Rare Columbia Cartoon Titles - Scrappy

Now presenting - the original Scrappy titles!

Like the Krazy Kats, getting a copy of a Scrappy cartoon with its original titles is very rare among the collectors' and traders' circuits, so I can only come up with four examples of original titles taken from my own collection.

The first set comes from the earliest Scrappy cartoon I have in its original condition - The Beer Parade (released 4th March 1933). Apologies for the silhouettes partly-obscuring the bottom-edge, as these shots were taken from a screening:

And, of course, the endcap:

Many of you who have read Leonard Maltin's book "Of Mice & Magic" will recognise the opening title below. This one is taken from I Want To Be An Actress (18th July 1937):

The closing title card:

Towards the end of 1939, the Scrappy (and Krazy Kat) cartoons were becoming out-of-favour with the cinema-going public (when you consider that the majority of these cartoons were directed by Allen Rose, can you really blame them?), and so were replaced by B&W one-shot series Phantasies (that title always make me thinks of "phantoms", for some reason) and Fables. But Scrappy wasn't going without a fight, and so did star in a handful of Phantasies/Fables up until his swan-song cartoon The Little Theatre in 1941. The opening title below is taken from Man of Tin (23rd February 1940), where it indicates that this Phantasy features Scrappy:

As I've mentioned before, I don't have many of these cartoons with their original titles, but I do have this particular gem: the screenshots below are taken from Scrappy's Boy Scouts (2nd January 1936), where a special set of titles were made. You can just make out silhouettes of Scrappy and his gang marching on the background (apologies if these aren't in good-enough quality):

And below is the endcap, which is initially superimposed on the animation:

The Color Rhapsody titles will follow very shortly. Stay Tooned!

Rare Columbia Cartoon Titles - Krazy Kat

All this week, I will present some rare cartoon titles from the Screen gems library, with seperate postings relating to Krazy Kat, Scrappy, Color Rhapsodies, and the Phantasies/Fables cartoons.

To start off, let's take a look at some of the rare Krazy Kat titles. Many of you who are lucky enough to see these very-rare cartoons have seen most of them with Samba Pictures re-issue titles (the majority of Krazy shorts I have are these versions). Thankfully, Columbia Pictures have been restoring these shorts, with some (if not most) of them with their original titles intact. It is from these restored cartoons that most of the following screenshots were made.

Below are the wonderfully-animated 1929-30 title cards, first used on the very first sound cartoon Ratskin (the screenshots are taken from Honolulu Wiles, released on 17th July 1930).


All the cartoons from 1929 (and the first handful of 1930 shorts, too) end with this title card:

Later in 1930, the Winkler brand was added to the closing title card (this was also taken from Honolulu Wiles, the earliest cartoon in my collection to have this endcap):

Towards the end of 1930, a new, static set of title cards were introduced, which featured the title character and his girlfriend Kitty (I personally prefer the previous titles). The earliest cartoon in my collection to have these new titles was The Apache Kid (released October 9th 1930), but the following are taken from The Stork Market (July 11th 1931) as I feel these offer the best-quality images:

And here's the endcap:

The next year, another new set of opening titles were introduced. These were taken from The Restless Sax (December 1st 1931):

The endcap:

These titles were altered in 1932, with a different background and a different style of lettering on the credits and endcap. The following are taken from Russian Dressing (1st May 1933), although the earliest cartoon I have that featured these new titles is The Medicine Show (7th February 1933):

Voila, the endcap:

In 1933, Kitty was dropped from the new set of titles. These have the same background as before, but the credits were incorporated into the opening title, as seen below. These are from Southern Exposure (9th February 1934):

The endcap is the same as the previous version.

Krazy was redesigned later in 1934, from a Mickey Mouse-type design into a more-realistic feline form. To reflect this new design, new titles were issued the same year. However, the following were taken from a 1938 cartoon (there may have been different versions between these years, but I only have the Samba versions covering this period). The earliest cartoon I have that features the following titles is The Masque Raid (June 25th 1937), but for reasons of picture quality, I decided to make screenshots from Hot Dogs On Ice (21st October 1938):

Closing title:

Watch out for the Scrappy titles, which will follow very shortly.

