New Audioscopiks, The (1938)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
This sequel to Pete Smith's AUDIOSCOPIKS (1935) was another early attempt at 3-D but the version shown on Turner Classics Movies was shown flat so it's hard to judge what the effects look like obviously. This here is certainly a gimmick film as we get a variety of scenes showing objects being thrown at the screen with Smith talking about what's going on and of course throwing in a joke every once in a while. Some examples including a kid shooting something with his sling shot, a camera lens going towards the crowd, bouncing balls shown dropped on a glass window, a crab being placed into the screen and a few gags at an amusement park. As you can tell, none of these ideas are all that ground-breaking but I'd imagine they would look pretty good if shown in their original 3-D form. As far as the flat version goes, it's rather hit and miss as the viewer is clearly missing the selling point of the movie but I think film buffs will still find the movie interesting just because of it being an early attempt. Now that Warner is making Movies on Demand lets hope that they consider releasing some 3-D movies and including this as a short in its original 3-D.