FILM 1643: PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN 

TRIVIA: Photographed in the English Technicolor process by Jack Cardiff, this film is considered one of the most beautiful colour films ever made.

The first feature film in color for Ava Gardner.

Esperanza, the name of the fishing village, is the Spanish for 'hope' which was the only thing left after Pandora opened her box in the Greek myth

Van der Zee means "of the sea" in Dutch.

The famous poet Dylan Thomas visited the set and is believed to have appeared as an extra, being briefly visible in the background in one scene.

On the beach, around 0:05:40, Geoffrey says aloud to himself, "'The measure of love is what one is willing to give up for it.' Who said that?" Though the quotation comes up a couple of times more, the question of who said it is never answered. The answer is, none other than Albert Lewin himself, the writer of the story and the screenplay and the director.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

FILM 1416: THE RELUCTANT DRAGON

TRIVIA: The Mickey Avenue/Dopey Drive signpost was built specifically for the movie, and was supposed to be removed afterward. It wasn't, and it still stands at the Disney studio.

Features How to Ride a Horse (1950), the first of the Goofy "How-to" cartoons. When narrator John McLeish was brought in to record the narration, he was asked to read it in a very straightforward manner, as if for a serious documentary about horse riding. He was shocked when he was told that the narration he recorded would be used in a Goofy cartoon.

In the sound effects department the workers are creating sound effects for a piece of film with the train Casey Junior. Casey would pop up in Disney's next film, Dumbo (1941). Likewise in the art department, the animators are making sketches for "Dumbo". Bambi also makes a minor appearance in this film, a year before Bambi (1942) was released.

Portions of this film had to be redone because of objections by the Hays Office. The dragon was originally drawn with a navel which had to removed before the film could be passed.

Most of the 'animators' shown in the film were actually actors hired to portray animators. And this film, showing the Disney animation studios as a happy, coherent family, was released at the worst possible moment, when half of the actual animators went out on strike. The strikers frequently picketed theaters showing the film, sometimes holding up a large cardboard sign depicting Walt Disney as a dragon, labeled 'The Reluctant Disney.'

In the "Baby Weems" sequence, Mount Rushmore is seen with only George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The faces were still under construction until October 1941 and this movie was released before it was finished, which is why Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson are missing.