Kings of the Turf (1941)/Saved from the Flames: 54 Rare and Restored Films (1896-1944)

The life of a cart horse from birth to adulthood is detailed with questionable humor in Kings of the Turf. I’m sure there is someone out there that finds such things amusing, but for me, it’s quite a bore and very forgettable. It’s too fictionalized of an account to feel informative and not appealing enough to bother otherwise.  

Oscar Nomination: Best Short Subject, One-reel

As the title suggests, Saved from the Flames is a collection of rare films that were made during the days of nitrate films.

Exiting the Factory, Arrival of a Train: Both of these are examples of early experiments filming the real world. The urban legend of inexperienced early filmgoers fleeing from the theaters is attached to Arrival of A Train.

Card Party: Another early slice of life film, but this one is hand-tinted.  The color surprisingly adds quite a bit of interest to these early films.

Kobelkoff: Nikolai Kobelkoff was a limbless man who made his living performing various stunts.  They’re filmed here to great effect even if it feels somewhat exploitive.

Danse Serpentine (In a Lion’s Cage): Serpentine dancers apparently were a popular entertainment form in the early 1900s.  There are actually a number of films with the dancing in them still in existence and they’re all rather mesmerizing to watch.

Cyrano De Bergerac: This film is remarkable for not only including color, but also perhaps the first sound picture.  The choice to color only the two main dueling characters makes them really stand out.

La Marseillaise: Another sound film, this with a singer performing the French national anthem.  The details of the background and the props elevate a relatively static performance.

Excelsior! Prince of Magicians: A magician performs ‘tricks’ with the help of his assistant.  I don’t think there will ever be a time when I’m not fascinated with early trick photography.

The Talion Punishment: Another color tinted film, here an entomologist meets his match when he encounters a gaggle of human-sized flying insects.  I love the detailed costumes and sets, but especially the close-ups of the bugs the collector has found.

Kiri-kis: A family of acrobats perform amazing tricks.  Inexplicably, they are dressed in somewhat racist Japanese costuming, but it’s fun seeing all the feats made possible by fancy camera work.

An Excursion to the Moon: A prognosticator of things to come, this is perhaps the first remake.  This one is a lesser known version of Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon.

The Automatic Moving Company: One of my absolute favorites from the set, an entire household of furniture is moved with no humans in sight, such a great bit of camera work.

The Seine Flood: This offers a rare early glimpse into natural disasters as it shows footage from the 1910 Great Flood of Paris

Over the Top (A Battle With the Elements): When the Reno Commercial Club offered a trophy to the first car to travel from San Francisco to Reno, a 1915 Buick took up the challenge.  It’s a great piece of film braving the elements and using what little roads were available at the time.

A Visit to Los Angeles: The Ford Motor Company produced a series of films on American cities.  Here is an interesting view into what Los Angeles looked like over 100 years ago.

Montmartre’s Kids: A gang of French children play war, which includes attacking unsuspecting neighbors.   It’s neat to see kids’ fashions and activities of the era, but it’s also proof that kids have always been awful.

Dirigible Los Angeles: I find zeppelins fascinating and this film is a treasure trove for that fandom.  Starting in Germany, it shows all aspects of the crew’s journey, inside and out, as it made its way 5000 miles to New Jersey.

In the Land of Giants and Pygmies: Filming an expedition through the Congo, this offers an interesting bit of anthropology for time period, even if it’s told through an extremely Eurocentric viewpoint.

Technicolor Fashion Parade: A glorious view into 1920s clothing, the fashions are even modeled by actresses from the era, like Laura La Plante. Wonderfully it is shown in color so the fabrics and patterns are allowed to really shine.

Charles A. Lindbergh, Hero of the Air: This early Movietone film celebrates Lindbergh’s flight from New York to Paris.  As a bonus, the celebration ceremony features actual speeches from President Coolidge and Lindbergh himself.

Fireman of the Follies-Bergère: A fireman gets drunk after spending his entire night at the Follies-Bergère and begins to nude women everywhere.  An advertisement for the famous club, it’s noteworthy for featuring a bit with Josephine Baker.

