Sunday, September 24, 2017

Cinema Cycle - Swing, Swing, Swing


CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

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DATE REVIEWED: 09/23/2017


FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 8 hours 19 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 119.4 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7543.2 miles

SYNOPSIS: A Box Set of musical shorts (one reel films) that were produced by the Vitaphone Corporation (Warner Bros) from the 1920 through the 1940s.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Entertainment and fantasy when the outlets were controlled by a few large studios.  A picture of society that we are told to forget.  

PROS AND CONS:  The pros are astounding here.  This set contains musical talent that is not to be believed.  The cons are also astounding, racism and apartheid were alive and well in mid-century America.

The polished sophistication of the caucasian / white bands compared with the tribal depiction of African American musicians is disturbing.  What was even stranger was the marketing ‘to’ blacks of an accepted way of behavior that included rampant gambling, tap dancing and eating watermelon, to name but a few.  

Don’t be fooled though.  This is a rare gem that has performances that are not be believed, such as a seven year old Sammy Davis Jr.  playing the first black boy president to Betty Hutton doing an hilarious and energetic version of “Old Man Moses”.  


To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

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