Tag: Roy Mack

Free and Easy (1931, Roy Mack)

The most cinematic thing about Free and Easy might be its end credits card. The card at least makes Easy feel like a short film and not a radio show. Well, wait, I guess there are three sight gags in the short… otherwise, it’d definitely be better suited for radio.

It opens with a group of singing hobos. Then, in his most ambitious move as director, Mack actually pulls back to reveal Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. In this opening scene, Bergen’s skill as a ventriloquist isn’t quite as clear in the subsequent one (the overly ambitious plot has four whole scenes).

Bergen goes back and forth between him and McCarthy and the scene–the two are consulting a gypsy–works. Just not as cinema. Mack sits the camera down and forgets about it. The dialogue pacing is also better suited for radio.

Easy isn’t awful, it’s just not cinematic.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Roy Mack; director of photography, Edwin B. DuPar; released by Warner Bros.

Starring Edgar Bergen (Professor / Charlie McCarthy) and Christina Graver (Kamisha).

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Bubbles (1930, Roy Mack)

Bubbles might be of modern interest because to Judy Garland fans, as an eight-year old Garland and her sisters show up at one point. But to anyone else? Well, it may also be interesting as an early sound short. There’s a lot of coordinated tap dancing in the short and I kept wondering if the filmmakers were honest or fixed the sound in post.

The short’s a variety show, only in a mystical subterranean cavern, with the Vitaphone Kiddies being cute in dumb outfits and some weird (uncredited) troupe leader announcing each act. As a director, I think Mack’s most ambitious move is panning the camera left… once.

There are a couple decent performers and a lot of mediocre ones. One of the good ones is a gymnast. The mediocre ones include a boy who sings poorly while more talented kids dance.

Bubbles‘s slightly odd and pointless, but harmless.

2/3Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Roy Mack; directors of photography, Howard Green and Willard Van Enger; released by Warner Bros.

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