The MoFo Top 100 of the Forties: The Countdown

The Great Piggy Bank Robbery

The reason i wanted to do this again is that i've been re-watching Bob Clampett's work for the first time in ages recently and i think he is my favourite Animation Director. He's usually quickly dismissed from the conversation because one of his most praised shorts: Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs (which is fantastically made) is horribly racist but the problem with that is that all of the classic short directors dabbled in racist or otherwise offensive cartoons; i think personally they are best viewed as a time capsule of a horrible time but nevertheless expertly made. Clampett's other work is so consistent it is absurd, he didn't make as much as Avery, Jones, Freleng, Hanna/Barbera, etc, but i don't think any of them came up with such a high percentage of greatness either personally.

Honestly i find it difficult to put into words how much i adore the animation in this short, if i get the chance i'll put together a post later with screenshots of exactly what i'm talking about. Seriously watch the first thirty seconds with Daffy, his hiding behind the mailbox then later poking just his eyes round it, his talking to us and even the movement of the mailman and the letters is absurdly fluid. I'm not going to complain about modern animation here because plenty of it i love but there's somthing about you knowing this was made by human beings with their hands that makes everything especially the flaws and imperfections so amazing compared to the push a button and generate a perfect image nowadays. Personally this era of Looney Tunes is my favourite Animation of all time because it is not perfect in the slightest; you could point out loads of weird animation defects in this episode if you cared to look at it frame by frame (i have with this short before and quite a few others) nowadays pretty much everything has moved at least partially to CGI which is fine to an extent because it often looks beautiful but personally i'd take the look of The Great Piggy Bank Robbery over any film that uses CGI; some of those are better in content but to me you can't beat the actual Animation (movement) in these cartoons.

Anyway i went off on one there haha. Daffy here is amazing, i've always heard arguments over what is better the more wacky Daffy (like here) or the mean Daffy (basically all of his most famous shorts); for me it's Sophie's Choice because the animation was always much better with the wacky one but the mean one probably has my favourite moments. Here is the wacky one utilized perfectly in my opinion. It's an extremely erratic collection of gags and i think the way they are presented they can never get old; a more balanced short has periods without jokes that decreases the total number of jokes; which is fine What's Opera Doc for example have periods that aren't that funny but are great anyway because of the music, drama, etc. The ones that remain funny always are ones like this that are chock full of jokes to the point that you can't really remember what is coming up, i mean the part with Daffy with the magnifying glass is what 1 minute, 20 seconds? Yeah, i think that part has more jokes in it than some episodes of comedy shows it loves, and i personally find it really funny so my laughing always makes me miss the further part of that scene. I remember Daffy following the footsteps up the wall and ceiling was my favourite 'breaking possibilities' scene when i was a kid; again it's coz of the animation it's just how seamless him going up the wall is when it could've been an awkward transition where you see his body (or the wall) moving on its side. The part with the enemies is just some of the best slapstick ever and some of the best animation too. Daffy de-materializing to exit the door in particular is fantastic.

Sorry if this is rambling, i can guarantee none of my other write-ups will be this length; this one means alot to me and is the main reason i started this up again. I personally think it is one of the greatest pieces of animation ever.

Pursued

Finally watched my own nomination. Great film. Absolutely adored the visuals. I almost went with the Dailymotion copy that to be fair looked pretty good but i found a better one and it looked amazing. It's all thanks to the amazing locations they chose to shoot at as well as the stellar camerawork. There were a few scenes with really quick transitions that looked incredible, they were short but i thought they looked great for example: at the start there's one were it quickly flashes through some of Jebs childhood from when he first joined the Callum family until his horse is shot, and later there's quick flashes through the war from when he got shot to him lying in a hospital bed still dreaming about the war, really great stuff. The mix of western and noir was very interesting, you got the great outdoor shots and the interior scenes are giving as much attention. One of my favourite (couple of) scenes were the whole shooting at the dance part, everything there from the dancing to the shooting in the alley right through to the funeral. It all looked great.

