Shorts report: March 23-24, 2017

In and among the March Malice movies there are a bunch of shorts, some of which are worth mentioning.

First up at about 10:10 AM is You Bring the Ducks. This one is a Hal Roach short starring Irvin S. Cobb, who is probably best known as the writer who introduced the character Judge Priest. He did some acting, but not a whole lot.

Electrical Power comes on a little after 7:45 PM tonight, and ostensibly tells us about Hoover Dam. The dam was always legally known as Hoover Dam, but it's called Boulder Dam here because Franklin Roosevelt and the rest of the New Dealers were petty little shits who didn't like that the dam had gotten named after Hoover. Of course, a lot of the New Deal was about petty power that continued into World War II as you can see in Marjorie Main's character in Rationing. Anyhow, back to the short, although it's supposedly about Hoover Dam and its production of electricity, it's really a promotional short for upcoming MGM movies in the 1939 season, with a bunch of recognizable clips.

Night Mail. I mentioned this one a couple of months back. TCM's online schedule has it in between Soylent Green (4:00 AM tomorrow, 97 min), and After the Thin Man at 6:15 AM. There certainly is enough time, then, for a 25-minute short. However, the TCM schedule claims it's starting at 6:13 AM. I'm guessing it will run, but starting a good half hour earlier.