Muhammad Ali beaten by Ken Norton

Tonight I’m going to review one of my boxing films. I have about a half dozen that I got when I bought a whole bundle.  I’m not a boxing fan, but I want to spread these out, so I don’t bunch these all up at the end.

But I will say that Boxing has an important place in the history of the moving picture. Early on, when moving pictures were just a fad, one thing that kept it going was boxing. At the time, boxing was outlawed in many states, and the only way to view any boxing for fans, was by these films, which helped keep the industry alive. And Boxing, of all sports, was probably the easiest to capture in the early days. Simple action confined to a rather small area in short time increments. That couldn’t be better for those big bulky cameras with limited shot time.

So the one I watched was Muhammad Ali beaten by Ken Norton. The movie consisted of rounds 1, 5, 11, and 12, or at least I think so. The sub titles were hard to see. This was my only real complaint about the technical aspect of the film. White titles on a light background just never works. Whatever the first round shown was, it was the one where Ali got his jaw broken. We know this because there was an interstitial saying that. So the whole time I’m waiting for a definitive punch as the “Jaw Breaking” punch. Didn’t happen. Count down in the corner, anticipation rising, and then nothing. You couldn’t prove by me that this was when it happened. 

The rest of the rounds, were just boxing. Two guys punching each other. Not being a judge, I can’t tell one dominating over the other. Then at the end we get an interstitial that says *Spoiler Alert* Norton won. I mean, good for him. Glad he’s good at his job but, still not a boxing fan.

Gandy Goose - Somewhere in Egypt

Finally getting back to watching films

So the one for this time is Gandy Goose: Somewhere in Egypt.

Now, I had never heard of Gandy Goose before. He was a Terrytoon like Mighty Mouse and Heckel and Jeckel, but some how Gandy Goose cartoons didn’t have the staying power. For the life of me I don’t know why.

This one, at least is a surreal trip. Gandy and his partner, the cat Sourpuss, are as you can guess, Somewhere in Egypt. Gandy plays a flute sending Sourpuss of to a Egypt inspired dream land. There they fly in to the Sphinx, where they are greeted by dancing hieroglyphics. Around a few corners, and they release some mummy  skeleton fire fighters. And Gandy winds up with a skull on his head. I am always fascinated when cartoons make jokes with what are essentially human remains.

The next few sections, we see a bevy of sexy cats, and Gandy is quickly discarded. Now it is sourpuss chasing and flirting with various Harem looking female cats, but they do keep disappearing at inopportune times. Then, the dream becomes a nightmare and Sourpuss is chased by Giant Egyptian guards out of the sphinx. 

Sourpuss is woken  up, but then asks Gandy to play his flute again, and off he goes, back into dream land.

Like I said, I’d never seen Gandy Goose before but I did enjoy this cartoon. What little research I’ve done, it looks like it’s pretty common for the Gandy Goose cartoons to get a little trippy.

One thing was the interstitials were rhyming lines. Having not seen the original cartoons, I’m left to wonder, was there narration and this was copied verbatim, or if this was added by the 8mm company. I can’t think of too many cartoons of this era which had running narration. 

And as a interesting note, the first gag of the cartoon is a Nazi joke. A sign reads “Rommel slept here”. Just a reference to a Nazi, for laughs.

I’ve had this film for a while and had seen it before, but I have another Gandy Goose that I haven’t watched yet. I’m anxious to see if I like that one as much.

Wish List

Wow, ok.  It’s been over a year since I was here. 

New baby, new job, Wife has new job, that’s my excuses.

Now I hope to get back to doing this.

I want to write a post, but I’m not in a position to watch a film, so I thought it would be a good time to write about my wish list. While I’m always looking for interesting films, there are a few that I just haven’t gotten my hands on. In no particular order:

Psycho- This is the Castle films digest of the Hitchcock classic. It has a beautiful blue and green box, so that’s alone is awesome. I know that there is another version out there from some British company, but from what I understand, that one focuses on the shower scene. I know that it’s the most iconic moment of the film, but I’m really more interested in how the Castle Films version tackles the film as a whole. I’ve tried bidding on it a few times, but it always winds up just a few bucks out of my range.

