Friday, April 21, 2006

GO BROKE WITH ME PART 2: MY BROKER SAYS HE'S BROKER THAN ME!!! Hey wait, I neglected to go back to the 50's with you. There are a couple more DVD's which I've enjoyed recently that emerged from the decade of poodle skirts and fallout shelters! We all know the atom is our friend. At least that's what we were told in the 50's when most of the short films on the DVD "Atomic Age Classics Vol. 3: A-Bombs, Fallout & Nuclear War" were released. This laugh-a-minute collection of public service films is in the "Sex & Hygene" and "Driving Safety" films we all snoozed thru in school. "Atomic Age Classics" features such flicks as "Living With the Atom" (hosted by none other than Irwin A. Moon from the Moody Institute of Science) which informs us that atomic theory makes us all good Americans. A medical self-help film called "Radioactive Fallout and Shelter" tries to make us believe that fallout is nothing more than a "minor nuisance" and our government what to do about beating that pesky fallout problem. Another animated cartoon called "Fallout: When and How To Protect Yourself" is a Civil Defense film which actually tells you that, if you are unfortunate enough to be covered with fallout, just brush it off and wash your hands. You'll be fine, kids! The next two DVD's are actual films that were shown in schoolrooms (I can attest to that; I remember one of them). These 2 DVD's contain 4 animated films including "Hemo the Magnificent" (the one I saw in grade school) about the circulatory system, "Unchained Goddess" (about the weather), "Our Mr. Sun" (about guess who) and "The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays". All 4 were made by Frank Capra (!); that's right. . . .the famous director of "It's A Wonderful Life", "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" and many other classic films. 3 out of the 4 also feature famous sci-fi 50's leading man Richard Carlson (from "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "It Came From Outer Space" among many others). "Our Mr. Sun" replaces Carlson with Eddie "Green Acres" Albert. All 4 feature our typical 50's scientist Dr. Frank Baxter (who actually appeared in the prologue of Universal's 50's monster movie "The Mole People" -- that's him over there holding the bongos!!!) teamed with a writer (Carlson/Albert) who refer to a "Magic Screen" upon which appear the animated Hemo, Mr. Sun or whomever else we're learning about today, class. The scientist and writer are live action while the magic screen features cartoon animation (with the exception of actual marionnettes of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoyevsky used in the "Cosmic Rays" story). Also featured are the voices of famed cartoon voice actor June Foray and Lionel Barrymore as Father Time. These films are quintessential 50's homages to science as our saviour (with a token nod to God so the bible belt wouldn't be too offended). Science will save us all, children so march forward into those broad, sunlit uplands (Hi Winston!). If you have yourself a nice 50's sci-fi movie night with screenings of "This Island Earth", "Invaders From Mars", "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "It Came From Outer Space" (Are you listening Ern & Pax?!?!?!?), these flicks would make a perfect short subject or intermission feature while we're all going out to the lobby (Ern & Pax's kitchen, more likely) to scarf up some of that Twinkie Tiramisu!

1 comment:

Pax Romano said...

Sounds like a plan: I have "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and that and some Les Baxter tunes sounds like a swell way to spend the night!

Don't forget the Tom Collins mix!