Releasing these cartoons chronologically would be unrealistic from a business perspective, but it’s fun to imagine how such a project would be carried out. Using my trusty guidebook, I’ve figured that a DVD release of every animated short that Warner Bros. produced between 1930 and 1969 (including the so-called “Censored 11”) would consume seventeen volumes of Golden Collections. Paying full retail prices for each box will set you back precisely $1,104.66. Some other tidbits:

• Porky Pig and Daffy Duck make their first appearances on volume 2; Bugs Bunny debuts on volume 5.
• Nearly all of Sniffles’ cartoons appear on volumes 5 and 6 (1939-41).
• Volume 7 is a real pip, with The Dover Boys, the controversial Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs, and the first appearance of a baby bird eventually known as Tweety in A Tale of Two Kitties.
• Volumes 8-10 cover the prime years of 1944-50 (many of these shorts are already covered on the existing Golden Collections).
• The classic One Froggy Evening appears on volume 14. You’d have to wait until volume 15 to see What’s Opera, Doc?.
• Volume 17 limps to a close with a bunch of lame Daffy Duck/Speedy Gonzales cartoons and footnote characters like Bunny and Claude. By this time in our scenario, however, DVD technology is so antiquated that downloading the cartoons directly into your brain is now the norm.

5:00 PM | Comments (4)

THE BEST
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star (on Warner’s Mildred Pierce) Nicely made doc goes a long way to disprove Joan’s “Mommie Dearest” image, even with interviews from daughter Christina (who, after all, knew JC pretty well).
Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood (on Fox’s Cleopatra: Five Star Collection) This was a two-hour special which originally aired on the pre-crap edition of the AMC channel. Watching it is like viewing a train wreck in slow motion — and it’s refreshing that the makers acknowledge that this is a flawed film with a fascinating production history.
Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer (on Criterion’s Sullivan’s Travels) Kind of cheating here since this one originally aired as part of PBS’s Great Performances, but this one was beautifully produced and delved into every facet of Sturges’ life.
The Making of American Graffiti (on Universal’s American Graffiti: Collector's Edition) What impressed me about this one is how just about everyone connected to this film got involved with loving recollections — even the reclusive Harrison Ford and bit players Suzanne Somers and Kathleen Quinland.
Freaks: Sideshow Cinema (on Warner’s Freaks) Notable for being longer than the film it covers, this one did not have the benefit of interviews with anyone involved (since they’re all dead) but nevertheless has a lot of neat tidbits on the production. It leaves you in awe that a film this utterly unique was ever completed.
All About The Birds (on Universal’s The Birds) This might be a nostalgic choice, since The Birds counted among the very first DVDs in my collection. But it’s another excellent production, long but not overlong, with choice recollections from Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Veronica Cartwright and Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia.
Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North By Northwest (on Warner’s North By Northwest) Another one that was very enthralling and expertly made.

THE WORST
Memories of Giant and Return to Giant (on Warner's Giant: Two Disc Special Edition) Rock and James are deceased and Elizabeth wasn’t talking, so all were left with is ramblings from supporting and bit players in two docs as spiritless and boring as the Texas landscape portrayed in the film.
Celebrating Dumbo (on Disney’s Dumbo: Big Top Edition) For such an innocuous film, Dumbo actually had an interesting and thorny production — but you’d never know it from the endless, superficial puffery in this doc. Yeah, we already know it’s a good movie. Jeez.

5:20 PM | Comments (1)

In an effort to further my Disney education, I recently viewed for the first time Make Mine Music, the first of three mishmashy Fantasia knockoffs the company produced in the late ’40s. While Fantasia boasted Stokowski and majestic dinosaurs, this one had Dinah Shore singing over twee silhouettes of ballet dancers. Quite a comedown, although the film does have some nifty highlights (mainly the swing dancing and “Casey at the Bat” segments). I was disappointed, however, to find that the DVD was missing an entire segment. The hillbilly parody “The Martins and the Coys” was apparently left off due to its depiction of violent gunplay. Or perhaps they were afraid of offending hillbillies. Whatever. The fact that Disney put out a censored product is several times more offensive to me than anything the segment could possibly have. Wise up, Disney Co.!

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• The 50 Greatest Cartoons, video links to every cartoon as polled by animation experts in 1994. Dig the creepy rotoscoping on Minnie the Moocher. (via The Disney Blog)
• Robrt L. Pela of the Phoenix New Times wrote up a nice appreciation of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1949 masterpiece A Letter to Three Wives. Pela happens to live in our neighborhood, so he undoubtedly has good taste in both housing and classic films.
• The wonders of Wikipedia: users have listed just about every film that ran on USA Up All Night during its 1986-98 run. I ask ya, how pathetic is it that I actually stayed in and watched The Malibu Bikini Shop?

5:37 PM | Comments (0)

Another not-quite-Christmas Stanwyck I would recommend is 1940’s Remember the Night with Fred MacMurray. Although not on DVD yet, the film has some of the sweetest Yuletide scenes ever captured on film. Our Barbara plays a paroled shoplifter under the care of D.A. MacMurray. Circumstances force the duo to spend the holidays at MacMurray’s childhood home with his mother (Beulah Bondi doing her usual “sacrificial mom” bit). I can remember watching this on the old American Movie Classics channel and being enchanted by the performers and the gorgeous b&w cinematography. Catch it on TCM on December 17th.

10:09 AM | Comments (2)

If I had one minor complaint, it would be with the forced intros by Whoopi Goldberg warning of the cartoons’ non-PC content in the most condescending way possible. The footage automatically plays when you insert each disc (and it’s the same on all four discs!). Although skippable, Warner Bros. has earned the ire of many a Looney Tunes fan with this misguided method of appeasing professional complainers. These sets are clearly marketed to the adult collector (not kids), so why bother catering to idiots? On the upside it appears that Whoopi is missing on the Volume 4, out this week. Maybe they’ve replaced the auto-play warnings with simple and unobtrusive text panels preceding the more offensive ’toons (which Warner has already effectively used on the Busby Berkeley DVDs). Despite all that I’d still say this is the best of the first three Golden sets, with entire discs devoted to two of my fave Looney Tunes subjects — Porky Pig and Hollywood parodies. I’m so thankful these mini-masterpieces are back, looking and sounding better than ever!

3:51 PM | Comments (0)

Funny — the producers of the original Broadway Dreamgirls were famously cagey about comparing their story with the Supremes’ saga, but it appears that the filmmakers are being less covert. If you look closely in one brief flash of a scene, a blown-up album cover for the film’s fictional trio The Dreams can be seen in the background. The album derives its design from two vintage Supremes albums: More Hits By The Supremes (1965) for the layout and Supremes A Go Go (1966) for the photography. I wonder if the film will have more of these little in-jokes for Supremes fans?

6:14 PM | Comments (2)

Our second film came in the form of last Sunday’s The X from Outer Space (1967), another one of those “giant creature on the loose” flicks. The creature in question, a big rubbery reptile/chicken saddled with the un-scary name Guilala, doesn’t appear until the second half. Until then, we have to endure a standard romantic love triangle in space involving a handsome astronaut, a pretty Asian traffic controller, and a pretty blonde scientist. I’d have to agree with one of the IMDb commenters, however, in interpretating that the two women seemed more interested in each other than in the man — which made this movie more interesting than the filmmakers likely imagined. Another thing I dug was the space station’s future-chic costumes and production design, which predated the similar looking TV series UFO and Space: 1999 by a few years. I also enjoyed the groovy rockish music score, although the repeating theme accompanying the monster’s inevitable rampage through cardboard buildings got old after awhile. In sum: two squawks up.

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