Thursday, October 20, 2016

I haven't embedded a Robert Benchley short before

Of course, there are a couple of reasons I haven't done it. First is that those Robert Benchley shorts are an acquired taste. As with the Pete Smith shorts, the humor can be grating, although in a different way. When I watch a Robert Benchley short, I find he can come across as an obnoxious blowhard at times, the sort of person you want to see get his comeuppance. And that's not always funny.

Then, there's the fact that the shorts aren't in the public domain yet. I think it's only stuff from before 1923 that's guaranteed to be in the public domain, at least here in the States. That means the shorts could get taken down at any time. The last copyright change about 15 years ago was responsible for that. Cynics would say that it got changed so Disney could keep Steamboat Willie from entering the public domain. (I'd tend to side with the cynics.)

Having said that, Benchley's How to Vote is on TCM tomorrow at about 1:30 PM, following Torchy Runs For Mayor (12:30 PM, 60 min); several of the Torchy movies are on as part of a salute to Glenda Farrell. (This even though her birthday is in June.) How to Vote doesn't seem to be on Youtube, but others, such as How to Eat, are:

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