If you're interested in finding out more about the Krazy Kat shorts (and other Screen Gems cartoons), take a look at Pietro Shakarian's website:

http://columbia.goldenagecartoons.com/

Also, my good friend Tom Stathes has made a couple of recent posts about the silent Krazy Kat cartoons. Check them out on http://cartoonsonfilm.blogspot.com/ , and also check out his other posts relating to the world of silent cartoons. These cartoons are more interesting (and entertaining) than you think!

Hold Your Plums

Sometime in the early 90's, I was given a copy of a tape brought down by my Liverpudlian relatives, which was called "Hold Your Plums - volume 4". This was a hugely -popular radio quiz show in the BBC Radio Merseyside area. Of course, being a West Country person myself, I never even heard of the programme, but I was told that the idea of the game is to answer one question before the hosts (Billy Butler & Wally Scott) activate a speaking fruit machine, which determines which prize the contestants would get (if the contestant gets all three plums, they win the top prize). However, what made this show such a hilarious success is the endless clues being given to the clueless participants, who came up with such bizarre answers as these:

If a footballer passes the ball to another player, it's a pass. If he shoots the ball, it's a shot. If he heads the ball, it's a...?
Goal.

Have you ever had a "rarebit"?
What? I've got three kids!

Her first name is "Hedda". Her second name is "Hopper". So what is her full name?
Mary Hopkin.

Man, I had a fit of the giggles when I listened to this tape (ain't real-life humour the best). These brainless contestants have probably given Merseyside a bad name.

Since I first listened to this magnificant show (it puzzled me why it was never networked, as this would have had massive UK-wide appeal), I managed to seek out two specially-produced videotapes of this hilarious show. And very recently, to my sheer delight, I discovered a BBC webpage containing some Hold Your Plums audio clips (link below), most of which I have never heard before. Some of my favourites on the webpage includes a guy struggling to come up with Batman's nickname, a batty old lady who thinks that there is a soup called "Mull of Kintyre", and one bizarre clip where the presenters, who asked one woman contestant to name the only European country that drives on the left (actually, there is two!), organised a taxi trip for her as a clue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/fun/2002/07/hold_your_plums/plums_index.shtml

Enjoy!

Mississippi Mud

Here is an excerpt taken from the Toby the Pup cartoon Down South (1931) - a great foot-stomping rendition of "Mississippi Mud".

Down South - Mississippi Mud
Uploaded by ldglover

This video will be available throughout the rest of this month.

Goody Goody Yum Yum!

Here's some exciting news for all you Goodies fans!

Network is to release its third Goodies DVD set - The Complete LWT series - on March 26th with a RRP of £24.99. This set will include the entire 9th (and last) series, plus the "Snow White 2" special, that were broadcasted on the ITV network on 27/12/81 - 13/02/82. There has been no news on the number of discs or any extras, but like the previous two sets these episodes will be digitally restored by BBC Resources. I will keep you updated, but do check out the Network site ( www.networkdvd.co.uk ) in the next few weeks. In the meantime, here is the preliminary cover (subject to change):
Also, the LWT series will get an airing on Paramount Comedy 2 this Friday, with the first weekly double-bill showing at 9:00pm. The schedules can be found on www.paramountcomedy.com .

Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to everyone visiting my blog!

As a special present from me to you, here is a complete cartoon that will be available throughout the holiday season - the Little Audrey short Santa's Surprise, complete with original Paramount titles!

Santa's Surprise
Uploaded by ldglover

DVD Review: The Caesars (Network - UK Region 2)

An everyday story of sex, madness, and regicide.

Augustus Caesar, Emperor of the Roman Empire, has ruled for over 40 years, bringing peace after years of civil war, but the price the empire paid for this was the absolute rule of one man – a dictator. Although brutal, he was nevertheless a popular leader. And now he is dying, and he has to nominate a replacement. He decides that Tiberius should replace him, with the loyal-but-foolish Germanicus the next in line.

Tiberius initially rejects the offer, as he feels he is nowhere near as brutal as Augustus and doesn’t wish to become an absolute ruler. Eventually, he reluctantly agrees, and takes command with the aid of the scheming Sejanus. But throughout his reign, he faces the turmoil that affected his family, including murder, in which many people label him as a tyrant. He does on occasion have to be ruthless, but the end result would normally follow a sense of guilt.

