‘Worst comes to wurst’
A German soldier’s horse is turned into German sausage (or ‘wurst’) in the first sketch in this weekly episode of Harry Julius’ Cartoons of the Moment. Next, a battered fez-wearing turkey represents the beleaguered Turkish forces. In the third sketch of this clip, Kaiser Wilhelm II – the Crown Prince of Germany – is caricatured with human skulls adorning his uniform to emphasise the enormous loss of life suffered by German troops.
‘Worst comes to wurst’
A German soldier’s horse is turned into German sausage (or ‘wurst’) in the first sketch in this weekly episode of Harry Julius’ Cartoons of the Moment. Next, a battered fez-wearing turkey represents the beleaguered Turkish forces. In the third sketch of this clip, Kaiser Wilhelm II – the Crown Prince of Germany – is caricatured with human skulls adorning his uniform to emphasise the enormous loss of life suffered by German troops.
Year: 1915
Length: 04:00
Production Company: Australasian Films
Credits: Cartoonist: Harry Julius
Source: National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
Catalogue Reference: NFSA title: 1129
People: Harry Julius
Location: Australia
Tags: Australia, Harry Julius, cartoons, animation, newsreels
In January 1915 Australia’s largest film production company, Australasian Films, commissioned ‘lightning’ sketch artist and caricaturist Harry Julius to provide the country’s first-ever satirical cinematic commentaries on the news. These were included in the company’s nationally distributed weekly newsreel, the Australasian Gazette. Julius (1885-1938) was already a household name after delivering satirical sketches for the major newspapers for some years. Each edition of Cartoons of the Moment is a mixture of live action and stop motion technology, and follows a similar format. Julius’ cartoons enjoyed great popularity with audiences according to newspaper reports of the day.
‘Worst comes to wurst’
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Australia
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0:00
Intertitle: CARTOONS OF THE MOMENT by the Australian Cartoonist Harry Julius. Australian Gazette
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0:07
Harry Julius’ studio. Julius enters reading a newspaper then starts to draw
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0:21
Sped up footage of Julius drawing a horse: “Horses are gradually disappearing from the streets of Berlin”
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0:49
“Perhaps the worst has come to the würst". Through animation the drawing of the horse turns into a string of sausages
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0:56
“German machine gunners stationed behind the Turks fire on them if they show the slightest inclination to surrender. Cable”
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1:07
Sped up footage of Julius drawing a chicken wearing a Turkish fez with a German machine gunner taking aim and Allied soldiers (?) looking on. “BETWEEN THE TWO FIRES. THE TURK, ‘I wish I could fly’”
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2:02
“The Crown Prince’s effort to fulfil his boast to break through the Allies lines at Argonne has failed with a loss of 10,000 Germans. Cable”
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2:13
Sped up footage of Julius drawing a caricature of Germany’s Crown Prince adorned with skulls holding two Stechschritt, or ‘goose stepping’, German soldiers in the palm of his hand. “The Crown Prince of Death”