Xmas in Film: Bell, Book, and Candle

Witches, jazz clubs, drunken writers- not words traditionally associated with the holidays.  They do make for a unique take on the Christmas season, which is why today's film selection is such a Christmas treat.  Released in 1958, and starring the electrifying Kim Novak and her Vertigo leading man (and later day Christmas icon) James Stewart, Bell, Book, and Candle is an unusual film which sees that first act taking place on a very unusual Christmas Eve.

Directed by Novak paramour Richard Quine, Bell, Book, and Candle stars Novak as Gillian Holroyd, a bored, beautiful witch who owns a New York based African Art Store.  In the apartments above live her Aunt Queenie (famed character actress and former Bride of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester) and publisher Shep Henderson (Stewart).   Gil is fascinated by Shep, and when she discovers that Shep is engaged to a former college nemesis she decides to steal his heart for herself.  Using her magical Siamese cat, Pyewacket, she casts a spell on Shep to fall in love with her.  Shep is instantly smitten with her, dumps the evil fiance, and takes up with Gil.  The remainder of the film centres around Gil's brother, Nicky (played by the great Jack Lemmon) helping drunken writer Sidney Redlitch (played by comedy legend Ernie Kovacs) write a book about the New York witch community, Shep eventually discovering Gil's true identity, and Shep's attempt at breaking the spell that's Gil's put him under.  To be honest, none of these plots compare to the first forty minutes of the film.  I don't even bother with the final ten minutes which, like many films with a strong female lead, destroys everything about the character that makes her interesting.

Check out that awesome tree!

In spite of this film's shortcomings let's highlight what makes this film worth talking about - the Christmas scenes.  If you're looking for sleigh rides, people dancing the Reel, and turkey dinners look elsewhere.  If you're a witch you don't go in for that traditional Christmas stuff.  In the universe of this film, witches get dressed to the nines and go to the local jazz bar to hear songs about corpses at the bottom of the river.  I haven't even mentioned Gil's Christmas tree, yet.  Yes, witches have Christmas trees, and Gil's is a marvellous piece of modern art design.  Gil's wardrobe, designed by Jean Louis, is probably my favourite wardrobe in any film.  Seriously, the costume design of in this film is phenomenal.

As previously mentioned, this is not a great film.  It is a visual marvel with some creative details which make it something beyond the ordinary.  Here's a clip featuring the jazz club scene...

Three Festive Hollywood Pin-ups

Surprisingly enough, it is way more difficult to find Christmas pin-up pictures than it is Halloween ones (at least ones that weren't taken within the last five years).  Fear not gentle readers, I have come through with a few non-traditional pin-ups  for your viewing pleasure.  The one to the left is a picture of the star of White Christmas herself, Vera Ellen having fun while stooped upon a chimney top with bag and horn in hand. I'm not quite sure of the identity of the lady to directly below, but I think she's very brave to go snow shoeing in shorts and high heeled shoes.  The group of ladies in the picture at the very bottom of this page seemed to have moored their toboggan and fireplace on some one's shag carpeted stage.  At any rate enjoy everyone!

Xmas in Film: The Bishop's Wife

Films that feature characters who wear their religious beliefs on their sleeves (or in this film's case their collar), often fall into the dangerous territory of turning into overly sweetened tripe.  When angels are involved that tripe can become a diabetic coma inducing goo.  Shockingly though, The Bishop's Wife (1947) directed by Henry Koster, manages to sidestep that pitfall, in spite of starring a Bishop and the angel sent down from heaven to help him.  Mind you, it helps that the Bishop is played by the debonair David Niven, and the angel is played the equally suave and endlessly charming Cary Grant.  No Clarence Oddbody types for this movie.

It's Christmas time, and David Niven's Bishop Henry Brougham is trying to finalize the funding for the grand new cathedral that he and his congregation endeavour to build.  Unfortunately, all his efforts are at the expense of his relationship with his wife, Julia(played by Loretta Young).  The trouble is that our Bishop is so focused on the funding issues that he does not even realize the toll it is taking on his marriage.  After praying to god to send him help for his cathedral, Dudley the angel appears in his office claiming to be the answer to the Bishop's prayers. Everyone is charmed by Dudley and he soon inspires a wealthy old woman to donate her large fortune to the needy rather than to the cathedral; helps the community rediscover the old community church, and pretty much thwart all of the Bishop's, attempts to get the funding for his cathedral.  He also helps break Julia out of her sadness, further angering the Bishop.  Things get really sticky when Dudley realizes that he is deeply attracted to Julia. 

