Trifles of Importance (1940)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Basil Wrangell

Writers:

John Nesbitt (screenplay) and
Robert Lopez (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 July 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Short

Plot:

This short shows how three seemingly unimportant things can affect people. The first is how the number 7 affects a student accused of theft charges...

Plot Keywords:

Narration | John Nesbitt's Passing Parade | Doodling | Fashion | Secret Society

Cast

John Nesbitt

...

Narrator (voice)

Also Known As:

Passing Parade No. 15: Trifles of Importance (USA) (series title)

Runtime:

9 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Movie Connections:

Followed by Grandpa Called It Art (1944)

One of The Passing Parade's better efforts

There are three mini-episodes in this edition of John Nesbitt's "The Passing Parade". The first one has to do with the number 7 and is about a secret group at the University of Virginia that manage to clear a man's name after he was accused of theft on the campus. The young man who was actually guilty kept receiving things with the number 7, although I'm not sure how anyone would be able to plant stuff in the student's notebook without his knowledge. There was also a pair of dice glued together, the number 7 removed from his door, and a large 7 glued to the front of a newspaper the guilty student opened up. That was enough for him to confess and the falsely accused student was able to return to college.

The next mini-episode was about doodling and it's use in psychology. There's examples of doodling by Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, and Mickey Rooney, plus doodles from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The final mini-episodes is about men's clothing. The reason for slits in the back of suit jackets is from horse riding. Lapels were said to be created when a military officer in battle opened up his jacket to give him room to breathe. The reason for men keeping the bottom button of a vest undone is because a portly king unbuttoned the last button on his vest to give him more space after having lunch. The reason for the buttons on sleeves is that Frederick of Prussia saw a guard wiping his nose with his sleeve and ordered buttons on the sleeves to prevent using a sleeve for a handkerchief.

This shows up occasionally on TCM and it's worth watching.