Meet Me Down at Coney Isle: A glimpse into a day at Coney Island, I always enjoy a view into the famous amusement park, especially the rides that would never pass safety muster in modern times.

The Dancing Pig: A giant pig is forced to dance and strip for a young woman. The entire bit is creepy and weird, but somehow it’s creepier when the pig has no clothes on.

Monkey Race: Another film with a person in an animal costume, this is at least saved by its madcap race to recapture the monkey. The cross section of the entire group going down a chimney was especially clever.

I Fetch the Bread: When men are sent to procure bread that is needed for a dinner party, they both decide to get drunk instead.  It’s not a bad bit of early humor.

Artheme Swallows His Clarinet: After an accident, Artheme struggles to remove the clarinet that is embedded into his head.  It’s very weird, but I appreciate the trick of having the instrument protruding from the back of his skull.

Kid’s Auto Race: Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp gets in the way of cameras capturing a kids’ auto race.  It’s like a precursor to Borat’s antics of filming yourself in character annoying people going about their day.

The Pest: Following Stan Laurel’s antics as a book salesman, it’s interesting seeing him carry a movie solo even if I prefer his work with Hardy.

Lizzies of the Field: Two competing garages compete in a car race.  There’s a lot of fun car antics to be seen, like a live action version of Wacky Races.

Fantasmagoria: An absolutely incredible bit of early animation, the motion never stops as the simple line characters just flow smoothly from one bit to the next.

Cartoon Factory: A fun mix of life action and classic animation, Koko the clown discovers machines that can alter his environment

In the Orient: A filmed marionette show, I appreciate the preservation of art and entertainment from earlier time periods.

Ain’t She Sweet, Balloonland, Play Safe: A trio of 1930s animated shorts, I enjoy the exposure to ones that go beyond the now well-known characters.

Radi-Ators: Another great glimpse into entertainers of the era, the Utica Jubilee Singers are featured here performing a few songs.

Black and Tan: I had actually watched this months ago on YouTube, but it’s a narrative film that features Duke Ellington and a dying Fredi Washington.  A simple little plot is bolstered by some fun song and dance performances.

Louis Armstrong in Copenhagen, Jazz Hot: Early performance recordings, these feature Louis Armstrong singing and trumpeting in Denmark and guitarist Django Reinhardt performing with violinist Stephane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France respectively.

California Election News #2: A scary and infuriating bit of propaganda, MGM produced this fake documentary during the 1934 California gubernatorial campaign using actors pretending to be the ‘every man’ to frighten voters into voting for anyone but socialist Upton Sinclair.

Week-end, Cette Nuit-la, Clo-cloche:  Three unexpected French commercials, the second one surprisingly features Jacques Tati and the third is has Michel Simon directed by Jean Renoir.

MGM Promo Reel: Another advertisement, this is also in French but features Laurel and Hardy introducing the 1935 film catalog for MGM which is cute in itself but also shows a small piece from Tarzan Escapes, a lost film.

Master Hands: For anyone who enjoys How It’s Made, this offers thirty-three minutes of footage showing the production line at a Chevrolet factory.  I often fall asleep to such episodes, so it was quite a slog for me.

Philips Broadcast of 1938: Yet another product advertisement, this is a delightful swinging musical stop motion bit for Philips that is unfortunately marred for modern audiences by racist Black caricatures.

Yankee Doodler, Rosie the Riveter, Dear Arabella: Coin operated jukeboxes during World War II sometimes featured video with audio and these are three videos that were featured as such.  All three songs are related to the war effort, but Yankee Doodler features William Frawley in a bit of war rallying.

Hell Bent for Election: Another bit of electioneering, this Chuck Jones-directed animated film shows FDR as a train that is the winning choice in the 1944 Presidential election.

For His Son: D.W. Griffith directed this film about a father who wants to provide the very best for his son and sells cocaine-laced soft drinks to the populace only to have his son become an addict.

Suspense: As good a thriller as shown in theaters today, a woman by herself in her isolated home is terrorized by an unknown man while her husband races to save her.

The Heart of An Indian: A somewhat dragged out melodrama involving battles between settlers and Native Americans, the central story oddly is a feature on motherhood with a white child being captured back and forth between the two factions.