Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)

Directed by Walter Ruttmann

A train roars across the countryside before coming into a station.  It's pre-dawn arrival in the city barely stirs the residents, but as the sun rises, the streets slowly come to life.  Machinery begins moving.  Automobiles and streetcars ferry passengers to and fro as pedestrians jump out of the way.  Children play.  Shopkeepers clean their front stoop.  A fight breaks out on a street corner.  A sad woman takes a suicidal leap into a river.



After the factories close, the residents begin their evening's entertainment.  There is hockey and car racing, gambling and shows.  The bright lights of the city shine as the fireworks erupt.  So what's this movie about?





Berlin: Symphony of a Great City is a documentary.  It is not like most modern documentaries where the story is real and the footage is real and the director finds the story within.  No, Berlin is about a thousand stories all taking place within one city on one day. It's meant to give you a sense of the rhythm and atmosphere of the place without ever telling its story.



You won't get any sense of Berlin's history watching this.  You won't even get a sense of its industries or people except on the most superficial level.  What you see and feel is the pulse of a city as it awakens and stretches in the morning, as it develops a frenetic pace in its daily activities, as it plays hard into the evening.  



A lot of that sense of momentum comes through the editing.  Director Walter Ruttmann never lingers on any shot person or location for more than few seconds.  His eye is constantly roaming, always searching for the next piece of the city, from the mundane to the extraordinary.



The movie succeeds so well at showing us this city in an hour that it underlines its greatest weakness.  Some of the moments captured are fascinating enough it leaves the audience to wonder at the backstory or to consider what happens next.  Why did the woman jump into the river?  Why were the two men fighting?  What was the guy on the street corner yelling that so commanded an audience?  



Of course, none of these people or stories matter.  The point, the only point, is the heartbeat of Berlin.  Ruttman captures it in exquisite detail from its architecture and industry to its rich and its beggars.  The film has no linear narrative, but it is an extraordinary portrait of a place and a time that left me riveted and wanting more.



**** out of *****



NOTE: I should add to this that while I believe it is on the whole a documentary, I cannot believe some of the scenes weren't staged.  Particularly given the camera technology of the time, it's a stretch to believe that Ruttman just happened upon the suicide or the street fight (filmed from multiple angles).  The staged nature of some of the shots takes nothing from the authenticity of the whole.

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1927: Can You Hear Me Now?

Time to leave behind 1926 and look to 1927.  And wow, what a year it is.



There is a lot of focus on making connections.  Charles Lindbergh completes the first transatlantic flight in The Spirit of St. Louis, which also presumably featured the first instance of an airline losing someone's baggage.  The first transatlantic phone calls happen and the Holland Tunnel connects New York City to New Jersey.  In other transportation news, after 19 years of successful sales of the Model T, Ford unveils the Model A (which is most noted for being the antique car that ferried my wife and I from our wedding to our reception).



In movie news, it's a big year, but one development clearly supersedes the others: sound.  While there had been successes with the use of sound in cinema, The Jazz Singer is considered to be the watershed moment for the technology.  Few quotes in cinema history are as understated but critical as Al Jolson telling the audience "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet."  I have heard it numerous times, most notably on The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios.



What else happened in the film world?  Douglas Fairbanks founds the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which, two years later, will begin handing out the Academy Award.  Twenty-four frames per second becomes the standard for film.  Metropolis debuts (enough said).  The Hays Office issues guidelines as to what should be avoided in film (though they are still a few years from being able to enforce anything).  The iconic Grauman's Chinese Theater opens in Los Angeles.  And MGM's mascot Leo the Lion survives a plane crash while on a cross country tour.



So what are we watching? The Jazz Singer obviously (though no Neil diamond in sight).  Wings (the first Oscar winner) if I can find it.  Metropolis (which is on Watch Instantly).  Clara Bow in It (which is where the expression "It Girl" comes from).  Sunrise from F.W. Murnau (because Murnau is awesome).  Lon Chaney in The Unknown.  The Second Hundred Years (first appearance of Laurel and Hardy!).  The Lodger (Alfred Hitchcock!).  I'm sure there will be others, but that is a hell of a list to start with.

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Battling Butler (1926)

Directed by Buster Keaton

Starring Buster Keaton, Sally O'Neil and Walter James

Produced by Buster Keaton Productions



Alfred Butler is a well-to-do, but foppish young man.  His every need is taken care of thanks to his parents and his loyal servant Martin.  Alfred's father decides that his son could stand a toughening up and sends him to live in the wilds for a time.  It's up to Martin to "arrange" it.



And arrange it he does.  Alfred lives at a campsite that features a full kitchen and a massive tent featuring a brass bed, a bathtub and a bearskin rug.  Roughing it indeed.



Alfred tries his hand at hunting.  Unfortunately, when he turns right, waterfowl emerge from the bushes behind him.  When he turns left, it happens again.  The only thing he successfully finds in the woods is love.



A young mountain girl finds Alfred and his valet and takes a liking to the man.  She comes over to his cabin for dinner and they are so infatuated with one another, they do not even notice the dinner table sinking into the mud.  At the end of the night, the gallant Alfred walks her back to her home, but needs a little help finding his way back.  



The next morning, a newspaper is delivered to the camp and Alfred notices a boxer with the name Alfred "Battling" Butler is fighting for the lightweight title.  Odd that the man should have the same name as our hero.



Alfred soon dispatches Martin to "arrange" a wedding with the mountain girl.  Unfortunately, the father and brother will only marry her off to a real man and they think Alfred is too much of a dandy.  The valet then tells them that his employer is really "Battling" Butler the boxer.  If our hero Alfred wants the girl, he's going to have to pretend to be a pugilist.



How long can Alfred keep up the charade?  And what happens when the real Battling Butler gets wind of our hero's scheme and decides he'd much prefer to let another man take the punches for him?





Here's my quick guide to the Battling Butler: fun set-up, dull payoff, terrible ending.



For the set-up, the movie is ingenious.  The site gags and pratfalls come one after the other as Alfred navigates the world of the wilderness.  The tent and campsite are one laugh piled on top of another.  The fun of his initial hunting attempt, followed by his ill-fated attempt to shoot a duck from a boat go on just long enough.  Keaton has this uncanny sense of comic timing and it shines in the early going.



However, once he assumes Battling's identity, the movie falls apart.  It's the same joke over and over.  There is only so much of Keaton running from a sparring partner in a boxing ring that a man can take.  It's tedious and unfunny.  Adding to the problems is that a clothed Keaton looks every bit the wimp, but when he's standing in a sleeveless shirt, it's apparent the guy is muscular.  One look at him and you know he's not a weakling.



SPOILERS! And the ending?  Alfred is preparing to defend Battling's championship when they reveal it was all a ruse to teach Alfred a lesson about assuming another man's identity.  Could have ended the film there, but they add a final reason for Battling and Alfred to fight in the dressing room and, after getting pummeled, our milquetoast hero fights back.  He knocks Battling to the ground.



I'm with the movie to this point. The last fight is a little contrived, but that's okay.  After Alfred knocks the boxer down, he picks him up and hits him again.  Down goes Battling.  So Alfred picks him up and knocks him down again.  There's a brutality and mean streak to these final moments that is both uncharacteristic and makes me hate Alfred.  I'm sure that's not what they were going for, but still....



As to the acting, Keaton is Keaton.  He plays these well-to-do man-child characters as well as anyone ever did.  The only other notable is the always reliable Snitz Edwards as Martin, the servant.  He gets some great moments and reaction shots to the insanity that surrounds him.



All in all, Battling Butler is an okay film, ruined for me by its last minute.  A good one for Keaton completists, but others can skip it.

**1/2 out of *****

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Geheimnisse Einer Seele, or Secrets Of A Soul (1926)

Trippy

Directed by G.W. Pabst

Starring Werner Krauss, Ruth Weyher and Ilka Grüning

Produced by Neumann-Filmproduktion



An apartment.  A husband and wife have a normal everyday conversation.  He is shaving, she asks if he can trim some of the hair from the back of her neck.  As the razor goes to make its first cut, a cry of "Murder!" is heard outside the window.  It seems a neighbor has been killed during the night.  The startled man looks down and sees he has left a small, superficial wound on his wife's neck.  It's an accident, so no big deal.



Or so you would think.



The husband named Martin soon begins having strange dreams.  He is flying and a man in a tree shoots him out of the sky.  A city pops up on a hillside as though made of cardboard.  A bell tower spirals from the ground adorned with three ringing bells made of women's faces.



That's not all.  He develops a fear of knives.  The phobia is so bad, he cannot even go to the barber for a shave, let alone wield a razor himself.  What's worse?  He has an urge to kill his wife.  