The Bishop's Wife is imbued with an incredible amount of wit and sophistication which acts as a safety net ensuring that the film never get too treacly.  When you have to lead actors who both perfectly embody the stereotype of the rarefied English gentleman playing against each other, there's not a lot of room for cheap sentimentality.  Representing the female side of the equation you have an actress like Loretta Young who brings a warm, down-to-earth honesty to Julia.  She is never a victim or a whiner, she puts on a brave face for her husband but her eyes give away the pain she feels at the increasing distance between she and her husband.  When she does start to experience happiness again, the feeling is so infectious that you can't help but smile.  The unusual triangle that springs up between the three never goes into crass territory, and feels original in spite of having a fairly obvious outcome.

Other than three great performances by three greats leads, this film features a wonderful supporting cast, beautiful black and white cinematography, and a merry dose of Christmas cheer.  Here's a most unusual trailer for the film.

What's Your Favorite Flavor of Retro Christmas Party?

There are some awesome scenes in classic films that display the chaos and debauchery of Christmas parties.  While I doubt that most Christmas parties of the era ever reached the level of drunken craziness that the ones in these three clips do, but it's fun to pretend that they did. 

Our first clip comes from the classic detective film The Thin Man (1935), in which the film's two protagonists,  Nick and Nora Charles hold an impromptu Christmas party for Nick's old cop friends (from when he used to be on the force).  Considering that Nick and Nora both consider themselves professional drinkers, it is no surprise that their party is teeming with booze, dancing, and one sad drunk desperately trying to call his dear old sweet, Ma.  Here's the clip...

Our second clip comes from Billy Wilder's Oscar winning film The Apartment (1960).  Behold the wonder of the office Christmas party in the sixties.  Men and their mistress secretaries smooch in the open, women dance salaciously on the desk tops, and the alcohol never stops.  Dionysus himself would be proud.  Take a look...

We travel a decade later in our third and final clip, to another Academy Award winning film, Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977).  For this party we see our romantic leads Alvy and Annie (played by Allen and Diane Keaton) head off to a California Christmas party, with all the schmoozing.  There's groovy music, drinks, executives trying to get meetings, and Jeff Goldblum looking for his mantra.  Funny thing is, it seems to be the most sedate of all three parties.  Here's it is...

Lucky Strike - What Everyone Wants to Find Under the Tree

That's right people, what wholesome well adjusted family doesn't want to get a pack of Luckies under the tree? Apparently in the good old days, it was completely acceptable to give and receive cases of cigarettes for Christmas.  If you've ever done a search of vintage Christmas advertising about 65% of the results are for major cigarette companies (major back in the day that is).  They've got Santa smoking Chesterfields, Bing Crosby in a Santa hat proclaiming the thrill he gets from Marlboros, and as in the case of the advertisement to left beautiful Hollywood star in their holiday finery with some cigarette paraphernalia.  Well if Joan Crawford's cigarettes don't kill the kids she can always beat them with some wire hangers. 

Below is a vintage Lucky Strike commercial, featuring a wholesome, bubbly woman proclaiming the joys of giving Lucky Strikes as a Christmas present.  Imagine ten packs of cigarettes in a box specially designed by Raymond Loewy- you don't even need to wrap it.  It can go straight from the gas station convenience store to under the tree.  She's even got a happy little ditty- doesn't it just make you want to take up smoking.

Those of you who are into Mad Men (Lucky Strike is a huge advertising account on the show) this is kind of stuff that ad agencies were actually coming up with in those days.   

Xmas in Film: Christmas in Connecticut

All right... this is the last time I talk about Barbara Stanwyck for a while.  Promise!  As I previous mentioned, Stanwyck made multiple films that occur around the Christmas holiday.  Today, I'll be speaking about the most obvious of these films 1945's Christmas in Connecticut, directed by Peter Godfrey.  There's Christmas in the title and a Christmas movie is what you get, which is actually not as common as you would think with many of these classic films.  Don't believe me?  Just look at TCM's annual Christmas offerings - many with a single scene devoted to something Christmasy to tie it in with the theme (speaking of TCM, I'm rather disappointed that they have elected to leave Christmas in Connecticut off their schedule this year).

