Dumb & Dumber Diner Scene
The spit burger. The revenge. Ah, memories.
Duck Soup. Freedonia’s going to war
The melodramatic expression “This means war!” certainly did not originate with Duck Soup, but it is used several times in the film – at least twice by Trentino and once by Firefly – and would be repeated by Groucho in A Night at the Opera. Variations of this phrase would later become a frequently-used catch-phrase in Bugs Bunny cartoons.
The climactic production number Freedonia’s Going To War ridicules war by comparing nationalism to a minstrel show. One line is a variant on the old Spiritual All God’s Chillun Got Wings:
We got guns, they got guns, all God’s chillun got guns!
I’m gonna walk all over the battlefield, ’cause all God’s chillun got guns!
Other familiar tunes in the medly are Oh Freedonia (parody of Oh Susanna) & Turkey in the Straw (instrumental).
Silly Symphony. Merbabies
This Silly Symphony short is a cute look at how half-babies, half-fish celebrate a circus under the sea.
If I Only Had A Brain deleted scene
During the “If I Only had a Brain” sequence, there was originally a spectacular dance that displayed Ray Bolger’s vaudeville dancing history. In the final version, he sang the first and second verses of “If I Only had a Brain”, then fell over. In the original, though, he sang the first and second verses, began to dance, and went into several offshoot routines where a crow takes a large patch of his straw, the scarecrow flies in the air to get it back and succeeds, does some splits (forward and backward), and then a pumpkin rolls down the road and hits the scarecrow from behind, sending him high into the air. He comes down, bounces against the fences, sings a third verse of “If I Only Had a Brain”, then falls down.
The scenes show the character as a weightless and loose man of straw and is a lively upbeat segment, but is obviously wrong for the pacing of the movie and its easy to see why it was cut. Thank goodness the footage survived though, which can’t be said of the fates of several other scenes from Oz.
Casey At The Bat
The prospects were grim for the Mudville Nine that day, but all might change with CASEY AT THE BAT…
The famous poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer is given a lively spoof by the Disney folks in this little film which was originally a segment of MAKE MINE MUSIC (1946). The animation is colorful and full of good humor and the boisterous musical recitation by radio comic Jerry Colonna is a tremendous asset. Our baseball hero would return in the cartoon short CASEY BATS AGAIN (1954).
Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt’s older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt’s imagination, ensuring Disney’s immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey’s screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt’s growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt’s genius was unbeatable. Mickey’s feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt’s grandest dream – feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.
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Charlie Chaplin. Cruel, Cruel Love
This early Chaplin film has him playing a character quite different from the Tramp for which he would become famous. He is a rich, upper-class gentleman whose romance is endangered when his girlfriend oversees him being embraced by a maid. Chaplin’s romantic interest in this film, Minta Durfee, was the wife of fellow Keystone actor, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. “Cruel, Cruel Love” was presumed a lost film for 50 years until a rather good complete nitrate copy was discovered in South America. “Cruel, Cruel Love” was then copied and its original two reel format is available for sale… or right here on richardland.com 😉
Cruel Cruel Love (1914)
Actors: Charlie Chaplin, Edgar Kennedy, Minta Durfee, Eva Nelson.
Directed by George Nichols, Mack Sennett
I Love Lucy. Vitameatavegamin
This is a segment of the episode titled, “Lucy Does a TV Commercial.” Lucy is hired to act as the “Vitameatavegamin girl” in a TV commercial, to promote a health tonic that contains healthy amounts of vitamins, meat, vegetables, minerals — and a less-than-healthy dose of 23% alcohol. After four rehearsals of saying “It’s so tasty too, just like candy!” and then drinking the foul-tasting tonic while trying unsuccessfully not to grimace, Lucy becomes progressively more drunk, but gamely keeps on pitching the product. Eventually, the alliterative, tongue-twisting product name and pitch become too hard for her to keep straight. “Do you pop out at parties? Are you unpoopular? Well, the answer to all your troubles is in this bittle lottle!” The three variations of “Vitameatavegamin” were “Mitameatamigimin,” “Mitavatameatymat,” and “Vitaveatyvigyvat”. In November of 2001, fans voted this episode as their favorite, during a 50th anniversary I Love Lucy television special.
Johnny Appleseed
Part 2:
Disney’s 1948 production marvellous animation.
The story of the life of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed.With a tin pot for a hat and the Bible at his side, Johnny set out into the wilderness to do his own part in helping the western march: plant apple trees all over the countryside to help feed the pioneering settlers. As evident in this sweet, gentle classic, he proved that one need not have great size or strength to make a difference.
Groucho Marx: ‘Hello, I Must Be Going’
Captain Spaulding is the signature character played by actor Groucho Marx for the stage play and film Animal Crackers. The character of Captain Jeffrey (or Geoffrey, the name appears both ways in the film) T. Spaulding (the “T” stands for “Edgar”) first appeared in the Broadway play Animal Crackers and later in the 1930 film of the same name (shown here). Spaulding is a famous explorer on return from a trek across Africa to be the guest of honor at a high-society party. Although despite his hosts’ frequent claims that he is one of the most courageous travelers in the world, his own accounts of his safari reveal his cowardice. He eventually gets caught up in the mystery of a stolen painting.
The character’s theme song, “Hooray for Captain Spaulding”, became forever associated with Groucho in the public mind. A jazzy instrumental version of the song was later the theme for his quiz show, You Bet Your Life. At Groucho’s Carnegie Hall concert in the early 1970s, accompanist Marvin Hamlisch played the song as Groucho made his entrance on stage.
The song’s most esoteric line is a Jewish reference that definitely went over my head the until I looked up the meaning. The line goes “Hooray for Captain Spaulding / The African explorer / ‘Did someone call me schnorrer?’ / Hooray Hooray Hooray!”
Schnorrer is a Yiddish term meaning “beggar” or “sponger”
Groucho also delivered two of his most famous lines in the Captain Spaulding role, both while recounting his exploits in Africa: “We took some pictures of the native girls, but they weren’t developed. But we’re going back in a couple of months!” and “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I don’t know.” These were simpler times before political correctness sucked the joy out of humorous recounts of endangered species poaching and child pornography.
The dance step he does is called the Corkscrews.
The Brave Engineer. an American Legend
John Luther Jones, a.k.a. Casey Jones, The Brave Engineer (1950, directed by Jack Kinney). (Casey) Jones was “a master at the throttle” and had “an unflinching devotion to duty”, according to (James Earl) Jones.