Black Cats and Broomsticks (1955)
*** (out of 4)
RKO/Pathe Screenliner short is perhaps the best I've seen from them. The short deals with the topic of superstitions and how times really haven't changed much since the days of black magic, witchery and various other forms of dark mysteries. The short talks about walking under a ladder, crossing paths with a black cat, the "dead man's hand" in cards and of course everyone's favorite day, Friday 13th. We also hear about people who die yearly because they take the advice of a "wizard" instead of that of a doctor. This film has a lot in common with another short, WHO'S SUPERSTITIOUS?, which was a pretty good Pete Smith short made nearly a decade earlier. This film takes a serious and spoof like look at the subject and really manages to be fun throughout the running time. The best stuff deals with the way farmers might search for a place to put a hex on another farmer's cattle.
