#794) John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946)

#794) John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946)

OR “Sage Against the Machine”

Directed by George Pal

Written by Latham Ovens & Robert Monroe

Class of 2015

The Plot: The legendary “steel-driving man” of folk lore comes to the big screen in “John Henry and the Inky-Poo”. Born a fully grown man, John Henry (voice by Rex Ingram) goes working on the railroad (presumably all the live long day), hammering steel rails into the track more powerfully than any other man on the job. One day, the railroad workers are threatened by the appearance of a steam engine (an “inky-poo”) that can do their job in a fraction of the time. But John Henry, believing that a man can beat any machine, challenges the inky-poo to a steel-driving contest. George Pal’s classic Puppetoons series brings this beloved tale to life in one of the first animated shorts to showcase African-Americans in a positive light.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up gives context on both John Henry the legend and “John Henry” the film. There’s also a quote from Ebony that praises the “dignity, imagination, poetry, and love” the short gives to the John Henry legend.

But Does It Really?: Longtime readers may recall that this is the second Puppetoon short I’ve covered on this blog, the first was “Tulips Shall Grow” way back in 2017. On its own, “John Henry” is an engaging short and another great encapsulation of Puppetoon’s unique stop-motion aesthetic, but its NFR standing begs the question: Do we really need two of these shorts on the list? I dunno, it just feels like overkill. Then again, we have multiple cartoons on the list from the big dogs at Disney and Warner Bros., so why not a second Puppetoon? I’ll give “John Henry” a pass for its positive-in-its-day representation of African-Americans and get on with this post.

Seriously, Oscars?: “John Henry” received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short, losing to the Tom & Jerry short “The Cat Concerto”, which is still widely considered one of the best animated shorts of all time (plagiarism issues aside, but that’s another story). The “John Henry” nomination was the sixth of George Pal’s seven consecutive nominations in the category, and although he never won an Oscar, he did receive a special plaque from the Academy in 1944 for his Puppetoons series.

Other notes 

  • Like many folk tales, the origins of John Henry are unknown. It’s unclear if John Henry was even a real person, though there have been a few attempts over the years to determine the real John Henry and the location of his famous contest. In fact, this short references the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway – “the C&O line” – and the Big Bend Tunnel in Talcott, West Virginia, one of many towns that have claimed to host John Henry’s race against the steam engine. While the folk tale of John Henry had existed since the late 1800s, it had seen a resurgence during WWII, when Henry’s image was used by the U.S. government to demonstrate man’s dominance over machines.
  • The “John Henry” short came to be because of the controversy over another Puppetoon short. Starting in 1942, there was a series of Puppetoons featuring the character Jasper, who was essentially every negative African-American stereotype rolled into one. (The first one is called “Jasper and the Watermelons”. ‘nuff said). This led to outcry from multiple Black organizations, including the magazine Ebony. Puppetoons creator George Pal addressed these concerns by making “John Henry and the Inky-Poo”, and insisting on all of the voices being provided by African-American talent. Despite this progressive stance, Pal still made a handful of Jasper shorts after the release of “John Henry”.
  • The short begins with a scene that doesn’t seem to be in any of version of the folk tale: the birth of John Henry. Weirdly enough in this version, John Henry is born a full-blown adult! Where is this coming from?
  • Shoutout to Rex Ingram, lending his powerful voice to both John Henry and the narrator. Ingram’s film career consisted mainly of the minor, stereotype-ridden roles that most Black actors had to make do with in the ‘30s and ‘40s, but thankfully his NFR representation shows off more of his talents (I remember liking his work as the devil in “Cabin in the Sky”).
  • The short’s only other verified performer is Lillian Randolph as John Henry’s Ma. Randolph was primarily a voice-over actor, most notably as the voice of Mammy Two-Shoes, the unseen Black stereotype that bookended countless Tom & Jerry shorts. This is one of two NFR appearances for Randolph; she’s also Annie, the Bailey’s housekeeper, in “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
  • “John Henry” is in the “two steps forward, one step back” school of Black representation in film. Sure, it’s an overall positive and empowering depiction, but we still get plenty of cringe-inducing dialogue that wouldn’t fly 80 years later. Also not helping matters is the fact that the animators clearly used the same head mold for every character, meaning that every Black character in this movie literally looks alike. Yeesh.
  • I really don’t know that much about the John Henry legend, so imagine my surprise when [Spoilers] he dies immediately after winning the race. The film tries to end on a positive note, saying that the legend of John Henry will never die, but still, quite the surprising downer for anyone unfamiliar with the tale.
  • “A man can do anything a machine can do, if a man only has a mind to do it.” We may need that moral today even more than we did in 1946.

