Film Record: Doghouse Blues

Still image from Doghouse Blues in Movie Makers, May 1947, 192.

Date produced: 1946

Filmmaker(s):

E. H. Sparks

Languages:

English

Length:

330 ft

Format:

16mm

Colour:

Kodachrome

Sound Notes:

Silent

Awards/Recognition:

ACL Ten Best 1946 - General Class

Description:

"In spite of the almost insurmountable difficulties in using feet to portray much of the action and most of the emotion in a movie, E. H. Sparks has managed to make Doghouse Blues completely comprehensible. A delightful farce of a bibulous fisherman, the story makes judicious use of the angler's big toe to denote thirst, hunger and any other emotion which might master a man on a solo weekend. Colorful scenes of inlets and bays, as well as attractive sequences of fishing craft, imbue the film with a flavor of authenticity. In satiric repetition, his indignant wife trails the tippling angler to the secluded spot where his boat rides at anchor, there to find him "taking the long count." A rude awakening for the errant husband and an eminently suitable final scene close the picture." Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 471.

Resources:

Discussed by Sparks in "Filming is Fun" (Movie Makers, May 1947, 192, 206-208). In the article, the filmmaker describes how the film was compiled from various shooting locations over a period of years.

The film won first award in a Bristol Cinema Club film contest in 1946 (Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 476).

The film was available in the ACL's Club Film Library.

Subjects:

• Arts
•      Satire
• Art and Recreation
• Ethnology
•      Manners and Customs
•           Marriage
• Recreation
•      Sports
•           Fishing

Genre:

• Comedy

Form:

• Short

Screenings:

• Screened by the Hartford Cinema Club in 1946: Hartford, CT
• Screened by the Metropolitan Motion Picture Club in 1947: New York City, N.Y.
• Screened by the Metro Movie Club in 1947: River Park, IL
• Screened by the Amateur Cinema Club of Buffalo in 1947: Buffalo, N.Y.
• Screened by the Denver Cinema League in 1948: Denver, CO
• Screened by the Australian Amateur Cine Society in 1949: Sydney, NSW
• Screened by the Smokey Mountain Movie Club in 1949: Asheville, N.C.
• Screened by the Vailsburg Cine Club in 1950: Newark, N.J.
• Screened by the Miami Movie Makers in 1950: Miami, FL
• Screened by the Amateur Motion Picture Club of St. Louis in 1950: St. Louis, MO
• Screened by the Amateur Movie Society of Bergen County in 1951: Bergen County, N.J.
• Screened by the Amateur Motion Picture Society of Denver in 1952: Denver, CO

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