User Reviews

We are taken back to the early days of the 20th Century, in simpler times, where movies were silent except for the two-piece band in the theater providing music and sound effects. We observe the hand-turned projectors which gave people movies on a screen.

We are given clips of one of those old films called "Passions Of Horse-Pistol Pete" and Pete Smith, the man who presented many short comedy features, narrates the silent film for us. Rather, he explains what is going on....with humor, of course, along with a couple of wild sound effects that deliberately don't match what we're seeing on screen. Pete's humor, frankly, is a bit too corny. It might have gone over in '41 but you shake your head and roll your eyes up listening to him now. (However, the last minute of this silent film was very entertaining. Pete must have had fun making fun of this film.)

This "Pete Smith Speciality" short feature was part of the Marx Brothers double-bill DVD of "Go West" and "The Big Store."

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.

Just watched this Pete Smith Specialty short on the Go West/The Big Store DVD. It has Smith narrating an obscure silent movie with the requisite piano music on it. There's a man, a woman, a train, and-for no particular reason-Elmer the Monkey. I suppose audiences of the time may have been pretty amused at the goings-on as well as the wise-cracking comments but I didn't think much was funny. In fact, most of it was just lame to me, really it was! Oh boy, now I have to stretch to ten lines if I want this review to be submitted on this site. Really, I can't think of anything else to say since I've said all I want to say on the short's content. So I'll just say that I really don't recommend Flicker Memories.

I saw "Flicker Memories" as part of the special features on "The Big Store" DVD, and it's a tribute to it that in just 8 minutes of running time it has some gags that are funnier than the majority of those in that particular Marx Brothers movie! Pete Smith spoofs the conventions and the acting styles of early silent films; this was more daring then than it would be now, if you remember that "talkies" were only 14 years old when "Flicker Memories" was made. Many of his jabs are spot-on, particularly at the exaggerated reactions of the actors in their efforts to depict emotions without dialogue. Of course this short is too, well, short to be worth seeking out on its own, but if you get the chance to see it, you shouldn't pass it up. *** out of 4.