Will Martin give into his psychosis and bloodlust? Or will he... wait a minute... what's this?  Oh, he met a psychoanalyst who takes Martin under his care for several months, divining the source of his phobias and urges and curing him.  The end.



Huh?



Did that just happen?



Did a movie that could have been about a murder mystery or a protagonist's slow descent into madness really just turn into a high school science reel titled "Psychoanalysis and You"?



Wow... just... wow.



Secrets of a Soul does a fair job early on of building a sense of foreboding with Martin's behavior.  The dream sequence is a visual treat, appropriately surrealistic and unsettling, the true stuff of nightmares.  You feel him cracking and you are waiting for either him to snap or even for him to take an interest in the murder in some way.



Of course, neither of those things happened.  We are told in a quick exchange that the murderer has been caught.  And Martin bumps into a psychoanalyst who starts walking him through his phobias and dreams.  The dissection becomes clinical and staid with the actors confined to a room talking to each other.  



It's too bad because Pabst clearly has a flair for the visual medium.  The opening shot of Martin shaving his wife knows just when to punctuate a mundane scene with a closeup to build a sense of dread.  The dream sequence and his childhood memories feel like dreams and memories.  It's a shame it's all in support of an infomercial for psychology.



While watching Secrets of a Soul, my mind wandered to all of the more interesting places the movie could have gone.  It becomes boring and monotonous in a way that makes you imagine the better unmade films this could have been.  It's an infomercial with a beautiful dream sequence in the middle.  Do yourself a favor: seek out the dream sequence and skip the rest.



*1/2 out of *****

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Flesh and the Devil (1926)

A bugle sounds announcing the start of a new day on a military base in Germany.  Men pour out of the bunks and begin to change into their uniforms.  One of the men, Ulrich, is a little slower at leaving his bunk.  He delivers a kick to the bed above him to wake its occupant and finds it... empty.  His friend Leo has spent the night out on the town again.

Ulrich quickly arranges Leo's bed to make it look like someone is in it.  When Leo is missed at roll call, Ulrich announces that he is ill.  The commander goes to investigate, pulls the covers and...

Leo is sleeping in the bed.  The commander leaves and the friends celebrate pulling one over on the officer, until the officer returns and finds the sick Leo dancing.  They are both sent off to shovel dung out of the stables.

A few months later, the two friends head for home.  At the train station, they are met by Leo's mother and Ulrich's sister Hertha, who clearly has her eye on Leo.  However, Leo's eyes are drawn to another, a beautiful woman exiting the train.

He asks his mother who the woman is.  She does not know but speculates the woman is in town for the ball.  We know where Leo is headed next.

At the ball, Leo rebuffs the advances of Hertha and looks for the mysterious woman.  He finds her across the floor and sweeps her onto the dance floor.  The pair soon are walking from the hall into a secluded part of the garden.  There is a cigarette.  They kiss...

Cut to them waking up in the woman's bedroom.  All is right with the world.  Until her husband arrives.  He challenges Leo to a duel the next morning, a duel which Leo wins.

However, because he has killed a man, he must spend five years at a military outpost in Africa.  Before he goes, he asks his friend Ulrich to look after the young widow.

Ulrich gets Leo out of the service a couple of years early and the exile returns to find his friend has married the love of his life.  Ulrich believed the duel was over cheating at a card game and not the stunning young woman.  He had no idea Leo had designs on her.

Will the three overcome these new obstacles or will their passion erupt in violence once more?

We've all seen movies with a love triangle, right?  Except when you think about it, rarely is it a love triangle.  More like two lines that meet at one point.  When there are two guys and a girl, it's not usually a question of whether the two guys will end up together.

Flesh and the Devil is a true love triangle.

Leo loves the woman.  Ulrich loves the woman.  And Leo and Ulrich love each other.

Yes, you read that right.

Sure it's not overtly romantic.  Except for the way the embrace.  And look into each others' eyes.  And speak to each other.  They even get married (sort of).  In 1926, there is only so far the movie could go with these themes, but it's hardly subtext.  More like supertext.

The film excels at showing us instead of telling us about these relationships.  We see Leo and Ulrich's friendship.  We see Leo fall hard for Greta Garbo's Felicitas.  And we feel every bit of the betrayal Leo feels when he returns to find Ulrich and Felicitas married.  You believe these relationships.  Leo and Ulrich feel like they have known each other forever.  Which makes the knife twist all the more painful.

