Top 6-10 Firsts in Feature Films

6 Wings 1927

First: Best Picture Winner at the Oscars

The 1st Academy Awards in 1929 had an alternative to the Best Picture award (introduced the following year) called the Most Outstanding Production award, so one could argue that the first official Best Picture winner was All the King’s Men, but that would be overly pedantic. This romantic/WWI epic stars Buddy Rodgers and Richard Arlen as small time townies fighting for the attention of sweetheart Sylvia (Clara Bow), who become best friends after training together. Presumed dead in action, Arlen’s character steals a German bi-plane in attempt to get to safety, but is shot down by Rodgers’ character in attempt to avenge his friends death.

7 The Jazz Singer 1927

First: Feature Film with Audible Dialogue

This is a well-known film starring Al Jolson as the title character Jake Rabinowitz, a man from a devout Jewish family who becomes an entertainer under the alias Jack Robin, to his family’s dismay. The process used to show the film was incredibly complex: Each of Jolson’s musical numbers was mounted on a separate reel with a separate accompanying sound disc. Even though the film was only eighty-nine minutes long…there were fifteen reels and fifteen discs to manage, and the projectionist had to be able to thread the film and cue up the Vitaphone records very quickly. The least stumble, hesitation, or human error would result in public and financial humiliation for the company.

8 Gone With the Wind 1937

First: Feature Film to Gross $100m

This, along with Toy Story, is probably the most famous film on the list. Based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel of the same name, this romantic epic tells the story of the Civil War and its aftermath on the people of a Georgian town. It received a then record ten academy awards, and consistently ranks high on lists of America’s greatest films. It was the first film to gross 100 million, and when inflation adjusted is the highest grossing film ever. Marked men

9 Bwana Devil 1952

First: 3-D Feature Film

This is a film about the construction of the Ugandan Railway in British Africa in 1898, and the occurrence of man-eating lions devouring the workers. It was filmed and shown using a Natural Vision 3-D process, and the film was released by Arch Oboler Productions, after being turned down by 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Columbia and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The first 3-D film to be released by a major company was The Man in the Dark (1953), distributed by Columbia. Pictured above is the iconic photograph of the first audience to watch Bwana Devil.

10 Toy Story 1995

First: CGI Feature Film

This film is about a boy’s toys, which come to life when he’s not around. It took 27 animators to make the 114,420 frames of animation that make up the film. Each character was made out of clay and then computer designed, before being assigned motion controls (Woody had the most, at 723, including 212 for his face alone). Every frame took between two and fifteen days to make, and 800,000 machine hours were required to complete the film.

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Top 1-5 Firsts in Feature Films

Although this list has some overlap with a previous one, it concerns feature films alone, and I felt that Listverse needed to have a list like this compiling the first films to achieve things that are commonplace today. Enjoy, and please comment! This list is in chronological order, thus it is ordered from 1 – 10 as opposed to the norm.

1 The Story of the Kelly Gang 1906

First: Full-Length Feature Film

This film documents the life of Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly. It was made for about $2,250 and shot entirely in Melbourne, written by John Tait and starring his sister and friend, Elizabeth Kelly and Nicholas Brierley respectively. The National Film and Sound Archive released a new restored edition made with the remaining 17 minutes of film in 2006.

2 The World, the Flesh and the Devil 1914

First: Color Feature Film

Very little is known about this English film, made for £10,000. It uses the Kinemacolor process whereby two color filters are used in taking the negatives and only two in projecting the positives. The camera resembles the ordinary cinematographic camera except that it runs at twice the speed, taking thirty-two images per second instead of sixteen, and it is fitted with a rotating color filter in addition to the ordinary shutter. This filter is an aluminum skeleton wheel. The plot is to do baby swaps and mistaken identities, “with a few gratuitous thrills and spills thrown in for good measure.” It should be noted that this was preceded by a 2+ hour long feature color documentary called “With our King and Queen through India” – that is not included here because it is a documentary.