Christmas in Connecticut features Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, a Martha Stewart type columnist for a popular House and Home magazine.  To her publisher and loyal audience she owns a farm in Connecticut, has a husband and baby, and is an expert cook and homemaker.  In reality though she is a bachelor girl who lives in a small New York apartment who doesn't even know how to boil water.  With the help of her dear friend Felix (played by the ever-endearing S.Z. 'Cuddles' Skall) and would be man (he wants to marry her, but she doesn't love him) John Sloan's own farm as inspiration she has managed to keep her ruse under wraps (up until this this point).  Everything changes when her publisher Alexander Yardley (played by another great character actor Sydney Greenstreet) demands that she invites a war hero to her Connecticut farm for a traditional Christmas.  Things get worse when Yardley decides that he would also like to come to Elizabeth's farm.  To keep the truth from coming out, Elizabeth agrees to marry John Sloan and with the help of Felix, create the illusion that she is the woman that inhabits the world of her column.  The scheme is perfect until she falls in love with the war hero (played by Dennis Morgan).  Hijinks ensue as Elizabeth and Felix jump through hoops to save her job and avoid marrying John Sloan.

This film is a novelty in Stanwyck's filmography, being one of the few roles where she doesn't have it all together.  In fact, she's kind of a passive character who allows much of the action to happen around her, especially when being pushed around by her publisher.  Part of the reason Stanwyck agreed to play the role of Elizabeth Lane was because the film she completed right before this movie was Double Indemnity, where she plays a cold-blooded seductress and murderer.  Due to the dark nature of the role, Stanwyck really needed a nice light role, which she found in Christmas in Connecticut.  You know what, she makes it work, and in the end we get to see a little bit of the strong independent Stanwyck that we know and love.

Ultimately, this film is completely charming.  It really deserves to be put on the same pedestal as It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol as a perennial Christmas classic.  Here's the trailer to whet
your appetite.

A Bombshell for the Ages: Barbara Stanwyck

Yes, I'm going to force you all to listen to me gush about Barbara Stanwyck again.  Take comfort though, if you're not on the Stanwyck bandwagon, after this weekend I don't have any plans to talk about her in the near future.  Just allow me two more indulgences.

For me no actress makes me think of Christmas more than Barbara Stanwyck (her male counterpart would probably be Jimmy Stewart) as she has made multiple holiday themed films, making her a natural for December's Bombshell for the Ages.  It is a funny thing to associate Ms. Stanwyck with a happy time like Christmas, given her penchant for playing duplicitous femme fatales, scrappy hardboiled dames who climb their way to the top, and tragic maternal figures; however, she could also deftly play wisecracking showgirls, screwy socialites, and charming con-women with equal vigour.  The bottom line is she did it all extraordinarily well, which is why she often referred to as being the greatest actress who never won an Oscar.  

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Stevens in 1907 to working class parents.  When Ruby was four her mother was killed in a streetcar accident and her father abandoned her along with her four siblings.  Spending her young life bouncing between her sister's care and various foster homes, she fell in love with show business at an early age and spent her teenage years working various odd jobs while trying to find a way into the business (she left school at a very young age with a string of fights and low grades to her name).  At the age of fifteen she got a job as a chorus girl and spent the next few years as a member of several New York choruses, including the legendary Ziegfeld follies.  In 1926 she was give a small role in the Broadway play The Noose.  It was initially a flop; however, after the play was retooled to give the newly re-christened Barbara Stanwyck a larger part, the play became a major hit.  Stanwyck soon was getting lead roles in Broadway plays and in 1928, Hollywood came calling.

Though her first films were not particularly successful, Stanwyck became a sought after actress during the thirties, playing a variety of tough dames who triumphed against adversity.  In the forties, as films grew darker, so too did the roles that she inhabited.  By the late nineteen-fifties film roles began to dry up and Barbara moved to television, where her career continued to flourish into her twilight years.

Throughout her career she was able to imbue all the characters she played with a world-weary grit cultivated in her own troubled childhood.  In day-to-day life she was known as being incredibly kind and friendly to everyone who worked with her, from the most powerful directors to the lowly crew members.  No one else in Hollywood could touch Barbara's reputation of being total class act.  Her own familial life included two failed marriages.  Her first to actor Frank Fay in 1928 ended in 1935 (there are rumours that their marriage was the basis for the multiple versions of A Star is Born).  Stanwyck married actor Robert Taylor in 1939, with their union ending in 1950 after Taylor's many infidelities became common knowledge.