The direction by Clarence Brown made me sit up and take notice.  Despite having seen two of his previous features, it was like I was seeing him for the first time.  The camera is always right where it needs to be and every zoom and movement has a purpose.  Really virtuoso stuff here.

There are a lot of great uses of light and shadow.  The ethereal light that bathes Garbo in a glowas Gilbert goes to light her cigarette.  The shadow of Garbo's husband stalking the young lovers before he enters the room.  The ominous silhouettes of the duel.   Gorgeous.

The symbolism is heavily slathered onto this movie, but that suits the melodrama perfectly.  We see the statue of the two "friends" in the beginning.  After their relationship fractures, we see it again, this time overgrown with vines with a literal branch growing between the figures.  The lake that surrounds the Isle of Friendship freezes over as their relationship turns chilly.  

The acting here is all around perfect.  Gilbert's Leo has a mischievous streak, but also a loyalty to those he loves.  His eyes allow you to see his love and lust, his seething rage when Felicitas is taken from him and his sad sense of defeat when he sees no escape from his feelings but death.

Lars Hanson's has a Ralph Fiennes look as Ulrich.  He does not even realize he has betrayed his friend and Leo's distance literally wears him down.

Garbo is less a person here and more a device to bring the friends into conflict, but she fills her character's empty vessel with just the right sense of mystery and sensuality.  She's Helen of Troy and with one look she can send men off to die for her.

I have a few years yet to go, but I will be shocked if Flesh and the Devil is not near the top of my Best of the 1920s list.  It's brilliantly filmed, superbly acted with a story that's both simple and timeless.  A must see.

***** out of *****

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5 Thoughts: Captain America

While my cinematic journeys are primarily focused on the past, I still catch some newer releases. You won't get a full review on these, but you will get five thoughts and a bottom line. 

1. Maybe the best use of a supporting cast in a superhero movie. Tommy Lee Jones is gold in every one of his scenes. Stanley Tucci hangs over the entire movie despite an early exit. And Neal McDonough is a lot of fun as the underused Dum Dum Dugan.

2. On the other hand, I could have used more of Bucky Barnes. The relationship with Cap is painted in broad strokes and is really the most important for the character.

3. I'll take my Howling Commandos movie now. Please.

4. Alan Silvestri's best work in years is on display.  Loved the score.  And Alan Menken's 'Star-Spangled Man'?  Perfect.

5. The effects work is great then meh. Seeing Steve before the transformation was almost seamless. Some of the action CGI (particularly in the train sequence) was fake looking.

Bottom Line: It's a miracle this film exists. I cannot believe we got a WWII-era Captain America film. Joe Johnston knocks it out of the park with a perfect script for the character. I wish some of the adventures with the Howling Commandos weren't glossed over, but all in all, this is a near-perfect translation from comic to screen.

****1/2 out of *****

For your listening pleasure:

'Star-Spangled Man'

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Bardelys the Magnificent (1926)

Directed by King Vidor

Starring John Gilbert, Eleanor Boardman and Roy D'Arcy

Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Bardelys is the ultimate ladies' man in King Louis XIII court.  He's bedding the wives of other men, then casually dueling them until they relent and leave.  It's all a lark to him and he's having the time of his life.



There is something he cares about though: honor.  And when his rival Chatellerault is rejected by the beautiful Roxalanne, the man plays on Bardelys pride.  Chatellerault bets Bardelys that he cannot win the hand of the maiden.  Bardelys at first laughs off the bet, but having his romantic prowess questioned in public shames him into accepting.



The bet is immediately complicated when the king prohibits his court from leaving due to the growing civil unrest in the surrounding countryside.  Bardelys, with the bet and his honor on the line, defies his monarch and heads off to find Roxalanne. 



He comes across a dying man named Lesperon and, after a brief exchange and the man's death, Bardelys assumes his identity.  Later, Bardelys encounters some of the king's soldiers.  Because he is a fugitive, he passes himself off as Lesperon.  Bad move.  It turns out Lesperon was the leader of the rebellion against the king.  Bardelys battles the men and escapes, but is wounded.  He collapses outside of Roxalanne's estate.



The woman nurses the man she believes to be Lesperon back to health.  They fall in love.  There's a boat ride through a willow tree.  However, when the moment comes to marry his love, Bardelys cannot bring himself to do it.  The relationship is built on a lie.  Angry, the woman summons the soldiers to take "Lesperon" away.