Legacy 

  • “John Henry and the Inky-Poo” was released in September 1946, receiving critical praise and the aforementioned Oscar nomination. George Pal had originally intended to do more Puppetoon shorts based on other American folk tales, including Casey Jones and Johnny Appleseed, but I suspect the series’ increasing budget issues led to not only these shorts being cancelled, but also the end of the series (the last Puppetoon were released in 1947).
  • There are countless retellings of the John Henry legend in every art form imaginable, but I’ll give a shoutout to this episode of “Shelley Duvall’s American Tall Tales & Legends” with Danny Glover as John Henry.
  • I’ve covered George Pal/Puppetoons in greater detail in my “Tulips Shall Grow” post, but I will take this time to remind you that George Pal would go on to produce the sci-fi movie “When Worlds Collide”, which earned him a name drop in the song “Science Fiction Double Feature” at the beginning of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

#793) V-E + 1 (1945)

#793) V-E +1 (1945)

Directed by Samuel Fuller

Class of 2014

While “V-E + 1” isn’t available for viewing on its own, the footage was incorporated into the 1988 Emil Weiss documentary “Falkenau, vision de l’impossible” [aka “Falkenau, The Impossible”], which can be viewed here.

Before he was a maverick filmmaker, Samuel Fuller was a budding screenwriter who joined the Army once the United States entered World War II, serving with the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. On May 8th, 1945, two days before Victory in Europe Day (aka V-E Day) and the official end of the war, Fuller and his infantry liberated a German concentration camp in Falkenau, Czechoslovakia. Once the fighting ended, Fuller’s commanding officer ordered Fuller to grab his 16mm Bell & Howell movie camera (a gift from Fuller’s mother) and start filming. In roughly 20 minutes of black-and-white footage, Fuller documents the citizens of Falkenau (many of whom denied any knowledge of the camp’s existence) going into the camp and, upon military orders, picking up the dead bodies of the prisoners, dressing them, loading them onto a large wagon, taking the wagon across town to the cemetery, and giving the prisoners a proper burial. Reflecting on it over 40 years later, Fuller described the experience as “an impossible nightmare I’ll never forget”.

As of this writing, “V-E + 1” is the last NFR entry I’m covering about WWII, and without intending it, the film works as a somber coda to all the other NFR WWII films. After years of watching manipulative propaganda and fictionalized rabble rousing, “V-E + 1” provides a rare glimpse at what happens after a war. No celebrations, no triumphant music, just silent footage of survivors being forced to bury the dead. It was a sobering viewing experience for me; witnessing the weight of what was happening, as well as reflecting on everything I’ve learned about WWII in the last nine years of this blog. “V-E + 1” makes its case for NFR inclusion loud and clear, and I’m glad it has been inducted alongside its more patriotic contemporaries.

Why It Matters: No superlatives in the NFR write-up, just historical context, though there is mention of Fuller’s later filmography that “forced audiences to confront challenging societal issues”.

Other notes 

  • I fully recommend watching the “V-E + 1” footage within the “Falkenau, The Impossible” documentary. While the footage itself is silent, it is presented within the documentary with running commentary from Samuel Fuller himself, chomping on his ever-present cigar and providing crucial context to the footage; giving names to the anonymous soldiers onscreen and reflecting on this traumatic moment in his life/world history. He also revisits the site of the concentration camp in what is now Sokolov, Czech Republic, vividly recalling the attack on the camp before he started filming. As powerful as the footage is on its own, having Fuller’s insight makes it all the more impactful.

