Alfalfa singing "Barber of Seville"

[David Payne]

Henry asked:
> I have a 1950's stop-motion animation question: can anyone place some (or
> maybe it was just one) very well done short with armies made up of nuts and
> bolts? I remember it as rather serious and a little frightening.

"Tulips Shall Grow" (1942) by George Pal?

>From http://www.awn.com/heaven_and_hell/PAL/GP7.htm (which includes some tiny clips):

"George Pal's Revenge on the Nazis: Pal and his wife Czoka fled Holland as the Nazis were trashing Europe. He saw firsthand the horrors inflicted on innocent, peaceful people by these fascists. When he started making films in America, one of his first was this excellent anti-war piece in which an innocent pair of Dutch lovers are terrorized by the invading Screwball army. The faceless, inhuman, mechanical (literally, made of nuts and bolts), "sieg-hiel"-ing screwballs are a dark parody of the same faceless inhumanity that could mechanically exterminate innocent lives."

Also involved in this film was, I believe, Ray Harryhausen. (See the last QA on this page: per http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Special+Features&article_no=1073&page=1)

Check out this beautiful set of Harryhausen movie posters: http://members.fortunecity.com/ymir1/harryflm.html





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