Hello!

Leave it to Joe Dante to point us to the best links — in this case it’s a ‘Cartoon Brew’ article analyzing some great classic animation for feature films.  Author Vincent Alexander examines some good examples, with several by Saul Bass, and proves himself a fount of information.

I didn’t know that Dave Fleischer directed the animated main titles for  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, or that Saul Bass delegated some directing chores, or that Art Clokey of fame clay-animated some main titles for American-International.

The selection soon becomes eclectic, including the sequence for Run Lola Run. A favorite in this bunch is the mix of music and mayhem in A Shot in the Dark.

So much fun mail about our review of the new 4K of Once Upon a Time in the West … and most of it positive. Generous correspondent Benoit Roux followed up with a nice note discussing Paramount’s somewhat scrambled ‘final’ version. We like his concise explanation for why the ‘Harmonica stands up at Cattle Corner’ film snippet wasn’t necessary now that the big stopover at Lionel Stander’s cantina is back in the film. The little tag on the end of the first gun-down in fact gets in the way of things, spoiling the surprise of Harmonica’s ‘phantom-like’ survival.

We certainly share Benoit’s love for the movie and its Ennio Morricone music. He sent along an interesting video he made of a visit to the Monument Valley location, finding the remains of the ‘arch’ used in the movie’s flashback,  ↑  and lining up a few other shots. His composite comparisons are quite nice.

As Tom Betts and Bill Shaffer will tell you, European fans of Sergio Leone seem honor-bound to trek out to the vast ‘four corners’ location of Monument Valley. I did that just once, but just an afternoon pass through on the way home from Colorado. For me the desert is still a place to Get the Hell Out Of … what if the damn car were to break down?  →

Benoit’s video piece is about about a year old … the ‘docu’ section begins at around the 3:20 mark:

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson