The Bootleg Files: The Banana Splits Adventure Hour

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 600: “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour” (1968-70 television series).

LAST SEEN: Bits and pieces can be found on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It is a bit complicated.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not in its original form.

Contemporary children’s television is a fairly boring scene that offers little in the way of genuine fun for the young viewers. Indeed, some shows are so lacking in energy and personality that you can’t help but wonder if the programming is designed to narcotize the kiddie audience into a state of numbness.

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The Bootleg Files: Fantasia – The Censored Centaurs

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 599: “Fantasia – The Censored Centaurs” (deleted characters from Disney’s 1940 masterwork).

LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Racially motivated humor that the Mouse Factory does not want you to see.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Oh, Lawdy!

In many ways, Walt Disney was way ahead of his times: his pioneering work in sound and color animation set new standards for filmmaking, and his genius for merchandising laid the foundation for contemporary Hollywood’s marketing machinery.

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The Bootleg Files: Arsenic and Old Lace

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 598: “Arsenic and Old Lace” (1969 television production starring Bob Crane, Helen Hayes and Lillian Gish).

LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The reason may be a little complicated.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Remaking a beloved classic film is always a tricky endeavor – the new offering is inevitably judged against its predecessor, and it is rare for the second effort to be found superior to the work that came first.

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The Bootleg Files: The Skin of Our Teeth

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 597: “The Skin of Our Teeth” (1959 British television production starring Vivien Leigh).

LAST SEEN: The first two acts of this three-act play are on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Considered lost for many years, but now only available in a truncated version.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Vivien Leigh was one of the most extraordinary talents of the 20th century cinema, and also one of the most elusive. After the British actress conquered Hollywood in “Gone with the Wind,” she would only star in eight films made between 1940 and 1965. Instead, Leigh focused most of her post-Scarlett O’Hara acting in the theater, although she made one detour into live television with a 1959 production of Thorton Wilder’s satire “The Skin of Our Teeth.”

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The Bootleg Files: Raintree County

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 596: “Raintree County” (1957 epic with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor).

LAST SEEN: We cannot confirm the last exhibition of this film.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: A VHS video and LaserDisc release only.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Out of circulation in the home entertainment channels for too many years.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It is possible.

There are some films that seem to be doomed from the first minutes of their inception through the last seconds of their release, and the 1957 epic “Raintree County” is one of the more notable examples. The story of its creation is far more complex and tragic than anything on that appeared on the screen.

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The Bootleg Files: Malice in the Palace

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 595: “Malice in the Palace” (1949 Three Stooges short).

LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On too many public domain labels.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A lapsed copyright.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: There was one, but it was lost amid the cheapo duped versions.

In some ways, bad comedies are more interesting than good comedies. Because when a comedy fails, it is can be a fascinating exercise to pinpoint just where things began to go wrong and to wonder whether the wreckage could have been prevented with tweaks here and there.

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The Bootleg Files: The Juggler of Our Lady

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 594: “The Juggler of Our Lady” (1957 Terrytoons animated short).

LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It’s just one of those things that slipped through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It would be lovely.

Among the major animators of the post-World War II period, Gene Deitch had one of the most erratic careers, with output that ranged from memorable (the Oscar-winning “Munro”) to excruciating (the near-unwatchable feature “Alice of Wonderland in Paris”) to mind-boggling (those disturbing Tom and Jerry cartoons from the early 1960s). Deitch first gained prominence in the early 1950s at the United Productions of America (UPA) studio before moving to Terrytoons, where he became creative director. At the time, Terrytoons turned out a series of noisy and frenetic works that lacked the artistic polish of Disney or the subversive wit of the Warner Bros. output. Indeed, even Deitch would ruefully admit that his studio “made the most gross and grotesque cartoons in the galaxy.”

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