While she never won a competitive Oscar, Stanwyck was nominated for the best actress Oscar four times for the films Double Indemnity (1944), Ball of Fire (1941), Stella Dallas (1937), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).  She was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1982.  In spite of her lack of competitive Oscars, she did win a trio of Emmys for her television work as well as several other honours throughout her long career.

Stanwyck passed away in 1990, leaving a massive resume of film and television roles.  Her unusual beauty and sassy brand of tough intelligence has never been duplicated.  I've included a clip of a TCM tribute to Stanwyck narrated by Jennifer Jason Leigh, which describes the awesomeness that is Barbara Stanwyck far more eloquently than I ever could.

Classic Christmas Music's Swan Song

For me, the era of classic Christmas recordings' end is signaled by one seminal music event in 1977 when two legends met to make beautiful music together. Yes, I'm talking about the historic duet of Bing Crosby and David Bowie on their version of Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.  Beyond that moment Christmas music entered a dismal period punctuated with a few minor bright spots.  How many modern R&B versions of This Christmas, or horribly glib rewrites of the 12 Days of Christmas, or worse yet Madonna's massacre of Santa Baby must we endure?  Funny enough though, this post is partially inspired by the recent release of a new animated cover of this 1977 classic, by non-other than Jack Black and Jason Segel.

I first read the story of this song's inception in a newspaper article published in the Edmonton Journal a few years ago.  Bing Crosby was looking for a British musician to share a duet with for his 1977 Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, television special.  Most accounts suggest that Bing's kids suggested Bowie as a potential partner, and Bowie, who was in the midst of creating his celebrated Berlin trilogy and getting sober (after spend the the last few year a slave to a massive cocaine addiction) wanted to be involved in a project that would help him move beyond the Ziggy Stardust/Thin White Duke personas that he had been known for throughout the first half of the seventies.  Each with their personal agendas came together to make this final classic Christmas song, although it was not without some friction.

When told that Bing and the show's producers wanted to him to sing Little Drummer Boy, Bowie expressed extreme displeasure.  He hated the song (a sentiment that I completely get on board with) and asked to be given another song to sing.  Enter Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Buz Kohan, who wrote Peace on Earth in under 75 minutes and arranged the two songs to compliment each other.  Bowie agreed to singing the new lyrics, and after less than an hour of rehearsal between Crosby and Bowie, Bowie's segment of the Christmas special had been laid down with little expectation that the performance would ever go beyond the special's broadcast.  Crosby died a month later, making this Christmas special the last project that he would ever complete.  Bowie continued on with his incredibly prolific career.

Since the special originally aired, the song has gone from an obscure oddity to a seasonal classic, given the poignant lyrics that still resonate today.  It is also charming to watch old guard Crosby banter with the undeniably original and strangely enduring Bowie.  Crosby wins me over more in the five minute segment than in any of the movies that I have seen him in and I could watch David Bowie pick lint out of his belly button for an hour and still be fascinated.  Here's the original segment from Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas...

A More Risque Side to Betty & Veronica

It's funny, given the wholesome nature of Archie comics, I have never thought of Betty and Veronica as pin-ups.  It took finding this image with the word pin-up in big bold red letters for me to finally make the connection.  With their buxom, nubile bodies drawn in a wide array of skin-tight sweaters, short skirts, skimpy bikinis, and in jungle or cavemen themed strips flimsy fur sarongs, they are a kid friendly version of the pin-up girl. Upon further research I discovered one reason for this.

Archie comics, like any long running publication, have undergone numerous changes over the years, particularly in character design.  As new artists are hired on to work on the illustrations, character designs evolve.  In the world of the Riverdale gang, one man was particularly influential in creating the version of the Archie gang that people are most familiar with: Dan DeCarlo.

DeCarlo, was an illustrator who worked for several comic book and men's magazine publishers in the late forties and throughout the fifties.  He worked on such illustrious comic books as Sherry the Showgirl and Millie the Model.  In the late fifties he began freelancing for Archie comics and was later hired on after he was told that he could draw "anyway he liked".  Though the next few years the Archie gang's familiar look evolved by way of DeCarlo's pen along with some of the salacious sensibilities he learned drawing for those earlier publications.  If you have ever seen artwork from Archie comics of the forties and early fifties they look incredibly different from DeCarlo's.  DeCarlo continued providing artwork for Archie comics throughout the rest of his career and created popular characters Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats.  He passed away in 2001.

