Breakdowns of 1941 (1941) User Reviews

Wash your mouth out with soap!

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 8/10 · 8 July 2010]

This is found on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of The Maltese Falcon, even though it, as far as I can tell, doesn't contain anything from that particular film. It is a 13-minute blooper reel, apparently all of them from movies from 1941. I can't claim to have watched... well, any of the ones they show clips from. This opens and closes with the familiar(or a version of it at least) theme from the animated shorts also produced in this period(Looney Tunes?). I don't know what that nasty egg thing that shows up three times in this is about. I'd say about half of the outtakes are funny(a couple of them are simply strange, or maybe you need to have seen the picture they're from to understand), and it's somehow pleasant to see that it looked about the same when they messed up their lines or something happened with a prop 60 years ago as it does today. There are numerous big names from back then in this, so if you've watched anything famous from back then that hit the silver screen, was American and live-action, you'll most likely recognize at least some of them. A lot of the time, they swear moderately when a take is botched. That is the only offensive thing in this. I recommend this to anyone who likes to watch stuff like this. 8/10

Such Language!

[boblipton · 10/10 · 20 July 2009]

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Warners Brothers would yearly sweep up clips of all those fluffed takes and produce a little in-house movie showing the magnificent actors of the era blowing take after take and cursing in annoyance, interspersed with a deliberately-produced clip of Porky Pig as a carpenter hitting his thumb with a hammer and grunting "Son of a b-b-b-b-b-b-". The result, usually for the studio holiday party, would then go back into the vault. But recently a couple of them have surfaced as extras to DVD releases.

It's very funny to watch actors in high-minded roles suddenly break down and start cussing a blue streak. Look out for this and others as they show up. And if you have a chance, see if you can find the DVD issue of Columbia's OUR MAN GODFREY with dapper, debonair William Powell blowing up, followed by Eugene Palette blowing up. But they can't compare with demure Carole Lombard's command of profane language!

Great Laughs

[Michael_Elliott · 13 January 2012]

Breakdowns of 1941 (1941)

*** (out of 4)

This (at the time) unreleased short was mainly shown at Warner company parties at the end of the year for a few laughs but thankfully several of them have become available over the past few years. What we basically have are gag reels with various big players messing up their lines or in some cases messing up sets. The films we see stuff from are THE WAGONS ROLL AT NIGHT with Bogart, TORRID ZONE with Cagney, FOUR MOTHERS and THE SEA WOLF with Edward G. Robinson. Those who don't like the cuss word G.D. will certainly want to skip over this film as I'm going to guess it's said at least three dozen times, which must be a recorded considering how short the actual film is. There's no doubt that many film buffs are going to be amused by seeing some of these screen legends mess up their lines and lose their tempers. One of the best moments happen early on in a scene from TORRID ZONE where Cagney goes to slam on a door on someone but accidentally pushes his hand all the way through the door. We also have some very funny bits between Cagney and Pat O'Brien as their flub their lines and then poke fun at one another. The scenes with Bogart show the actor appearing extremely upset with himself and we even get a few funny bits with James Stewart and John Garfield.

As is usually the case with these annual Warner Bros. blooper . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 3 March 2015]

. . . and outtake reels from the 1930s and 1940s, there is SO LITTLE to chortle about in BREAKDOWNS OF 1940 that the studio may have tried to cover up its survival (which is why I'm reviewing it under BREAKDOWNS OF 1941--if I didn't, that would let the Terrorists win). Amazingly enough, BREAKDOWNS OF 1940 slipped out of the bag and onto Warner Home Video's CITY FOR CONQUEST disc which was released in 2006. No doubt anything said that was actually funny in a spontaneous way on the Warner lots in 1940 could not pass muster with the censors of the day, and be included here. There are no F-bombs or even S-words here--just a few D-words and B-words. Ad libs must have been frowned upon, because more than half of the attempts here to make humorous lemonade from script lemons leave the would-be Jokester at a loss for any words at all. Most year's BREAKDOWNS include a running joke sight gag, and 1940's (an actor failing to muscle his way through a prop doorway) is one of the lamest. The best piece of slap-stick comes toward the end, as a morbidly obese actress mounts a horse. (No AHAD certificate of approval would have been available here.) The other notable aspect of this 11-minute, 51.8-second short is that Pat O'Brien seems to be in at least half of Warner Bros.' 1940 offerings. Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, George Raft, Ronald Reagan, and Ann Sheridan are among highlights rounding out the list of usual suspects also seen here.

13 minutes of bloopers

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 13 August 2015]

Warner Bros' not only made an uncountable number of cartoons around 1941 starring the voice talent of Mel Blanc, they also made some live action full feature films, all of these in black-and-white still. Here we see bloopers from some of these movies. Even if I am familiar with some of the names listed in the cast here, I must say I could not really enjoy this short film, partly because I cannot really make a connection between the face and the name, but also because I have not seen the film referenced to in here. If you have and immediately recognize the people in here, you will probably enjoy this a lot more than I did. Really knowing the actors is a crucial factor to appreciate this collection of bloopers. I personally liked the one near the end with the Black actor because obviously race equality was far from given at this point, so it was somewhat nice to see him appreciated by the people watching him as if he was a White actor. All in all, not recommended though.

Sgt. York and the Gipper, too!

[pixrox1 · 5/10 · 22 April 2013]

If only these "bloopers" actually were funny. I suppose the main reason Warner Brothers did a "Breakdowns" short every year during the 1930s and 1940s (the funnier ones, such as 1943, shockingly have no pages in IMDb) was the likelihood that one of their stars someday would become the glib, unflappable, goof-proof president of America, and it would be a hoot to have his or her early gaffs recorded for all posterity on a blooper real (even if she did rat out half of Hollywood to the Congressional Committee on UnAmerican Activities in order to jump start a political career). Warner Brothers, producer of these "Breakdown" reels, was well known in those dark times as the House of Snitches. Which is why it is so interesting for those of us with a sense of history to watch these "light-hearted" moments of "archival footage," knowing who was to be driven to the nut house or to suicide a few years later, and which of Hollywood's "biggest names" would be doing the driving. Maybe to young teens these 12.8 minutes of sound stage or back lot mayhem will prove funnier, since many of them won't know Bogart from a booger.