Tag Archives: Screen Gems

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The Bootleg Files: The Three Marx Brothers

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BOOTLEG FILES 823: “The Three Marx Brothers” (segment for a proposed 1961 animated TV series inspired by the Marx Brothers).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A rights clearance issue has kept this out of circulation for many years.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Maybe as part of a wider animation or Marx Brothers release.

By the end of the 1950s, a few efforts were put forth to reunite the Marx Brothers, who had not worked together as a team since “A Night in Casablanca” in 1946 – the trio were billed together for “Love Happy” in 1949, but that film was mostly centered on Harpo with Chico in a supporting role and Groucho making a few appearances without his brothers during the course of the story.
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The Bootleg Files: Sadie Hawkins Day

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BOOTLEG FILES 784: “Sadie Hawkins Day” (1944 animated short based on Al Capp’s “Li’l Abner” comic strip).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On VHS.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A film that fell through the cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Only if someone restores the full series of animated shorts.

In 1934, Al Capp introduced the comic strip “Li’l Abner” that offered sharp satirical humor within the setting of a burlesque of Appalachian subculture – or what an earlier generation unapologetically referred to as hillbillies. Capp’s work quickly caught the favor of the newspaper-reading public and the characters and backwoods catchphrases that populated the comic strip quickly became fixtures in pop culture.
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