Title: The Prize Guest
Studio: Terry
Date: 6/02/39
Credits: None on viewed print
Series: -
Running time (of viewed version): 5:17
Synopsis: A man walks into a hotel, and is followed by the hotel detective, who for some reason finds his suicidally dangerous actions to be unacceptable, until he is fired for no apparent reason.
Comments: Another abrupt and presumably clipped beginning. The dog goes invisible, like a Jeep. The house dick has a Durante esque voice. He says "A wise guy, eh?"; was that a Durante thing, just a Stooges thing, or a general thing? The cartoon is funny like a Stooges short; in that I can see how it's supposed to be funny, but it isn't. Not the worst looking short so far, not by a long shot, but it just lays there. Almost like a bad version of Milt Gross's Count Screwloose... Ultimately, it's meant to be a showcase for a bunch of magic gags. The one very high angle background of the hotel is really nice. The very low angle background of the building is also nice. Apparently all the skill at the studio was in one guy in the background department (tho the art in the cartoon generally is solid, just incredibly uninspired). The wiggling piggies are ok.
Seriously man...when you get ready to watch the cartoons of 1940 or any other year...I'm coming by and bringing the popcorn!
ReplyDeleteThe method of watching isn't exactly conducive to having other people around; it involves watching a cartoon with a few interruptions initially (I try my best to stop only for credit transcription on the first go through, but sometimes I have lengthier comments that make me need to pause so I don't miss anything/much), followed by going through slowly and getting screen grabs. Generally for each cartoon (I don't watch several cartoons together, then go through the lot for screen grabs). Which is fine for me, but I would think it would be like pulling teeth for anyone else sitting around.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, if you like the idea, I encourage you to do a similar blog. The more people doing this type of thing, the better chance we have of a wide knowledge base for the whole of US theatrical golden age cartoons. If you can't find people to acquire cartoons from, there's always the Cartoon Research Garage Sale. This year benefited from my having almost all the Fleischer cartoons on PD discs, and my having bought all the Disney Treasures over however many years, and the general survival of almost all of the cartoons for the year. Other years aren't so lucky, but there are enough mostly available through some means years out there to give people a wide selection of easily completed years at the moment.