An art history class in two and a half minutes in 1965's "Dog is God Spelled Backwords"

The piece, also known as "3000 Years of Art" and just "Classical Gas Video," was created by UCLA film student Dan McLaughlin in 1963, but it wasn't until 1968, when "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" writer Mason Williams saw the film and added a new soundtrack, titled "Classical Gas," which ended up becoming a chart-topping instrumental hit. It's honestly just as neat as it was 46 years ago.



Classical Gas Video from Shutter the Thought Prods. on Vimeo.

German 8mm version of Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, the beautifully-lensed science fiction film from Italian genre specialist Mario Bava, has recently been issued on a Blu-Ray that does an amazing job with its eye-popping color.  But the film, often mentioned as a forerunner to ALIEN, has taken on many forms over the years, including this 16-minute edit released to 8mm film collectors in Germany.  The color isn't as nice, the film is (obviously) severely truncated, and it's in German, but it's still an interesting look at how die-hard genre fans would have to watch movies at home before the VCR era.  (Also, see PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES.)

Catherine Elia sings "Goldfinger" in French in this 1965 Scopitone

It'd be tough to argue that anyone but Shirley Bassey has the definitive version of the James Bond theme song "Goldfinger," but Catherine Elia takes an admirable stab at it, even though she looks kind of worried throughout this vintage Scopitone.  Maybe she's not too sure about who's driving the car she's posing in.