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Released by: Something Weird Video
Released on: February 20th, 2007.
Director: Phil Tucker/NA
Cast: Deenah Prince, Stacy Farrell, Rusty Amber, Justa Dream, Satalyte
Year: 1954/1958
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Dream Follies/Dreamland Capers – Movie Reviews:
For those who do dig on variety and off the wall strip tease routines with a healthy dose of bad stand up thrown in for good measure, Something Weird Video's burlesque releases have proven to be a blessing. This latest teams up two hour presentations and throws in some extra shorts for good measure and, interestingly enough, the first one features the big screen debut of the one and only Lenny Bruce!
Want details? You know you do. Read on...
Dream Follies:
This first feature, from 1954, tells the story of an office where the male employees spend more time at the local burlesque house then at their desks. An intro shows them at work, from there we watch an attractive curvy blonde prance around the stage in a formal 'southern belle' style gown. The gown doesn't stay on too long and before you know it, she's prancing around in nothing but some sequined undies while Lenny Bruce peers at the gal from the side entrance. From there, one of the men at the office laments the fact that his wife will kill him if she finds out he's going to meet Joe at the ol' burly-q. The secretary helps him come up with a lie and off he goes, Some of the other guys imagine the two secretaries wearing nothing but pasties as they type, and then there's some more general office bickering.
Up next is some bad baggy pants comedy where a pair of drunk guys talk to a foxy blonde behind the bar, and from there we find that the office schmoes have made their way back to the parlor where a brunette is now dancing around. She does her thing, we have to deal with more bad baggy pants comedians, and then we find out that Lenny's gone back to the office where he has to talk to his cranky mother. A joke with a man's hairpiece runs for too long, and Lenny tosses a plate of spaghetti into his mom's face (according to the packaging, this was his real life mother, Sally Marr). From there we hit the stage again and watch a more attractive brunette shake her moneymaker for a song and take in some more bad stand-up comedy. A matronly blonde with short hair dances next, and after that, yep, you guessed it, more bad comedy. From there a pretty woman (Deenah Prince) with curly hair disrobes out of her nightgown for the crowd, the office boys still schlubbing it up. The next day Lenny is back at work where he watches the secretary (Stacey Farrell) show off her own strip tease moves.
Directed by Phil Tucker, he of Robot Monster infamy, this is a fairly standard burlesque picture with some decent dancers and slightly better than average bad comedy. The office scenes that tie it all together are a little different compared to most of the others in this genre which are simply documents of various dancers and comedians, and it's amusing to see a young Lenny Bruce here doing his thing.
Dreamland Capers:
The girl from out of this world, Miss Justa Dream, is the star of this second feature that begins with a decent looking blonde, Valetta the Atomic Blonde to be precise, prancing about in a formal evening gown on stage. She struts around and convulses here and there for our amusement before a swami named Yogi comes out and does a horrid stand-up routine with an average Joe type character. The bring out a scantily clad lady and yuk it up for far too long before we get to the next act which is a man in a white suit who plays music by slapping spoons on a collection of whiskey bottles that he has suspended by strings. Strangely compelling...
A foxy brunette makes her way out onto the stage and juts around to a slow waltz. She's a nice looking gal in a fancy formal evening gown complete with elbow length gloves. She gets down to her pasties and shakes her tasseled rump for our enjoyment and she looks good doing it. From there, more bad comedy in a skit involving a man who takes his wife out for dinner only to run into an extremely uncooperative waiter who tells the lady 'I haven't got a tomato surprise but I can slip you a cucumber disappointment!' From there the surly looking wife, Jean Carter, stands up and sings us a song.
Up next is a sexy looking raven-haired gal who spins around in circles for a few minutes before beginning her dance proper. She's wearing a sheer cape and a silver body suit of some sort, and it's rather odd. She soon sheds the cape and then the suit and boogies around in her undies for a minute or two before wandering of the stage and out of our hearts forever.
The bad comedians return for a skit where one guy declares he's going to remove certain objects from his friend's anatomy. They do some bad slight of hand involving colored handkerchiefs and then we get the chance to check out sparkling, scintillating Satalyte do her thing. She follows the standard dance, strip, shake it routine that the other girls have used reasonably successfully thus far in the feature. Towards the end of her routine a chubby bald guy comes out on stage and plays a washboard with some cymbals attached to it and the crowd goes ballistic.