3 The Fall of a Nation 1916

First: Feature Film Sequel

This film is the sequel to the groundbreaking The Birth of a Nation (1915, pictured above), and was directed by Thomas Dixon, Jr., a Ku Klux Klan supporter who wrote the novel on which the first film was based. The film is about America being unprepared for war against Europe, and although not as bad as the first film, is controversial for its support of the Ku Klux Klan, calling them “a great, veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.” The first is so important for its pioneering use of camera techniques such as close-ups, deep-focus and jump-cuts, and it smashed box office records, grossing a then record $10 million. Although disgraceful, this film holds a 100% fresh rating on movie review compiling website Rotten Tomatoes, film critic Roger Ebert explains “‘The Birth of a Nation’ is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil.

4 El Apostol 1917

First: Animated Feature-Length Film

This is a 1917 Argentine animated cartoon, and also the world’s first animated feature film. It was written and directed by Quirino Cristiani, and consisted of a total of 58,000 frames played over the course of 70 minutes (which would have meant 14 FPS). The film was a satire, with President Hipólito Yrigoyen ascending to the heavens to use Jupiter’s thunderbolts to cleanse Buenos Aires of immorality and corruption. The result is a burnt city. The film is believed to have been well received by audiences at the time. Despite this, no known copies of the film have survived.

5 Marked Men 1919

First: Remake of a Feature Film (The Three Godfathers – 1916)

According to Wikipedia, this is the first ever feature film remake. It is a Western retelling of the nativity, specifically the story of the Three Wise Men of Orient. The same director later remade it as 3 Godfathers with John Wayne, and Harry Carey, Jr. Interestingly, Harry Carey, Snr (pictured above) starred in the first two films!

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Top 5-1 Deadliest Insects

5. Fire Ants

Typically nesting in sand or soil, fire ants build rather large mounds and tend to feed on plant life and occasionally crickets and smaller insects. When bothered, however, the fire ant sting is a venomous prick that feels like it’s burning with fire, hence the name and swells up into a painful pustule. A few small stings can be quickly treated and cured, but when the ants swarm, which they are often wont to do, that’s when the trouble starts. 150 deaths per day as well as millions of dollars in crop damage yearly make these ants fearsome indeed.

4. TseTse Fly

Another carrier of the deadly sleeping sickness, the TseTse fly feeds on the blood of vertebrates. The spread the disease, trypanosomiases in humans, by biting their victim and passing it through their mouth parts. Living in Africa, the death toll is that much more immense killing 250-300 thousand victims per year.

3. Bees

Thanks largely to the introduction of the Africanized HoneyBee; the death toll has taken a sharp upturn over the past fifteen years. Normal solitary bees are not known to sting humans for the sheer need to do so, and, even so, they die once the deed is done. However, many people the world over are seriously allergic to bee stings and can experience anaphylactic shock causing death. But, unlike those standard bees, Africanized Bees, or Killer Bees, will attack with the slightest provocation in large numbers swarming over the victims. The death toll per year is in the thousands.

2. Fleas

Not just the annoying little bites you receive as one of the lovely perks of owning a pet, no, fleas are directly responsible for the spread of the Bubonic Plague from their rat hosts to humans carrying Yersinia Pestsis. Feeding on the blood of warm-blooded vertebrates, fleas can infest an animal or area rather quickly. If bitten, the wound swells into a pustule and can causeallergic reactions. But, thanks to the spread of the plague killing millions, the flea can be a terrible pest.

1. Anopheles Mosquito

Mosquitoes are a terrible irritant and, because they feed on blood, can drive a person mad just by being outside in the right conditions. Eggs get laid and grow in stagnant areas of water and millions can hatch from one spot. But,the worst aspect of the mosquito is that it’s a carrier for blood-borne diseases, specifically: Malaria. Still numbering in the hundreds of million cases per year, malaria is responsible for more deaths than every other insect combined.

