That's Chester Morris in No Hands On The Clock. You might know him from his portrayal of Boston Blackie is the film series of the same name. He's also in The Wrecking Ball, another entertaining movie that I saw courtesy of the IA. In NHOTC Chester's a detective and that's Jean Parker as his new wife. He rescued her in his previous case and now the two of them are in Reno Nevada on a honeymoon. Chester's boss has him looking for another missing man. Chester stirs up trouble, in the criminal world, and with his new bride. Some folks get dead but mostly it's a comedy. It's based on a novel by Geoffrey Holmes, a psuedonym of Daniel Mainwairing, who wrote several novels and screenplays over the years. Probably his most famous screenplay is to the 1956 classic Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. This movie isn't that good but it's mostly entertaining. The print is good for the most part but some scenes are too dark. You can mostly figure out what's going on. You have to work a little harder to watch some of these old classics. The Internet Archive has some other Chester Morris movies. I'd recommend the Boston Blackie movies too. Nothing great, formula films from the days when there was no tv, that are full of fun characters and wise cracking. Occasionally a fight breaks out and there's a happy enough ending.
On a completely different note there this German commercial compliation over at the IA that was nearly totally entertaining to sit through. It's called DIE FERNSEHWERBUNG: Unentbehrliche Funktion in der modernen Gesellschaft and it takes less time to watch than to try to figure out how to say that name. I had German classes in school in the 1960's but I don't remember enough to figure out exactly what they are saying. The program is only an hour long and all the commercials are from the 1950's. Here's a sample of some of the more odd characters in them.
That guy drills right through a wall with that pointy nose. There's a lot of animation in the lot. That lady is selling some dairy product and that horse and rider are made out of a squirt from a toothpaste tube.
That cow lady sure made those bulls stand up erect, huh. I bet they are wondering how she got a dress, I know I am. A lot of the stuff is in black and white but there is the occasional color piece. Some of the products, like Knorr or Phillips, I recognize, most I don't. The quality of the productions is mixed but they all have something to sell. Sometimes they are a bit racist. Here's a sample.
Without hopefully sounding to uncaring, it was something that was of the times, I can look at it without getting upset but I understand when people do. Disney still hasn't put Song Of The South out in the USA because of the potential backlash from the public. There was a fairly big resturant chain in the USA called Sambo's that had a dark skinned child as their mascot. He got lighter in the 1960's, and more Indian in appearance, but the name just didn't fly with the more PC public of the 70's and in 1981 they closed down all the 1200 resturants but the original. I remember eating there in the 70's and thinking it was ok for breakfast and burger type stuff. I can see why the name killed them. Anyway, there's a couple of odd things to watch. Hope you like 'em.
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