The Bootleg Files: Half Baked Alaska

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 792: “Half Baked Alaska” (1965 animated short in the Chilly Willy series).

LAST SEEN: On B98.tv.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Included in an anthology of Walter Lantz cartoons that is now out of print.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No one is rushing to get it into home entertainment release.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It was briefly available, and hopefully it will come back.

Among the cartoon characters from the Golden Age of animated short subjects, Chilly Willy occupies a strange niche. This Walter Lantz-created penguin was cute and mischievous, but the character’s films were rarely laugh-out-out hilarious and Chilly Willy never truly occupied the iconic status of other creations of that era. Most people would point to the Oscar-nominated, Tex Avery-directed 1955 short “The Legend of Rockabye Point” as being a peak in the Chilly Willy series, although most of the humor in that short does not come from the penguin himself.
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The Bootleg Files: The Big Fisherman

Posted on January 7, 2022 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 791: “The Big Fisherman” (1959 Biblical epic starring Howard Keel).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No one is rushing to get it into home entertainment release.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

During the 1950s, Biblical epics came back into vogue with a vengeance. Some of these films were monster box office hits – widescreen epics such as “The Robe” (1953), “The Ten Commandments” (1956) and “Ben-Hur” (1959) generated millions of dollars in ticket sales.
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The Bootleg Files: New Year’s Eve

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 790: “New Year’s Eve” (1948 Soviet animated short).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Not that I can determine.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Maybe in an anthology collection of Soviet-era cartoons.

Here we are at the end of another year, and to say goodbye to 2021 I decided to lean back into the Cold War era and dig up a wonderful but obscure animated short from the Soviet Union that takes place on New Year’s Eve. The film, not surprisingly, is called “New Year’s Eve” and it is one of the most delightfully odd relics of the house that Lenin built.
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The Bootleg Files: Henrietta and Myrna Sing ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 789: “Henrietta and Myrna Sing ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’” (bizarre public access television segment from the late 1980s).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: People happily borrow the footage for their own wacky videos.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

Viral videos emerge from the least likely sources, and without any planning they somehow take on a life of their own. As we sail deeper into the Christmas season, I would like to turn attention to a holiday-inspired viral video that has become something of an anti-classic that spawned tribute and parody videos.
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The Bootleg Files: Godspell at Plimoth Plantation

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 788: “Godspell at Plimoth Plantation” (1973 PBS production).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

When the 1971 Off-Broadway musical “Godspell” was adapted into a 1973 movie, it was decided to eschew the black box setting of the intimate theatrical staging and lace the film’s sequences through the streets, rooftops and venues of New York City. In concept, it was a good idea by symbolizing how the parables and philosophy put forth by Jesus in ancient days still had resonance in the contemporary urban world. Whether it actually worked is a matter of opinion.
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The Bootleg Files: The Beatles Forever

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 787: “The Beatles Forever” (1977 all-star train wreck).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No serious person would put this out in front of the public again.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

Fuck that three-part Disney+ rehash of mountains of discarded footage from the making of “Let It Be” – the real Beatles rediscovery emerged on YouTube last week via someone going by the handle of Denton115. This beautiful individual has brought back one of the most brilliantly embarrassing television specials ever dropped on an unsuspecting world: “The Beatles Forever,” a one-hour atrocity that NBC threw on an unsuspecting America on Thanksgiving night of 1977.
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The Bootleg Files: The Bottom Line

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 786: “The Bottom Line” (1975 corporate promotional film for Mobil starring Bill Cullen).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

Corporate sponsored films have been part of the motion picture experience since the silent movies, but most people have never seen the works of this genre – if only because they were never intended to be seen by the general public. These works were company-specific endeavors designed to train and invigorate employees on doing a better job and, not surprisingly, many of these offerings were not particularly entertaining.
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