Tuesday, February 05, 2008

The Lost Columbia Cartoons - The Herring Murder Mystery / Hollywood Sweepstales

A double-bill of short clips for you, today.

The Herring Murder Mystery (a 1943 cartoon which apparantly only exists in the Columbia archives as a segment of the first two minutes) features the story of a herring pickler, who, after being arrested - and thrown into the sea - by the fish police, is on trial for murder (well, he did pickle them to death!).

Presenting here is a short segment from a complete print. Personally, it's shad roe, shad roe, shad roe to me!


Another short clip below is taken from Hollywood Sweepstakes, a 1939 cartoon (directed by Ben Harrison) that is officially missing in the Columbia archives (but survives among us collectors as a 16mm colour print). It does feature a host of celebrity characitures, but they're mostly token - it's really about a pony's attempt to win a derby. Here's the second half of this cartoon for you to enjoy:

Clips are available to view for a month.

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