Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.


Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.


Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.


These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

The Jazz Singer (Crosland)

The Jazz Singer. Alan Crosland, 1927.
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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2013. English language with intertitles. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This impressive 3-disc package includes several documentaries about the development of synchronized sound, and an entire disc of early Vitaphone shorts. All titles are free of violence to animals. Shaw & Lee’s The Beau Brummels and the Foy Family’s Chips off the Old Block are the two winners here, with most other titles of vague interest for historic documentation. A few are terrible, and the horror of Trixie Friganza is noteworthy.

A Plantation Act (Philip Roscoe, 1926, approx. 10 minutes)
Al Jolson performs three or four songs in blackface on a stage set made like a slave cabin. The emotional, exaggerated style in this short is what Bugs Bunny imitates in Warner Brothers cartoons, while Jolson’s blackface performance in The Jazz Singer actually is rather boring and uninteresting.

An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros.’ Silver Jubilee (John G. Adolfi, 1930, approx. 11 minutes)
A celebrity dinner party, just like you’ve seen parodied in Warner Bros. cartoons.

Hollywood Handicap (Buster Keaton, 1938, approx. 10 minutes)
A boring “Showcase of the Stars” featurette with a horse racing theme, distinguished only by several interesting musical performances by The Original Sing Band who are costumed as stable hands.

A Day at Santa Anita (Bobby Connolly, 1937, approx. 18 minutes)
Another boring horse race-themed “Showcase of the Stars” featurette. This one is worse because it is nearly twice as long and features an obnoxious child star rather than the moderately entertaining black vocal group.

I Love to Singa (Tex Avery, 1936, approx. 8 minutes)
An especially good “Merrie Melodies” in which a family of owls parodies the plot of The Jazz Singer.

The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk (2007)
The Voice from the Screen (1926)
Finding His Voice (1929)
The Voice That Thrilled the World (1943)
Okay for Sound (1946)
When the Talkies Were Young (1955)

Elise Janis in a Vaudeville Act: “Behind the Lines” (unknown director, 1926, approx. 7 minutes)
Elsie Janis entertains the troops from the back of a truck.

Bernardo De Pace: “The Wizard of the Mandolin” (unknown director, 1927, approx. 10 minutes)
Dressed as Pierrot for no apparent reason, De Pace performs several songs with good comedic stylings. Entertaining.

Van and Schenck: “The Pennant Winning Battery of Songland” (unknown director, 1927, approx. 9 minutes)
Gus Van and Joe Schenck perform four comedic songs at the piano.

Blossom Seeley and Bennie Fields with The Music Boxes (unknown director, 1927, approx. 10 minutes)
A series of Vaudeville-style song-&-dance numbers. Entertaining.

Hazel Green & Company (Bryan Foy, 1927, approx. 8 minutes)
Pedestrian deployment of a few standard tunes.

The Night Court (Bryan Foy, 1927, approx. 9 minutes)
A police raid on a night club results in the entire cast of the club’s floor show being hauled into court, where they must perform their routines for the judge.

The Police Quartette (unknown director, 1927, approx. 8 minutes)
Good, predictable male quartette song stylings.

Ray Mayer & Edith Evans in “When East Meets West” (unknown director, 1928, approx. 7 minutes)
Ray Mayer plays good comedic piano while dressed as a cowboy and wearing a ton of eye shadow. Edith Evans manages to sing.

Adele Rowland: “Stories in Song” (unknown director, 1928, approx. 10 minutes)
Adele Rowland belts out a few numbers. The two points of interest are her fabulous dress and the embarrassing racial content of the second song.

Stoll, Flynn & Company: The ‘Jazzmania Quintette’ (unknown director, 1928, approx. 10 minutes)
George Stoll (violin) and The Hot Four perform four songs, with Edythe Flynn providing mediocre vocals on most.

The Ingenues: “The Band Beautiful” (unknown director, 1928, approx. 10 minutes)
This unimpressive all-female orchestra would benefit in every way if Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner were on stage, with them or instead of them.

The Foy Family in “Chips off the Old Block” (Bryan Foy, 1928, approx. 8 minutes)
A family Vaudeville act that doubles as a freak show. I wish this unbelievable glimpse into the past had lasted for hours.

Dick Rich and His Melodious Monarchs (unknown director, 1928, approx. 10 minutes)
Remember that time your fat gay uncle and one of your mother’s cousins entertained at the family reunion?

Gus Arnheim and His Ambassadors (unknown director, 1928, approx. 10 minutes)
A typically decent dance orchestra.

Shaw & Lee: “The Beau Brummels” (unknown director, 1928, approx. 10 minutes)
A very entertaining deadpan comedy routine with a little song-and-dance. Excellent.

Roof Garden Revue Directed by Larry Ceballos (1929, approx. 10 minutes)
Clumsy dancers and lots of them.

Trixie Friganza in “My Bag O’ Tricks” (Murray Roth, 1929, approx. 10 minutes)
One of the most ghastly things I’ve ever watched. Imagine Shirley from What’s Happening! in whiteface, wearing a floppy hat and screaming risqué jokes.

Green’s Twentieth Century Faydetts (unknown director, 1929, approx. 7 minutes)
Another all-female orchestra of no interest, distinguished from others only by their spectacular win of the 1929 award for Worst Costumes.

Sol Violinsky: “The Eccentric Entertainer” (unknown director, 1929, approx. 7 minutes)
Vaguely comedic piano and violin playing with a little racist recitation thrown in, all completely lacking in charisma of any sort.

Ethel Sinclair and Marge La Marr: “At the Seashore” (unknown director, 1929, approx. 8 minutes)
Two women make jokes based on people-watching at a beach.

Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats (unknown director, 1929, approx. 9 minutes)
An energetic orchestra with good close-harmony cameos.

Baby Rose Marie: “The Child Wonder” (Bryan Foy, 1929, approx. 9 minutes)
The child star does a good job with a few songs.

Burns & Allen in “Lambchops” (Murray Roth, 1929, approx. 8 minutes)
Dry comedy and decent dance.

Joe Frisco in “The Happy Hottentots” (Bryan Foy, 1930, approx. 8 minutes)
A horrible musical skit in which a routine is repeated many times while the performers become increasingly exhausted.

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