Use Your Imagination (1933) Online

Even if James Thurber were still alive and swore till he was blue in the face that his 1939 "creation" of "Walter Mitty" was "loosely based" on an alleged friend of his named Walter Mitoff, the fact that this short--USE YOUR IMAGINATION--played at a time and a place where Thurber was sure to see it, and it embodies the plot and soul of Walter Mitty so well: as they say, where there's smoke, there's usually fire. Am I accusing Thurber of plagiarizing USE YOUR IMAGINATION writers A. Dorian Otvos and Cyrus Wood's invention of Hal, the young man fired umpteen times because of his grandiose day-dreaming on the job? Far from it. Thurber's obviously not here to speak in his own defense, and his appropriation of BOTH this character AND his story line may have been partly or entirely unconscious. But C'Mon, folks, this is the 21st century, where the American NSA probably can pinpoint the location and roll distance of the first wheel ever made. If USE YOUR IMAGINATION is NOT credited in the Mitty remake this year, I'm going to buy the copyrights to USE YOUR IMAGINATION, put on my Mitty lawyer suit, and sue the pants of the producers!

This is a short subject film that appears to be a showcase for several musical groups. Such films were commonly used to test out new talent--to sort of toss the acts out to the audiences to see how they were received and to give them experience in front of the camera.

Hal Le Roy plays a dopey young man who loses job after job because he spends most of his time dreaming. Several of his dreams come to life in this film. While this did not turn out to a breakout film for Le Roy, he was pretty good dancer and somewhat likable. In addition to Le Roy, you see performances by the Eton Boys (in a nice little singing number) and Mitzi Mayfair dancing with Le Roy. None of it is great, but it's also pleasant and competent--and worth seeing as an extra on the DVD of THE LITTLE GIANT (with Edward G. Robinson)--especially so you can see the bizarre barber pole dance (just watch those legs go) as well as the uber-weird final scene. You just have to see this part for yourself!!

Use Your Imagination (1933)

*** (out of 4)

This musical from Vitaphone is without question one of the strangest that I've seen from the New York office. Hal LeRoy plays a rather lifeless worker who is constantly getting fired because he's always daydreaming about the girl (Mitzi Mayfair) of his dreams. Throughout the 18-minutes we see several of these dreams come to life in forms of dancing and singing. Roy Mack turned out dozens of these two-reelers during the 30s and I must say that this here is one of the most entertaining. This short works for several different reasons but the biggest is that LeRoy is just so good in the part that you can't help but really like his character. He's never annoying or over-the-top with the character and that makes you feel for the guy. It also doesn't hurt that he's not that bad of a singer and he does a terrific tap dance sequence. Another reason the film works so well is because it just really features some strange stuff including a barber pole dance, which you have to see for yourself to believe. The final segment of the film is something I won't ruin but it's just so bizarre that you can't help but wish it had gone on longer.

These Vitaphone musical shorts are as dated as can be, both with respect to the songs involved and the dance choreography.

Limber Hal LeRoy is an imaginative young man who can't hold onto a job because he's constantly dreaming of his sweetheart crush on Mitzi Mayfair, a musical comedy actress.

Whether running an elevator or selling magazines behind a counter, he just can't seem to get anywhere with Mitzi on his mind. One of his inspirations comes from a dance he imagines while gazing across the street at a barber shop pole. Lo and behold, Mitzi is soon doing a rather weird dance routine for the finale.

Easy to see why Hal LeRoy never made it as a top tier player at Warner Brothers, but whatever happened to Miss Mayfair? I'll have to check out her biography (if available) but she only had a short list of film credits.

. . . in the Art World than what many presume. What else can explain the dancing barber pole and a 50-pound human egg in USE YOUR IMAGINATION besides a stronger drug than most folks give 1933 credit for? In IMAGINATION, Hal LeRoy plays the world's greatest tap dancer, as he suffers from the world's shortest attention span. Fired from seven jobs in a one week for day-dreaming, Hal cannot remember that he's qualified to become a Broadway superstar for long enough to get a theatrical agent. Plus, Hal's dream girl is no Ginger Rogers. She's not any sort of a hoofer at all. Since "Mitzi Mayfair" never will be on the same stage with himself, Hal racks his Artificial Intelligence (just as his Stanley Kubrick namesake does in 2001) to pair Mitzi with a partner she can keep up with: the barber chair. Though it's clear here that an actual barber pole is far more dynamic than Mitzi, Hal cannot quit his own private dodo bird. After their inter-species marriage, this original BIRDMAN astoundingly knocks up his favorite pole, and it lays an awful big egg!