Top 10-6 Deadliest Insects

Though not necessarily the most prolifically deadly animal on earth, insects certainly hold their fair share of the unfortunate demises. Throughout history, the insect has played a major roll in many different actions and reactions ranging from writings in the Bible to golden statues in Egyptian Tombs. Bugs have also become ingrained in lore and stories such as the storyteller Anansi as a Spider (though not a true insect). But, perhaps the worst rap given to insects is the sheer terror and morbid curiosity they instill in humankind giving more than a few of us the willies. Here are the ten deadliest in the insect kingdom. Oh, and just to reiterate, a spider, a tick, or a centipede and the like are not insects. Insects have a 3-segmented body with six legs. That is the basic definition. So, here they are:

10. Hemiptera – kissing bugs

The hemiptera classification is wide and varied including all of the so-called ‘true bugs’. Most have distinctive ’sucking’ mouthparts that resemble tubes. Most, in fact, feed on plant sap in one form or another, but a few, such as the kissing bug, feed on blood of larger animals. The bug can transmit Chagas Disease, and it is described in Wiki as follows:

“The symptoms of Chagas’ disease vary over the course of the infection. In the early, acute stage symptoms are mild and are usually no more than local swelling at the site of infection. As the disease progresses, over as much as twenty years, the serious chronic symptoms appear, such as heart disease and malformation of the intestines. If untreated, the chronic disease is often fatal. Current drug treatments for this disease are generally unsatisfactory, with the available drugs being highly toxic and often ineffective, particularly in the chronic stage of the disease.”

9. Giant Japanese or Asian Hornet

This massive hornet can achieve lengths of 3 inches full grown and has been known, in numbers of only 20 or 30, to decimate an entire hive of honeybees. The sting can be lethal not just by allergic reactions but also due to its many toxins. Here are four interesting things about its sting:
a: Its sting has a higher concentration of the pain-causing chemical called Acetylcholine than any other stinging insect.
b: An enzyme in its venom can dissolve human tissue.
c: Containing at least eight distinctly different chemicals, the venom itself produces one such that actually attracts others of its kind to the victim.
d: Like all other hornets, it can sting repeatedly.

8. Siafu (African Ants)

Twenty million ants strong, one single colony can ravage the African countryside obliterating everything in their path. When food shortages present themselves, the colony as a whole will march through whatever happens to be in its path in order to acquire sustenance. Though not difficult to avoid, the very young or elderly can find themselves victims of asphyxiation and 20-50 die each year as well as thousands of dollars in foodstuffs damage yearly.

7. Wasps

Including the yellow jackets and hornets within the class, wasps vary in that they are relatively social, generally terrestrial, and almost every sub-species has a specific parasite or pest that it preys upon exclusively. Though wasps do not necessarily seek out humans to sting (unless territories are being threatened), it is the oft-allergic sting that does the most damage. Many people go into anaphylactic shock and die because of a single wasp sting.

6. Locusts

Though not known for killing humans directly, this sub family of the grasshopper is a relentless plant-consuming machine. In the Bible, during the Plagues of Egypt, the locusts were the eighth, wreaking havoc on farmland and crops. Locusts strip to bare earth thousands of acres of cropland every year and in very little time since each swarm can consist of several thousand insects. As a result, they can indirectly contribute to starvation.

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Top 10 Badass Guard Dogs

In the last decade the pitbull was seen as the badest, meanest breed of dog. Wrong! There are dogs that will wipe the floor with any breed of pitbull you can get. But that’s not the point here. A 30 kgs pitbull can be easily put down by a man who doesn’t fear dogs… but how about a 100 kg Caucasian Shepherd? So, if you want your home defended, here is a list of the Top 10 Badass guard dogs.

10. The German Shepherd

This breed has a personality marked by direct, fearless willingness to protect human children. The dog must be approachable, quietly standing its ground and showing confidence and willingness to meet overtures without itself making them. It is poised, but when the occasion demands, eager and alert; both fit and willing to serve in its capacity as a companion and watchdog.

