Leon is upset that his wife has been out winning jitterbug contests, gets drunk and decides to take lessons. When he's mistaken for the instructor by a group of newbie dancers, hilarity ensues. Stick this one out... The payoff at the end is the fulfillment one of the best comedy setups ever.
Reviews
4 Reviews
The Jitters
(1938)
One of the funniest bits in two-reel sound comedy
7 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I'm from Arkansas
(1944)
Les Paul's partner Mary Ford appears in three songs
28 January 2008
This film is not quite a classic, but it did have one delightful surprise for me.
Iris Colleen Summers, aka Mary Ford, Les Paul's singing partner, is about 20 years old in this film and sings in three songs as one of the Sunshine Girls trio for Jimmy Wakely's band. She has a brief solo in the first song. It was her only film appearance before working with Les Paul.
Les Paul and Mary Ford had numerous top ten hits in the early 1950s, including "How High the Moon" and "Tiger Rag".
Otherwise, this film includes a couple examples of Cliff Nazarro's famous doubletalk and two delightful yodeling songs from Carolina Cotton.
I'd say the music takes a front seat to the comedy here.
Iris Colleen Summers, aka Mary Ford, Les Paul's singing partner, is about 20 years old in this film and sings in three songs as one of the Sunshine Girls trio for Jimmy Wakely's band. She has a brief solo in the first song. It was her only film appearance before working with Les Paul.
Les Paul and Mary Ford had numerous top ten hits in the early 1950s, including "How High the Moon" and "Tiger Rag".
Otherwise, this film includes a couple examples of Cliff Nazarro's famous doubletalk and two delightful yodeling songs from Carolina Cotton.
I'd say the music takes a front seat to the comedy here.
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
(2001)
Hugely entertaining film for low-budget classic sci-fi and humor fans
2 August 2004
10/10 rating
Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is a remarkable little film that recreates the look and feel of old low-budget black and white sci fi films, but it has a refreshing spirit all its own that is smart and silly at the same time. You've never seen a film like this before. It's the best new film I've seen in years.
Lost Skeleton is fun in its own right because it takes the archetypes of sci fi and its cliché's and mixes them together to make something that is more entertaining than straight parody.
Those who look at Lost Skeleton as only parody or a recreation of old movies are missing Blamire's unique accomplishment. It's a mixture of late 50's pompousness and innocence with modern perspective and grace.
Done in good taste that reflects the boy-scout best of the 50's genre, the movie is unlike anything else that Hollywood or indies are putting out. It's refreshing, inviting, friendly, goofy, and true to a singular vision.
I've seen it now with four different small audiences, and for the most part everyone has enjoyed it immensely. You need to view this film with a group to get the most out of it--it's easily the most quotable movie I've ever seen. Blamire's sense of those delightfully absurd pitfalls many sci-fi writers have fallen into time and again is uncanny. Halfway between Shakespeare and Ed Wood, almost every line of dialogue is a wooden comic gem laced with a sense of sweetness rather than mean-spiritedness. It's hard to tell where the parody ends and the celebration of these loftily ambitious lines begins.
This makes the film a joy to watch again and again. Blamire is hitting something deeper than a stiff sci-fi parody, and his touch makes this a much greater film than on the surface it has any right to be.
I predict that Lost Skeleton will go the way of Young Frankenstein and establish itself as a comedy classic over the next couple of decades. It's just that good. Perhaps indescribably good, but I did my best.
Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is a remarkable little film that recreates the look and feel of old low-budget black and white sci fi films, but it has a refreshing spirit all its own that is smart and silly at the same time. You've never seen a film like this before. It's the best new film I've seen in years.
Lost Skeleton is fun in its own right because it takes the archetypes of sci fi and its cliché's and mixes them together to make something that is more entertaining than straight parody.
Those who look at Lost Skeleton as only parody or a recreation of old movies are missing Blamire's unique accomplishment. It's a mixture of late 50's pompousness and innocence with modern perspective and grace.
