Ice Antics (1939) User Reviews

Mildly amusing promo for "Ice Follies of 1939"...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 19 January 2019]

... which was a film made in the same year as this short starring James Stewart and Joan Crawford that totally bombed. It was one of MGM's biggest bombs - critically and financially - of the 1930s.

The short starts out showing some big lumbering fellow trying to learn to ice skate. He falls down, can't keep his balance, and out comes an instructor showing how to hold your balance, actually ice skate, and most importantly STOP. You will stop, but it is how you stop that is important. You know you are in weird promo land when a couple comes out and starts ice skating and the announcer talks about how ice skating is destined to become more popular than dancing and ice skating outfits more attractive on women than bathing suits.HUH??

Next some professional ice skaters come out and then the short segues (not very cleverly) into an ad for "Ice Follies of 1939". It is actually fun just for the weirdness and obviousness of it all.

propaganda for the skate mafia

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 5 January 2024]

The new indoor ice arenas are making ice skating more popular than ever before. This short shows a beginner learning how to skate with an instructor performing the proper way to skate. Pat Merifield is a 16 year old Californian amateur competitor. Mae Ross is another Californian skater. Phyllis Thompson is an 8 year old champ. Finally, there is the International Ice Follies. There are slow motion replays to see the footwork and various skills. This is done in front of a fake crowd backdrop which leads me to think that it's a sound stage with temporary ice surface. They seem to be making a film with the Ice Follies. This is fun and educational. I like the slow motion replays.

Fans of ice sports could well be disappointed . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 2 December 2018]

. . . by ICE ANTICS. This live-action short does not feature much in the way of cross-checking or high-sticking. None of the skaters are slammed into the boards. No one ever drops their gloves. If my memory is correct, the Penalty Box remains empty for the full duration of ICE ANTICS. Though occasional scenes feature solo skaters, they never seem to make any progress toward the nets. This is despite the fact that Defense seems nonexistent here (perhaps one must assume that these lone blades-folks are amidst breakaway attempts rather than penalty shots, or shoot outs), because of the aforementioned non-utilization of the puck-shooters' time out corners. Speaking of pucks, the old-timey cinematography on display here seldom if ever is adept enough to actually present that elusive hard rubber dark disc onto the Big Screen. Eventually ICE ANTICS devolves into some sort of a half-time show, indicating that this film must have originated when hockey night was divided into quarters rather than periods. Speaking of the latter, the on-screen inaction shown in ICE ANTICS is surprisingly coed, favoring the distaff end of the stick if anything. However, if Mayhem on the Ice is your game, you'll probably find it more electrifying to watch a rerun of Hockey Night in Canada than to cue up ICE ANTICS.

If You Don't Ice Skate, You're A Drip

[boblipton · 5/10 · 24 December 2022]

Frank Whitbeck narrates this MGM short subject about ice skating. It starts by noting that everyone but you is ice-skating these days, including eight-year-olds. It then expects you to learn how to do it in 45 seconds by watching this movie. Not even all of it. The klutz at the beginning is skating by the time a minute has passed.

We then get a series of vignettes of then-current champion skaters, with plenty of slow-motion, instructions in how figure skate, and how to jitterbug on ice. Finally, it tells you about the Ice Follies, and boosts their forthcoming movie.

Whitbeck seems to lack all sense of irony and self-awareness, It would have been better with Pete Smith.