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Reviews
Andy Hardy's Dilemma: A Lesson in Mathematics - And Other Things (1940)
A good lesson in humanity
I ran the department United Way Campaign several years before I retired. Some people have to be convinced to dig down and come up with the dough for charity. This would have been a great short film to show as a part of that campaign. The Judge did a masterful job convincing Andy to dig way down and I suspect that many people who saw this back in 1938 got the message. It makes it very clear that we can touch many lives in such a good way when we give to an organization such as this. The Judge and Andy managed to entertain and still put their lesson in what we need to do in plain view. I want to thank Turner Classic Movies for pulling this one out of the vaults. They should try to show it again when the national campaigns are running as it is still extremely timely. If they do, I also recommend that you take the time to watch.
Whispers (1941)
Should have been required watching in the 50s
Tail Gunner Joe might have had less success in his attacks on the creative if more people had paid better attention to this title and its message. That era had the bad luck to contain one of the worst whispering campaigns ever visited on our people.
It is sad that humanity still needs the warnings this little gem provides. What made this short worth watching was the message. It warns us about how easy in this day gossip and innuendo can be used to destroy a person or movement. This is even more true today with the arrival of the internet where forwarded email often contains stories that have a gem of truth in them but which overall contain a big lie.
In my opinion this is a good example of what was good about shorts. They were often used to educate as well as entertain and this one managed to do a bit of both.