Bobs Watson Died For Our Sins!
December 10th, 2009 by Scott Marks
Trust me. There’s somthing coming that’ll take his mind off those pies.
Tonight was the night I finally dusted off a copy of Michael Curtiz’s “Dodge City” (1939) that I bought used a year ago and never watched. It’s a gorgeous Technicolor restoration and one that’s much truer to form than the over-saturated “Family Classics” print WGN ran or the 16mm CRI screened by Doc Films some time in the late 70s. Dye transfer 16mm prints of the early Warners Technicolor productions are next to impossible to find. At least they once existed. There are no 16mm dye transfer prints of DeMille’s early color films. Paramount never struck any. Same goes for Fleischer’s trio of Popeye Color Classics.
“Dodge City” is a rousing good time of a western. Errol Flynn stars as a wild Irish rover who helped to build the railroad by slaughtering buffalo to feed construction workers. Flynn turns down countless offers to take charge of Dodge and the town quickly descends into a corrupt hellhole filled with iniquity and vile affections. And there was rioting and drunkeness for they had become servants of sin.
Flynn witnesses all forms of human brutality and still refuses to officially sign on the dotted line and do his part to civilize Dodge City. It isn’t until an elfin tot gets in the cross-fire that Flynn finally agrees to take up as the top cop in America’s most dangerous city c.1866. Does he do it to impress a chick? After killing Olivia de Havilland’s brother, it’s safe to say that he got her attention. Flynn picks up a badge in order to avenge the death of a 7-year old ham.
This privileged moment cum cheap sentimental plot device is the film’s turning point. After exploiting reels of wanton slaughter, screenwriter Robert Bruckner stoops to child murder as a means to convince Flynn to finally give in. The death of Flynn’s horse-hitching little pal Harry (played by flaming ragamuffin Bobs Watson) is probably the single most heinous and brutal act the Production Code would allow filmmakers to use in post-Will Hays Hollywood.
Watson’s public demise at the hands of Bruce Cabot and a particularly brutal Victor Jory is the last straw that moves Flynn, the wild western town’s sole voice of reason, give or take some personal commitment issues, to finally clean up the slop and the garbage on the streets of Dodge City.
The horror! The horror!
In college I Minor-ed in Watson and wrote my thesis paper on brother Bobs. Watching mealy-mouthed Bobs Watson (”Boys Town,” The Story of Alexander Graham Bell,” “On Borrowed Time,” “Men of Boys Town”), the most unctuous and cloyingly sentimental child star of the 1930s, get dragged to his death through the streets of Dodge is a moment of justifyable infanticide to devoutly cherish. Worthy of Jules White! I practically broke my A/B switch.
Bobs was almost taken to his reward after being mowed down by a speeding car in “Boys Town.” Tragically, he lived to star in a wretched sequel. In “Dodge City” Bobs Watson dies for your sins. It’s the greatest moment of cinematic comeuppance this side of George Minafer Amberson. After all the saccharine pus he put us through in the 1930s, the little runt finally got what’s coming to him.
Kids? Killing kids in a Hollywood movie a scant six years after the production code became law?!? How did Will Hays stand for it? After all, killin’ kids is a terrible thing to put in pictures for decent folk. Now we can all plainly see that….except of course when it’s reduced to a cheap transitional device used for cloyingly manipulative reasons.
Brilliant stunt work by Stooge regular A. Ragdahl.
Join me as we cheer on the horses!
Tags: bobs watson, child film dies, dodge city, errol flynn, michael curtiz, Movie, Video, warner bros., WesternFiled Under Rants
Walt Disney and Bob Clampett recycled
April 7th, 2009 by Scott Marks
Former student and current Facebook friend Julie Mynatt sent me this meticulously researched and assembled comparison reel showing how later day Disney raped the bones of Uncle Walt. Go to YouTube and search “Disney Deja Vu.” You’ll be surprised to see just how much of this stuff there is.
The Jungle Book (1967) was Walt’s swan song, the last animated feature he personally oversaw from beginning to end. Disney gave the green light to The Aristocats (1970) which turned out to be the studio’s first animated feature to be released after his death. You’ll notice that none of the reused footage appears in a film that Disney signed off on. He would never let reused animation sully a production he personally supervised. Honestly, I have never seen The Aristocats or Robin Hood (1973). They opened at a time in my upbringing when it was hip to reject cartoons in favor of trying to sneak into R rated pictures. Even with the voices of Phil Harris and Pat Buttram, these clips may have forever scared me off these two pictures.
Legend has it that without Walt to guide them, Robin Hood quickly went over budget and the studio had to cut corners. That is what probably motivated the tracings of cels past. The same can’t be said of Robert Clampett. Clampett was the star student who didn’t apply himself. Instead of spending the entire week on a homework assignment, Clampett wrote seven of the ten assigned pages and the night before it was do plagiarized the rest. While the folks at Disney were working under sudden budget restraints, Clampett was just plain lazy. He’s still my favorite animator in the Warner Bros. stable, but some of what follows is uncalled for.
WARNING: Much of what follows is politically incorrect. It reflects past thinking, not contemporary society. I hope…
Tags: bob clampett, disney cartoons, Looney Tunes, merrie melodies, recycled animation, reused animation, robert clampett, robin hood, the aristocats, the jungle book, Walt Disney, warner bros., warner bros. cartoons, warner brothers cartoonsFiled Under Rants
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