Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted December 25, 2022 Hash Fellow Share Posted December 25, 2022 You may recall Phil Harris as the voice of Baloo the Bear in "The Jungle Book" (1967), but at that time he would have been mostly known for his years on the Jack Benny radio show in the 30s and 40s, as star of his own radio sit-com into the 50s, and as occasional film actor. He was one of the passengers in the early airplane disaster flick, "The High and the Mighty"! His first exposure to a national audience, however, was this short film from 1933, "So This is Harris". It was successful, it won the Academy Award for Best Short Film, but it did not create a big career boost for him specifically. Three years later he got the role of the bandleader on the Benny show and the on-air character of the bumbling-but-lovable big guy began to evolve. "So This Is Harris" is a "pre-code" comedy. The jokes will be mostly groaners to you today but to theater-goers of the time it may have been entertainingly naughty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted December 25, 2022 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted December 25, 2022 Notice also the fancy wipe transitions between scenes. 1933 is about the first year for these, which require an "optical printer" to copy the exiting scene and the entering scene onto new film, with animated masks to create the division between them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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