“Magical Mystery Tour” could arguably be considered as both The Beatles’ worst and best film.
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Category Archives: Retro Cinema
10 Films That Need to Be on the National Film Registry
This year’s list of 25 films to be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry should be announced in the next few days. And while the National Film Registry has many obvious classics – not to mention more than a few oddities – there are still a surprisingly high number of landmark works that have yet to be enshrined within its ranks.
For what it’s worth, I would like to offer my list of 10 films that are long overdue inclusion on the National Film Registry’s list of “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films.”
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Bargain Daze (1953)
No one approaches Heckle and Jeckle cartoons expecting art – or, for that matter, coherent storytelling, sophisticated dialogue or an ironic reflection on the emotional palette. But, of course, they were never intended to provide cerebral invigoration or display the fullest spectrum of animated creativity. As the producer of the cartoons Paul Terry once succinctly declared regarding the quality of his work compared to the master of the genre: “Let Walt Disney be the Tiffany’s, I want to be the Woolworth’s.”
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The Big Noise (1944)
The other day, I saw a post on Facebook asking for input on whether the 1944 Laurel and Hardy feature “The Big Noise” deserved to be considered among the worst films ever made. After all, many Laurel and Hardy aficionados label it as the duo’s on-screen nadir, and it was also cited in a book that allegedly ranked the all-time 50 worst films.
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Scheming Schemers (1956)
Jules White was not, by any stretch of the imagination, the greatest comedy director – but he might have been the resourceful. With the 1956 Three Stooges short “Scheming Schemers,” he created a new film by using stock footage from three different movies while putting forth a work where one of the stars had passed away six weeks earlier.
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The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
This 1971 feature from the American International Pictures fun factory is a work at odds with itself. It wants to be campy, but it is never that funny. It wants to be a horror film, but poor direction dilutes the effectiveness of the chills. And while it succeeds as a Vincent Price vehicle, it fails to bring along the rest of the cast for the ride.
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When Jack the Ripper Met Sherlock Holmes
One of the least credible theories regarding the identity of Jack the Ripper insists the serial killer was Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a practicing physician prior to gaining wider fame as the creator of Sherlock Holmes with the publication of “A Study in Scarlet” in 1887. There is no evidence – not even the most frayed wisp of preposterous circumstance – to place Conan Doyle in Whitechapel at the time of the killings, let alone providing him with a motive for the crimes.