Friday A/V Club: The All-Purpose, Generic PR Movie
Perfect for every occasion
The Calvin Company was a Kansas City–based producer of educational and industrial films, best known today—to the extent that it is remembered at all—for the fact that future Hollywood director Robert Altman worked there for a chunk of the '50s. But there are several gems in its archives, and not just from the Altman era. The Your Name Here Story is a minor masterpiece of self-mockery, made for in-house entertainment purposes in 1960:
Bonus links: For a cartoon that kinda reminds me of this movie, go here. For further signs of self-awareness among the admen of those days, go here. For past installments of the Friday A/V Club, go here.
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Hi! I'm Troy McClure!
I'm fascinated by how our various American accents change. The actress lying in bed sounded like Lauren Bacall or an actress from the 1930s -- and this film is from 1960. Wonder what we'll sound like in another 50 years.
Garblegarble -fairness -garble -gimmedat -garblegarble -Seth rogen...
Oh, OK, I watched the movie! Can I has lynx?
This is brilliant.
Should've won an Oscar, but probably wasn't a public release. I liked the Maynard G. Krebs & Dobie Gillis looking at the Indians.