OK, here we have a truly obscure short animated
film about which absolutely nothing seems to be known. We're presenting it
because we find its style of animation intriguing and the events portrayed
quaintly funny — and because it the short is such a mystery production. Indeed,
our extended online research came away virtually empty handed...
Darling, Get Me a
Crocodile was
rediscovered by Something Weird and added as an
extra on their DVD double feature of When
Men Carried Clubs and Women Played Ding Dong (1971 / a
trailer) and the Gigi
Darlene nudie-cutie 50,000 BC
(Before Clothing) (1963).
The short is listed on the 2010 inventory list*
of Movielab but, unluckily, probably due to a conflict in the program that made
the PDF, the date of the film is illegible. As many fans of "bad
film" know, Frank Henenlotter and Mike Vraney (29 Dec 1957 – 2 Jan 2014)
of Something Weird once
"ventured to the remains of the New York-based, subterranean Movielab
vaults. These two fearless trash-movie advocates and enthusiasts pulled off the
exploitation flick equivalent to a daring 'proof of life' mission, hustling
their way into the Movielab lair and effectively raiding and rescuing dozens
upon dozens of vintage, wildly obscure horror, sex, fantasy and action junk
movies, getting their grips on crisp prints and, in many cases, original 35mm
negatives. [Coming Soon]" We would assume
that it was on that "raid" that this uncopyrighted, dateless, and in
all likelihood public-domain animated short was found and saved.
On the Movielab inventory list, as in the film
itself, the short is given as a Fleetwood Films production, and while there
were and are dozens of Fleetwood Films out there, we would vote (without solid
proof) that the Fleetwood Films in question is the firm founded by Myron
Bresnick (2 April 1919 – 4 Sept 2011) in 1951, which began with his
acquiring the 1948 Russian animated film Little
Grey Neck (full film) and a variety of Hal Roach features. He sold the
firm to the educational materials provider Macmillan in 1968.
Bresnick had a thing for foreign films, and
assuming that Darling, Get Me a
Crocodile is a foreign short, it fits in with the kind of stuff he would
acquire. And why do we assume the short might be foreign? Well, in 1972, Darling, Get Me A Crocodile made its
way to Florida for a while, where it was screened at the University of South
Florida (see: page 66 of the 29 Oct 1972 issue of Sarasota Herald Tribune), where it was listed a Bulgarian
film — although the name of its maker hardly sounds Bulgarian.
As of Florida, the trail goes cold and nothing
more can currently be found about Darling, Get Me A Crocodile or its credited maker, E.
Husiatowicz. "Husiatowicz" is far more a Polish name than Bulgarian one, but spelt as it is in the film's meager opening credits, it gets no hits
online other than the few that mention this film, which infers that the name is
either misspelt or made-up.
In any event, enjoy Darling, Get Me A Crocodile, a wasted life's Short Film of the
Month for March 2020… and if you know anything about the short, please, share
your info with us!
No comments:
Post a Comment