11 April 2008

Satsujin Ken



This week our movie fare has been trashy early 70's karate flicks, from a DVD box set I got dirt cheap years ago. Very violent, but in a B-flick sort of way that makes them particularly fun. Tonight's selection (above) inexplicably had the following as a DVD extra.



There seems to be no relation between the two, aside from some very racist depictions of black people. And for some reason, the town crier scenes in the cartoon were cut from the DVD version.

Maybe he demanded royalties.

6 comments:

JohnK said...

Thanks for the fun start to the morning

Paul said...

What an oddextra to add to that movie. What is the date for that little cartoon - that would explain the racist portrayals.

FiberQat said...

I think the town crier is Alexander Woollcott, who had a radio show in the thirties (?). The black band leader reminds me of Duke Ellington and the dancers those of the Cotton Club.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! I'm sure I missed some of the references, but many made me laugh out loud. Clever!

And I think it was sort of equal-opportunity caricature throughout. A great slice of dated culture. Thanks for sharing! I hardly ever (okay, never) rent martial arts videos, so I might have missed this!

Sheepish Annie said...

That is most certainly inexplicable. And unexpected. Interesting...

I'm looking around this weekend for a copy of Dawn Of The Dead (the original version). It's been too long. I think I need to see that one again. It's no martial arts flick, but I think you understand the compulsion. :)

Anonymous said...

Alexander Woolcott objected to the portrayal and his part was removed from the cartoon at his request.

As for why it was with that particular B-movie, maybe the level of caricature was similar.

Thanks for posting the link - I'd never seen the Town Crier segments and I didn't know they still existed.