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Office Etiquette (1950)
Not bad
A lot of those 1940s/1950s training/educational films about being a secretary or something like that haven't aged well. Many come across as condescending. This one is above-average and much of the film still holds true today. The film starts off with a teacher telling her students the "golden rule" needed to work in the office-place. We then see an example student (also the narrator) going through and learning about working as a secretary. The film includes a memorable sequence showing "bad etiquette" (eating while typing, using office hours for typing personal letters, reading a newspaper while one is supposed to be doing their job). By the end of the film, the main character has been promoted to a higher position and a new secretary from the same teacher is shown entering the same job.
Most viewers today will find it interesting to merely see the 1950 clothes, old telephone and typewriters, which are a large reason that many of these films are preserved, as they are very useful as stock footage.
Oh, Those Eyes (1912)
I Love Mabel
Seemingly every man is in love with Gladys (played by Mabel Normand). Wherever she goes, man start following her with much enthusiasm. Two men at the place her father works want to marry her...both send her letters asking for such. She accepts both! Her father finds out and decides to play a trick on her. The ending of this short is very "random" and very unexpected, unless there's some cultural reference I didn't get. Very funny ending regardless.
I've seen several 1912 Biograph comedies directed by Mack Sennett, and some of them seem to consist of a series of scenes which are the lead-up to a final "punchline" (ending gag). Very different to his Keystone work. Mabel Normand is delightful as unusual. Direction is decent, framing is good, acting is good, with the only bit of major over-acting making complete sense in the context of the film itself (the bit where a man pretends to be shot).
Smiley Gets a Gun (1958)
Well, that was interesting - 7.5/10
The DVD release of this film was botched...the opening is in CinemaScope, but the rest of the film is in pan-and-scan. In this modern day, this is not acceptable.
As for the film itself, it was much better than I was expecting. The "Smiley" character is far more likable than one might presume, partially thanks to the child actor playing him.
Production values are more than acceptable, and the "colour" of the film print is very nice, unlike another 1950s film "Jedda" which (while in some respects a better film overall) has very dodgy colour.
The plot line is simple enough. The character "Smiley" is promised to be given a "nick" (or more) marked on a tree for every good deed he does. 8 "nicks" and he will be given a rather nice-looking rifle. A bad deed sees a "nick" removed from the tree bark. But there are troubles involving goats in a church, a bushfire and stolen gold that danger his attempts at getting "nicks" through good deeds.....or so it seems! The film is enjoyable, harmless stuff and it is a shame that the DVD release was screwed-up with a pan-and-scan transfer.
Design for Today (1965)
How am I supposed to review this?
This 15-minute short subject (was it shown in cinemas?) starts off with a narrator, who informs us that good design speaks for itself. As such, the rest of the film has no narration and instead is accompanied by pleasantly dated music. This continues until the closing credits, with the narrator speaking the names of all those credited with the production of this film.
The short itself consists of various scenes and shots of 1960s design, including household products, outdoor products, office equipment, manufacturing equipment, cars, buildings, etc etc. The "plot" is that we are supposedly seeing the products seen during the day by a particular person, from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to sleep.
This film is retro in the best way possible. It has old style phones, reel-to-reel tapes, a Jaguar E-Type, a record player, and lots of other retro products. Nearly every product has very mid-1960s styling. Most of the shots are pretty short, lasting for a few seconds before moving on to the next product or device, allowing for a montage-like effect.
Recommended.
The Golden Years (1960)
Useful as stock footage
This short film seems to have been created to get people interested in starting their own Brunswick bowling alley. It promotes the various populuxe designs for equipment, the various colour schemes possible, and the designs possible for the alley itself. Also shown: Designs for the locker rooms (seperate for men and women), and some gimmicks like a sensor that can tell when someone steps over the line (goof: the sensor didn't go off when a little boy trips and gets a strike!). The film shows an example family (man, women, daughter, son) enjoying the populuxe bowling alley, which is promoted in the film as a wholesome place for family entertainment. The film was created for a specific purpose (get more people starting Brunswick franchises), and today it has nostalgic value. The film is very useful as stock footage, and can be easily found online on websites such as YouTube and the Internet Archive.
The Bob Crosby Show (1953)
For a daytime variety show, this is excellent
I recently viewed an episode of this series (a 30-minute episode) on the Internet Archive website. I jokingly posted a review saying I showed it to an "professional back-stabbing assassin" who I mentioned as having liked it.
All kidding aside, seeing the old episode of this series was fun. The episode I saw contained a mix of musical segments (including an unusual rendition of the popular standard "Dream"), plus some light-hearted game show segments which incorporated music in some respect. For example, in one of the game segments, the wives played a version of charades where the husbands had to guess the song title.
