley to and from town and run by The Skipper was central to many gags. One of the richly sketched characters was the town bully Mickey McGuire, who was played in late silent/early sound shorts by Mickey Rooney. Another character that caught on with readers was "The Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang" as pictured here in a one panel strip.<br />
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No evidence suggests that Edgar Kennedy's emerging personality in his Roach and RKO series is based on Mr. Bang. In fact Edgar rarely blows his top. His patience is pushed to the limit until he finds grudging acceptance of his fate and lets it all out in his trademark slow burn. What Mr. Bang did was introduce audiences to a man severely tested and to the inherent humor in losing one's temper. Edgar at Hal Roach was tested often with disregard for his authority as a policeman by Laurel and Hardy in <b>"Leave 'Em Laughing"</b> (1928), as Uncle Edgar with the gouty foot that gets bopped a dozen times in <b>"A Perfect Day"</b> (1929), as the recipient of ice cream cones to his head in <b>"A Pair of Tights"</b> (1929) and more. Edgar refined Mr. Bang's outbursts into simmering slow burns at RKO.<br />
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How about Edgar's influence on animated cartoon characters in the movies? Who was often frustrated to the point of glowering, simmering and seething with rage until he could take no more and blew his stack? As his opening theme song goes:<br />
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<i>Who's got the sweet disposition?</i><br />
<i>One guess guess who.</i><br />
<i>Who never never starts an argument?</i><br />
<i>Who never shows a bit of temperament?</i><br />
<i>Who's never wrong, but always right?</i><br />
<i>Who'd never dream of starting a fight?</i><br />
<i>Who gets stuck with all the bad luck?</i><br />
<i>No one, but Donald Duck.</i><br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000;">Wikipedia:<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> <span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><i>Donald's two dominant personality traits are his short temper and his positive outlook on life. Many Donald shorts start with Donald in a happy mood, without a care in the world until something comes along and spoils his day. His anger is a great cause of suffering in his life. On multiple occasions, it has caused him to get in over his head and lose competitions. There are times when he fights to keep his temper, and he sometimes succeeds in doing so temporarily, but he always returns to his normal angry self in the end.</i></span></span></span><br />
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Edgar Kennedy developed his similar character in the late 1920s, made his first RKO short in 1931 and had laid claim to the gesture and term "slow burn" by the mid-1930s. Donald first appeared in 1934's <b>"The Wise Little Hen" </b>and it took a few years to refine his character, a major facet of which was blowing his stack after repeated aggravations. This model sheet at first glance appears to be a guide to 1940s Donald Duck animators, although it was drawn by 1990's Disney comics cartoonist Pat Block. Enlarge it to read the comment: "Sometimes it's funny to let Donald react to a situation. He boils awhile before exploding."<br />
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So there is a strong case that Edgar influenced Donald, but they are not that close. Donald blows up and Edgar tries not to. No physical resemblance, that's for sure, but another cartoon character does look like Edgar, has a temper problem he tries to control and his cartoon plots could have been written for Edgar!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is "Pop" bald under that hat?</td></tr>
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Andy Panda first appeared in the 1939 Walter Lantz Universal cartune <b>"Life Begins for Andy Panda."</b> Andy is still famous today for his many theatrical cartoons made through 1949 and as Woody Woodpecker's pal in comic books. It's Andy's father or "Pop" that has so much in common with Edgar Kennedy.<br />
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One of my earliest childhood memories is watching an 8mm, black and white, <i>silent</i> version of <b>"Crazy House"</b> (1940), again and again from the age of four on. It ran about 12 minutes at 8mm "silent" speed and included inter-titles like all silents. On a dark and stormy night Andy and Pop drive through a storm and right into a deep puddle. At the bottom of the pond Pop has to count to ten to simmer down. Later they find refuge in a carnival fun house that is closed for the season. Trying to get a drink from a fountain also tests Pop's patience as every little annoyance does. "Count to ten," Andy keeps reminding him. In the fade-out gag, again at the bottom of that pond, he turns purple with rage, counts down from ten by 2s and so cools down to normal in alternate stripes.<br />
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Pop did not appear in that many cartoons, but 1940's <b>"Knock Knock"</b> was memorable as the first cartoon with future star Woody Woodpecker. You can see how well they got along. Simple plots like "Get bird off roof" drove most of Edgar Kennedy's two-reelers.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In 1941 Pop soloed in<b> "Andy Panda's Pop"</b> in which Andy does not even appear, although Mrs. Panda does briefly. The plot is pure Edgar Kennedy: <span style="line-height: 18px;">Andy's Pop asks the local roofing company if they will repair his shoddy roof. He is quickly turned off by the exorbitant price and determines, "I'll fix it myself!" Naturally, Pop isn't the most skilled of workers but does his best anyway. Unfortunately, his best turns to his worst when an annoying pelican distracts him by making the roof his new home. Pop angrily tries to rid himself of the feathered pest (who just wants to mind his own business) and destroys the roof more than ever in the process. Admitting defeat, he again calls the roofing company only to be irately told, "FIX IT YOURSELF!!!"</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; line-height: 18px;">Edgar made the short <b>"I'll Fix It"</b> in 1941 as well, in which he tries to install a new hot-water heater, but the theme of him and the family fixing something they should never mess with goes way back to repairing an airplane in <b>"Thanks Again"</b> (1931). Edgar Kennedy had firmly staked out his character by the mid-1930s. His slow burn was famous the world over. Any cartoon that borrowed Edgar's mannerisms was an homage to the comedian and to the comedy inherent in repressed anger.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 18px;">For whatever reasons, Walter Lantz did not use Pop again but preferred the cuter, smaller and decidely less complex Andy Panda, while Woody was left to do battle with Wally Walrus and Buzz Buzzard. This was probably best for Edgar Kennedy, who didn't need an angry, bald cartoon rival.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 18px;">Far less enduring than Edgar Kennedy, and far angrier, Mr. Bang is featured in the 1936 Van Beuren cartoon "Trolley Ahoy." </span></span>
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<b>The Edgar Kennedy Restoration Project</b> aims to find and restore Edgar's 103 RKO shorts, starting with "Thanks Again" (1931). Please visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/edgarkennedyshow" target="_blank">Edgar on Facebook</a> and "Like" Edgar.</center>
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Cartoon fans -- check daily for the latest news at Jerry Beck's <a href="http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/category/animation-history/" target="_blank">Cartoon Research</a>!</center>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Coming soon -- The Slow Burn Challenge!</span></center>
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Ron Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05003004022183220042noreply@blogger.com0