davost

If they're not going to refer to the source in any conceivable way, they should use a different name. Doughy milk toast Stu Erwin can be quite good in the right roles but not as Joe Palooka or any fighter. Yeesh. However it is a real treat to see a completely out of control Jimmy Durante and a completely out of control Lupe Velez. The rest of the cast is interesting enough, I always like Robert Armstrong and it's fun to see Cagney's brother, Billy though he doesn't have nearly the character or screen presence of Jimmy. The whole story is just plain dumb but it gets a rave for that little gem, Lupe Velez and that master of farce, Jimmy Durante.

This short is both great and horrible. There are some nice looks at rare and interesting turn of the century silents but they are ruined by the dreadfully bad humor of this "Pete Smith" guy who did a whole series of unwatchable voice over things that appear regularly on TCM. So unless your sense of humor is way different than mine, you may enjoy this episode with the sound off. Unfortunately the clips used are not identified but one, a fashion show, is dated 1913. The second appears to be a kind of Brechtian underground conspiracy of phony beggars type story, there are no titles and it's badly cut so the logic of it is difficult. It does, however, give you a look at the formality of film from an era of which 80% has been lost. The last has no I.D. but I say it has to be a Georges Melies and it's shown in entirety. It's a nutty thing about a guy having his arms, legs, and head amputated and the put back on in the wrong places, etc. Ironically, this last clip seems to symbolize the silly butchery that, until very recently, films of this era had to endure.

I gave this a 10 because I only give two ratings, 10 or zero, pass or no pass. Let's talk about Brit Rock. I was 15 and growing up in the US when this movie came out and there was no such term as Brit Rock. When the Beatles, Stones, and the others came out I completely disregarded them. Who needs these guys doing Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley when we have the real thing. Eventually I came to appreciate what they were doing and soon developed a deep admiration for the British rock movement going back to the 50's. This movie, though fraught with awkwardness, has some very telling points. A very important point is made when the kids were discussing the war scars. We Americans knew nothing of that. To us rock was just a big jolly product. But these kids had a way more emotional need for it and they took it more seriously and they wound up exporting our own music right back to us and basically saved Rock and Roll. Now the bad part of this film is the pre posterous and thoroughly embarrassing "hip talk" although all the American rock films of the time did pretty well the same thing. And the plot is pretty tiresome but it still shows that basic need for rock, the big thing about rock has always been that need. It's like in the Lou Reed song, "her life was saved by rock and roll". Goofy as this movie is, it does convey that message.