Legacy 

  • After the war, Samuel Fuller returned to Hollywood to continue his writing career. He eventually became a director, helming two more future NFR films: “Pickup on South Street” and “Shock Corridor”. Fuller would not make a movie about his wartime experience until 1980’s “The Big Red One”, which included a reenactment of the Falkenau concentration camp’s liberation. This experience led to Fuller finding and preserving the original 16mm footage now known as “V-E + 1”, which he dubbed “my first movie”.

#792) Compensation (1999)

#792) Compensation (1999)

OR “What’s Your Sign?”

Directed by Zeinabu irene Davis

Written by Marc Arthur Chéry

Class of 2024

The Plot: Inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem of the same name, “Compensation” tells two love stories in two different time periods about African-Americans in Chicago, both between a deaf woman and a hearing man. In 1910, educated Malindy (Michelle A. Banks) teaches illiterate migrant worker Arthur (John Earl Jelks) how to read, and falls in love with him, despite her friends and family insisting that Arthur is beneath her. In 1993, librarian Nico (also John Earl Jelks) learns ASL to woo free-spirited Malaika (also Michelle A. Banks), who doesn’t date hearing men. As foretold in the Dunbar poem, the “boon of Death” comes for both of our couples; Arthur contracting tuberculosis in 1910, and Malaika living with an HIV/AIDS diagnosis in 1993. But “Compensation” transcends its slightly melodramatic story beats to paint a unique portrait of being Black and deaf on either side of the 20th century.

Why It Matters: No superlatives from the NFR write-up, other than the film’s “unusual narrative approach”. The write-up is primarily a rehash of the story, with some additional context from NFPB chairwoman (and TCM mainstay) Jacqueline Stewart. Points deducted, however, from the write-up for misspelling screenwriter Marc Chéry’s first name. There’s also an interview with Zeinabu Davis conducted by the Library of Congress, plus a photo of Davis and Chéry celebrating their NFR induction.

But Does It Really?: As always, I’m looking for NFR titles that stand on their own unique piece of ground, and “Compensation” more than fits the bill. Unlike a lot of noisier NFR entries, “Compensation” is a quiet, contemplative movie; the kind of stripped down character study I’m always fond of, especially when it’s this well made. With its original perspective of the Black deaf community and its parallel timeline aesthetics (all masterfully shot in black and white), “Compensation” tells its story beautifully and compassionately. A yes for “Compensation”, the kind of underrated film the NFR has helped to highlight and celebrate through the years.

Shout Outs: Davis has cited fellow L.A. Rebellion/NFR movies “Daughters of the Dust” and “Killer of Sheep” as influences on this film. And thanks to a brief sequence of Nico and Malaika deciding which movie to see, we get glimpses of what was playing at your local movie theater in 1993, including “Jurassic Park” and a re-release of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (which I saw!).

Everybody Gets One: Originally intending to earn a master’s degree in African studies, Zeinabu irene Davis would get an MFA in film and video production from UCLA in 1989. As part of the second wave of African-American filmmakers in UCLA’s famous L.A. Rebellion, Davis’ initial short films centered around the hardships of Black women in both the past and present, with such titles as “Cycles” and “A Period Piece”. “Compensation” was Davis’ first feature film, a collaboration with her husband, Marc Arthur Chéry, whom Davis met when they were both students at UCLA. And yes, the I in Davis’ middle name irene isn’t capitalized. I don’t know why, but if e e cummings can do it, so can she.

Title Track: As mentioned throughout the movie, the title comes from the 1906 poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, who is described within the film as “America’s Negro Poet Laureate” of the early 1900s. The text of the poem is displayed and spoken throughout the film, including a version set to music and interpretive dance!

Seriously, Oscars?: Although “Compensation” was filmed in 1993, it would not be completed and screened until 1999. The film got a handful of festival prizes, and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature (Under $500,000), losing to…oh man, really? [Deep exhale] It lost to “The Blair Witch Project”. Yeah, I don’t like that any more than you do.

