Flicker Flashbacks No. 3, Series 2

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Richard Fleischer would gather up a few reels of early-days silent films, usually directed by D. W. Griffith, grab a film editor, write some tongue-in-cheek narrative to be spoken by Ward Wi... Read allRichard Fleischer would gather up a few reels of early-days silent films, usually directed by D. W. Griffith, grab a film editor, write some tongue-in-cheek narrative to be spoken by Ward Wilson, chop out a few scenes, stitch them together, and come out with a new edition in RKO ... Read allRichard Fleischer would gather up a few reels of early-days silent films, usually directed by D. W. Griffith, grab a film editor, write some tongue-in-cheek narrative to be spoken by Ward Wilson, chop out a few scenes, stitch them together, and come out with a new edition in RKO Radio's Flicker Flashbacks series of shorts. Just like this one.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.9/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
Two episodes are contained within the short; their titles are:
The MAN IN HER PAST ... or ... Return of the Varmint
The PROSPECTOR'S DAUGHTER ------- or ------- She Relented at Last

Connections
Features The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch (1912)

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Review

Featured review

4/10

Your Grandfather's Mustache

This is an early directorial credit for Richard Fleischer, a fine director of film noir. He spent the last ten years of his life working to get the early, unappreciated work of his father and uncle, silent cartoons like Ko-Ko the Clown and early sound cartoons like Betty Boop, available for people who could see how great they are. And here he is, making fun of other early film makers' work. Well, it was a job.

This "stitch together early silent movies and make fun of them" genre of shorts was something most of the studios did. The best of the lot was the Goofy Movie series from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which had the advantage of Pete Smith's snarky narration. The rest fall into the "Our grandparents were dumb" viewpoint. It's an attitude that persists to the present day, particularly in the fine arts. Certainly it's good for new artists to have something to say that hasn't been said before in that particular way, but the attitude shown here quickly becomes tiresome; at least, it becomes tiresome when the art you grew up with and still love gets the same treatment.

Eventually, if the art is really good, it gets a further reappraisal. Here's my reappraisal of this movie: it's poor; far worse than the movies it makes fun of.