Reviews

This excellent documentary shows clips from 1935-1944. Clips include interview programs with Labor Minister Robert Ley, footage of the 1936 Olympics, light entertainment programs (vaudeville, etc.), plays, exercise shows, propaganda documentaries, cooking shows, and coverage of the 1938 (I think) Nuremberg rally. There's also a documentary of how amputee vets are being rehabilitated with artificial legs.

It also interviews some of the German TV pioneers who explain how some of the early technology worked (camera trucks at the Olympics, for example, had automatic film-developing machinery inside the truck.) Also fascinating is the political background behind the broadcasts, the technology, distribution of TV sets, how the war affected the planned and actual use of broadcasting, etc.

I guess it's no surprise that we were never taught in school that TV (the greatest invention in the history of the universe, if you ask any kid) was largely developed by the Nazis. They were no doubt afraid it just might have turned us all into Hitler Youth.

Although IMDb doesn't list it (yet), Rhino Home Video sells a 30 minute MST3K bloopers video called "Poopie!" produced by the folks at Best Brains.

It consists of many different outtakes, most less than 15-seconds, of flubbed or forgotten lines, prop failures, etc. And they're all from the host segments, not the featured movies.

They feature both Joel and Mike (and plenty o' Frank and Dr. Forester.)

I rented the VHS at "Movie Madness" in Portland, OR, so it's probably available in larger cities.

This is a comedy bargain, because not only do you laugh at the premise of the bit, you laugh at the failed execution of the bit!

As a stickler for realism in war movies, "Stalingrad" is my ideal war movie. It passes my 10-point manifesto for war movies: 1) Combat is hellish and graphic. No chest-clutching and "I'm hit, tell my wife that I love her..." 2) Equipment and uniforms must be accurate, i.e., no Sherman tanks with swastikas painted on them. 3) Actors must speak the actual languages (with subtitles). 4) The locations must be realistic. 5) The incidental music must be subdued, not a crutch (frankly, I would ban mood music from films.) 6) Characters present realistic opinions, not clichés. 7) Sub-plots should be realistic (no love affairs with enemy nurses, etc.) 8) No preaching, just realism. No propaganda ("patriotic" or "anti-war"), just the feelings of real soldiers. 9) The camera work makes you feel "in the thick of it". 10) No all-star casts. Soldiers aren't Hollywood pretty boys, they're regular men. FYI, I also recommend "Come and See", a recent Russian film about the Eastern Front.

The film focuses on life in a World War II German penal battalion camp somewhere in Russia. The convicts include a heroic doctor unjustly convicted of avoiding military service, an officer who retreated against orders, and common criminals. It shows their life in the camp, clearing mines, living in trenches on the front line, etc.

This film has the quality of Hollywood films of the same era. There are melodramatic romance sub-plots (can the beautiful doctor's wife get her husband's conviction overturned?) (will the doctor fall in love with a lovely Russian "doctor's aide"?) and it depicts life in a penal battalion much too mildly.

There is an interesting scene of an attack by T-34 Russian tanks, but if you're looking for a realistic war movie that covers some of the same ground, see Joseph Vilsmaier's awesome "Stalingrad" from 1993.