Here are a couple more DeCarlo style Betty and Veronica Christmas pin-ups for your enjoyment.

Looking For Something Xmas-y to do this Friday?

If your in the market for a little bit of an alternative Christmas activity and are not afraid of the risque (and over 18 for that matter) then why not try Capital City Burlesque's Christmas Extravaganza? Doors open at 9pm this Friday at the Starlite Room here in Edmonton.  

I haven't had the opportunity to see Capital City Burlesque in action yet, so I'm excited to see if they are worth my hype (for what it's worth anyway).  But, I'm always looking for something different to celebrate the season and looking forward to seeing the ladies in action.  

Xmas in Film: The Shop Around the Corner

It's hard to believe, but I've actually gone through the first four days of December without talking about anything film related (non-animated, that is).  Well, that ends here as does my moratorium on talking about romantic comedies (I did say that holiday themed ones didn't count) as we look at the first Christmas movie of the season.  It stars a man who is ubiquitous with the Christmas season, starring in one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time- Mr. James Stewart.  But, we're not talking about It's a Wonderful Life today- that would be way too obvious.  Instead, I wanted to highlight Jimmy's role in another great Christmas movie, 1940's The Shop Around The Corner, directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

The plot of The Shop Around The Corner is a very familiar (it was remade twice, as 1949's In The Good Old Summertime and 1998's You've Got Mail).  Two shop clerks who can't stand each other turn out to be each other's secret pen pals, with whom they are in each love with.  Stewart plays Alfred Kralik, a clerk at Matuschek & Company, a Budapest leather goods store and Margaret Sullivan plays Klara Novak, his fellow clerk/nemesis who turns out to be the woman of his dreams.  To be honest, their relationship doesn't really do much for me.  I find Margaret Sullivan's character to be incredibly histrionic and there are times when Stewart's character can be downright mean.  That been said, there are a couple scenes between the two that really shine - the scene where Stewart's character discovers that Sullavan's is his pen pal and toys with her while she nervously waits for her "pen pal" and the scene at the very end when Sullavan finally realizes that Stewart is her pen pal and they finally get together.  These scenes help make up for the rest of the film's lacklustre interactions between the two.

Now that I've taken care of the main plot of the film, I can focus on the reason that I really love this film- the subplots and the characters who inhabit them.  Like any retail establishment, this film is populated with an assortment of characters that give the film its life.  From the wise-ass delivery boy Peppy, to the kindhearted yet timid family-man Pirovitch, to the sleazy dandy Vadas - they all have their little backstories.  The biggest one involves the big man himself Mr. Matuschek (played by The Wizard of Oz himself Frank Morgan) who incorrectly suspects that Kralik is having an affair with his wife.  Prior to his suspicions he and Kralik had a relationship similar to that of a father and son, and this has a major effect on Stewart's employment and causes Matuschek to make an attempt suicide.  Not to worry though, this is a comedy and all turns out well in the end with everyone getting what's coming to him.

Everything culminates on Christmas Eve with one of my favourite Christmas scenes in any film.  Mr. Matuschek, who has just been released from the hospital has just given everyone their Christmas bonuses after a very successful Christmas Eve, looks to his staff (his one true family) for someone to spend Christmas with now that his marriage is over.  One by one they all tell them of their plans with friends and loved ones.  It looks like he's destined to be alone when he learns of the new delivery boy's situation (his family don't live in town) and he generously offers to take him for a wonderful Christmas dinner.  It's an unusually touching moment that makes the film for me.  Here it is...

An Early Xmas Present - Fashion of the Swinging Sixties Now on the Main Site

Great news!  We now have the latest page on our retro fashion review up on our main site.  In an admittedly lame attempt to tie the coming of the sixties section on the main page into our Bombshell Photography Christmas season,  I've used a screen shot from the Christmas episode of the AMC series Mad Men (episode 2 of season 4, entitled Christmas Comes But Once a Year, to be exact).  To be honest, it is the only picture from the episode that I could find that had a clear shot of some classic sixties fashion (sorry Christina Hendricks fans).  Oh well, Trudy Campbell (played by actress Alison Brie) has actually grown on me as a character.  If you've never watched Mad Men, I highly recommend it: if not for the stories for the series' brilliant recreation of the sixties.