Coffy- Not only is it Blaxploitation, a genre I don’t have any examples of, but it’s also unique in that it is rated “R”. Not a digest of a rated R movie, but the digest itself is labeled as rated “R”. From what I understand, there is a shot of boobies in the digest and that makes it rated “R”. I don’t know of any other films like that. That’s not to say that there aren’t any Adult Films out there, there are a lot of them. Yes, I have some, and No I won’t be reviewing them here, only to say in one of them, they actually went to the trouble to subtitle all the grunts and groans.

The Detective- I used to see this movie on Ebay all the time, and nothing ever compelled me to want it. Frank Sinatra playing a typical Chicago cop. I’m a fan of the original Manchurian Candidate, but not necessarily really a big fan of Sinatra himself. But then I learned something about the movie. Follow me on this…This movie was based on a book. The book had a sequel. In the mid-eighties they made a movie based on the sequel. That movie was about a typical Chicago cop trapped in a skyscraper with a bunch of terrorists. So essentially, The Detective is a prequel to Die Hard. If I’d have known that I would have snatched it up a quick as I could. Since then, I just don’t see it on Ebay anymore.  I’ve seen the color/sound version, but that doesn’t do me any good.

The incredible Jewel Robbery- As I said earlier, I’m a big fan of the Marx Brothers. This TV special starred Harpo and Chico as jewel thieves and with a cameo by Groucho at the end, which makes this the last appearance of all three Marx Brothers together.  Now I am looking for the silent version of this, as I have the sound version. And honestly I don’t even know if they released a silent version of this. And this makes no sense, because except for one line of dialogue spoken by Groucho at the end, this was done entirely in pantomime, there was no dialogue. If any film didn’t need a sound version, it was this one.

I’ll be trying to get back to watching films in a few days.  I think my next one will be the awesomeness of Gandy Goose.

Man Made Monster

Man-Made Monster

So this is one of my collection that I haven't seen the full movie for, and I haven't actually watch the digest either. I got a big collection awhile back but haven't gotten around to checking them all out.

That being said, with a title like 'Man-Made Monster', I suspect they were trying to make it sound more Frankenstein-esque. according to the Opening credits, It was based on a story called the Electric Man, which is more descriptive, and I think just as cool. But Frankenstein was the most popular movie monster of the time, so whatever.  It stars Lon Cheney Jr, and is Directed by George WaGGner. These two worked together on the "Wolfman" so I figure that makes them the DiNiro-Scoressee of the Universal Horror set.

So the Movie:
It starts with a bus crash where Lon is the only survivor, the others dying of electrocution since the bus hit some electric poles. Coincidentally, Lon is Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man, a side show performer who does simple electricity tricks. some old scientist hires him for some experiments with another scientist. oh, and there's a dog.

So Mad scientist 2 without old mad scientist type 1, straps Lon to a table and zaps him with some large number of Volt and Lon starts to Glow. Lon is also under the Mad Scientist control. how electrocution and Hypnosis are related, I have no Idea.

So Old Scientist shows up and is horrified. Apparently being a mad scientist type doesn't make you a mad scientist, but live and learn. So mad scientist tells Lon to stop Old Scientist from calling the police. and Mad scientist is horrified when Lon kills Old Scientist. What the Hell was Mad Scientist thinking was going to happen. You electrocute a guy and expect him to be delicate. And isn't being a Mad scientist mean you don't mind who gets killed if it stands in the way of your evil plan? Seems like they let anyone be a mad scientist back in those days. pickings must have been pretty slim.

Back to the story, Mad Scientist runs out the door, but because he's holding on to the metal door knob, Lon kills him by grabbing the other side.

