Maker: Al Brick
Production: Fox Movietone News
Original format: 35mm silent film 1.33:1
New music: Donald Sosin
Restoration note: Desmet-style color tint & tone added to enhance surreal effects of distortion.
Courtesy: University of South Carolina Newsfilm Archive

These never before screened camera rolls photographed by Fox News cameraman Al Brick offer a lovely interlude of pure cinema experimentation. An oddity to be sure, the camera original has survived intact as shot by cameraman Al Brick. Two men interact before a distorted-spherical mirror, and the ensuing play between the two has all the trappings of an avant-garde pas de deux. The fascination with anamorphic images dates back centuries to mirrors, lenses, and other optical toys employed to warp images for artistic and scientific purposes. -Bruce Posner

Alfred "Al" Brick (1890-1951) was a longtime cameraman c. 1919-1950 for Fox News and Fox Movietone. He made the only commercial footage of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, but this footage, heavily censored, was not presented to the public until one year later. He ended his newsreel career covering Hollywood glamour events. -Bruce Posner