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 Silent Films of Edward Everett Horton

Posted on November 29, 2021 by Phil Hall

On this week’s podcast episode of “The Online Movie Show,” film historian Ben Model discusses his new DVD release of rarely-seen silent comedies starring the brilliant character actor Edward Everett Horton.

The episode can be heard here.

The Bootleg Files: Sadie Hawkins Day

Posted on November 5, 2021 by Phil Hall

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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The Bootleg Files: Summer Daze

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 783: “Summer Daze” (1932 short comedy starring Karl Dane and George K. Arthur).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

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

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

In 1926, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast two of its character actors, Karl Dane and George K. Arthur, in comic relief supporting roles in the film “Bardelys the Magnificent.” The actors were not teamed for this production, but someone in the studio came up with the idea of pairing the tall and gangly Dane with the diminutive Arthur in an Army comedy called “Rookies,” which was released to great popularity in 1927.
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Clark & McCullough: The Forgotten Kings of Comedy

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Phil Hall

From the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough turned out a series of wild, bawdy and often surreal short comedies. Today, the team is mostly unknown to the average movie lover because many of their films are lost and the surviving films are rarely revived. Film historian and podcaster Geno Cuddy considers the Clark & McCullough legacy and advocates for a new appreciation of their surviving work in this episode of “The Online Movie Show.”

The episode can be heard here.