Anti-Cigarette ads began with PSA’s brought to us by the American Cancer Society in the late 1960s. They were considered controversial at the time, as was putting warning labels on cigarette packages, a practice which started in 1965. It’s astounding to me that sixty years later the damn things still
We tend to think of the evolution of the title sequence as moving from a simple series of cards with actors names on them (sometimes splashed up a little with caricaturist representations of the actors), gradually becoming more dramatic, exotic or even story-heavy as the years progressed. But back in
Behold this gorgeous title sequence for ‘Two For The Seesaw’ (1962), starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley McLaine. We’re are in prime, early 60s New York City watching Robert Mitchum do pretty much nothing but walk around, staring impassively at various views and things and somehow conveying everything you can’t write
‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975) is on my short–very short–list of movies I can watch at any time. The credit sequence, setting up a hot New York city summer, is masterfully realized and uses very simple footage, much of which I’m guessing was culled from stock. The flavor of the various
‘Odds Against Tomorrow'(1959) is a generally overlooked crime caper noir starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley and directed by Robert Wise. The film has much to recommend it, including the above title sequence which is hardly what one might expect for a jazz-infused, urban noir tragedy. Instead of
No, this didn’t really air despite the YouTube posters claim that it did. But Ralph Williams, a major west-coast used car hustler, loved a good gag-reel and clearly this take was made after the commercial proper was in the can. The dogs on the hood are a brilliant touch. And
Do you remember in Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” the looks on the faces of the audience members as they watched ‘Springtime For Hitler” unfold? That reaction is roughly the same as the one you’ll likely be having as you watch some of the most unbearably awful, insensitive and hilariously dated
Behold the magical cereal known as ‘Grape Nuts’. I’m a fan but must admit to understanding why the nutty, fiber-heavy, kind of weird/bitter and hard to chew and swallow cereal is not for everyone. As an acquired taste it’s attracted wildly disparate fans and who could be more wildly disparate
‘Fox Movietone Follies of 1929’–sometimes referred to as ” Movietone Follies of 1929 and The William Fox Movietone Follies of 1929–is a lost film. Or is it? Wildly successful upon its release in the spring of 1929–a year of true American madness, peaking that summer and soon to collapse in the fall–the film
Here’s a dandy reel of deeply offensive television commercials from the 1970s. There’s loads of chauvinism, sexual harassment, mockery of Native Americans to go around, and cameos made by convicted rapist Bill Cosby and convicted murderer O.J. Simpson do not help matters. The female stockings commercials would make Benny Hill