A super-short post today, as I’m about to battle a snowstorm here in an attempt to get home from the school…
As I’m prepping files for broadcast on MeTV, I’ve really been enjoying watching whole series of films that I haven’t watched for a while. Most of what we’re sending are things that we’ve restored in recent years, but as I look at the older stuff that we’ve done, I’ve been doing a little additional work pretty frequently to make them look the best we can from what we’ve got to work with.
Sinister Stuff (1934) was actually a bit of a surprise to me as we were working on it. I had forgotten how good some of the animation is in the short — and was especially impressed by how much the camera work at Van Beuren had improved at the studio between 1933 and 34.
This spoof of 1890’s Melodramas is fun, and is trying really hard to be funny. The improvement in animation in this film is really noticeable, especially when comparing not-as-well animated shots that are right next to the better animated ones. The Van Beuren shorts were getting better and better. One especially impressive scene in timing features the unnamed bad wolf and his henchmen riding on a bike, with their bike (and camera work) syncing to the music.
The best animation in the film features a very appealing and personality-rich version of Cubby and Cuddles. If Van Beuren had continued to produce shorts without the Gillett management and direction taking over, I think the animation quality would have kept improving – but we can only wonder if the writing and comedy aspects of the shorts would have led to a different kind of success.
This print is a combination of 16mm prints made by Official films. The titles were a lucky eBay find- the only original title sequence I’ve ever seen for the film. Long live Cubby!
Steve Stanchfield is an animator, educator and film archivist. He runs Thunderbean Animation, an animation studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has compiled over a dozen archival animation DVD collections devoted to such subjects at Private Snafu, The Little King and the infamous Cubby Bear. Steve is also a professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
There’s no gainsaying the excellence of the animation in “Sinister Stuff”; but if, as you say, they were trying really hard to be funny, then maybe they should have tried a little harder. I think it would have been funnier if John Foster had still been around to provide some input. It’s not a bad cartoon, but not a great one either. As the villain’s triplet lackeys might have put it, it’s just “Okay!”
The cartoons in the Aesop’s Fables series, directed by John Foster, were generally extremely mediocre, as the team’s efforts were focused on producing the Tom and Jerry series. Furthermore, the Fables produced between 1931 and 1932 tended to recycle plots and animations from previous cartoons, as is the case with “Opening Night,” which recycles scenes from the first Fables produced by Paul Terry in the early 1920s.
Fortunately, this completely disastrous management of the studio came to an end with the dismissal of John Foster and his replacement by music director Gene Rodemich. Although the latter apparently had no drawing skills, there is no doubt that he made considerable efforts to improve the quality of Van Beuren’s cartoons, as evidenced by the rapid progress of their animations during much of 1933. Although the gags were not as inventive and original as those of the Foster era, they were nevertheless much more numerous and better timed.
Moreover, Rodemich was not afraid of innovation. His role as studio manager allowed him to experiment with completely different musical styles to accompany each cartoon, as in “Happy Hoboes” and “Dizzy Day.”
However, the dismissal of Gene Rodemich, followed shortly thereafter by that of animators Manny Davis, Harry Bailey, and Frank Sherman, led to a sharp decline in the number of gags in the studio’s cartoons. The new director, George Stallings, and the new composer, Winston Sharpes, were nowhere near as talented as Rodemich, and the studio suffered greatly as a result.
The animation at the Van Beuren studio has certainly improved by the time “Sinister Stuff” came out.
This cartoon is a great improvement for Van Beuren because not only does it feature impressive animation, but it also benefits from exceptional orchestration, confirming once again that Gene Rodemich was the best conductor on the East Coast, with the quality of his scores surpassing even those of Winston Sharpes in terms of energy.
In any case, it’s a real pleasure to see that the Cubby Bear cartoons are finally being widely distributed. Please don’t hesitate to post more Van Beuren cartoons on this blog!
Gene Rodemich was the popular leader of a jazzy “hot” dance band in New York City in the 1920’s, long before he ever had anything to do with animated cartoons, Not as big a name as, say, Paul Whiteman, but he made a lot of really good 78 singles. According to DAHR ( the go-to source for early 20th century American recordings), he released over 200 10″ discs during the height of the Jazz Era,
It might be that his experience of holding a working band together was a major factor in his ability to direct the staff of a notoriiously undisciplined cartoon studio and pull it, at least for a while, out of the bargain basement of animatiion. Which has always existed, or so it seems…
For further exploring— of all kinds of great old music!
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/
I agree that Gene Rodemich was an excellent leader for the studio.
Unfortunately, according to Michael Barrier, Rodemich clashed with RKO’s new commercial director, Hiram S. Brown Jr., appointed in 1933. The two men were in conflict over the artistic direction of the cartoons: Rodemich asked the studio’s artists to design minimalist sets and keep the character designs very simple, while Brown wanted lush backgrounds and more elaborate character designs, taking Disney’s Silly Symphonies as a model to follow.
After initially trying to resist pressure from the commercial director, Rodemich was eventually forced to give in and follow Brown’s directives, as illustrated by the first film in The Little King series, “The Fatal Note,” which is a mediocre operetta modeled on the Silly Symphonies and completely disregards the spirit of Otto Soglow’s comics. However, Hiram Brown was still not satisfied: he wanted to get rid of Rodemich and replace him with a more docile creative director, so he went to the RKO directors and badmouthed Rodemich.
This strategy worked because the vice president of RKO sent an internal letter to Van Beuren asking him to fire Rodemich, which was done a month after the letter was sent.
We can therefore conclude that Hiram Brown bears enormous responsibility for Van Beuren’s decline, as it is clear that the studio would have taken a completely different direction if Gene Rodemich had been given greater creative freedom.
What are the most popular songs composed by Rodemich?
Are you familiar with Van Beuren’s short film “Oom Pah Pah,” released in 1930?
It’s a charming little animated film filled with lively music that captures the spirit of the Roaring Twenties thanks to its energetic, slightly zany, and memorable characters.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this cartoon as much as I do.