Flicker Memories (1941)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Pretty poor short from the one and only Pete Smith is perhaps the worst I've seen from him. The film has Smith narrating a "fake" story on top of a silent movie, which is given the title of PASSIONS OF THE HORSE-PISTOL PETE. That's pretty much all there is to say in terms of the story as the film has a man abusing his wife and he eventually has to save her life. The added narration and sound effects by Smith are extremely poorly written and that's the main reason this turns out to be the worst short I've seen from him. He's usually quite reliable but that's certainly not true here because the film is a complete misfire from start to finish. The entire "screenplay" of "jokes" for Smith to tell are all very badly written and for the life of me I can't see what Smith or anyone else would have found funny in them. Just listen to the joke about the Academy Awards and you'll hear the perfect example of bad writing.