To view our updated sixties fashion page click here.

A Bit of Holiday Auditory Nostalgia: Christmas Magic

The Christmas season brings out the most amazing array of seasonal music, considering the limited number of songs and the ridiculous number of covers that have been made of each.  Still there is something comforting about those old recordings made in the forties and fifties with their warm acoustic atmosphere, luscious orchestrations, and the use of a choral backing that has long since been abandoned in this age of cold, digitally manipulated music. 

As a child, my mother always used to play an old cassette copy of an LP that my grandparents used to own when she was a child.  It featured a number of orchestrated and choral numbers that to an untrained ear sounded like the usual old timey Christmas music of the era.  What distinguished it were three tracks the featured a singer who literally sounded like a grown woman trying her best to sound as if she were the most insipid five years-old to ever grace the planet.  My brother an I, not so endearingly, dubbed her the Neutered Chick.  A couple years ago I was feeling sentimental about the Neutered Chick and that whole album, and not knowing the name of the album, nor who the artists behind it were took up an evening of tenacious online research led me to both the name of the album and artist: Christmas Magic by The Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra, released in 1958.  The Neutered Chick's real name turned out to be Julie Valentine.  I managed to get a copy of the original LP (it's also available on iTunes now).

The Tracks include an orchestral version of White Christmas and Swing on a Star, the Neutered Chick singing Winter Wonderland, That's What I Want For Christmas, and I Want To Hitch  Ride With Santa Claus, and choral renditions of The Second Star To The Right, Carol of the Bells, I Saw Three Ships, Deck the Halls, I Love That Christmas Feeling, Away in a Manger, and Christmas Island.  Listening to it now, the choral tracks are the ones that really stick out the most to me (although, the Neutered Chick still holds a special place in my heart).

Upon receiving my own copy of the LP, I found a new reason to enjoy this album- the cover artwork is really great.  I enjoy the use of the old fashioned frosted glass Christmas lights draped around the girl and her beau.  It actually inspired a test photo session that a friend of mine and I held last Christmas.  I would like to fully imitate the cover with a couple at some point down the road.  If you and your significant other is interested you can always email us at info@photobombshell.com.  Here's a  sampling of the Neutered Chick.

Classic Holiday Animation Retrospective: Peace on Earth

I was thinking of talking about Hugh Harman's MGM short, Peace on Earth, around Remembrance Day, but I figured with its strong Christmas vibe that I would save it for December.  It's a pretty powerful short that nominated an Oscar for best animated short film way back in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, and it was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.  Peace on Earth features a Utopian earth that has been reconquered by the animals of the world after mankind has successfully obliterated himself from the face of the planet through modern warfare.  It starts with woodland squirrels singing a song that sounds suspiciously like Hark the Herald, but with the key lyrics replaced by the word, "Peace on Earth, good will to man."  A pair of young squirrels don't know what man is, so they ask their wise old Grand Pappy who relates the sad tale of how the race of man ceased to exist.  The short goes into dark territory as Grand Pappy relates the terrifying realities of war, with animated tanks, soldiers in gas masks brandishing bayonets take one and other out.  The animators used rotoscoping (drawing over live battle footage) to accurately portray what war really looked like in 1939.

The result is a harrowing piece of animation that I would imagine flooring audiences who were used to kinder, gentler animated short before and between their features-something from the Wonderful World of Disney, perhaps.  I have to say the ending is more than a little preachy as the animals take their cues from living in peace from the Bible.  It's a little heavy handed for a cynical gal like me... but the message of peace remains as topical as ever.  Little has changed in the world as we still teeter on the brink of complete annihilation.  I take comfort in the fact that in this post-apocalypse the animals survive.  This short was remade in 1955 by Hanna-Barbara, under the new name Good Will to Men.  Here's the original short in all its glory...

Welcome to Bombshell Photography's Official Christmas Kick Off!

Christmas time is here, and we've got something very special to celebrate the  beginning of the Christmas season here on the blog.  As the official beginning to the season we have some Christmas themed pin-ups featuring myself and Lady B to help spread some Christmas cheer.