Bardelys is brought to trial before a panel of judges that includes Chatellerault.  The villain refuses to correct Bardelys true identity and he is sentenced to death.



Can Bardelys escape the executioner?  And will he win the hand of Roxalanne?



Let's get this out of the way: the plot is really silly.  Bardelys is a regular in King Louis' court, but nobody recognizes him?  The supposed leader of the rebels is off convalescing with Roxalanne and he is still considered the leader of the rebels?  Roxalanne and her dad (who are both sympathizers with the rebellion) never ask their guest whether he should be off, you know, rebelling?



Here's the thing though.  Bardelys the Magnificent has a momentum and proficiency that captivates you while you are watching it.  Crucial to this is the acting and magnetism of John Gilbert in the lead.



Gilbert elevates the material through his nuanced portrayal of the lead character.  The changes that wash over his face throughout sell the tale and pull the audience along.  There are so many big moments that he sells with his performance.  His awkward attempts to laugh off the bet.  The change in his eyes as Roxalanne professes his love and he feels the weight of his guilt.  The relief and then horror as he slowly realizes Chatellerault is betraying him in the court.  They are scenes that need no dialogue cards to express what is going on.



Eleanor Boardman is perfect as the object of Bardelys desire.  She is fiery, but tender.  Most silents fall into the trap of making their women a cipher or a plot device.  Boardman's Roxalanne is a person.  She has her own political views and she doesn't bow to any man.  



The other star of note is Roy D'Arcy as Chatellerault.  He's a cunning villain, taking full advantage when opportunity presents itself.  He is also terrifically over the top, particularly in the court scene.  He doesn't just play that he doesn't recognize Bardelys; he does so with a knowing wink at his rival that twists the knife further.  



The direction by King Vidor is one of constant motion.  There are two scenes that show the director's mastery over different types of emotion.  First is the boat ride through the willows.  This is pure paperback romance.  They sit across from each other as the willow branches touch them.  They embrace, him kissing her, her writhing in pleasure.  It's foreplay and consummation, as close to sex as you'll get in 1926.



The other is Bardelys' escape attempt from the executioner.  It's the first time I can remember seeing action choreography married to cinematography in such a compelling way.  We get point of view shots as Bardelys slides down some long handled axes.  We get a perspective looking down on the actor as he swings from a banner.  The scene is endlessly inventive in how he uses the setting and its weapons to create a getaway.



The climax between Bardelys and Chatellerault gets a little too melodramatic for my tastes.  The whole set-up of the scene seems like a way to both have a satisfying duel and keep the blood off of our hero's hands.



In the end, Bardelys almost out swashbuckles Douglas Fairbanks.  In many ways the film is superior to Fairbanks' productions because it actually pays attention to the female lead and writes her as more than a prize to be won.  Of, course others' mileage may vary, but Bardelys the Magnificent is a pleasant and welcome surprise.



**** out of *****

NOTE: Bardelys the Magnificent was considered a lost film until 2006 when a nearly complete print was found.  The film is missing the third reel.  The available version of the movie includes production stills and dialogue cards in the place of the missing scenes.

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The Bells (1926)

Directed by James Young

Starring Lionel Barrymore, Caroline Frances Cooke, and Gustav von Seyffertitz

Produced by Chadwick Pictures Corporation 

Mathias and his wife Catharine run an inn and a mill together.  They both have their ambitions.  Catharine wants to succeed as an innkeeper and is mindful of ensuring that their patrons pay for the drink.  Mathias however wants to be the town Burgomaster and if he needs to ply the townspeople with alcohol on credit that never gets paid, so be it.



The problem with Mathias' approach is that they owe the local banker for the money they used to purchase their businesses.  And Mathias' approach to the balance sheet has had an unfortunate impact on the balance sheet.



Enter a traveling merchant.  Not just any merchant, but one with a heavy money belt.  He relaxes at the inn for an hour, but Mathias sees an opportunity.  He sets off after the man and with a swing of an axe, the innkeeper's money troubles are over.



He pays off the inn and the mill.  He even has a nice dowry for his daughter to marry the local lawman.  And Mathias becomes the Burgomaster.



