This MGM short is an example of extra items the Hollywood studios would tack onto their feature films. Cartoons were the most popular and continued into the 1960s. These separately made little featurettes were on their way out by the 1940s.
This one, "Goofy Movies #2," pokes fun at some silent movies in a newsreel format. Everything is fiction in "Wataphony Newsreel." The spoof here is of a make-believe 1909 film by make-believe Super Titanic Pictures. It presents the make-believe "The Perils of Arsenic Annie, or, A Revolver, a High Cliff and You."
I don't know what actual silent film the clip is taken from, and the IMDb Web page doesn't otherwise indicate that or show a cast. But in this snippet, a bad guy named Jake kidnaps a girl. After a big shoot- out when no one gets shot, the good guys break in to rescue the damsel. Jake's arm is hit just as he is about to shoot the damsel. He fires into the ground, but acts as though he shot himself. The script card reads, "No one else could shoot Jake, so he had to shoot himself."
Maybe it was very funny back in the 1930s, but I doubt it. One can see why these type of extras or time fillers would soon be dropped by the studios.
This one, "Goofy Movies #2," pokes fun at some silent movies in a newsreel format. Everything is fiction in "Wataphony Newsreel." The spoof here is of a make-believe 1909 film by make-believe Super Titanic Pictures. It presents the make-believe "The Perils of Arsenic Annie, or, A Revolver, a High Cliff and You."
I don't know what actual silent film the clip is taken from, and the IMDb Web page doesn't otherwise indicate that or show a cast. But in this snippet, a bad guy named Jake kidnaps a girl. After a big shoot- out when no one gets shot, the good guys break in to rescue the damsel. Jake's arm is hit just as he is about to shoot the damsel. He fires into the ground, but acts as though he shot himself. The script card reads, "No one else could shoot Jake, so he had to shoot himself."
Maybe it was very funny back in the 1930s, but I doubt it. One can see why these type of extras or time fillers would soon be dropped by the studios.