culturevulture04

Can someone help me out? I missed the title of the musical short that was shown as a One-Reel Wonder tonight. It was shown after Scarface and before Gold Diggers of 1935. It was set in a college, and had some wacky songs and dances, including a girl singing a song about her hometown of Springfield, in which she lamented not knowing what state it was in, and a dance number done by a girls' basketball team. The end titles identified it as a "Broadway Brevity" and a Warners Vitaphone production, but I missed the beginning, so I don't know the name of the short, or the cast. It was black and white and looked like it was from the 30s. If you can help, thanks!

I think films and cartoons should be shown in their original form, and that censoring them so that they are more compatible to modern sensibilities is a huge mistake. Part of these films' importance is the social and cultural realities they reflected. Censoring them very often breaks up the pace and the rhythm, which ruins their effects. Worse, it gives us a false, sanitized picture of the social realities of the time when they were made. That said, racial stereotypes in a film bother me a lot. They distract me from focusing on what the filmmaker is trying to say and cause me to focus on racial issues, which was not the filmmaker's original intention. It is painful to see African-American and Asian-American caricatured and portrayed as less than human. The stereotyping is also often at odds with the ostensible message of the story. For example, in the Barbara Stanwyck/Fred MacMurray film Remember the Night, MacMurray is portrayed as a hero and a really great guy. Yet he humiliates his African-American servant. As a result, I wonder - does the MacMurray character have a hidden cruel streak, and will Stanwyck eventually suffer for it? I stop liking the MacMurray character, and so my enjoyment of the movie suffers. And this is not at all what the filmmakers intended. There are some films I just can't watch anymore, Gone with the Wind being one. I'm well aware that, in the racism department, GWTW is nowhere near as bad as Birth of a Nation, but I personally find the racial stereotyping to be offensive. I've studied history, and knowing what I do about the realities of slavery and the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, I can't stomach the romanticized, nostalgiac view of a society that was so deeply racist. As for comparing the racial stereotyping of Asian- and African-Americans to those of Italian-Americans in films like The Godfather - well, there is no comparison! The Corleone family is depicted as flawed but heroic - not as mindless buffoons or one-dimensional villains. And though strong prejudice against Italian-Americans and other immigrant groups certainly existed in this country, it is nowhere near what Asian-Americans, and, especially, African-Americans have suffered. Italian-Americans were never enslaved, and there were no Italian-American Exclusion Acts. And BTW, I say that as an Italian-American who is proud of my heritage! Thanks for starting this topic, Ike - it's a fascinating one. I know a lot of people will disagree with what I've said, but the tone of this thread so far has mostly been civil and respectful, and I hope I've succeeded in keeping it that way.

Mark me down as another fan of Cabin in the Sky. The racial stereotyping in the film is sometimes embarrassing, but it's still a great musical. It's got terrific songs like "Happiness is Just a Thing Called Joe," wonderfully vivid directing and set design by Vincent Minnelli, as well as one of the most amazing casts in musical history - Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, the spectacular dancer John "Bubbles" Sublett, and many more. Unfortunately, those great African-American performers got few chances to show their stuff in movie musicals. This was one of their few opportunities to really shine. If you've never seen this one, you should definitely catch it next time it's on.

Did you know that you can access some - not all - webpages that are no longer online? Visit the Wayback Machine at this site: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. You can search either by typing in the address or by typing in search terms. You won't find everything you're looking for, but you may be able to find some stuff. I've found this site to be very helpful at times. Good luck!

I'm a grad student and a film programmer for my university film society, which I enjoy tremendously. When I'm trying to track down hard-to-find prints, I've dealt with film archives, such as the ones at the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. I've often thought it would be wonderful to work in one of those archives. I'm sure those jobs are very tough to get, but it might be worth looking into. Also, you might want to see how one becomes a programmer for a repertory film house, such as the Film Forum in NYC or the Gene Siskel in Chicago. Or for TCM, for that matter! Best of luck, whatever you wind up doing. P.S. In spite of my love of films, my academic area is the social sciences, so my career path will not involve film - much as I enjoy being involved in it.

I just wanted to voice my strong support for Logohater. I, too, detest it when TCM, or any other station, posts its logo during a program. It's distracting and decreases the pleasure I get from the show. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been during Day of Wrath, if, as Logohater says, it stayed on for 30 minutes and interfered with the subtitles. What do you think Carl Theodor Dreyer - or, for that matter, any other film artist - would have to say about the logo? I am sure they would detest it, since it mucks up the compositions and visual effects they worked so hard to create. This idea that we should be "grateful" for TCM - what is up with that? TCM doesn't do what they do out of the goodness of their hearts - they are a business, after all! We are customers who pay for a service, and we have every right to complain if that service does not meet our expectations. I have a deep respect for free enterprise, but branding, logos, and corporate domination of all our lives has gotten way, way out of control. Read Naomi Klein's book No Logo for an excellent treatment of this topic. Stay Free! magazine - http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/ - is also a great resource for critiques of advertising and consumer culture. That said, I love TCM and think they do a mostly outstanding job.