Lions for Sale

This is one of the DVD extras with the "Sergeant York" DVDs. While it isn't the most exciting short ever made, it was included because it debuted in 1941--the same year as the feature. Seeing these two films as well as the Porky Pig cartoon is like an old fashioned Saturday morning at the theater.

"Lions for Sale" is a documentary short about a place that raises lions for circuses and perhaps for zoos. It's all moderately interesting and with the full-color film, it looks nice. Plus, the baby lions are adorable. The problem I have with the film that keeps me from rating it higher is the inane narration--that seems to the film. Less would definitely have been better! However, this was the style. The MGM Pete Smith films were pretty similar--tons of supposedly clever narration that today seems dated and annoying.

Lions for Sale (1941)

*** (out of 4)

Knox Manning narrates this 9-minute short that takes a look at a school where lions are raised from cubs to be playful. Throughout the running time we see various acts at this school, which is meant to make the lions trust man to the point where the two could wrestle around on the floor without anyone being injured. Look, I respect people who do this type of thing but at the same time I couldn't help but think of all the bad stuff that could happen if this giant lion just flipped out for a brief second. With that said, overall this is a pretty entertaining short that I'm sure people will enjoy and I'd say kids should really love it. There are several scenes of the lions being fed through a bottle as well as a couple tricks they've learned including walking on some ropes. The Technicolor used here looks quite good, although I'm a little surprised that the studio would have spent the extra money to make this here in color.

This is pretty amazing stuff, things one used to see long ago but not much today. Lion acts were a big part of the circus. I doubt if that is true today, but maybe it is.....you just don't hear much about the circus today. Barnum and Bailey's Ringling Brothers used to be a big deal.

Anyway, it shows how lions are tamed in a big lion training zoo in California around 1940. It is demonstrated how they take a little cub a few weeks old and give it nothing but human contact so the lion learns to trust "man." The trainers then train these wild animals and make them into tame circus performers. They walk on a wire and do some jumping and rolling tricks, etc. These lion tamers were unbelievable brave, sticking their arms inside the grown lion's mouth, as shown here. They were either courageous or stupid!

Anyway, it was interesting and kind of strange, too. You just figure these lions should be left to be lions, not circus acts, but I won't get into that. This "short feature," which included a ton of puns and corny lines, was added a bonus feature to the "Sergeant York" DVD.

OK, so "Lions for Sale" is a look into the early '40s right before we entered WWII. But seriously, what's the big idea of training lion cubs to live in people's houses? Lions are supposed to be ferocious predators. Nature intended for them to be such. When some idiot gets the fancy idea to take animals out of their natural habitats and turn them into cute friends for humans, I just get the feeling that there's a problem in the making. I know that humans have been domesticating animals for as long as anyone remembers, but really, this is too much.

Yes, I probably sound like some sort of curmudgeon. But I just wouldn't want to own a lion as a pet. As far as I'm concerned, they belong in Africa hunting other animals.

This documentary short is available as a special feature on the "Sergeant York" DVD, alongside the Porky Pig cartoon "Porky's Preview".

This short was one of the extras on the Sergeant York DVD. It's in color as we see a narrator making wisecracks through footage of lions in a cage, trainers attempting to feed the cubs, mothers protecting their cubs. I was amused through much of it. There is a musical accompaniment throughout the short. This might have been a series for Warner Bros., maybe similar to the Pete Smith shorts made for M-G-M. Okay, I'm now trying to find things to say to reach the ten lines required to submit this. This was the kind of thing shown before the big feature in various downtown theatres during this time along with a newsreel, a cartoon, and perhaps a comedy short. Anyway, Lions for Sale is worth a look.