Other notes

  • “Compensation” came to be when Marc Chéry read the Dunbar poem (he was living near Dayton, Ohio at the time, where the historical Paul Laurence Dunbar House is located). At around the same time, Zeinabu Davis was working on a short called “A Powerful Thang”, in which dancer Asma Feyijinmi candidly talked about the loss of her friends and colleagues to HIV/AIDS. Davis and Chéry were intrigued by the parallels of the modern AIDS crisis and Dunbar’s death from tuberculosis at age 33, and Chéry started developing a screenplay about two love stories dealing with these two diseases.
  • While attending a grant panel in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Davis and Chéry saw a production of “Waiting for Godot” featuring local deaf actor Michelle A. Banks. They were so impressed with Banks’ performance, they approached her about starring in “Compensation”. Once she accepted the part, the entire script was re-written to include Banks’ experiences as a deaf person. Neither Davis nor Chéry had any personal experience with the deaf community, and immediately began conducting research, including spending time with the Black Deaf Advocates in Chicago. It blows my mind that this film’s deaf elements were not in the original screenplay. It’s a completely different (and arguably inferior) movie without them.
  • Speaking of research, you can tell that Davis and Chéry did a lot of it to present the 1910 sequences authentically. Due to budget constraints, very few locations could be dressed up to look period appropriate, so archival photos are used throughout to establish time and place. That explains why so many libraries and archives are thanked in the end credits.
  • The story of Malindy being segregated and eventually expelled from Kendall School of the Deaf is based on actual events that happened to the school’s Black students. This is one of the film’s rare instances of acknowledging the racism directed at our characters in either timeline. To be fair, this movie clearly isn’t interested in being about the struggles of Black characters living in a White world, but rather about the struggles of deaf characters living in a hearing world.
  • Non-verbal characters on a beach; does Holly Hunter show up in this? Oh no, am I gonna have to see Harvey Keitel naked again?
  • Both of our leading actors are terrific in their dual roles: appropriately restrained in 1910, more open and affectionate in 1993. Banks in particular is captivating, with her characters’ obvious lack of dialogue being supplemented by her effective body language and facial expressions. Speaking of, it’s good to know that between Malindy and Makaila, the eye-roll has existed for literal centuries.
  • John Earl Jelks is also quite good in this. It helps that Nico has a genuinely great rapport with the kids at the library, which will always endear me to any movie character. You can’t fake that.
  • Marc Chéry is a public librarian by trade, so of course the handsome leading man in his screenplay works as a librarian. Coincidentally, Chéry briefly worked for Dr. Carla Hayden when she was the acting head of the Chicago Public Library. It’s all connected!
  • Davis has stated that her favorite scene to shoot was the recreation of “The Railroad Porter”, the silent film Arthur and Malindy view at a local nickelodeon. “The Railroad Porter” was an actual silent film from 1912, allegedly the first with an all-Black cast and crew. Sadly, “The Railroad Porter” is a lost film, but Davis was able to faithfully reenact the film thanks to a detailed synopsis she found in her research. As you can imagine, this small part of the movie was the primary focus in the Library of Congress’ press release when “Compensation” made the NFR, to the point where I assumed it was a bigger part of the movie. Nope, just this one scene.
  • A shout out to R. Kelly on the radio? Noooooo! This movie was doing so well.
  • I didn’t know about the illness story beats going in, but I knew we were in trouble once Arthur started coughing. You don’t cough that loudly in a love story without it coming back later.
  • Among the films Mailaika and Nico consider seeing is “Sleepless in Seattle”, which I’m still surprised isn’t on the NFR. Speaking of other movies, later on Nico is at the L train station sitting in front of a poster for “Son in Law”, which I assume is the closest Pauly Shore will ever get to making the NFR.
  • The version of “Compensation” currently available through Criterion does an excellent job with the subtitles, which were supervised by Davis and Chéry for this release. Rather than just being standard closed captioning, the subtitles harken back to silent movie intertitles; fading in and out at different speeds, with occasional changes in font for emphasis. These choices help make the subtitles a part of the film viewing experience rather than any sort of distracting mandated accessibility.
  • Admittedly the film lost me a bit towards the end, when Malaika and Nico separate and Nico goes on a spiritual journey to connect with his African roots. It’s all just ambiguous enough that I couldn’t figure out what was happening, but Davis has said in interviews that she purposefully left this plot line’s ending up to viewer interpretation. So…well done I guess? Side note: Great sound mixing during the breakup montage; it’s a full-on cacophony after an hour or so of leisurely silence. It really wakes you up for the last act.
  • A few interesting tidbits in the credits. For starters, there are five credited ASL interpreters! Also I’m pretty sure they credit every background extra (which makes sense once you learn that almost all of them are the filmmakers’ friends and family). The Special Thanks section makes mention of both the Library of Congress and Gallaudet University, and there’s a line encouraging viewers to “[p]lease support public funding of alternative independent media!” Please let it not be too late for that.