If only that were the end of things.  The murder has been discovered and the merchant's brother arrives in town demanding justice.  For help, the victim's kin has hired a mesmerist to ascertain the guilty party.  As Burgomaster, Mathias must lead an investigation.  Meanwhile, he is haunted by the ghost of his victim and the sounds of the man's sleigh bells.



Will Mathias be discovered?  Or will the madness of his crime consume him?



The Bells has a fantastic central concept in an ambitious innkeeper being haunted by his crime.  It also has actors that make one prepare for greatness: Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff.



If only the script was worthy of the effort.



There is certainly some good stuff here.  For most of the film, Barrymore plays Mathias' descent into madness in a relatively understated way.  He never really flies off the handle.  It's all wild-eyed stares and disheveled hair.  He both has the weight of his guilt hanging over him and conceals his crime from the town.  Barrymore is certainly up to the task of playing a virtuous man whose ambition leads him into some bad choices.



But the way this plays out is baffling.  A merchant is murdered and the next day Mathias is rich.  The local constable points out that the victim's body can't be found and that it was likely burned in a lime kiln; Mathias points out that he has lime kilns.  He tries to put off the investigation by pointing out the scandal that a murder would bring to the town.  It does not take a Law & Order junkie to figure out the murderer.



Karloff gets top billing today, but in truth he is barely in it.  He glowers menacingly and smiles menacingly and performs all other manner of human movement menacingly, but he exists only to provide Mathias the threat of being discovered.



There is some interesting effects work here.  The way the bells hover over Mathias.  The ghostly hand that appears and then reveals a full ghost.  But the tone is never right.  It never feels dark or foreboding enough.  There's no real terror at the hauntings and the plot depends on those moments being dreadful.



SPOILERS AHEAD.  And then there is the ending.  Mathias is visited by the ghost again, but the murderer repents his sin and is forgiven by the dead man.  At peace at last, Mathias sees a halo develop around the religious shrine in his room and he dies.  It feels like the movie just ends.  Like it lost all of its steam and petered out.  The buildup of the movie was the threat the mesmerist posed to Mathias world order and that never really comes to fruition.



In the end, The Bells is a tale we have seen a million times.  It may be one of the first, but it's only a half-baked attempt.  It never decides what story it's telling and elements flit in and out without resolution.  There are great moments, but they do not add up to a whole film.



** out of *****

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My Day as an Extra at The Dark Knight Rises

We take a break from our normal trip through cinematic history to talk about the experience of being an extra in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).  Unlike the other reports I have seen, I am keeping this spoiler-free and just focusing on how the day went from the perspective of someone who has never done anything like this before.

So I spent part of my weekend as an extra at Heinz Field this past weekend for a small, independent film called The Dark Knight Rises. It was my first experience on a movie set and I thought it might be fun to share some observations.

Now, let me start by saying that I am not going to spoil any aspects of the film. There are plenty of sites that are already doing that. Which leads to point number two: I am amused by the authority with which some of those leaking info speak. There's some stuff we saw that I have confidence about, but there are a lot of people taking an assistant director at his word (because the production team clearly has no motivation to lie to 10,000 random spectators about a plot point or two).

The entire day was really well-organized by the production team and BeInAMovie.com. The shuttles to the stadium were a seamless operation and by the time I arrived on set the early morning rain had petered out.

The stadium seemed to be less than a quarter filled, but I am sure will appear sold out in the final film. Movie magic and all that.

The crowd itself was an interesting mix. There were Steelers fans, comic book geeks, film fans and a few curious locals. I myself am obviously a film fan, but I am also a comic nerd and a sports fan (though Philly teams are my drug of choice). I felt right at home.

After filming a quick early scene, several sections (mine included) were moved around the stadium. A nice spot about twelve rows behind the endzone would be my home for the rest of the day.

The stadium was cool from the rain for a bit, but when the sun emerged mid-morning, it got hot. Really hot. The production provided water bottles. We started out periodically grabbing a bottle for ourselves. Soon, people were doing water bottle runs for a few people around them. By the end of the day, if you got up for a bottle you came back with a box full, hawking them like a stadium vendor.

Between takes there was entertainment in the form of Dante, a comedian featured on Last Comic Standing. I didn't catch his on-field intro, but I was a big fan of the reality show so I eventually remembered who he was. My recollection was that he was arrogant and unfunny on the show. Sometimes people change. And sometimes, people are Dante.

