Salute Your Shorts: The Hobbit

Salute Your Shorts #6: Gene Deitch's 1966 adaptation of The Hobbit:

Don't touch that dial!

This year, why not just say no to the real life mayhem of Black Friday sales at Walmart and yes to sitting on the couch to enjoy a marathon of watching giant monsters attack Tokyo?

And if you're really jonesing for some vintage "Save the Earth" action, here's the American International Pictures English audio track that you can sync up with your official Godzilla vs. Hedorah DVD or Blu-ray:

Happy Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving day Kong!  Black Friday Godzilla!

Compilation of WOR-TV Channel 9 Holiday Movie Special bumpers and commercials:

We'll return after a word from our sponsors...

Playworld toy store commercial:

Musica Moonday

"The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard Nimoy:

JFK

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
5/29/17-11/22/63

Here's the trailer for JFK, Oliver Stone's conspiracy theory magnum opus and in my opinion one of the most truly horrifying films of the past 25 years ("Back and to the left...back and to the left...back and to the left..."):

Salute Your Shorts: Parade of the Wooden Soldiers

Salute Your Shorts #5: Betty Boop in Parade of the Wooden Soldiers:

Friday Filmstrip Funhouse: Our Thanksgiving Day

Our Thanksgiving Day from Film Strip of-the-Month Clubs, Inc.:

We'll be right back...

Genesee beer commercial:

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Common Household Deities of North America, Mid to Late Twentieth Century

No. 4, The Doughboy*:



*Note: If I recall my world history lessons correctly, despite the innocent, even adorable appearance of these chubby little fire elementals, during the time of the Great War, millions of roused Doughboys left behind the warmth and comfort of their hearthside haunts to fight and die valiantly on the front lines against the Huns and their legions of barbaric Grünriesen (Green Giants) and bloodthirsty Koolaidmensch (Kool-Aid Men).

Musica Moonday

Anyone growing up in the northeast US during the pre-digital analog TV era in the 1970s-80s will to this very day undoubtedly associate a few specific movies that aired annually in November (usually around Thanksgiving) with the gluttonous turkey-centric holiday: Laurel and Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934) on WPIX channel 11 and King Kong (1933) on WOR channel 9 on Thanksgiving Day along with King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) and Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1971) on WOR the day after Thanksgiving.

(For more about this regional holiday programming see this excellent overview by Joe Cascio at DVD Drive-In.)

There are a few other fantastic films that I also personally associate with late November and Thanksgiving due to having seen them for the first time as a kid around this time of year: The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1976), The Beatles' Yellow Submarine (1968) and the Rankin/Bass adaptations of The Hobbit (1977) and its semi-sequel The Return of the King (1980), from whence the following Orc marching/protest song comes from.

Dedicated to anyone that doesn't want to go to work today or is just having a bad case of the Mondays, here's "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way!":

We'll return after the break...

Carvel commercial (thank you):

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Hey, where did everybody go?
They've gone to Betsons!

Don't touch that dial!

WPVI Channel 6 Action News theme ("Move Closer to Your World"):

Friday Filmstrip Funhouse 16mm Post Election Edition

In light of Amendment 2 (i.e. the statewide legalization of cannabis for medicinal use) failing to pass with a 60% super majority yes vote in Florida this past Tuesday (it received a mere 58% approval, so no cigar, er...funny cigarette?), here's a short educational film about the menace of marihuana, assassin of youth:



Dig that soundtrack!  And be sure to stay for the final line of the film.

Anatomy of a Psycho

From Mill Creek's "Pure Terror" collection comes this exploration of juvenile delinquency that's just a bit more on the mild melodrama side than the purported pure terror it's billed as, but it does have a handful of hoodlums, a touch of facial scarring and just a pinch of arson going for it to keep it from being boring.

Best line:  "Hey Chet, you want some soup?"

The description from the DVD insert reads:

ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO
Starring Ronnie Burns, Pamela Lincoln, Darrell Howe
(1961) B&W Unrated

A young man is despondent over the conviction and subsequent execution of his older brother.  Having idolized his brother to the point of it being an obsession, the young man cannot believe he was guilty, even though he was, and swears to avenge him.

Here are a few minutes of the film for your viewing pleasure:

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Commercial for Goofy Greats album from K-tel:

V for Vendetta

Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason 
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Neither really obscure nor drivel, V for Vendetta (2006) is arguably the greatest comic book/superhero movie celebrating Guy Fawkes Day in recent memory; an excellent film adapted from a great graphic novel and in my opinion the best thing other than the first Matrix the Wachowski siblings have been attached to, though I am looking forward to checking out their pulpy looking Jupiter Ascending next year.

And you just don't ever see people running around wearing Batman or Spider-Man masks at protests around the globe either do you?

Here's the trailer:

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Ginsu knife commercial:

Election Day Public Service Announcement

Hey kids!  Tell everyone it's your DOODY to vote!

Musica Moonday

"I'm Gonna Find a Cave" by The Banana Splits:

Child of Glass

Sleeping lies the murdered lass,

vainly cries the child of glass.
When the two shall be as one,
the spirit's journey will be done.

Child of Glass is a great little creepy ghost story for kids that originally aired in 1978 on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.  Starring Olivia Barash (Leila from Repo Man and my first childhood TV crush) as the Creole ghost Inez Dumaine.  Also starring Denise Nickerson AKA Violet Beauregarde AKA the girl that turns into a giant blueberry in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; though here it is the ghostly Inez that is blue tinted instead of Nickerson's character:

Be sure to check out the sweet poster for Laurel and Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers on the bedroom wall of young protagonist Alexander Armsworth during early scenes in the film.  Kid's got good taste in wall art!

Child of Glass is a wonderful film for children of all ages and has something for all members of the family to enjoy: a blue tinted ghost, a kid falling down a well, a drunkard handyman intentionally setting fire to a barn, a young girl that mysteriously dies while under the guardianship of her insane alcoholic uncle, a Southern cotillion that starts off great but ends up a disaster, bats, a leaning gazebo, a seance conducted by children, an adult chasing kids through a graveyard with intent to kill, and a broken heirloom lamp.

They don't make 'em like they used to!

Here's a clip:

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To celebrate Dia de Los Muertos with our friends south of the border, here's a trailer for arguably the greatest adventure video game of all time, Grim Fandango from LucasArts: