The Horse's Head

The Plot: Writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) hates his job at the CNS television network, working for his White boss Thomas Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport) who constantly rejects his scripts with positive depictions of African Americans. Hoping to get fired (he is contractually unable to quit), Pierre, with reluctant assistance from his secretary Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett Smith) and recruited buskers Manray and Womack (Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson), pitches a modern-day minstrel show complete with blackface and the offensive stereotypes of the era. To everyone’s surprise, Dunwitty loves the idea and gives the series the green-light, with “Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show” becoming the biggest hit on television. Although the show is met with protest, notably by a militant Black group led by Sloan’s brother Julius (Mos Def), its runaway success leads a resurgence in blackface, and Pierre gets caught up in the attention and accolades he is receiving for the show. But the satire takes a sharp turn into tragedy in this Spike Lee joint finding a new audience 20 years later.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises Spike Lee’s “unique talents” and his ability to use satire that “reveals the ills of society”.

But Does It Really?: I had to sit with this one for a while. I remember “Bamboozled” coming and going in 2000, but I was totally unaware of its reassessment as a cult favorite that predicted where the culture was going, so imagine my surprise when it showed up on the Registry. As for the film itself, I think Spike Lee was trying to have it both ways: a satiric comedy criticizing the media depictions of African Americans, as well as a more somber cautionary tale of modern-day minstrelsy, and I don’t think he fully succeeds at either. Granted, the movie is at times very funny and very distressing, and Spike Lee’s commentary on Black media is still depressingly accurate almost 25 years later, but ultimately the film itself could have been sharper, more focused, or at the very least shorter (Comedy is fast, this movie is 136 minutes). Either the NFR induction of “Bamboozled” is too early or, just like Spike Lee with this movie, maybe the NFR knows something the rest of us are just figuring out.

Shout Outs: “Bamboozled” pays appropriate homage to the similar media satires that came before it: “A Face in the Crowd” (the film is dedicated to “Face” writer Budd Schulberg), “The Producers“, “Putney Swope“, and “Network“. The montage at the end features clips from NFR entries “The Birth of a Nation“, “The Jazz Singer“, “Jezebel“, and “Gone with the Wind“. Bonus meta-clip: Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X”!

Wow, That’s Dated: A lot of ’90s culture mentioned throughout, including Jerry Springer, the OJ Simpson trial, “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It”, “Kenan & Kel”, “Show me the money!”, and I swear I’m not making this up, the TV show “Homeboys in Outer Space“.

Title Track: The title is said once courtesy of the “Malcolm X” clip (“Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled!”). Bamboozled is also the name of one of the antique games Pierre collects.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar love for “Bamboozled”. In fact, outside of several Black Reel nominations and a Freedom of Expression award from the National Board of Review, no awards love at all. Adding insult to injury, this is one of the rare NFR movies to receive a Stinkers Bad Movie Award nomination: Damon Wayans for Worst Actor (losing to John Travolta in “Battlefield Earth”).

• It’s an interesting casting choice to have Damon Wayans, one of our funniest stand-ups/sketch comedians, play the buttoned-up straight man. It makes you appreciate the moments where Pierre is allowed to loosen up (his stunned reactions during the “Mantan” auditions are my favorite). While we’re talking about Wayans’ performance, Pierre’s French-by-way-of-Sidney-Poitier-impression accent is definitely a choice, but you do get used to it after a while. I suspect the accent is what earned Wayans his Stinkers nomination, but I don’t think it’s that bad.
• “Bamboozled” is notable for being filmed primarily with digital camcorders, which gives the film a lesser overall picture quality (I legitimately thought something was wrong with my TV) but did allow Spike Lee to film from more angles during a take and keep the film under budget. It also adds to the film’s authenticity and ridiculousness, almost like a hidden-camera show.
• I know Jada Pinkett Smith primarily through the media attention her personal life has been getting in recent years, so her performance as Sloan is an important reminder that she is a very good actor, doing some wonderfully layered work here. And that is all I wish to say about Jada Pinkett Smith at this particular moment; opting to – and I’m paraphrasing here – keep her name out of my fucking mouth.
• Another meta-reference: Dunwitty defends his use of the n word by saying that he doesn’t “give a god damn what that prick Spike Lee says”. Things get meta again during the pitch meeting with Pierre’s shout-out to “In Living Color”, the sketch comedy show that gave Damon Wayans and Tommy Davidson their start.
• The pitch scene is hilarious, with Dunwitty’s explosive enthusiasm for the project matched by the flawless stunned reactions of Sloan, Manray, and Womack. The writing of the scene is specific enough to make me believe Spike Lee has had a few pitch meetings like this.

• One of the more poignant moments in the film that I appreciated is the scene where Manray and Womack apply the blackface makeup for the first time. The detailed application process is narrated by Sloan, and you can see some wonderful, subtle emoting from Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover as their characters internally struggle with what they are doing. 
• The first “Mantan” taping is uncomfortable, but unlike every other horrible, racist moment in other NFR movies I’ve watched, this one is at least intentionally uncomfortable. Also note the switch from digital camcorder to more pristine 16 mm film, but only for the “Mantan” episodes. And no you’re not seeing things, the “Mantan” house band is being played by future “Tonight Show” house band the Roots. I was not expecting to see Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson in this.
• Another moment I found interesting was the standing ovation at the end of the first “Mantan” taping. You can see a few audience members start to stand and clap after looking around and seeing everyone else doing it. It made me more aware of the kind of racism that spawns not just from your own inner hatred, but also from external peer pressure. I know I’ve been tough on Spike Lee in this post, but he gave me that profound moment and I am grateful.
• I love movies like this and “Network” where performers on broadcast TV can say anything they want without getting censored. Apparently “Bamboozled” takes place in a universe without an FCC.
• Making their NFR debut: Reverend Al Sharpton and attorney Johnnie Cochran as themselves leading the “Mantan” protest groups. Another cameo that made me chuckle is a very game Matthew Modine presenting Pierre with an award and being mistaken for Matt Dillon. Weirdly, this is Modine’s only NFR appearance. Where’s “Full Metal Jacket”?
• As the “Mantan” juggernaut continues, more and more people within the film start wearing blackface, to the point where the whole studio audience is wearing it. It makes these kinds of racial representations akin to a fast-spreading disease or something like Nazism; despite the obvious warning signs, you aren’t fully aware of its danger until it’s too late.
• The film ends with a long, long montage of seemingly every racist Black depiction in Hollywood history; from such White stars as Al Jolson and Judy Garland in blackface to the subservient characters played by the likes of Black actors Butterfly McQueen, Hattie McDaniel, and Lincoln Perry aka “Stepin Fetchit”. It goes on for a very long time, but I think the point is to sit with that discomfort and be surrounded by these unavoidable stereotypes. Spike once called this montage “some of the most powerful filmmaking I’ve ever done” and is always quick to shoutout Judy Aley for her work researching and curating these images. The film’s end credits are played over footage of Pierre’s racist memorabilia collection, another sign of our commodification, objectifying, and normalizing of these stereotypes. 

• The reevaluation of “Bamboozled” began around 2015 with the publication of Ashley Clark’s “Facing Blackness: Media and Minstrelsy in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled“, in which he argues that “Bamboozled” is “the central work in Lee’s canon”. A Criterion release in 2020 for the film’s 20^th anniversary has also helped enhance the film’s reputation.
• In the last decade, the prescient nature of “Bamboozled” has become more obvious with the fueled racism of the Trump administration, as well as Black activists fighting to steer the media narrative of African Americans away from these enduring stereotypes. Whether or not “Bamboozled” continues to be a misunderstood cult classic is anyone’s guess, but its recent NFR induction is certainly a point in the movie’s favor.

Further Reading/Viewing: The year after “Bamboozled” was released, Percival Everett published his novel “Erasure”, a similarly scathing takedown of African American media depictions, this time in the world of literature. Over 20 years later, writer Cord Jefferson adapted “Erasure” into the film “American Fiction”, winning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his efforts.

December 14^th, 1993: Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announces the next 25 films to make the National Film Registry, bringing the total to 125 films. 31 years later, yours truly has watched all 25 of them. Here’s a reminder of what made the Class of ’93, plus a blurb from each of my blog posts.

• Articles at the time mentioned that the Library of Congress would be funding a nationwide tour of some of these new titles that would screen the movies “as they were intended to be seen – on a large screen in a darkened theater”. Funny how 30 years later the idea of seeing a movie in a theater has come back around to being a selling point. Does anyone know if these screenings actually happened?
• This year’s double-dippers include actors Donald Crisp and Roscoe Karns, cinematographers James Wong Howe and Joseph Walker, art director Cedric Gibbons, and film editor Gene Havlick.
• Thematic double-dippers: screwball comedies, above-average dogs, references to Hitler, Child protagonists, Mexican-border towns, repurposed opera music, late ’50s New York, race relations mixed with unfortunate casting, Senate committees, and an overall vibe of corruption.
• Favorites of my own subtitles: “Who Do You Think You Arrrr”, “Black Panther: Philophobia Forever”, “Song and France”, “All My Hexes Are From Tex’s”, “Sorrowful Ladd”, “Winchell While You Work”, and “Chuck and the Fatman”.

The Plot: Ben, Hugh, and Lelia (Ben Carruthers, Hugh Hurd, Lelia Goldoni) are three siblings living in New York at the height of the Beat Generation. The siblings are all African American, though Lelia is light skinned and often passes for White. Both Ben and Hugh have musical aspirations, but Ben wastes his days loafing about with friends at the local bars, while Hugh’s act can’t catch a break, despite the efforts of his agent Rupert (Rupert Crosse). Lelia’s love life takes a turn when she starts seeing Tony (Anthony Ray), a White man who doesn’t realize she’s Black. But all of this is place-setting for a freeform character study completely improvised by the actors.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives a rundown of the film’s production, and praises Cassavetes’ choice to make a film that “treats race and identity not as sociological discourse but as a sort of free jazz.” An essay by Cassavetes expert Ray Carney delves into the film’s theme of identity.

But Does It Really?: “Shadows” is one of those movies that needs a little explanation to fully appreciate. Unlike most movies, “Shadows” isn’t so much a piece of entertainment as it is the results of an experimental exercise, a filmed acting workshop. The results are far from the high production quality of many an NFR entry, but even with the film’s rough presentation, you can see Cassavetes’ love of the game: an artist determined to tell this story, whatever it ends up being. While I found the film a bit stagnant and unfocused, I get that without the film’s production context I wasn’t approaching it from the right angle. Still, I’m willing to justify “Shadows” on the NFR as an important “stepping-stone movie”: Cassavetes’ best work was still ahead of him, but none of those exist without “Shadows”.

Shout Outs: Look closely for a movie theater marquee advertising “The Ten Commandments“. Speaking of…

Wow, That’s Dated: Lots of marquee advertisements throughout for such ’50s films as “The Night Heaven Fell” and “Naked Paradise”, as well as the Broadway musical “The Most Happy Fella”. Also, we get not one but two shoutouts to Steve Allen, who at this point in his career had left “The Tonight Show” and was hosting his primetime variety series “The Steve Allen Show”. Hi-ho, Steverino!

Seriously, Oscars?: In a year dominated by “Ben-Hur” there was no way a little movie like “Shadows” was going to squeak into the Oscar conversation. The film did, however, fare better in Europe, winning the Critics Award at the 1960 Venice Film Festival and receiving four BAFTA nominations.

• Side note: Lelia Goldoni and Ben Carruthers, who play siblings in this movie, were briefly married shortly after this film was made. So that’s how it is in their family…
• Both Cassavetes and his wife Gena Rowlands make cameos in this movie: Cassavetes as the man helping Lelia outside the movie theater, and Rowlands as a nightclub patron. I must have blinked during that nightclub scene because I definitely missed Rowlands.
• This movie takes its time getting started, but when it does…it still takes its time.
• Things escalate quickly between Lelia and Tony, with Lelia losing her virginity to Tony just a few quick scenes after their first meeting. I’m sure 1959 audiences were scandalized by the film’s depiction of pre-marital sex (although we only see them post-coital with zero nudity), to say nothing of Lelia’s line “I didn’t know it could be so awful”. I don’t know if I can endorse a movie where a guy named Tony is secretly racist and bad in bed.

• Shout out to Rupert Crosse as Hugh’s agent Rupert Crosse. The character is nothing to write home about, but it’s worth noting that Crosse’s acting career would eventually lead to his work in the 1969 Steve McQueen film “The Reivers”, for which he became the first African American to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That’s a milestone that gets ignored way too often. Get it, Rupert!
• The final credit reads “The film you have just seen was an improvisation.” Interesting choice, though I wonder if having this disclaimer at the beginning of the movie would have helped audiences understand/appreciate it more. It definitely would have helped me.

• As for the first cut of “Shadows”, the aforementioned Ray Carney spent over 20 years trying to track down the original 1958 version, a journey that eventually led him to an attic in Florida and the daughter of the second-hand shop owner who had inadvertently bought the missing film years earlier. The original “Shadows” was restored in 2004, though screenings of this version are scarce as the Cassavetes estate has questioned its legitimacy and have pursued legal action to prevent its release.
• With its structured improvisational format, can we claim “Shadows” as an influence on “Curb Your Enthusiasm”? I mean, there were a few episodes where Larry dated Vivica A. Fox’s character with disastrous results; the parallels are right there.

The Plot: Mr. and Mrs. Moose (Charley Chase and Vivien Oakland) each have a problem: Mr. has unsightly buck teeth, while Mrs. has a nose so large it makes kissing her husband nearly impossible. Without telling the other one, each quietly saves up money to have a secret operation. When they run into each other post-op, neither recognizes the other and they begin to flirt, eventually ending up at a wild party hosted by Mr. Moose’s dentist (Charles Clary). As you might expect, this leads to a lot of mistaken identity and shenanigans courtesy of one of the silent era’s most popular, albeit overlooked, comedians.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is a salute to Charley Chase, whom they call “underappreciated in the arena of early comedy shorts”. The short proper is praised for its “side-splitting series of sight gags”.

But Does It Really?: If there’s one thing the NFR loves, it’s obscure silent comedians who were famous in their day and all-but-forgotten now. “Mighty Like a Moose” is on this list to represent Charley Chase, whose filmography was finding a new wave of appreciation around the time he joined the NFR’s ranks. On its own, “Mighty Like a Moose” holds up well in the laughs department, if not so much for its overall subject matter. Ultimately, I found myself laughing quite a bit, a testament to Chase’s comic talents as both actor and writer. A pass for “Mighty” on this list; if nothing else its induction means that every so often someone attempting this NFR gauntlet will stumble upon the works of another underrated pioneer of film comedy.

Everybody Gets One: Born Charles Parrott, Charley Chase began his showbiz career when he was 19 playing bit parts in Keystone comedies. By the time he started working for Hal Roach, Chase was primarily a director, though he did star in his own series of comedy shorts, where he adopted the stage name Charley Chase. Although shorts like “Mighty Like a Moose” were directed by other people (in this case a 28-year-old gagman named Leo McCarey), Chase was always the muscle behind the scenes, contributing to his shorts’ writing, directing, and editing. 

Wow, That’s Dated: Turns out the practice of surgery has existed for centuries, though modern plastic surgery didn’t come to be until a few technological breakthroughs during World War I. Cosmetic surgery as seen in this film would have been relatively new in 1926, though nowhere near as commonplace as it is today. And that’s as much research on plastic surgery I’m willing to stomach at this time.

