TRICKS AND TREATS

...and so another month is ending.

...and so I never got another review up.

With apologies to my faithful fans, "real life" has just done a number on my time. I am seeing some light at the end of the tunnel though so I'm hopeful to have a review or two up for October (especially with it being the month of Halloween after all).

Of course, I'm not going to leave you totally unsated as September exits.

Instead, I'm going to let you enjoy the delights of Charley Bowers. I was introduced to Bowers by friend Paul Etcheverry whose blog "Psychotronic Paul" often covers similar ground to the cinematic, comic and pop culture delights we enjoy here at Scared Silly.

Others have written more eloquently and extensively on Bowers than I possibly could (to learn more, click here and here and here) but in brief, Bowers was both an animator/cartoon director of the silent era (a run that included the animated series based on Bud Fisher's popular Mutt & Jeff comic strip) as well as a live-action comedian-director from the silent and early sound era. His films were lost for many years but when some were finally discovered there was a resurgence of interest in Bowers.

Bowers stock-in-trade was his penchant for surreal animated effects... and not just in the cartoons he directed. His live-action shorts that survive are chock full of crazy visual effects that are mind-boggling, mind-numbing and everything in-between!

I'm not certain any of the Bowers live-action shorts would technically qualify as "horror-comedy" (as opposed to Mutt & Jeff cartoon, Slick Sleuths) but There It Is certainly comes close. Interestingly, Bowers uses a macabre villain called "The Phantom" in both Slick Sleuths and There It Is. Without further ado, I present to you a slice of cinema that is surely unlike anything you're likely to have seen before. Here it is: There It Is!