Done in good taste that reflects the boy-scout best of the 50's genre, the movie is unlike anything else that Hollywood or indies are putting out. It's refreshing, inviting, friendly, goofy, and true to a singular vision.
I've seen it now with four different small audiences, and for the most part everyone has enjoyed it immensely. You need to view this film with a group to get the most out of it--it's easily the most quotable movie I've ever seen. Blamire's sense of those delightfully absurd pitfalls many sci-fi writers have fallen into time and again is uncanny. Halfway between Shakespeare and Ed Wood, almost every line of dialogue is a wooden comic gem laced with a sense of sweetness rather than mean-spiritedness. It's hard to tell where the parody ends and the celebration of these loftily ambitious lines begins.
This makes the film a joy to watch again and again. Blamire is hitting something deeper than a stiff sci-fi parody, and his touch makes this a much greater film than on the surface it has any right to be.
I predict that Lost Skeleton will go the way of Young Frankenstein and establish itself as a comedy classic over the next couple of decades. It's just that good. Perhaps indescribably good, but I did my best.
Queen of the Amazons
(1946)
Good fun for cheapie movie fans
2 August 2004
Queen of the Amazons is an ambitious low-budget hoot.
Because the production staff tried to make the most of its resources, it's actually for the most part a reasonably paced film with plenty of fun things to see behind the director's curtain. You get silly dialogue, narration written after the movie was shot, a boom mike dropping into view, an artsy silhouetted villain, the sharpshooting female lead who is suddenly helpless with a gun when her beloved is being attacked, and acres of stock footage.
It appears that large portions of the film were written around the most interesting stock footage they could find, both in India and Africa. The Indian stuff is unnecessary to the plot, other than they had the neat footage, or so it seems. But watching them try to write around all of the unrelated (but somewhat intriguing) material is great fun.
The climactic fight scene has one of the most delightfully difficult-to-follow brawls I've ever seen, because the villain looks nothing like his stunt double and looks an awful lot like the other stunt double! Time and again they cut in to a closeup with the regular actors and I was surprised, thinking that the villain was the other guy in the long shots!
There are a couple of unique characterizations as well mixed in among the cliché's, including the Queen herself, a low-key 40s starlet with an accent, and a pre-beat period poetry-spouting cook.
The trained animals are quite good and have a bit of fun footage, including a playful tiger who does a couple of great romps on some stunt doubles.
I saw this movie as part of the 50 Sci Fi(!) Classics DVD collection from Treeline, which is a low-budget and IMDb low-rated movie fan's dream.
Enjoy!
Because the production staff tried to make the most of its resources, it's actually for the most part a reasonably paced film with plenty of fun things to see behind the director's curtain. You get silly dialogue, narration written after the movie was shot, a boom mike dropping into view, an artsy silhouetted villain, the sharpshooting female lead who is suddenly helpless with a gun when her beloved is being attacked, and acres of stock footage.
It appears that large portions of the film were written around the most interesting stock footage they could find, both in India and Africa. The Indian stuff is unnecessary to the plot, other than they had the neat footage, or so it seems. But watching them try to write around all of the unrelated (but somewhat intriguing) material is great fun.
The climactic fight scene has one of the most delightfully difficult-to-follow brawls I've ever seen, because the villain looks nothing like his stunt double and looks an awful lot like the other stunt double! Time and again they cut in to a closeup with the regular actors and I was surprised, thinking that the villain was the other guy in the long shots!
There are a couple of unique characterizations as well mixed in among the cliché's, including the Queen herself, a low-key 40s starlet with an accent, and a pre-beat period poetry-spouting cook.
The trained animals are quite good and have a bit of fun footage, including a playful tiger who does a couple of great romps on some stunt doubles.
I saw this movie as part of the 50 Sci Fi(!) Classics DVD collection from Treeline, which is a low-budget and IMDb low-rated movie fan's dream.
Enjoy!
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