Morning Cartoon: "The Little Match Girl," from 1968's THE WORLD OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON

A young Hans tells the tale of the Little Match Girl (to a particularly whiny child) in this little-seen animated film from Toei, re-dubbed for American audiences by Hal Roach in 1971.

Neil Sedaka sings "Waterbug" from PLAYBOY KILLER (1968)

Weirdly, this is one of TWO Sedaka tracks that made their way into sleazy '60s horror films, but PLAYGIRL KILLER is ever better than his rendition of "The Jellyfish" in STING OF DEATH because Sedaka actually appears and plays a supporting role in the film.  His odd dancing deserves a movie all its own.

Morning Music: Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - "The Canyons of Your Mind" (1968)

From the TV series "Colour Me Pop," a music performance show that aired on the BBC.  Because there's never a bad time for the Bonzo Dog Band.

Otto Preminger and Harry Nilsson visit Hugh Hefner on "Playboy After Dark"

Today marks the 109th birthday of Otto Preminger, so I figured I'd take a look at the most fascinating film from the director of ANATOMY OF A MURDER, LAURA and BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING -- 1968's mobster LSD comedy SKIDOO featuring Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Groucho Marx, Frankie Avalon, Frank Gorshin and anyone else they could convince to show up.  If you haven't seen it, this segment from "Playboy After Dark" in which Preminger and SKIDOO composer Harry Nilsson hang out with Hef should... well, it won't explain it at all.  But it does feature Nilsson singing the film's closing credits (sort of) and Otto just kind of hanging out and explaining marijuana while dressed like Emily Hartley from "The Bob Newhart Show."

Morning Cartoon: Bunny and Claude in "We Rob Carrot Patches"

Everyone (WHO HAS A SOUL) loves Warner Bros. cartoons, but by 1968, the studio's animation output was looking grim.  The heyday of Bugs and Daffy were waning, so the studio had great plans to return to prime form with the antics of a pair of criminal bunnies based on Bonnie and Clyde, then hugely popular thanks to Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE, released the previous year.  The results were... strange, though apparently their first adventure was well-received enough to warrant a second short as well before Bunny and Claude rode off into the sunset of animation obscurity.



Bunny and Claude: We Rob Carrot Patches (1968) from Willie Okendo on Vimeo.

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.