Today's Video Link

This is A Fowl Affair, a 1931 short comedy from Educational Pictures. Educational was kind of the low rung of the studios back then. Most of the comedians who starred in their films were either on the way down or on their way to nowhere but there was the occasional gem…and the occasional "What was someone thinking?" film like this one.

I hesitated before posting it because it contains some antiquated racial stereotypes and also because I don't think all of its performers were treated well. Then again. it was a long time ago and no one to my knowledge makes pictures like this one anymore. Maybe it's useful to remember the kind of thing that became unfashionable and why.

And it is, you have to admit, weird enough that it has genuine curiosity value. The Library of Congress must have spent serious money to preserve it. Pardon the odd framing but it was apparently scanned that way as part of its preservation.

One of the main characters was voiced by Billy Bletcher, who was a short guy with a deep voice heard in many films. He was the Big Bad Wolf and many villains in Disney films. He voiced the character who has the last line in the movie — just in case you make it that far…