Modern American movie production is generally associated with southern California, where the warm climate makes an ideal setting for year-round filming. But in the earliest days of film, when small film studios began sprouting up in the hopes of making big bucks in the fledgling industry, production was centered on the east coast. New York…
1929 was a good year for Walt Disney: his seminal creation, Mickey Mouse, had just broken out as a huge star in the wake of the immensely popular short Steamboat Willie (1928). That cartoon’s success led to a series of sound-synchronized Mickey cartoons being released to theaters, two of which (Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho) had been…
In 1931, William Powell accepted a contract from Warner Bros. and entered a new phase in his burgeoning career. It was, at least at first, a solid move for the star. He had made his film debut almost a decade earlier at Samuel Goldwyn’s eponymous studio, in a small supporting role in 1922’s Sherlock Holmes, and toiled…
In 1933, Betty Boop was at the height of her cinematic fame. The Fleischer-animated shorts–racy, daffy, and wonderfully musical–were immensely popular. Audiences couldn’t get enough of sweet Betty and her crazy adventures, and the Fleischers continued to churn out one appealing cartoon after another. Over the course of her 1930s filmography, Betty Boop hosted any…
When I was given the chance to review Warner Archive’s new manufacture-on-demand release of Parachute Jumper (1933), I was so excited: it was a Bette Davis film that I had never seen. No more than ten minutes into the film, however, I realized why I had never heard of it before. The dialogue and plot is…
Today we present to you a brief look at the 1947 one-off cartoon short King-Size Canary, an unrelenting bit of frenzied absurdity that may very well be Tex Avery’s masterpiece. King-Size Canary takes all of the typical Avery hallmarks and elevates them to the next insane level. Everything in the cartoon builds continuously, with one uproarious bit after…
“Hello, all you happy people. You know what? I’m the hero.” In the 1943 animated short Dumb-Hounded, Tex Avery debuted a new character, a laconic, quick-witted, slow-talking hound dog. Originally dubbed “Happy Hound” (though this is never explicitly mentioned onscreen), the dog spends the entire cartoon tracking down a wolf who has escaped from jail,…
The 1943 animated short Red Hot Riding Hood begins innocently enough: the insipid narration of an unseen storyteller introduces us to little Red, her sweet grandma, and the big, bad wolf who’s stalking her through the forest. But before the tale can get underway, the characters rebel. The Wolf, breaking the fourth wall, complains to…
