With not a lot of stock film footage to work with in 1934, this Pete Smith short is long on silly tricks, (showing footage multiple times, running film in reverse/back and forth, freeze frame, etc.) and short on substance. An early attempt at humor that seems rather quaint today.
As these things go, this is about average for the time. Since most of the film footage used is silent era stuff from the 1920's, the entire nine minutes has only added sound effects and Smith's narration. There is really no cohesive storyline here, just a bunch of short film clips pasted together.
On a VERY obscure note, when "Mad Mike" is posing as a witch doctor and Smith says "Africa speaks!", you then hear the witch doctor speak in what is obviously reverse English. I did what maybe no one in history has ever done; I reversed the clip to find out what the backwards words really said. It's Smith himself saying, "What a phony newsreel." (That's information provided by unemployment and too much time on my hands.)
As these things go, this is about average for the time. Since most of the film footage used is silent era stuff from the 1920's, the entire nine minutes has only added sound effects and Smith's narration. There is really no cohesive storyline here, just a bunch of short film clips pasted together.
On a VERY obscure note, when "Mad Mike" is posing as a witch doctor and Smith says "Africa speaks!", you then hear the witch doctor speak in what is obviously reverse English. I did what maybe no one in history has ever done; I reversed the clip to find out what the backwards words really said. It's Smith himself saying, "What a phony newsreel." (That's information provided by unemployment and too much time on my hands.)