The Three Caballeros

(1948)
Directed by Norman Ferguson (supervision), Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts, Harold Young (sequences)
Starring Clarence Nash, Jose do Patrocinio Oliveira, Joaquin Garay, Sterland Holloway, Frank Graham, Fred Shields
IMDB Entry

How can a Disney animated feature be forgotten? Well, there are several that fit. I'll be covering them in the next few weeks, in reverse order so they show up in the right order when people scroll.

The fact that Disney is an entertainment juggernaut these days makes people gloss over the fact that it was touch-and-go for awhile. In the early 40s, the studio was in trouble. Fantasia, while well regarded, flopped at first release. Bambi did poorly and Dumbo, while successful, wasn't a smash like Snow White.* Furthermore, Disney had got caught up in a strike of the animators and was on financial thin ice due to an expansion of the studio. The final straw was that the war in Europe meant that market was not available.

But there was one lifeline. The government was concerned with what was happening in South America, where Nazi ideology was getting a stronghold. FDR set up the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, run by Nelson Rockefeller, to improve the US image in Latin America. Disney decided to get involved to get the government support. Their first movie under this was Saludos Amigos. The Three Caballeros was something of a sequel and probably the one that holds up best today.

It, like most of the full-length Disney animated films of the 40s, is made up of short subjects tied together to make a feature length film.** The frame tale is that it was Donald Duck's (Clarence Nash) birthday.*** He is sent a box of gifts from South America. They include a movie camera, which shows a story of Pablo, a penguin who wants to move into a warmer climate. After a brief animated travelogue showing the birds of the Amazon,**** there's another short about a boy from Uruguay who discovers a flying donkey.

Next comes Jose Carioca (Jose do Patrocinio Oliveira), a Brazilian parrot who was introduced in Saludos Amigos, who takes Donald to a festival in Brazil via a popup book. Of interest is the integration of the animated characters with actual footage. Not the first time, of course,***** but a good one. As a note, the singer portrayed in the sequence was Aurona Miranda, Carmen Miranda's sister.

Finally, it's Panchito (Joaquin Garay), from Mexico. They sing the title song -- probably the only sequence that most people are familiar with -- then visit Mexico, leading to a surrealistic set of visions, much like those in parts of Fantasia.

The standalone sequences are typical Disney: gentle, mildly amusing, but too bland to stand out.  However, the more surrealistic finale is well regarded as a work of animated imagination. And the melding of animation and live action is technically superb.

The movie was enough of a success to keep Disney afloat.

Read my novel, The Cadaver Princess.

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*It was the biggest grossing film ever prior to Gone with the Wind.

**I suspect this was to allow a fallback; if the feature flopped, the individual sequences could be repurposed as shorts.

***It was ten years after his debut.

****A clear precursor of the true-life adventures Disney featured a few years later.

*****The Out of the Inkwell series was doing in 1918, and Gertie the Dinosaur -- one of the first animated films from 1914 -- had Gertie catch a ball thrown by a person on stage.

The Worst Witch (TV movie)

 (1986)
Directed by Robert W. Young
Written by Mary Pleshette Willis, from a novel by Jill Murphy
Starring Fairuza Balk, Diana Rigg, Charlotte Rae, Tim Curry, Sabrina Franklyn
IMDB Entry

Despite what some people might think, J.K. Rowling was not the first person to write about life in a boarding school for wizards. A far earlier example is The Worst Witch  by Jill Murphy* from 1974, which was made into a TV movie in 1986.

Mildred Hubble (Fairuza Balk) attends Miss Crackle's Academy for Witches and is hopeless in her attempt to perform magic: he spells go wrong, and one teacher, Miss Constance Hardbroom (Diana Rigg) constantly belittles her.  Miss Amelia Cackle (Charlotte Rae) tries to be patient with her, and sees something of a talent, but Mildred's problems, coupled with teasing and practical jokes from the other girls, make life miserable for her. When Grand Wizard Hellibore (Tim Curry) attends for Halloween, Mildred is sabotaged when doing precisions brook flying and embarasses the whole school.  Meanwhile, Miss Crackle's twin sister Agatha (also Charlotte Rae) plots to take over the school and turn everyone into toads.

Now, the cast certainly sounds first rate. I became a fan of Fairuza Balk for her performance in the criminally underrated Return to Oz. I've been a fan of Diana Rigg even longer, since The Avengers. Charlotte Rae was successful in The Facts of Life.** And Tim Curry is Tim Curry.

The problem is, it never works. 

The special effects are cheap and not charming. There's a lot of flying on broomsticks, but it's painfully obvious that they're in front of a green screen.  More importantly, the cast overacts and seems to think that a movie for children must be performed in the broadest way possible. Tim Curry appears in one scene (with a musical number) and then once more at the end to justify everything. Charlotte Rae as her evil twin overacts everything. Everything is resolved far too easily.