The comedians show up and do a bad routine about a sports coat, and then Dot Hackley, the queen of the rodeo, comes out in her skimpy cowgirl outfit and with her rope and does some nifty lasso tricks. Once she's done, a contortionist named Jacqueline Hurley shows up and literally bends over backwards in her black lingerie while the soothing sounds of slow jazz come out of the speakers. She strikes a few more unusual poses and does some awkward looking crab walking for the camera and again, the crowd goes nuts. Jean Carter then comes back and sings another horrible song.
From there, Justa Dream finally shows up. She dances behind a giant sequined chandelier and sports a really bizarre sort of diamond bra armor piece up top. That doesn't stay on too long though and soon she's taking it off and showing us the goods – leaving little room to complain! You can see why they left this gal for last as she's miles above the other performers seen in the film.
Unlike the first feature, this is fairly standard burlesque material in that it doesn't have any plot to hold it all together, it's simply a collection of decent looking gals getting almost naked interspersed with horrible baggy pants comedians making bad puns and completely groan worthy jokes. It's a decent time killer, even if it isn't a classic. There's nothing to interpret or really think about, it's simply goofy comedy and pretty ladies.
Dream Follies/Dreamland Capers – DVD Review:
Everything is fullframe here, which is how it was all shot. Video quality is decent when one takes into account the age and obscurity of the movies. There is some compression evident in a few spots as well as some mild aliasing. Plenty of grain, mild print damage, scratches, splices, etc., but it all looks good enough and really, did we expect perfect video quality for a release consisting of old stripper films? It's impressive that this material looks as good as it does and expecting perfection here really isn't realistic. The reality of the situation is that these are old, low budget movies that weren't perfectly preserved and so sometimes they're going to be a little rough around the edges. That being said, they're all extremely watchable and the noted defects are fairly minor.
The English language Dolby Digital mono sound varies from clip to clip a little bit, some of them sound nice and clean, and others are quite tiny and flat. Overall though, the dialogue is clean and clear and it's not an issue following along with what's being said on screen. Levels are balanced properly and there's only mild hiss present in a few spots.
Click on the Snappy! Saucy! Spicy menu icon to check out the wealth of supplements on this disc, starting off with trailers for Dance Hall Racket, Liz, and Girl Gang. From there, take the time to enjoy Lenny Bruce's odd little cartoon, Thank You, Mask Man! which is a bizarre little Lone Ranger parody in which a masked cowboy named Mask Man (it even says that on his mailbox) helps out some townspeople. Complete with a laugh track, this is a strange animated short that runs for roughly seven-minutes and twenty seconds.
Something Weird has also included Dance Hall Racket in the extra features section. Directed by Phil Tucker and written by Lenny Bruce, this is a decent hour-long crime noir style potboiler. The film tells the story of a gangster named Umberto Scalli (Timothy Farrell) who runs a shady dance hall. Scalli's got his fingers in a few different pies and money is everything to him and anyone who gets in his way finds him or herself on the receiving end of a whupping, usually courtesy of his second in command, a hood named Vincent (Lenny Bruce).
Made fast and obviously without the aid of much financial backing, this low budget production moves along at a decent pace and is actually reasonably entertaining despite the horrid production values and fairly stilted dialogue. This makes a great companion piece to Dream Follies as a lot of the same people involved with that film, including Tucker, do duty on this one as well. Bruce's wife, credited here as Honey Harlowe, has a decent supporting role as a dame named Rose who helps Scalli count his money and schmoozes people on his behalf. Something Weird's print isn't in the best shape and it's got the SWV video bug in the corner but it's watchable enough even if the audio is fairly muffled and choppy. It's interesting how the cops are used as a narrative device to wrap up the end of the story, as really there isn't a whole lot to the plot at all. A supporting character named Punchy (Bernie Jones), a Swedish sailor, speaks like the Swedish Chef out of The Muppets and adds some unintentional comic relief.
Rounding out the extra features is a still gallery of burlesque ballyhoo and exploitation art, animated menus, and chapter stops for the two feature attractions.
Dream Follies/Dreamland Capers – The Final Word:
If you're a Lenny Bruce fan then this is a really interesting disc that you'll want to add to your collection as it compiles a nice little sampling of some of his earlier and more obscure work. The quality of the burlesque itself is decent and those who enjoy watching ladies of yore shaking their tail feathers will find much to like. Something Weird's presentation is typically decent and Dream Follies/Dreamland Capers is recommended for those who enjoy this type of material.