Goofy Movies Number One (1933) User Reviews

More often than not new modes of humor fall flat . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 25 October 2015]

. . . as MGM's live action short GOOFY MOVIES NUMBER ONE illustrates. GOOFY never makes it as far as the Tee-Hee stage, lingering for tea, instead. Future King of Snark Pete Smith's snide narration here features fewer hits than misses. In the opening newsreel spoof, ski jumper "Axel Jorgensen" takes off from Lake Placid, NY, and lands in an African pond after flying over Manhattan's skyline and past the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Though Axel's flight might be slightly humorous, any snickers are nipped in the bud when a Black actor in a Tribal get-up immediately rises from the water next to Jorgensen holding an ancient microphone. After this "Metrophony" bit is done, the final seven minutes of GOOFY are devoted to a pretzel-twisting chick. As she meets her future spouse, there's a lot of suggestive interplay about a phallic baloney log she's waving that might have amused cavemen, but certainly not contemporaries of D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller. Desperate for at least a chuckle, the GOOFY filmmakers try to salvage one with a grand finale in which a fireman's lodgings are torched, but it's extremely easy to sit through this entire misfire with a straight face.

Quite Funny

[boblipton · 7/10 · 1 January 2022]

As a general rule I am not amused by those works which mock the sort of things our parents liked in the bad old days. The shenanigans of my generation are as liable to this handling as any, and I have usually enjoy old things. Once upon a time, Hollywood was very fond of making fun of silent movies, with a long series from RKO, random shorts from Warners, and this series from MGM.

I do enjoy this series, partly because it mocks contemporary movies in the form of a mock newsreel, because it has Pete Smith providing the unlikely narration, but mostly because the gags are pretty good.

rounding up

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 1 January 2022]

The first part is a satire on a newsreel short. My best comparison is if National Lampoon had existed back then and decided to lampoon those newsreels. It's mildly amusing. They are definitely throwing everything at the comedy. Most are really broad and rather thin. The second part is Minnie the Pretzel Twister. It's spoofing a silent era film. It's actually an interesting narrative comedic short. That's probably the best part of this whole thing. There are a couple of fun comedic moves. I would give the newsreel a six and Minnie a seven. Let's say I round this all up.

A Few Laughs

[Michael_Elliott · 30 May 2009]

Goofy Movies Number One (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Early Pete Smith series is a spoof of going to the movies with the main gag being the narration over silent films. The first part of the film is a fake news reel where we see "footage" of a Harvard/Yale rowing event. The second part is a fake movie called "Minnie the Pretzel Twister" with Cynthia Goosefeather. The film tells the story of a pretzel twister who hopes to find love. I'm a major fan of silent movies and I'm sure some might find this film offensive but I thought it was rather neat. Not all of the jokes work but for the most part I think the film contains some fine laughs even if the 8-minute running time seems too long. I enjoyed the first part of the film the most as the fake newsreel had many great gags about fans and those who would watch rowing.