In 1940, Paramount released "The Three Stooges" short "You Nazty Spy!". At that point in time, the U.S. had not yet entered what would become World War II, and the pro-Hitler German American "Bund" was strong after its largest rally the year before in New York City.
In the short, the Stooges portray three simpletons recruited to lead a dictatorship in "Moronika", with Moe as the Hitler character, Curly as the Goring character, and Larry as the Goebbels character. Their flag was a pair of twisted snakes resembling a swastika, their slogan was "Moronika for Morons" (like Hitler's "Germany for Germans").
As a further dig, the Stooges, who were all Jewish, threw in a variety of Yiddish in the dialogue.
Some powerful congressmen who were either pro-Hitler or pro-neutrality were incensed at this short, but Paramount went ahead and released it anyway, resulting in Moe being the first American actor to portray Hitler in a released film production.
The Stooges were a remarkable trio. One of the high points of my life was meeting Larry Fine. He was in a wheelchair from a stroke, but still had his sense of humor.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@lauren@internetarchive just watched the whole thing. It’s amazing how far tech has come with regard to upscaling and colorization. Thank you for sharing
@User47@GhostOnTheHalfShell@internetarchive Please don't watch B&W classics after they've been manipulated in such ways. Colorization should be a criminal offense. Upscaling, particularly if aspect ratios are tampered with, should be similarly outlawed.
Ah a purist. I am more sanguine about it. My childhood was filled with stooges, little rascals, martians, horses, twighlight zones and outer limits, all B&W. I don’t mind the colorization. It took a little bit of craft at one time.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@User47@internetarchive You might as well hire a six-year-old to put water colors on the Mona Lisa. Actually colorization of TV is worse, since the color choices are by definition arbitrary. Like I said, 20 years to life.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@User47@internetarchive I know in painful detail how it works. Shall we delve into the magic of the 3.58 Mhz subcarrier? Or would you prefer to discuss PAL and SECAM in depth. In my household, I was in charge of properly setting (and keeping set as they drifted) the COLOR and TINT controls on our early color TV. So, yeah, I know. Maybe even more than you do, perhaps since I've worked with the circuits in great depth, to a level I'd prefer not to even think about now.
Ah quarts in pint jars. They really did their research to get around the loop holes in human vision.
I only had to worry about NTSC with a lashing of PAL. I think I’ll pass on SECAM.
I remember the grand old days of dedicated hardware and laugh they still say Chyron.
"SECAM" stood for "Something exceedingly Contrary to the American Method" versus NTSC "Never Twice the Same Color" whilst "Peace At Last" or "Perfection At Last" .. or "Pay Another License").