A bit of background. When I moved into my present home in 1984 I discovered the cable TV was live. Cable was fairly new back then and many channels were just odd. The weather channel was just a camera panning back and forth across a row of dial instruments that showed temp, humidity, etc. After a complete sweep a brief forecast would appear. One played nothing but infomercials. They were not like modern ones as there was no host or hard sell - just a half hour of demonstrating something. Bow-Flex was one of them. Another played military films showing some hardware or other like an attack helicopter. I guess they were soft recruitment films. And one played mostly short films all day. I have no idea what channels any of these were.
On the short film channel I saw the following two movies:
1 This one appeared to be British but I can’t remember why. A cow is shown in a field with hedges all around. A young couple appears and meets in front. The film constantly switches back and forth from the cow to the couple as they get progressively more amorous.
As the hugs give way to kisses and then fondling the cow grows more and more agitated. First she is just nervous then begins twitching her tail and stamping her feet. The couple moves behind the hedge into the field and slowly sinks out of view and the cow is beside herself. Finally a cry comes from the now hidden lass and the cow’s tail shoots straight out and an enormous cow pie plops to the ground. A sigh is heard from the lad. The cow is back to just grazing.
2 This film was titled “Resurrection” The scene opens on a small room filled with debris. Piles of shredded wood and paper and such. Suddenly one piece begins wiggling, then another. They hump along like caterpillars until they join and merge and others around them do the same. This continues at an increasing pace until some object is formed. Soon more objects are being built and they begin joining each other. The whole pile of scraps is alive. We begin to see complete things. First a page, then others and finally a book. A flower, a table leg, etc. The table legs slowly erect themselves and then hundreds of shreds inch up the legs and begin building the top. The flower slides into a vase and they both travel up the legs to their place on the tabletop.
After several minutes of this amazing stop-action animation the room is complete. Rugs are on the floor. The table holds dishes, flowers and whatnot. A book shelf filled with books is seen. All is nice and serene. THEN: from the side something rolls across the rug to an ominous rumbling sound. It bumps the table leg then rolls upwards to the top. It is a hand grenade! The pin twists back and forth to extract itself- er, er, er. The spoon flies away with a “clang”! We wait. After a loooong pause the grenade explodes with a tremendous blast. It takes a long time for the dust to settle and we finally see - the room is back to the opening scene.