Legacy 

  • “Compensation” played the festival circuit in 1999, as well as Sundance in 2000. Outside of this original festival run, “Compensation” pretty much disappeared for the better part of two decades. In 2021, the good folks at Criterion (with support from the UCLA Film and Television Archive) gave “Compensation” a 4K resolution and made the film available on their streaming service, and eventually on physical media. Most of the critical praise “Compensation” has received has been in the last five years since its reemergence and subsequent NFR induction.
  • Although Michelle A. Banks has made very few on-camera acting appearances since “Compensation”, she has spent the last 30 years teaching and directing in the performing arts for both deaf and hearing children. Banks is currently the Artistic Director at the Visionaries of the Creative Arts (VOCA) in her native Washington D.C. John Earl Jelks continues acting on both stage and screen, receiving a Tony Award nomination in 2007 for his performance in August Wilson’s “Radio Golf”.
  • While neither Zeinabu irene Davis or Marc Chéry seem to have any recent film credits, they are both still active in the film community, giving plenty of interviews and lectures over the years about their experience making “Compensation”. Davis’ most recent film is 2015’s “Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema from UCLA”, and she currently teaches Communication at UC San Diego. Davis is also one of the few NFR filmmakers to have spent a day in the Criterion Closet.

#791) Mom and Dad (1945)

#791) Mom and Dad (1945)

OR “The Talk: The Motion Picture”

Directed by William Beaudine

Written by Mildred Horn

Class of 2005

The Plot: Joan Blake (June Carlson) is a teenager whose parents have conflicting views on their daughter’s budding maturity; father Dan (George Eldridge) thinks Joan should go to dances and start dating boys, while mother Sarah (Lois Austin) wants to protect Joan’s virtue by refusing to acknowledge any of this. When Joan sneaks out of the house to go on a date with fast-talking new kid Jack Griffin (Bob Lowell), they end up at Lovers’ Lane doing something shameful off-screen. A month later, Joan learns that she’s pregnant with Jack’s baby, and that Jack has died in a plane crash. Worried about how her parents will react, Joan doesn’t know who to turn to. Ultimately, she confides in Mr. Blackburn (Hardie Albright), a teacher recently fired for talking about sex education in his class, who blames Mom and Dad for their children’s lack of knowledge and awareness. But all of this is just an excuse to show some very graphic sexual hygiene films, including multiple on-camera births!

Why It Matters: The NFR cites the film as “[t]he most successful sex-hygiene exploitation film of all time”, and an essay by film professor/exploitation expert Eric Schaefer is a tribute to the film’s producer,“America’s Fearless Young Showman” Kroger Babb.

But Does It Really?: This is definitely one of the NFR’s more bizarre entries. Not only is “Mom and Dad” the rare exploitation film on this list, it’s also representation of Kroger Babb, one of the more notorious and unabashed showmen in film history. Plus, thanks to the film’s frank and controversial discussion of pregnancy and venereal diseases, you’ll definitely learn something, so you have to give Kroger points for that. “Mom and Dad” has the unique qualities I’m looking for in an NFR title, and if you’re willing to stomach some of the sex ed footage in the film’s third act, it’s an unforgettable viewing experience.

