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Little Geezer

Date produced: 1932

Filmmaker(s):

Theodore Huff

Description:

"In Little Geezer, running 400 feet, Theodore Huff, ACL, has produced one of the most able and amusing burlesque film stories of the amateur year, repeating his success of that earlier satiric classic, Hearts of the West. Again he has used, with amazing directorial facility, the neighborhood youngsters as his only actors. Again he has aped, with his own peculiar genius, the threadbare cliches of professional drama, poking fun in his filming as well as his titling. Little Geezer offers fine examples of real cinema, is the sort of thing amateurs can do as well or better than professionals and is delightfully amusing in the process." Movie Makers, Dec. 1932, 561.

"Theodore Huff, ACL, has done it again! That lone wolf producer of Hearts Of The West has paralleled the gorgeous fun of his earlier panning of the purple plains as he takes the gangsters for a ride in Little Geezer. The Big Shot, his lieutenant, Greta Garbage (" — more to be pitied than sniffed at") and Scarface Macaroni are all there, played by the neighborhood kids, no one of them over eleven years old. Through their naively serious acting and his own genius at direction and editing. Mr. Huff has riddled with bursts of laughter the machine gun monarchy of professional filmdom." Movie Makers, Sept. 1932, 398.


Little Girl

Date produced: 1955

Filmmaker(s):

Glen H. Turner

Description:

"Glen Turner might take a cue from "Gigi" and "Thank Heaven for little girls" with curly hair and their interesting mud pies. With teddy bear and dog, she does for a walk. En route we view the ducks, geese and other farm animals. The trees display their fall wardrobe to add to the delight of a walk in the woods. Soon the dog realizes they have gone too far from home and he goes back for Mother. Soon we return to the little girl asleep admidst the golden leaves. An enjoyable picture of things little girls like to do" PSA Journal, Nov. 1958, 46-47.


Little Monastery by the Side of the Road, The

Date produced: 1970

Filmmaker(s):

Peter A. Kransz

Description:

"The Little Monastery by the Side of the Road by Peter A. Kransz, a PSA member of Niles, Ill. Peter has made this corny, but very clever, shorty film that will have everyone chuckling and wondering why they didn't think of it! This 3-minute 16mm film won for him a Ten Best medal and the Humorous Film Award" PSA Journal, Nov. 1970, 38.


Little Sherlock

Date produced: 1937

Filmmaker(s):

Charles J. Carbonaro

Description:

"Already well in the forefront of contemporary photoplay producers, Charles J. Carbonaro has taken a marked step onward in his current comedy, Little Sherlock. Simply planned yet smoothly integrated, this new production tells a delightful tale of the precocious daughter of a photographer, who was always "helping" father. How, during a surprise robbery of their home, she records the crux of the event with Daddy's amateur movie camera provides a denouement which is both satisfying and successful. In Little Sherlock, Mr. Carbonaro has more than maintained the suave lighting and impeccable technical standards for which his work is known; he now wins new honors with a display of genuine talent for light comedy direction. To both of these credits must be added praise for his own acting of the busy cameraman and for the portrayal of the eager apprentice by his own daughter, Alice." Movie Makers, Dec. 1937, 603.


Little Swan, The

Date produced: 1966

Filmmaker(s):

William M. Campbell

Description:

"The Little Swan is an animated film using paper cut-outs, and is tailored to fit the music of the Swan Lake Ballet. A little girl cuts out the images and watches them dance through the air, only to be trampled under foot when her little brother and his friends get into a scrap over a football" PSA Journal, Sept. 1966, 35.


Living Mayas of Guatemala

Date produced: 1942

Filmmaker(s):

Giles G. Healey

Description:

"Living Mayas of Guatemala is a detailed study of human ways which explains enough, as it goes along, to give those who see it a feeling of intimacy with the strange customs that are recorded. There have been special film studies of the descendents of the great Central Americans of the past, and these have singled out some particular phase of Mayan life. Giles G. Healey has set himself a larger task, in interpreting the unity of the modern Mayas by following them through each day of a week. We see them at home, at work, at play and engaged with singular devotion in religious observances. These major sequences of the various days are full, and, for the most part, adequately filmed. Action is not posed, and the audience shares with the cameraman the feeling of observing something so vital as to make the filmer's presence entirely incidental. The final portion of Mr. Healey's movie offers a fine record of the special religious ceremony at Chichicastenango. A deficiency of illumination, although a cinematographic detraction, does not destroy the illusion of participation in the communal devotions. Here is an important contribution to the study of folkways, done attentively, intelligently and interestingly." Movie Makers, Dec. 1942, 508.


Local Events as They Happen

Date produced: 1926

Filmmaker(s):

Ernest Maynard

Description:

"Local events in Preston - the Mayor's procession; Christmas shopping; pot fair; Royal Infirmary rag; egg rolling in Avenham Park; dog show; and a horse fair" (NWFA Online Database).


Lonely Ones, The

Date produced: 1958

Description:

"The Los Angeles Cinema Club has captured the story of one lonely mother who finds the younger generations preoccupied. On one of her afternoon visits to the park she makes an acquaintance, followed by more frequent meetings. Soon, the children break this up by finding a home for mother. The end is a happy one." PSA Journal, Nov. 1958, 46.


Lot in Sodom

Date produced: 1932

Filmmaker(s):

James Sibley Watson

Melville Webber

Description:

"Lot, two reels 35mm., produced by Dr. James S. Watson, jr., ACL, and Melville Webber, may be said to be as much of an advance in motion picture technique over Fall of the House of Usher, their earlier production, as that film was an advance over standard professional cinematography. There are very few cinematographers in the world who have devoted the whole of their efforts to experimentation with the motion picture as an art medium and, in the opinion of Movie Makers' staff, there is none who has achieved the signal results of these two. Lot represents a complete innovation, not only in the treatment of the theme as a whole, but in the cinematic interpretation of the sequences. In it, the familiar tools of the advanced cinematographer, multiple exposure, trick printing, complicated lighting, symbolism, models and models in combination with life size sets are used to secure an entirely new and very beautiful cinematic representation of the Biblical story. In Lot these two amateurs have mastered the world of illusion of the motion picture but, in doing so, they have produced more than a mere novelty; they have founded a new cinematic art." Movie Makers, Dec. 1932, 538.

An avant-garde retelling of the biblical story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom (from the Book of Genesis, chapters 17-19), this film was controversial for its nudity and homoerotic overtones. (D.J. Duffy)


Love Apples

Date produced: 1936

Filmmaker(s):

Henry Hoke

Description:

"In Love Apples, Henry Hoke presented what is, so far as Movie Makers records show, the first approach to filming the hobby and preoccupation of an entire family. Unquestionably the Hoke family likes tomatoes and, something less commonly encountered, it is willing to work to produce them. Mr. Hoke's Kodachrome film lets us see the entire family group at work planting, weeding, watering and picking — especially picking, because Mr. Hoke makes quite a cinematic point of eager hands reaching for tomatoes in and out of season. The continuity is active and full of humorous touches, with a shade too great an emphasis on camera tricks for their own sake; the photography is adequate and often provides much screen beauty. Above all, this film has a unity which, added to its unusual motive, brings it into the Honorable Mention class." Movie Makers, Dec. 1936, 549-550.


Total Pages: 34