Column Chronicles
 
More of my favorite films
 
 
Frank Cotolo
October 20, 2016
 
Through the decades of my storied life in and around show business I have always had an esoteric taste for film. I enjoyed many of the popular movies that have made industry history and I don't disparage any movie based on its lack of depth or artistry. It just so happens that some of my favorite films are abstruse works produced and performed by people that never made the mainstream league. So, once again, here are a few of my favorites.
 
Favorite Nations, 1935
 
Service Crenshaw shot this entire movie with only three edits. He wrote and directed it and personally supplied knick knacks for scenes that took place in a living room of the main character, Stint Bellows, a secret agent for six different countries, none of which know he works for more countries than one. The plot revolves around Stint being blackmailed by someone who claims to have seen him buying fresh fruit in all of the countries employing him. The climax is worth the six hours it takes to watch the entire film.
 
Trouble Is My Middle Name (If You Don't Count My Nickname), 1953
 
Rex Riley directed this neo-noir story of a detective who takes on a strange case of a man who has lost his lisp. The man hires Rip Rosenblat, a cheap detective, to find out if his lisp has been stolen. At first, the detective thinks the guy is nuts but when the guy pays in advance Rip goes ahead with investigations. The sheer audacity of the plot, a signature of Rex Riley's only three films (he was killed by a runaway taxi while hailing a taxi in Hollywood) absorbs the viewer and makes him or her wonder about their own speech patterns.
 
Taste The Blood Of Dracula, 1946
 
The only movie that used the name Dracula without asking permission turns out to be the most inventive and frightening of any made that had permission to use the name. Ignoring any other Dracula story, director/writer Posh Bigstow weaves a tale of a vampire that became one of the undead communities when a Swedish Count disguised himself as a dentist only open after sunset. Oddly enough, the Dracula character is names Joseph Dracula before he becomes a vampire, which is a clever twist, which kept Bigstow from copyright infringement. Duart Newbury played Joe Dracula with an edge more cruel than any actor that played the vampire and Bigstow was relentlessly graphic about it. The movie had to be edited many times to pass Standards and Practices.
 
Son Of The Tractor, 1961
 
An animated short from genius filmmaker Leslie Front features a baby tractor that desires to be as strong as his old and rickety dad had been when in his prime he towed five times his weight across the state of Oregon. The little tractor is a delightful character that rivals any cute animal Disney ever drew into a cartoon movie.
 
Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.
Copyright © 2009-2016 SRN Mediaworks Productions, in association with Frank Cotolo.
All rights reserved. We are not responsible for the content of external links.
148.ca | Cafe | Fab | Radio | Local