Everybody Gets One: Howard “Kroger” Babb began his professional career as a sports writer before working as the publicity director for a theatrical circuit. In 1939, Babb joined Cox and Underwood, a production company specializing in roadshow presentations of exploitation films. Depending on which version you believe, Babb was either inspired to make “Mom and Dad” based on his experience promoting “Dust to Dust” (a Cox and Underwood acquisition about teen pregnancy), or after learning about high school girls in Burkburnett, Texas getting impregnated by officers from the nearby Sheppard Air Force Base. Either way, Babb founded his own production company (Hygienic Productions) and partnered with J. S. Jossey of Monogram Pictures to make “Mom and Dad” for as cheaply as possible. Among Babb’s shameless promotional tactics for “Mom and Dad” was having an advance team arrive into towns about to screen the movie and write letters of protest to local churches and clubs!

Wow, That’s Dated: Mainly all the euphemisms the film uses in lieu of actual scientific terms. It’s not sexual activity, it’s “student romances”. It’s not venereal disease, it’s “social disease”. And easily the most cringe-inducing, Joan’s not pregnant, she’s “in trouble”. Yikes.

Other notes 

  • To help keep costs down, Babb assembled a team of behind-the-scenes talent from various Poverty Row studios in Hollywood known for being able to shoot an entire film in less than a week. Director William Beaudine (a silent film veteran famous for only shooting one take of a scene) completed production on “Mom and Dad” in six days on a budget of $65,000 (about $1.2 million today).
  • Due to different cuts mandated by censor boards over the years, there are multiple edits of “Mom and Dad”. The version I watched was an Academy Archive restoration from three separate prints, which as best I can tell is the most complete edit of the film known to exist. The only scene missing that I found in my research was the film’s prologue: A sing-along rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”. Clearly the word “pandering” was not in Kroger Babb’s vocabulary.
  • Speaking of pandering, the film follows up the opening credits with a foreword attributed to the producers which announces the film’s thesis statement in no uncertain terms: “IGNORANCE IS A SIN – KNOWLEDGE IS POWER”. We won’t get rabble-rousing prologue text like this again until “Star Wars”.
  • The dance sequence at the beginning of the film is presumably an attempt to pad out the runtime in order to be distributed as a feature. In addition to the love triangle between Joan, her date Alan, and flyboy Jack, we get a song (“Where Shall We Dream Tonight?”), a jitterbug dance competition, and a group of acrobats! What does any of this have to do with sexual hygiene? Am I reading too much into some of these acrobatic positions?
  • Despite her leading role as Joan, June Carlson’s filmography didn’t really amount to a lot. In fact, “Mom and Dad” was one of Carlson’s last films before marrying movie producer Donald C. McKean and leaving showbiz to raise their children. As for the rest of the cast, I don’t have much to say, other than Mom sorta looks like if Danny Kaye played Cinderella’s Stepmother.
  • Lots of ‘40s phraseology in this one, including the traditional use of the phrase “making love”. This leads to the disturbing-by-today’s-standards line from Joan: “Alan couldn’t make love if his mother did want him to.” God this movie is weird.
  • When Joan and Jack sneak off to a nightclub for their forbidden date, we get another song (the vaguely suggestive “That’s What You Do”) that doesn’t serve the plot in any way. Alright, it’s feature-length! Move on!