His great-nephew, Caligula, succeeds Tiberius, but early on he does show signs of his unpleasant side. Then a serious illness drives him further into insanity. Believing that he is a God and an immortal, he becomes an irrational murderer and rapist. As he becomes more and more deranged, no-one it seems can appease him in any way without fear of being executed.

Surviving throughout all this turmoil is Claudius, who was born with a stutter and club foot. Because of his disability, many dismiss him as a fool, but he uses this to his advantage. He is ignored by Tiberius and humiliated by Caligula, but it is Claudius himself who would get the last laugh.


This series was produced by Granada Television, and was broadcast on ITV in 1968 to critical acclaim. It has been compared in recent times to I Claudius and even the BBC/HBO’s Rome, but this is still an immensely enjoyable drama in its own right. The sets, although studio bound, are very impressive. A fine repertoire of actors grace the small screen, but there are three actors who really stands out: Andre Morrell (Quatermass & The Pit) gives a dependable performance as the weary Tiberius, Ralph Bates (Dear John) is frightfully chilling as the cold-blooded Caligula, and Freddie Jones (The Ghosts of Motley Hall) fully merited his Golden Nymph award (Monte Carlo Television Festival, 1969) as the rather-intelligent Claudius.

The series was shot originally on video, but it now exists as 16mm telerecordings made for the international market (the original Granada front and endcaps have been replaced by a Granada International equivalent), and Network has been supplied with a mix of old and recent transfers. The quality of the material does show that making telerecordings was not one of Granada’s main strengths. Generally, they zoomed in too close to the video monitor, which results in a cropped picture and a grainy look. There is also burnt-in video damage evident on the recordings. The first episode is the worst affected, as shown on the screenshot below. Because of the over-zooming, you can only just make out the title (Augustus).

It would have been nice to see the series get some digital clean-up, but this would be expensive and would make the DVD release commercially unviable. Of course, Network is renowned for releasing long-forgotten TV shows that most other DVD companies wouldn’t even touch with a barge pole, so we really must commend Network for having the guts to release this.

There is one extra that Network has somehow forgot to mention on its cover – a five-minute photo gallery, showing some behind-the-scenes images and those taken on the set. I was really amazed to see what the sets actually looked like in colour, it is just a shame that they never filmed it this way. If only they waited one more year until ITV colour transmissions became a reality. Because of the rarity of this series, it is unrealistic to expect commentaries or interviews, so the photo gallery is an unexpected bonus. Pity about the lack of subtitles, though.

Despite the quality of the film material, this is an excellent watch, and huge thanks to Network for allowing this series to get a deserved DVD release. However, the RRP of £19:99 is maybe on a high side for people who aren’t too familiar with this series and/or are rather unsure of 1960’s drama, so my advice is to wait until the sales. But whenever you buy this now or later, is it well worth what you paid for it. Recommended.

NOTE: DD Home Entertainment has released their own version of The Caesars (only available through their mail-order service, while Network's version is a general release) with the same RRP. However, given DDHE's track record, it is likely that these episodes will have their adcaps removed (Network has left these alone), and there is no mention of any subtitles or other extras on their catalogue and website.

Images (C) Granada

Text (C) Lee Glover. Not to be copied without permission.

Apologies again!

I like to apologise again for another lack of posts. Unfortunately, I have lost my job in Bath, and I have temporarily moved to my home town (Plymouth) until I can find another one.

In the meantime, I will attempt to make some new posts, including more rare cartoon titles and DVD reviews.

Talking about DVDs, I did plan to post a review of At Last The 1948 Show and Do Not Adjust Your Set a few months back, but due to recent problems and the passing of time, I have decided to abandon it. But look out for a DVD review of an award-winning 1968 ITV drama that looks at the lives of an imperial Roman family.

Rare B&W Terrytoon Titles - Part 2

As promised, here are more rare original opening and closing titles from two B&W Terrytoons.

Below are the opening and closing titles from the cartoon Football (released October 18th 1935), made towards the end of the Frank Moser era.

Opening titles:



Closing title:

And finally, here are the title cards from When Knights Were Bold (released March 21st 1941).

Opening titles:

Closing title:

Coming soon: rare original Screen Gems titles.