9. Doberman Pinscher

Doberman Pinschers are, in general, a gentle, loyal, loving, and highly intelligent breed. Although there is variation in temperament, a typical pet Doberman attacks only if it believes that it, its property, or its family are in danger. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, the Doberman Pinscher is less frequently involved in attacks on humans resulting in fatalities than several other dog breeds such as pit bulls, because they can be trained to restrain an unwelcome intruder but not kill him. The breed was used extensively by the U.S. Marines in World War II, and 25 Marine War Dogs died in the Battle of Guam in 1944: there is a memorial in Guam in honor of these Doberman Pinschers

8. Rottweiler

In the hands of a responsible owner, a well-trained and socialized Rottweiler can be a reliable, alert dog and a loving companion. However, any poorly trained dog can become a danger in the wrong circumstances. The Rottweiler is a steady dog with a self-assured nature, but early socialization and exposure to as many new people, animals, and situations as possible are very important in developing these qualities. The Rottweiler also has a natural tendency to assert dominance if not properly trained. Rottweilers’ large size and strength make this an important point to consider: an untrained, poorly trained, or abused Rottweiler can learn to be extremely aggressive and destructive.

7. Pyrenean Mountain Dog

The Great Pyrenees (Pyrenean Mountain Dog) is a capable and imposing guardian, devoted to his family, and very wary of strangers. Males weigh in at about 100-160 pounds (45-73 kilograms), and when not provoked it is calm and somewhat serious. Courageous, very loyal, and obedient, devoted to family even if self-sacrifice is required. During World War II the dogs were used to haul artillery over the Pyreneean Mountain range to and from Spain and France.

6. Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is a large, muscular, tricolour (black, rust, and white; typically with a white blaze) dog. Males should weigh around 60 – 70 kg the height is 65 – 72 cm at the shoulders. Swissies have a very strong pack instinct. They are protective of their family and training is important for them to learn their place. They want the pack to be together and gets distressed when a member wanders off.

5. The Moscow Watchdog

After World War II, breeders in Moscow wanted to create a watchdog that would be particularly receptive to spoken orders. They took the Caucasian Ovtcharka (caucasian shepherd) – possessing wariness and ferocity, and the Saint Bernard – a larger breed with a gentle temperament, and now, over fifty years later, the MoscowWatchdog possesses the mental and physical attributes desired by the original breeders.

4. Boerboel

The Boerboel, the only breed of dog solely and specifically bred to defend the homestead. The dog should give the overall impression of immense substance, strength, power, and physical ability, and should be able to more than amply demonstrate this in his day to day work. Boerboels are a very dominant but intelligent breed, with a strongwatchdog instinct. They are self-assured and fearless, but responsive to the needs of the family displaying an intuitive ability to sense if the family is in danger. Like other large dogs with a strongguard instinct, the Boerboel needs to be watched around strangers always, and introduced to friends and other dogs early on to avoid aggression, and like all dogs should never be left with young children unattended.

3. Argentinian Mastiff

The Dogo Argentino or argentinian mastiff, is a large, muscular and athletic white-coated dog with an unusual history. They are excessively tolerant of children due to their high pain tolerance, derived from selective breeding to be big game hunters. They are protective of what they perceive as their territory and willguard it without fear against any intruder. The minimum height for the male is 62 cm (24.3 inches).

2. Cane Corso

The Cane Corso is a medium-large guard dog native to Southern Italy. Its stable temperament and powerful body make him particularly valued as a guard dog and protection dog. Traditionally, rural Southern Italy has always used this rustic type of dog for the hunting of big game and forguard and protection work. These dogs were known under various regional names: Vucciuriscu (or Bucciuriscu) in Sicily, Cane della masseria in Puglia, Cane da Macellaio (Butchers Dog). The official FCI standard calls for dogs to stand from 60-68 centimeters at the withers (23.6-26.7 inches).

1. Caucasian Shepherd

I’m a dog owner and breeder, and I tell you, if you have a place (house, yard, facility) to protect, This is the dog you need. Excessive softness or vicious temperaments are considered serious faults for the breed some say, but if you really want the bigest, meanest dog around, he’s the one. This breed is very rustic and adapts quickly to every climate. The Caucasian Shepherd is well adjusted and active. However, he is highly suspicious of strangers, and he may become aggressive.

Bonus Dog: The Wolfdog

The Wolfdog. Half wolf, half some large shepherd breed. Vicious, hard to train, eats a lot, not very a very loving pet, but who would dare break intoyour home when you got wolves in the back yard? The dog pictured above is a Wolf- German Shepherd cross.

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