Production values of the episode were good for a daytime series, but not spectacular. The kinescope recording was in good condition, though the upload on the Internet Archive has somewhat heavy digital compression. I believe the 16mm kinescope print itself is held by archivist Ira Gallen.
I don't know how many episodes of this series survive in the CBS vaults or elsewhere. I've since viewed another episode of this series, plus a partial episode. Both were excellent as well.
Play! Girls (1937)
My rating is actually 7.5/10
Fun musical short. We start off with an act consisting of females doing acrobatics/dancing...very generic, but kinda fun. A character (a producer) is sick of seeing all the talent that is auditioning, and wants to get away from it all. He is invited to have dinner at the house that an employee is living at (actually the house of a relative of that employee). The wife of that employee decides to stage a little talent show when the producer arrives, consisting of the staff that work at the house. We see an all-female band (including a nice singing trio), followed by a fun novelty-dancing act consisting of two African-Americans, then a generic (but decent) female singer, and finally the wife herself does some tap-dancing while using a lasso! None of this is exactly ground-breaking, but it has a fun 1930s-flavor that is quite appealing. The short is public domain and should hopefully be on YouTube by the time you read this!
Marriage Lines (1961)
Popular sitcom is incomplete in the archives
I'm a very poor reviewer, so this review probably won't be very good.
"Marriage Lines" was a popular sitcom. In the first episode, George and Kate Starling, a newlywed couple, arrive at their apartment to discover that they have lost their front door key. The rest of the first series sees them facing the typical problems which face a newlywed couples. The episodes are lively, funny and well-paced.
The second series is lost.
The third series survives, and sees Kate pregnant with their first child. Episodes in the 3rd season derive their plots from this and the resulting birth of the child.
The forth and fifth series is lost except for a fragment from the episode "Big Business". This fragment does not appear on the DVD.
This was a very good sitcom, and it's nice to see it on DVD. Episodes typically run between 24 to 26 minutes, and appear to exist as telerecordings. I hope the success of the DVD release will result in more less-known (yet quality) 1960s BBC comedies coming to DVD.
You Asked for It (1950)
Sort of a 1950s YouTube
For those who have never seen it, here are some examples of what aired in this series: A fire-eater, a performance by jazz pianist, a reunion of the cast of "Our Gang", pin-up models, a race between an abacus and a then-modern calculator, the secrets of phony spiritualists, Buddy Epsen dancing with his sister, a wrestling chimpanzee, the largest sapphire in the world, world's tallest man, the secrets of card sharks, a man shot while wearing a bullet-proof vest, an old French clown act, a kendo demonstration, Buster Keaton doing a sketch from an old silent comedy....
To say the least, this series was a real mixed bag. Some segments are still interesting today, while others are not. On a side-note, this series originally aired on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network, before moving to ABC (was the move in January 1952? I'm not sure!). Episodes from both versions survive. Amazingly, one of the public domain budget DVD publishers put several episodes of this series (largely from 1951) on DVD a few years ago, which is the source for the most of the above listing of example segments.
Hold That Camera (1950)
Hold That Show!
Network: DuMont Format: Variety (originally a game show) Worth seeing?: Yes Any offensive moments or segments?: Not in the episode I saw
This was originally a game show hosted by Jimmy Blaine. After a short time, it switched to a variety show format hosted by Kyle MacDonnell. Confused? Good. Same thing happened with a show called "On Your Way" and those weren't the only times format-switching happened on early television.
The episode I viewed (from December 1, 1950) is in very bad condition, with at least 4 minutes of the episode missing from the print, along with the live commercials. Opening titles and some of the closing titles are also missing from the episode.
A 2nd episode, from October 20 1950, also survives.
The episode I viewed (of the variety format) is pretty good. The setting is a night-club. Other DuMont shows to use a similar setting included the well-preserved "The Morey Amsterdam Show" and the completely lost "Café de Paris").
The fragmented episode starts off with a Ballerina said to be from Austria, who does lots of spinning and stuff. This is followed by host Kyle MacDonnell singing a quick song. Character actor Roscoe Karns pops up, holding a gun, dressed up like a detective, and shoots an off-camera person. He is actually promoting a series called "Inside Detective", which later changed title to "Rocky King, Dectective". Great crime series, fairly well-preserved for a DuMont series. A male singer then sings two songs, including "That Old Black Magic", which is followed by a violin duo performing "Hot Canary". This itself is followed by a more standard violin performance. The final segment consists of Kyle singing "I'm In the Mood for Love".
The production values are basic (most obviously during the performance of "That Old Black Magic", done using a single static close-up of the singer), but this is enjoyable, entertaining early television. It's on the Internet Archive website if you want to check it out.