There were raffles throughout the day. The average gift was an iPod Touch or Shuffle, or a collection of comics. There were some unique gifts: a Michael Keaton Batman standee (that sagged because it was left in the rain), an electronic Batmobile, a Batman poster signed by Gil Kane. The big prizes were free roundtrip plane tickets, a trip for 2 to the movie premiere and a new Chrysler. I won... the respect and admiration of those around me and sadly, nothing more.

There were a lot of small moments that were fun for me:

• People were encouraged to wear black and gold, the color of both the Gotham City Rogues and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  But you could not have any logos on the shirt, including the Steelers logo.  Several audience members had creative t-shirts and hats made up, but I would say the most popular fashion statement was the inside-out Steelers t-shirt.


• One of the production folks excitedly introduce Art Rooney, the owner of the Steelers to the crowd.  Only problem was it was "Dan" Rooney. 


• The placekicker for the Rapid City Monuments was the mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl.  Take after take, he placed the ball in the exact same area of the field.  On the seventh kickoff, he flubbed the kick wide left and the crowd started some good natured booing.  I think if your mayor can placekick under pressure, he should be mayor for life.


• The coach of the Rogues was former Steelers coach Bill Cowher.  Current Steeler Hines Ward got on the mic to welcome the coach back and announce that the coach would be covering the bill for beer and sandwiches.


• Cowher got on the mic and said he knew none of the crowd came for Batman, but to support the Steelers. That got a big cheer. 


• Cowher also was deadpan in reading off numbers for the raffle.   He was perplexed as to what some of the prizes were and would read the numbers quickly.  Once he counted to three, he moved on to a new number with a short "sorry" or "too bad."


• Cowher had the most hilarious, but potentially harrowing moment of the day.  After raffling off a number of prizes, he started walking back across the field... directly through the explosives that the crew had just set.  A crew member quickly got on the mic yelling "Bill... Bill... You do NOT want to go that way."


• Ward did a lap around the stadium seated on the roof of a Tumbler.  No one had as much fun as Hines Ward on Saturday.


• To kill time between takes, Dante held a singing contest.  The good folks at American Idol have nothing to worry about.  With the exception of the last singer, all the other talent plucked from the stands was not so good.


• The crowd jumped in as continuity editor late in the day.  The crew was about to film us reacting to an earlier scene, but nobody reset the game or play clocks in the stadium.  Our section started chanting "change the clocks."  After a minute, a crew member got on the mic and said "I think we need to change the clocks."


• Late in the day, one of the IMAX cameras very loudly ate a roll of film.  It turned into a teaching moment as a crew member told the crowd that a roll of film cost $750 and that there were only four of these cameras in the world.  Now you know!


• I was just 100 feet away from Tom Hardy and Christopher Nolan.  The star of Bronson and the director of The Prestige.  I was a happy man.


• As the day wrapped up and the last prizes were being raffled, a few crew members started tossing around a football on the field.  If your job is to create Gotham City for the day and then run a fade pattern into an NFL endzone for fun, you may just have: The. Best. Job. Ever.

Great day all in all.  Only negatives were the heat and the long lines for the shuttles to leave the stadium.  Certainly an experience I will never forget.

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Felix the Cat in Two-Lip Time

Felix notices a mouse run a rope and chases after it.  Unbeknownst to our title character, the rope is attached to a boat, which soon heads out to sea.  After a bout of seasickness, the feline finds himself among the tulips of Holland.  He takes a liking to a young girl, but there's a boy who already had his eyes on her.  Can the cat win the hand of the maiden?

The latest Felix the Cat short has a breezy humor to it.  There are little sight gags, enough to make you smile, but nothing completely guffaw inducing.  There is a naïve simplicity to the tale that is a breath of fresh air, a safe harbor from all of the live action artistry and misogynistic Disney cartoons of the era.

There are some fun moments to be had.  Felix first corrals the girl by tossing his heart to her.  It circles her a few times before she snatches it from the air.  Cute.

Later, when a man tosses a shoe at the cat, Felix turns it into a boat, using an exclamation point from his thoughts as a paddle.  In the end, our resourceful hero uses his own tail as a handle for a windmill to blow away one of his foes.

It's sad that after my experience with Disney's Alice shorts I am giving points to a movie for being entertaining without offending, but so it goes.  We are in safe hands here watching Two Lip Time.  There is no ambition but to bring some happiness to the viewer for a brief moment.  And it succeeds at that in spades.

**** out of *****

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