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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Just watched on the Inside Archive site this UPA live action/animated short that's basically a 15-minute Public Service Announcement (PSA) for the American Cancer Society. It begins with narrator Marvin Miller mentioning the movies' early days (with several clips from public domain silent pictures) before segueing to animation and its ability to show things live action can't (such as the inside of the human body). Then we go to someone flipping pages of UPA's star character, Mr. Magoo, before we pull back to see Stephen Bosustow-head of the studio in his only film appearance-and Magoo's voice, Jim Backus, telling us how they're going to treat a serious subject with humor with the coming animated short. In a nutshell: Magoo is having a fine day despite, as always, mistaking one thing for another. When he turns on the radio, the announcer mentions how important a checkup for cancer is. The near-sighted man decides to take in a movie (he's actually at an amusement park) to forget his troubles. But he experiences what to him are the seven signs of cancer (though not really since he just sees himself in a curved mirror, gets hit on the head by a large hammer, stuffs cotton candy in his face, and has red paint spilled on his head). He mistakes a moving van for doctor's furniture for an actual doctor's office but that takes him to the right place. As he waits in the waiting room, Magoo takes a fancy to the "nurse" (actually a lamp with a shapely figure!), before the doctor motions him in. Magoo is overjoyed at his diagnosis as he dances in his undershorts with the "nurse"! With that over, we're back with Bosustow and Backus as, through many jump cuts, Bousustow disappears, Backus is on the waiting table changing from underwear to robe, and Joi Lansing as nurse and Jeff Corey as doctor fill in with Corey telling us in voice-over the important steps in checking for cancer. After that's over and everyone leaves, we hear a familiar voice as Mr. Magoo comes back-still not fully dressed-looking for his coat as he mistakes one of the animated backboards for it as the short ends with a message to call the American Cancer Society mentioning the number is in your phone book...Though as a kid, I always thought Mr. Magoo was a one-note character whose nearsightedness was less funny with each succeeding short, I found him pretty amusing here and the entire short informative and entertaining simultaneously. I wish the print I saw wasn't so blurry but other than that, I enjoyed watching this UPA rarity on Inside Archive. P.S. I first saw the stunning Ms. Lansing on an episode of "The Bob Cummings Show" (a.k.a. "Love That Bob") that I reviewed a couple of years ago. Once again, the print I saw doesn't make clear how beautiful she is.
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