Radio Hams

A visual essay by filmmaker and critic David Cairns. Recorded for Arrow Video in 2023. Included as a special feature on the 2024 Limited Edition Blu-ray and DVD release of The Shootist.

The Big Bad Wolf stalks Little Bo Peep and steals one of her sheep. She enlists Little Boy Blue and a dancing scarecrow to assist her and her mischievous black sheep in rescuing it. Singing, dancing, hilarity and impalement ensue.

A divorced couple try to pretend they are still happily married in order to get $100,000 from the woman's divorce-disapproving aunt.

This short begins with the star canine and his owner Penny in peril from "The Man with the Green Eye", trapped within his fortress protected by overwhelming defenses, tied up and suspended high above a bottomless pit that's surrounded by fire. So Penny's father transforms Rhino into a super hamster to save the day.

The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States. In the film, Carmencita is recorded going through a routine she had been performing at Koster & Bial's in New York since February 1890.

Bimbo becomes a long distance accordion champ and comes through with a load of credit.

A hen adopts an abandoned egg which hatches into a turtle. The baby turtle becomes the butt of all the real chicks' jokes until danger threatens.

Barney's settling in for the winter. But water leaks, a loose shutter, a noisy fire, a teakettle left on, and some stray embers all get in the way, and Barney also locks himself out. And that's just the beginning.

The sculptor Sergio Camargo died 20 years ago. If the bones left in the grave are in fact his remains, would his sculptures be living remains? What's ephemeral and what's lasting? Is there a possible eternity? We see the movie through the eyes of the daughter confronting both the artist and the man.

Steal This Film focuses on Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde, prominent members of the Swedish filesharing community. The makers claimed that 'Old Media' documentary crews couldn't understand the internet culture that filesharers took part in, and that they saw peer-to-peer organization as a threat to their livelihoods. Because of that, they were determined to accurately represent the filesharing community from within. Notably, Steal This Film was released and distributed, free of charge, through the same filesharing networks that the film documents.

In 1946 ethnographic researcher Rouch had attempted to film a "Bangaoui," a hippopotamus hunt along the river Niger, but the results were unsatisfactory.Five years later, he returns and makes the extra effort to get it right this time.

A delightful short film shot in reverse in which the main protagonist enjoys a day on the town.

The earliest surviving celluloid film, and believed to be the second moving picture ever created, was shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince using the LPCCP Type-1 MkII single-lens camera. It was taken in the garden of Oakwood Grange, the Whitley family house in Roundhay, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire (UK), possibly on 14 October 1888. The film shows Adolphe Le Prince (Le Prince's son), Mrs. Sarah Whitley (Le Prince's mother-in-law), Joseph Whitley, and Miss Harriet Hartley walking around in circles, laughing to themselves, and staying within the area framed by the camera. The Roundhay Garden Scene was recorded at 12 frames per second and runs for 2.11 seconds.

A film by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, shot in late October 1888, showing pedestrians and carriages crossing Leeds Bridge.

Spanky and Alfalfa plot to play hooky so they can go fishing, by pretending that Alfalfa is sick and Spanky should stay with him while the parents are away. But Spanky's mom, knowing the truth, turns the tables by insisting they also watch Spanky's little brother. But taking care of little brother turns out to be more difficult than they expected.

In an effort to impress Darla, Alfalfa tells her that he's a famous bear trainer. Little does he know that Darla's father owns a circus - and a bear costume. It's time for everyone to uncover the "bear facts".

Alfalfa and the gang build their own "speedboat" powered by ducks, and challenge Waldo to a race for the hand of Darla.

When one of the Our Gang kids finds money under his pillow after losing a tooth, all the kids decide to get rich by having all their teeth pulled.

An aging hero is looking through the photo album and remembering the Gay 90's, and in particular a picnic interrupted by villainous Roger St. Clair, who tries to tempt Emily to the big city and away from Harold; when that fails, he takes her by force. Six months later, Harold is still searching; Emily is forced to sing on the stage of Roger's bar, accompanied by a barbershop quartet on "All Is Not Gold That Glitters." Harold passes by and hears her. Roger beans him with the curtain and ties Emily to the railroad tracks. Harold rescues her; there follows a sawmill scene, a shootout, and ultimately victory for our hero. Back in the present day, they wonder what happened to Roger, which is his cue.

We take a tour of Porky's Poppa's farm, to the tune of Old MacDonald. After meeting several animals, "on this farm, he has a mortgage" which he frets over, particularly since Bessie has stopped producing milk. Poppa orders an Acme milk producing robot, and the beast vs. machine battle is on.