Loved the story too, it was alot more dark and mysterious than i'm used to from films from this time. Then again the only other Raoul Walsh film i've seen is White Heat which is much the same. Mitchum was great, this was only the third performance of his i've seen i think but he's starting to become one of my favourite actors. One thing i read was that a problem some people had with this when it was just released was that they found Mitchums character unlikable. First off ignoring the fact that i don't think he actually needs to be likable in a film like this, i still don't understand why people wouldn't find him likable in some ways or at least deserving of enough sympathy/understanding not to completely hate him. Maybe it was just people were too used to straightforward, black and white either good or bad characters. There's a bit more to Jeb than that; everything about him is driven by his feelings of not belonging, being lied to, not knowing who he really is, etc, maybe these aren't things that everybody can relate to but i think they are at least solid explanations for some of his actions. Coming back from risking his life for the farm as a man and facing rejection from Adam and silence from Mah seemed to confirm this to him and made him completely turn. Unless the complaints are more directed towards Mitchums demeanor in which case i understand even less since alot of his praise as an actor comes from this while playing villains or morally questionable characters at least. I don't think Jeb is easy to pin down and i think the way he acts completely fits Jeb who is fairly untrusting and constantly on guard for obvious reasons. Another thing is that his mother brought him up under a 'you need to be a strong man of the house' type philosophy from some of the stuff she said; Adam was the same way he wasn't scared of Jeb and clearly resented him being seen as a war hero possibly because it made Jeb seem braver or tougher than him, this coupled with Jeb feeling like he was alone wouldn't have went well with him acting more remorseful or outright emotional in my opinion. That's largely how i saw Jeb anyway, i thought he was a great character. His stony-faced 'well if that's how things are then' confrontation with his mother and Thor after the verdict can be seen as bad acting or writing but i think it was the perfect embodiment of how he was brought up and also how he felt himself growing up.

My only real complaint is the dramatic shift in Thor to wanting to kill him. I understand why so it's not really about that it's more the dramatic shift in her performance, i wasn't crazy about the scene when she first tells her mum her plans; don't think Teresa Wright was good there, felt a bit too 'wicked witch of the west' like over the top to me. Otherwise Wright was good as well. One thing i probably should have disliked and i'll totally understand if others find it a problem is how disjointed the story is. It seems to start off on a clear direction to tell the story of what happened to Jeb and who is following him and why, then after Adams death it completely shifts into a romance/revenge plot that quickly resolves itself before we return to the main story for the ending. An odd way to tell a story but i personally thought it worked, it was at least worth it for that amazing finale. My god the music and visuals during that finale, it makes me not even care how convenient it was that he suddenly remembers what happened. Great ending.

I'm really glad this was the one i picked as i thought it was excellent. I'll understand if some of you have certain problems with it and i'm not even denying it has these problems but it personally really worked for me. Hope you guys like it as much as i did.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

My second Sturges after Sullivan's Travels. Why the hell have i not heard this mentioned much? I kinda loved it, liked it alot more than Sullivan's Travels. I was expecting a screwball comedy but i wouldn't call this one, or at most i'd call this light-screwball as it's actually pretty down to earth despite being silly sometimes. Don't really know who they are but Eddie Brecken and Betty Hutton were great together, Brecken was really sweet the way he was so nervous, they kept falling back on the Norval stuttering joke; didn't bother me though as it worked for me it was very charming. I genuinely found it hilarious everytime Trudy's dad walked in at the wrong moment and thought Norval was treating his daughter wrong or whatever, William Demarest's performance as the dad was over the top and corny but again i found it charming in a lighthearted silly way. Trudy spent loads of the film crying and being awful to Norval yet i didn't dislike her or find her annoying, mostly due to Norval's overreactions and naivete, they worked very well together. Dunno what else to say really, maybe i was just in the perfect mood as there was quite a few things here that should have annoyed me but they didn't and i had a really good time watching it. Hope some members are thinking of checking this out for the Countdown, it was just a random pick for me and i'm glad i did as it has a chance of making my list.