Book author Jill Murphy started it at age 15 and finished when she was 18, which does help account for the point of view. It was based upon her experiences in school and was published when she was 24.  It has been the basis for a series of books and various TV and stage adaptations. Not J.K. Rowling level, but very solid.

There are still some compensations. Fairuza Balk manages to perform well, keeping things centered while the others chew the scenery. I liked the fact that she was unable to get a black cat, so has a gray and white one she names "Tabby."

The title song, "Growing Up Isn't Easy," was written by Charles Strouse and Don Black. Strouse was a major Broadway composer, writing Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, Annie, and other hits.  The theme was sung by Bonnie Langford, a star in the West End and soon to be one of Doctor Who's companions. I think I spotted her in one of the scenes with a couple of lines, but can't find any confirmation of that.

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*It may be the first to include magic as part of it.

**I saw her live on stage in Leading Ladies with John Astin at Ford's Theater (yes, that Ford's Theater).

They Made Me a Killer

 (1946)
Directed by William C. Thomas
Written by Daniel Mainwaring, Winston Miller, Kae Salkow
Starring Robert Lowery, Barbara Britton, Lola Lane, Elisabeth Risdon
IMDB Entry

The title of They Made Me a Killer is clearly influenced by They Made me a Criminal of a few years earlier. While it certainly doesn't rise to the level of that classic, it is a pretty good programmer with a Hitchcockian theme of a man on the run because he's unjustly accused of a crime.

Tom Durling (Robert Lowrey) quits his job as an auto mechanic after his brother is killed in an accident. Driving west, he ends up in a small town and meets Betty Ford (Lola Lane), who asks for a ride in his car. They stop at a bank, and Durling realizes he's been forced into being the getaway driver for a bank robbery. One man, Steve Reynolds, is killed, but Durling is caught. Reynold's sister June (Barbara Britton) wants revenge on the criminals, so they join forces to track them down. A matchbook in Ford's belongings leads them to a diner. June gets a job, while Durling infiltrates the gang with an eye to bringing them to justice.

The movie creates as lot of suspense as we see the gang become suspicious of Durling and June and may discover they're both out to turn them in and clear their names. Also of interest is Ma Conley (Elisabeth Risdon), the diner owner who is the mastermind of the gang. 

The movie was produced by Pine-Thomas, which did B movies for Paramount. Most of the actors did little of note. Barbara Britton had a successful career in the 50s and missed out on being a TV icon when she was replaced in Head of the Family by Mary Tyler Moore when the show was revamped into The Dick Van Dyke Show. Robert Lowery was a success and worked regularly; his most famous role was the lead in the 1949 Batman and Robin serial. He also was a regular on the Circus Boy TV show.

Read The Cadaver Princess!

The Man Who Cheated Himself

 

(1950)
Directed by Felix E. Feist
Written by Seton Miller, Philip MacDonald.
Starring Lee J. Cobb, John Dall, Jane Wyatt, Lisa Howard. HarlanWade
IMDB Entry

A major defining factor of film noir is the femme fatale -- the woman who draws a man into crime with him having to suffer the consequences.  The Man Who Cheated Himself is an example of that genre, with a different twist throughout.

Lois Frazier (Jane Wyatt) is divorcing her husband Howard (Harlan Wade) to be with Ed Cullen (Lee J. Cobb). Howard leaves her to fly to Seattle, but he confronts her.  Lois shoots her husband.  Luckily for her, Ed is in another room at the time and is a homicide detective.  He goes to work to clean things up, moving the body and tossing the gun off the Golden Gate Bridge. Afterwards, he returns to headquarters to help mentor his younger brother Andy (John Dall), who is just starting out as a detective.  

The body is found near the airport, with witnesses seeing Ed's car.  It seems he was shot at the airport, where he was booked for a flight to Seattle.  But Andy finds a problem with the timeline.

To Ed's surprise, the gun is involved in another murder.  It had landed on the deck of a fishing boat passing underneath the bridge.  Ed and Andy find the culprit and Ed says the murders are connected.  But Andy is not sure.

The tension in the movie is between the two brothers. Ed dismisses Andy's observations, saying that he is too new to the job and jumps to conclusions.  It's a nice little game of cat and mouse because Andy won't be put off the track. 

Jane Wyatt is a surprising choice for a femme fatale. She was known to play wholesome roles, and this was a bit out of her range, though it helps that she is not in most of the scenes until the finale.

Felix E. Feist was a busy director in the 40s and is father of fantasy author Raymond E. Feist.