Live and Learn

Live and Learn (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Sid Davis produced and directed this educational short that tries to tell children that they need to think before they actually do something. The film shows various kids playing and then we see the ways they hurt themselves by not thinking. A few examples include running with scissors, going over a fence to look down a cliff, playing ball in the streets and pouring gas on a fire. When it comes to these educational films you're either going to be bored silly because the film is just way too straight or you're going to be laughing your head off because the film is so over-the-top that you can't help but laugh. Thankfully this one here is so corny that you'll be laughing. The entire set-up here has us seeing the kids doing their deeds and then we flash to the doctor's office where we see them getting treated. The way each of the scenes cut to the doctor's office is just downright funny including the little boy who pours gas on a fire. The funniest scene in the movie deals with a boy falling down a cliff because it's so obvious that it's a dummy going down the cliff and just look at the way the thing falls. Overall this is a pretty good time but one really shouldn't come in expecting the next CITIZEN KANE. It's good for a few laughs only.

This early Sid Davis film -- distributed, for some reason, by the Encyclopedia Britannica -- is a series of warnings about how easy it is for children to kill themselves with matches, by jumping off buildings, by canoing on a lake, or putting out an eye with a gun -- when I was a kid, wearing an eye patch like the Hathaway Man would have been considered cool. Nowadays, of course, there are hundreds of thousands of Youtube videos showing people doing idiotic things and getting into trouble, and Comedy Central's TOSH.0 features these with snarky comments. The gentle, amused voice of the narrator is in odd contrast to the voice of my mother in my head -- and probably in yours -- constantly warning me that you could put out an eye with that; pillow fights were particularly dangerous.

The whole thing is pitched in such a way that I don't think it stopped a single boy from hurting himself.

Mid 1950's, elementary school gym class on Friday was "Health Film" day. No better end to a week than this film. We loved it!

When Nick tumbles over the cliff we'd all scream; lights go on, projector gets clicked off and the teacher yells at us for our rowdy behavior and makes us sit stone quiet for the rest of the hour. This must've happened a half dozen times a semester. It was the same exact scenario in my brother's class and the neighbor girl's class, too. I guess every class. Some bizarre Friday ritual? Seeing this on Prelinger archives a few years back, was the 25th time I saw this movie, but the first time I ever actually saw the last part after Nick's plunge. (Ironically within days of those outbursts, we were asking the teacher if she can get us that film again - and she frequently did.)

There were other juicy scenes - the kid pouring gasoline on the fire and the one tilting the boat. Pure kiddie entertainment.

Back then, we so often heard: "Hey! Cut that out! You wanna poke out an eye?" It was probably in the top 5 most frequent warnings belted out by parents. And around 70 yrs later I don't remember anybody ever getting an eye poked out (except the kid in this movie).

I read somewhere that the "Nick" character was a child stunt actor and actually did suffer a broken arm in that scene.