Author Archive: Retro

What goes in to the phrase, “Let’s go to the movies”? An off-screen narrator takes us back to the earliest days of film: clips remind us of early stars and blockbusters. He explains how sound came to motion pictures: we see Jolson singing “Mammy” and John Barrymore playing Richard III. Next is a salute to the 30,000 people working in Hollywood at 272 different crafts. A montage shows us some of those jobs. It ends with a look at the physical production of celluloid (cotton and silver) and the many aspects of movie making. The narrator promises more short films about each step in production

Comedic Short directed by Mack Sennett.

by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.

“Sitting comfortably in a dark room, dazzled by the light and the movement which exert a quasi-hypnotic power… fascinated by the interest of human faces and the rapid changes of place, [a] cultivated individual placidly accepts the most appalling themes…and all this naturally sanctioned by habitual morality, government, and international censorship, religion, dominated by good taste and enlivened by white humor and other prosaic imperatives of reality.” – Luis Bunuel

Un Chien Andalou exists to shock the viewer of this stupor that Bunuel elucidates above. Freudian dream imagery, amorphous space/time, and absurdist humor combine in this drawn out mating ritual between a confused cyclist and the female he pursues. May be the most inventive fifteen minutes of film anywhere.

Bob Hope’s film debut, set in an unidentified South American country with an odd “Opposite Day” premise.

This Pete Smith specialty looks at the annoying types of people we have all come into contact with when going to the movies. They include those who sit down, then take off their coats and scarves; people with aisle seats who stick their feet in the aisle; people who put their knees on the back of the seat in front of them; loud snackers. Smith also fantasizes various punishments for such movie pests. A humorous look at pesky movie-goers.

Clark Kent and Lois Lane, out for a stroll, discover a jewelry robbery in progress. Lois gets a good look at one of the burglars. Later Clark and Jimmy Olsen visit Jimmy’s old school to discuss Superman’s visit there to promote the U.S. Treasury Department’s Savings Stamp program. In the meantime, Lois is captured by Blinky, the jewelry burglar she spotted. When Lois doesn’t show up to join Clark and Jimmy, Clark realizes she’s in trouble and arranges for Superman to save the day and still make his appearance at the school’s Stamp Day.