And all this time, like 4 or 5 times, they cut to a dog scratching on a door trying to get in. not only does this not drive the story forward, but Old Doc came in one door, Mad Scientist left out another door, Where the hell is this dog? How many doors does this laboratory have?

Anyway, Lon gets out and attacks some folks apparently on a hay ride. the driver gets electrocuted when he hits Lon with a leather horse whip.  Yeah, Scientific laws have already been thrown out the window, so why not just go for broke. the Carriage with all the people goes running out of control and is on fire. OK, that was pretty cool.

And the great climax when the police show up. What heroic action do they do to stop the monster? They stand around and watch him randomly get caught up in a barbwire fence and die. And then the F*ing dog show up. what the hell? there are movies about dogs that don't have that much dog in it.

And another thing. Where were the chicks? were there any in the full movie? These movie always have some chick, Daughter of the mad scientist, Fiance, Plucky reporter, anything. and when there is, we usually see them at some point in the digest. this one, nothing.

Lon was definitely the one hit wonder who kept cranking out albums. Kind on like Vanilla Ice.

Ultimately, these were some wussy mad scientists.

Well, until next movie. and hopefully, that one won't have a dog.

Have Badge, Will Chase

So just finished watching my first film of this project, "Have Badge, Will Chase" with Abbott & Costello. 200'/ Standard 8

First a little background information. The reason I chose this one first is because "Have Badge, Will Chase" is like the cartridge COMBAT to the Atari 2600. It's the film that came with the projector back in the day.

And I should also run down my preference hierarchy for the old comedy teams. The Marx Brothers are at the top, followed by the Three Stooges, who were incredibly good at what they did. Then we get down to Abbott & Costello. Maybe they were good for the time, and they do have some strong bits, but they really do nothing for me, and finally Laurel & Hardy, who I just have a hard time believing anyone found funny ever. ( I have some films of  L & H, I'll get to those in weeks to come.)

On to the Movie:

I don't know if this was a short, or part of a bigger movie, but at least I was able to follow the story, what there was of it. A & C were actors dressed as cops, who walked in on a real robbery. It was all just a throwback to the Keystone Kops and was just, as you could probably figure from the title, just a big chase scene. One of the weird thing is that A & C weren't even on the main vehicle doing the chasing. While the Paddy-wagon chased the villains in Keystone fashion, A & C were chasing behind on a motorcycle.

I'm not sure when the movie was made, so it's hard to say how far from the original Keystone Kops they were, but I do know A & C were way past Keystone Kops time.

Other interesting things to note is in the beginning,  Lou just standing there watching the one of the thieves sneaking up behind Bud. Didn't even try to act distracted or anything. And Lou adjusted his hat while unconsciously falling down.

Intro

I am a collector of 8mm films. These are the cartoons, comedy shorts, and feature film digests that were the only way to watch the things you wanted in the 50s, 60s and 70s. I have about 200 titles, and have decided that I'm going to watch every one of them and post my thoughts on them on this blog. I should be able to get through about 3 or 4 a week.

I have purposely acquired a pretty varied selection, trying to get films from all types of genres. I'm a typical Sci-Fi nerd, so I skew pretty heavy that way, but I have made an effort to get a bunch of styles.

These are all silent and nearly all black and white. I have both super-8 and standard 8, but I try to stick with super-8.

Not all of these films are good. In fact, for most of the Feature film digests, if you haven't seen the full movie, these digests are near incomprehensible. You see, These reels of film last only 8 to 12 Minutes. If it's a cartoon or comedy short, that's not that big a deal, but try cutting War & Peace down to 10 minutes, and if you don't know the story, Good luck figuring out what's what.

I'm going to try and do them in no particular order. I mean, to some extent I will. I won't try watching Conquest of the Planet of the Apes before watching Beneath the Planet of the Apes, I might even make a week of all 5 movies, but I'm not going to burn one genre out before another.

So, I prepare for this endeavor and will be starting tomorrow with Abbott & Costello in "Have Badge, Will Chase".