Other notes

• My main beef with this short is its overall comic premise: How in the hell do these two not recognize their own spouses after their operation? They don’t look that different. Even with Mrs.’ hair dye and new wardrobe her husband should still be able to figure out who she is. But as always, I am overanalyzing something that wasn’t meant to be analyzed in the first place, so I’ll suspend my disbelief as high as I can and just go along with it.
• Chase and Walker are clearly having fun with the intertitles, especially the ones poking fun at the couple’s abnormalities. For example: When Mrs. Moose gets her nose job, the intertitles describe her as “winning by a nose”. There’s also a joking reference to Mussolini, which seems a bit extreme. What did Mussolini ever do to yo—oh right, never mind.
• After Mr. Moose’s surgery, the dentist gives him a false set of buck teeth for identification. Really? Are you sure this isn’t just for comic mishaps? Sorry, I will stop analyzing, starting…now.
• I enjoyed the sequence where Mr. and Mrs. Moose are both sneaking around their house trying to get ready for their “affair” without being seen by the other one. The near misses are clever and fun to watch. The wide shots of Mr. on the second floor overlooking Mrs. on the first are staged in a way that reminded me of the quote from Chase’s former colleague Charlie Chaplin: “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”
• At the party, Mr. Moose gets stuck dancing with Floradora, a homely woman who hasn’t danced “since 1888”. So according to this movie, people who don’t conform to societal norms serve no purpose whatsoever? Okay, that was my last analysis. Back to the funnies.
• The Moose’s maid is played by Ann Howe, who gets the intriguing credit in the cast list as “Ann Howe (The Radio Girl)”. My research hasn’t pulled up anything substantial, but who is Ann Howe and what did she do that made her so synonymous with radio? Even if she was big in the ’20s but obscure now, anyone dubbed “The Radio Girl” should have left some kind of cultural footprint. And of course, the irony of a radio star being promoted as such in a silent movie is not lost on me.
• Like every comedy, everyone must find out about the huge misunderstanding eventually, and the final sequence of Mr. Moose messing with Mrs. Moose and staging a fight with himself is a very funny farcical conclusion.
• I was not expecting the comedy short from the ’20s to have one of the most terrifying final shots in any movie I’ve ever seen: The Moose’s dog Buddy wearing Mr. Moose’s false buck teeth! Have fun trying to sleep tonight.

The Plot: The technological miracle of Vitaphone synchronized sound brings you the comedy stylings of Al Shaw & Sam Lee, aka Shaw & Lee! Straight from vaudeville, this comic duo performs a seemingly endless exchange of jokes and one-liners, as well as songs like “Don’t Forget to Breathe or You’ll Die”. Stick around at the end for a little soft-shoe, plus their famous hat swapping routine!

Why It Matters: The NFR gives a brief history of Shaw & Lee, stating “their brand of dry, offbeat humor is seen by some as well ahead of its time.” The write-up also includes a quote from critic Jim Knipfel: “If Samuel Beckett had written a vaudeville routine, he would have created Shaw and Lee.”

But Does It Really?: As much I enjoyed these two, I’m on the fence about this film’s historical significance. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed a lot at the unexpected absurdism of “The Beau Brummels”, but the NFR already has a Vitaphone short with a comedy team doing their vaudeville act: 1929’s “Lambchops” with the significantly more famous Burns & Allen (in fact, I’m convinced both movies use the same set). But if I’m going to nitpick, it stands to reason that if the NFR has enough room for more than one Marx Brothers comedy or Astaire/Rogers musical, then I guess there’s enough room for a second Vitaphone short. A pass for “Beau Brummels”: It’s not the most important film on the list, but it’s funny (and short) enough to warrant a viewing for the curious.

Everybody Gets One: Most of my information on Shaw & Lee comes from this very insightful article by historian Mary Mallory. Both Al Shaw & Sam Lee started in show business at a young age; Shaw in the music halls of his native England, Lee on the streets of his native New Jersey. Although stories differ on how Shaw & Lee met, we know that Shaw emigrated to America in 1907, and by 1911 the two were performing as a duo in vaudeville and burlesque. Originally, Shaw & Lee were a dance team, but over time they started adding their off-beat jokes into the act. By the early 1920s, Shaw & Lee were promoted to headliners, starring in several revues, including a few big ones on Broadway. When Warner Bros. started making sound shorts out of their recently purchased Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn, any famous stage performers with a ready-to-go act were brought in to film their routines, and Shaw & Lee got the call in early 1928. And for any future historians confused by which is which: Shaw is the shorter, clean-shaven one on the left side of the screen, Lee is the taller one on the right with the mustache.

Title Track: Much like the unrelated ’60s rock group of the same name, this film got its title from George Bryan “Beau” Brummel, a Regency-era Englishman who has become the cultural shorthand for high fashion. Shaw & Lee were known for performing on stage in nice suits, and advertisements for the two started referring to them as “The Beau Brummels” (although that was never officially the name of their act).

Seriously, Oscars?: No nominations from the newly formed Academy for “The Beau Brummels”. Create a shorts category, you cowards!

• “The Beau Brummels” got a restoration in the early 2000s from the UCLA Film and Television Archive, with funding from the Vitaphone Project. While Shaw & Lee didn’t leave behind much of a legacy, “Beau Brummels” – along with “Going Places” – continues to be seen online and shared by new generations caught completely off-guard by their avant-garde style of humor.