The Hollywood short never quite died. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer continued to make them well after the death of the movie program, usually in the form of one-reel "Making of..." movies ... glorified, extra-length trailers for their more notable productions.
That's what we have here. As the movie CANNERY ROW was based on John Steinbeck's novel of the same name, this was a prestige production... and a little hard to get the same people to come in who were reviving movie production with the summer blockbusters that had begun with JAWS in 1975. How to convince the teenagers that they wanted to see movies about poor people who smelled of fish back when their grandparents were getting married? It didn't work. The kids stayed away in droves.
That's what we have here. As the movie CANNERY ROW was based on John Steinbeck's novel of the same name, this was a prestige production... and a little hard to get the same people to come in who were reviving movie production with the summer blockbusters that had begun with JAWS in 1975. How to convince the teenagers that they wanted to see movies about poor people who smelled of fish back when their grandparents were getting married? It didn't work. The kids stayed away in droves.