  • Mr. Blackburn isn’t allowed to teach sex education because of a few protests from the local women’s club, led by Joan’s mother. Good thing we don’t let the suppressed morality of the vocal minority dictate rules and laws now, right? …Right?
  • Oh, and Mr. Blackburn’s actor Hardie Albright has another NFR connection: he’s the voice of Bambi during that movie’s “Twitterpated” sequence. Huh.
  • I didn’t like that Jack boy from the start. Always pushing himself on Joan and manipulating her into having sex at Lovers’ Lane. And then, once Joan gets pregnant, he dies in a plane crash? So he doesn’t have to deal with any of this? That fucker.
  • While the film does address such taboo subjects as underage sex and pregnancy, it’s all by implication. It’s a lot of people not finishing their sentences. “You mean she’s…”
  • During its original theatrical run, “Mom and Dad” had an intermission in which “Famous Hygiene Commentator” Elliot Forbes would appear in person in the theater to lecture the audience on sex hygiene. In reality, “Elliott Forbes” was a local actor helping Hygiene Productions sell two books on the subject: “The Digest of Hygiene for Father and Son” and “The Digest of Hygiene for Mother and Daughter”. These books were edited by Mildred Horn, the film’s screenwriter and common-law partner of Kroger Babb. Man, it was a lot easier to con people back then. Side note: In at least one predominantly African-American theater that played “Mom and Dad”, the lecture was given by Jesse Owens, the former Olympic athlete who was attempting to diversify as his athletic offers started to dry up.
  • The last third of “Mom and Dad” is definitely the hard sell, as Mr. Blackburn (now re-hired as the school’s sex education teacher) shows his students multiple educational shorts on the subject. We start off easy with an explanation of the female menstrual cycle (seen it) and how an ovum is fertilized by a sperm, but then “Mom and Dad” quickly becomes the second NFR title to feature an on-camera natural childbirth! It’s not as distressing as the one in “All My Babies”, but still tough to watch. This is followed by a second on-camera birth, this time via C-section. And just when you think it’s over, Mr. Blackburn shows another short graphically showcasing how syphilis and gonorrhea can destroy your body (including footage of both male and female sex organs effected by these diseases). “Mom and Dad” is in the “Pink Flamingos” category of NFR movies you shouldn’t watch right after a meal. It’s enough to make you choose celibacy (well…almost). 
  • In the midst of my own difficulties viewing these sex ed films, I managed to laugh out loud when the narrator tells us that venereal diseases are studied by “technicians trained in the use of a microscope”. Did people in the ‘40s not know how easy it is to use a microscope?
  • Apparently there were two versions of this film’s ending: Joan gives birth to the baby and either a) the baby is stillborn or b) the baby is given up for adoption. I think I got the stillborn ending, but it’s spoken of very vaguely so I can’t tell for sure. Incidentally, the doctor delivering the news to Joan’s family is played by Francis Ford, older brother of John Ford and director of fellow NFR film “Unmasked”.
  • As Joan’s brother Dave thanks God for taking care of his sister, we dissolve to the final shot: an unidentified man at a desk addressing the camera and telling us to let the theater management know how much we enjoyed the film “by your applause”. [Shakes fist in air] Kroger!

