Oddball Films Media
•
Apr 16, 2015
The short documentary Beauty Knows No Pain (1971) follows the grueling Kilgore College Rangerettes audition process in Texas.
Attention: Women at Work (Color, 1983)
Women have to work hard in the bedroom and the workplace. This film surveys attitudes toward women in the workplace and presents portraits on women who do jobs men usually do. Lady Construction workers, architects and coast guards all invite us into the strange and wonderful world they occupy doing man’s work. Though we’ve come a long way in today’s workplace, these portraits remind us how we construct our own gender identities through our work places.
Mae West Meets Mr. Ed (B+W, 1964)
The 1960s were a hard time for many of the great stars of the 1930s and 40s. Joan Crawford made a turn towards schlocky horror, and Mae West headed for the horse stables of Television. In this bizarre episode of the classic TV program, Mae West sweeps into town and requests that Wilbur redesign her horse stable, with all the luxury fit for a Hollywood Queen. Ed overhears the conversation and begins to resent his own surroundings, shabby by comparison, but soon realizes pampering isn't what it's all cracked up to be.
The 1960s were a hard time for many of the great stars of the 1930s and 40s. Joan Crawford made a turn towards schlocky horror, and Mae West headed for the horse stables of Television. In this bizarre episode of the classic TV program, Mae West sweeps into town and requests that Wilbur redesign her horse stable, with all the luxury fit for a Hollywood Queen. Ed overhears the conversation and begins to resent his own surroundings, shabby by comparison, but soon realizes pampering isn't what it's all cracked up to be.
A Date With Debbie (1960, B&W)
America’s sweetheart Debbie Reynolds got her very first television special in 1960, A Date With Debbie, written by comic legend Carl Reiner. The musical darling sings, dances and even attempts to make you laugh, interspersed with long form commercials from Revlon. In this segment Debbie sings to her pals, well, to giant caricature marionettes of her famous friends like Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. I guess Revlon couldn’t afford all the appearance fees.
Lipstick and Dynamite (1949, B+W)
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Match Your Mood (Color, 1968)
Wild, amazing promotional film by Westinghouse touts the latest fad: decorative pop art/psychedelic refrigerator covers. Transforms any kitchen into a swinging go-go party!
Wild, amazing promotional film by Westinghouse touts the latest fad: decorative pop art/psychedelic refrigerator covers. Transforms any kitchen into a swinging go-go party!
Roller Derby Excerpts (B+W, 1956)
Episode of the trash tv program features the Chiefs vs the Jolters. Watch the hard-hitting action, audience reation shots and see “Tuffy” hit the penalty box for her excessive roughness. They called this a sport?
Ladies in a Turkish Bath (B+W, 1932)
Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd were styled as the female Laurel and Hardy, and in this romp they must find relief from their bad colds. The pair venture to a Turkish bath where the matron puts them through the toughest rigamarole of hot water and motorized exercise machines (that look like sex toys). When a man shows up at the ladies’ bath, the fun really begins!
The Great Saw Came Nearer and Nearer (B+W, 1944)
This musical (and sexist comedy) Soundie (jukebox film) features s Cindy Walker as a girl terrorized by her beau with a buzz saw unless she marries him! Laughably awful!
Double-Talk Girl (1942), A Universal Pictures “Popular Person Oddity” with Shirley Dinsdale and her right-hand gal, Judy Splinters. There’s nothing more unsettling than ventriloquism. Except for little girls in lace dresses doing ventriloquism. Really, it’s too much. In this wacko newsreel of the bizarre, it’s Lizzy Borden meets Chuckie as we meet a girl who may be the youngest serial killing, doll-loving supernatural psycho ever. Or she’s just good at throwing her voice and has bad taste in hobbies.
Are You Popular? (B+W, 1947)
Watch misplaced gender roles in this all-time favorite “mental hygiene” howler. Teen girls (who are portrayed as either princesses or sluts) must "repay" boys for entertaining them with milk and
cookies, and are complimented on their observance of social graces. "Look at you, all ready and right on time too; that's a good deal," says Wally to Caroline.
I Remember Barbra (Color, 1980)
Barbra Streisand retrospective by filmmaker Kevin Burns, who takes to the streets, shops, boardwalks, apartment houses and classrooms of Brooklyn to document the Barbra Streisand her friends and neighbors remembered as an adolescent and up and coming performer. No clips of Barbra are used in the film, nor is her music. Instead, the documentary focuses on everyday Brooklynites and their personal recollections of a favorite hometown girl. A bizarre and amusing slice of Brooklyn circa 1980
Barbra Streisand retrospective by filmmaker Kevin Burns, who takes to the streets, shops, boardwalks, apartment houses and classrooms of Brooklyn to document the Barbra Streisand her friends and neighbors remembered as an adolescent and up and coming performer. No clips of Barbra are used in the film, nor is her music. Instead, the documentary focuses on everyday Brooklynites and their personal recollections of a favorite hometown girl. A bizarre and amusing slice of Brooklyn circa 1980
Fraud By Mail (B+W, 1944)
Speaking of fetish, this very weird Universal Studios featurette focuses on bizarre and quite dangerous mail order fraud: nose shapers, spine straighteners, electrical hair stimulators, eye mallets, pendiculators and more. Rather kinky.
Beauty Knows No Pain (Color, 1971)
In Texas, Gussie Nell Davis, who wears harlequin glasses and seems to exercise her face by smiling, talks about the values she instills in the girls who become Kilgore College Rangerettes; loveliness, poise and dependability. Beauty Knows No Pain is a documentary film about the Kilgore Rangerettes by Elliott Erwitt. In 1940, the Kilgore College Rangerettes became the first dancing drill team in the nation. They have been performing at half-time shows during college football games ever since. Beauty Knows No Pain gives an in-depth look at the young ladies who come from all over the country to compete in a two-week drill, knowing that not all of them will make the cut. At the end of the two week camp, the girls gather to see who is in, who has been chosen as an alternate, and who will go home unfulfilled. The girls meet their triumph and disappointment with shrieks and tears. An eye-opening verite view of true-blue All-American culture.