My Grandfather's Clock

A great little musical short which shows how incredibly versatile an actor Franklin Pangborn was.

Pangborn is probably best known for appearing with W.C. Fields in The Bank Dick. He also appeared in several Hal Roach produced comedies in the 1930s, most notably as photographer "Otto Phocus" in the Our Gang comedy, "Wild Poses" in 1933.

Probably the only place you can see this particular film is on one of those "short/filler" slots on the Turner Classic Movies channel, but if you do catch it, consider yourself truly lucky!

What also struck me as quite interesting was that, unlike in later musicals, the actors were not lip syncing to a previously recorded musical and vocal track. It's their own voices, captured on the soundtrack live as the cameras rolled.

I caught this nutty little film by chance twice on Turner Classic Movies. The lyrics are hilarious so listen carefully. The ending is not only a "surprise" but just as silly as the rest of the film. The last couple of lines that begin with "Oh Grandpa, no..." are not to be missed. More than just amusing, it is funny.

An MGM Colortone Musical.

Murder has been committed in the old manor at Phwitterby-on-Thames, where elderly Barrister Butts was shot before the public reading of a will. Send Dr. Watkins to find the celebrated detective Philo Holmes! Search the Piccadilly Club and bring the chorus girls & orchestra back with you! Will Holmes make the right deduction? And what does the homicide have to do with MY GRANDFATHER'S CLOCK?

This silly little film is a good example of the type of fluff popular with young audiences in the 1930's. Nearly all the spoken dialogue is in rhyme & the tunes from many familiar musical compositions are interpolated. The color production is very pleasing to the eye. Holmes & Watkins are played by Charles Judles & Franklin Pangborn (who nearly steals the show with his prissy behavior.) Film mavens will recognize Mischa Auer as one of the manor servants.

Certainly one of the most unusual short films I've seen. A 20-minute long comic operetta farce of a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery. It was seen on Turner Movie Classics, and hopefully I will have an oportunity to tape it the next time.

In the 1930s, MGM made a string of so-called 'Colortone Musicals' and the ones I have seen are among the strangest and most watchable films of the era. The weirdest are among the best, such as "The Devil's Cabaret" as well as "What Price Jazz?"...but even the slightly less weird ones like "My Grandfather's Clock" are enjoyable...albeit strange!!

This entire film is told through song. Most of the songs are very familiar public domain tunes and the lyrics are occasionally pretty funny. It begins with the murder of an old man...as the killer was hiding inside the grandfather clock! So, they phoned for Philo Holmes and Dr. Watkins and they come to investigate...and sing!

This is a film that doesn't work completely. It's a bit more conventional than the really weird ones...but still keeps your interest. What also kept my interest was the color. While the films in this series were all made with the two-color process (producing a somewhat limited array of colors), this one looks MUCH better than I would ever expect. In particular, the blues you don't see in Cinecolor and Two-Color Technicolor are actually very blue. The purples are also very nice...so nice I actually think this IS an early form of Technicolor using the three-strip process. I had no idea any of the Colortones were truly full-color...but it sure seems more colorful than usual.