Legacy 

  • Despite not receiving a Production Code seal of approval and being banned in several states, “Mom and Dad” earned $16 million in its original theatrical run, making it one of the most financially successful films of the 1940s. Kroger Babb claimed that each of the film’s investors got a return rate of 63 times their investment. 
  • “Mom and Dad” attracted its share of controversy, with Kroger Babb being sued multiple times (he claimed over 400 times) to prevent “Mom and Dad” from being shown in theaters, with Babb always citing the film’s educational value as his defense. In the late 1940s, Babb eliminated the educational shorts from “Mom and Dad” and re-released the film under the name “Side Road”. This trimmed version saw competition from such similar films as “Because of Eve”, “The Story of Bob and Sally”, and “Street Corner”, all of which were created to cash in on the surprise popularity of “Mom and Dad”.
  • Kroger Babb continued to produce and distribute movies for the next 25 years, although none of his later films ever equaled the success of “Mom and Dad”. Notable entries include “The Lawton Story” (about an Oklahoma town’s passion play), “One Too Many” (about alcoholism), and “She Shoulda Said No!” (which condemned marijuana a la “Reefer Madness”).
  • Among the filmmakers influenced by “Mom and Dad” was John Waters, which…yeah I should’ve seen that coming.

The NFR Class of 2004: Drop It Like It’s Hot

December 28th, 2004: The NFR cuts it really close and announces its Class of 2004 with only three days left in the year, bringing us to a grand total of 400 films! Having just finished watching all 25, let’s take a look back at the NFR Class of 2004:

Other notes

  • The NFR’s early 2000s were all about including films that represent artists and/or genres not yet on the list, and 2004 was their ultimate: “What’s not on the list yet?” year. Making their NFR debut this year were such important film figures as David Lynch, Jerry Lewis, Bruce Lee, Andy Warhol, Elvis Presley, Florence Lawrence, Danny Kaye, Rin Tin Tin, Our Gang, and Popeye the Sailor. Not the most iconic names on the list, but the NFR would feel incomplete without them. There’s still a few iconic movies, plus the recently pre-ordained classics “Unforgiven” and “Schindler’s List”, but this year is about adding some new faces to the line-up.
  • For the most part, my write-ups on these 25 films are positive, even if I didn’t enjoy the film (multiple entries get my “What is happening!?” designation). It helps that because these films represent artists not yet on the list, I can vouch for their inclusion from a historical perspective, if not through their continued entertainment value.
  • In my “Pups is Pups” post, I complain about this short not having any of the familiar “Our Gang” cast, but Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer shows up in “Going My Way”. That has to be a coincidence, right?
  • A few double-dippers this year covering several branches of filmmaking: Actor Robert Middleton, producer Pandro S. Berman, costume designer Edith Head, editor Ralph E. Winters, visual effects supervisor A. Arnold “Buddy” Gillespie, and composer Walter Scharf. Honorable mention: Popeye shows up twice thanks to his brief appearance as a cardboard cutout in “Kannapolis, N.C.”.
  • Not as many thematic double-dippers this time (a testament to the Class of 2004’s variety) but the ones I caught were: Catchy title songs, island living, non-actors in starring roles, dogs in key supporting roles, unrehearsed footage of children playing, overcomplicated plot lines, and problematic musicals with great distracting dance numbers.
  • In the same vein as “double-dippers”, my Class of 2004 write-ups contain a few shared elements. These include two posts where I show off my knowledge of San Francisco and the Bay Area, and another two where I bring up the Standard Movie Fight Procedure: All henchman or gang members can only attack your hero one at a time. And while plenty of my posts contain “Simpsons” references, two of my Class of 2004 posts reference the specific episode “A Star is Burns”. Makes sense, that’s a very movie-centered episode. And it’s the only reason I know who Eudora Welty is.
  • Speaking of favorite TV shows, several Class of 2004 write-ups reference “Mystery Science Theater 3000”, which inspired me to choose the show as the topic of my ninth anniversary post. On a related note, both “D.O.A.” and “Duck and Cover” have been parodied by Rifftrax.
  • Another runner in my write-ups: two instances of me bemoaning the Academy Awards’ lack of a Best Stunt Design Oscar category, which we’re finally getting in 2028. I can’t prove that my grumbling made it happen, but I can’t not prove it either.
  • When the Library of Congress announced the NFR Class of 2004, “Meet the Fockers” was number one at the weekend box office. Other notable films in theaters at the time include “The Aviator”, “National Treasure”, “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, and very recent NFR inductee “The Incredibles”.
  • Favorite of my own subtitles: Great Scot!, Jay and Silent Job, Not Your Father’s Father, A Nuclear and Present Danger, Kaye Turn, King in the Clink, Jerry & Hyde, and David Lynch’s Adventures in Babysitting. And if my “Unforgiven” subtitle – Old West Action – seems odd, here’s a hint: It’s an anagram. Definitely the first and last time I use one of those for the blog. 
  • Shoutout to my beloved Knights of the NFR, who were responsible for getting “Lady Helen’s Escapade” digitized and available online. Thanks to them, I was able to watch all 25 films from the Class of 2004. Okay fine, 24 and 1/8th of the Class of 2004. I will finish you one day, “Empire”!
  • And continuing my own inability to satisfactorily conclude these “Year in Review” posts: I’ll follow the lesson I learned from “Clash of the Wolves” and end this post with puppies! Look at all these puppies! You can’t tell that this ending is anticlimactic because puppies!

Happy Puppies – I mean Viewing,

Tony