Ellis in Freedomland is a 1952 film produced by Roland Reed Productions and sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Co.
Less a feature film and more a feature-length advertisement for Westinghouse appliances, the movie takes place in two segments. In the first, which takes up most of the film’s runtime, Title Character Ellis (a salesman for Westinghouse) recounts to a fellow employee a strange dream he had one night where various appliances in the store came to life and discussed sales policy with him (yes, that’s really the plot), while the second is (again, not making this up) a series of song-and-dance numbers promoting Westinghouse’s Freedom Fair (a spring sales event).
This film is notable not only for its absolute bizarreness and status as a hour-and-a-half-long advertisement, but also because its cast includes a surprising number of film and TV stars of the day, including James Mason and Lucille Ball.
Ellis in Freedomland can be viewed online here.
Ellis in Freedomland provides examples of:
- A Dog Named "Dog": The talking dehumidifier in Ellis’s dream is named “Dehumidifier”. There’s also Chop-Along, a Chop-Along Waste-Away unit (what Westinghouse calls a garbage disposal).
- Alliterative Name: Some of the talking appliances have these. To be specific, there’s Frosty the fridge, Speedy the stove, Leyna the “laundromat” (washing machine), and Dinah the dryer.
- All Just a Dream: The first hour or so of the film is Ellis recounting a dream he had.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The appliances in Ellis’s dream are all able to speak, although due to the film’s lack of a special effects budget they can’t really move on their own (aside from being inconsistently able to open and close their doors) and need Ellis to demonstrate their functions.
- Arc Words: Westinghouse’s sales motto is “Don’t meet competition, make it”, and the film will not let you forget that fact.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Most of the ending mini-musical takes place in “Westinghouse heaven”, which has a cloudy cotton backdrop.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Late in the film, mention is made of how “gay” Westinghouse appliances will make a woman feel.
- Housewife: The ending mini-musical stars one of these, who is fed up with housework and then shown by a salesman how Westinghouse appliances will make her life much easier.
- "I Am" Song: Chop-Along Waste-Away has one, while Leyna and Dinah also get a “we are” song. Note that this is in a part of a film before the ending musical.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Two of the many pointless, supposedly comedic scenes of mannequins mucking around include a military mannequin shooting, respectively, a bird on a female mannequin’s hat (see William Telling below), and a the tip of a gentleman mannequin’s lit cigarette.
- Ironic Name: Frosty the fridge is very proud of being the first refrigerator with a completely automatic mechanism for removing frost.
- Meaningful Name: Some of the appliances have these- Speedy is a very quick-cooking stove, Pearlie is a dishwasher who makes dishes pearly-white, and Lanky is a model of water heater known for being unusually tall and skinny by the standards of 1950s water heaters.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The film’s producers attempted to make Westinghouse appliances seem absolutely epic and essential. They,,, did not really succeed in this.
- Murderous Mannequin: The clothing department’s mannequins come to life in Ellis’s dream, although they aren’t dangerous. Their only contribution to the plot is three female mannequins acting as training customers for Ellis to practice sales techniques on.
- Opinion-Changing Dream: Ellis spends the majority of the movie telling a fellow salesman about a dream he had where talking appliances changed his mind about how to go about Westinghouse sales practices.
- Product Placement: A given, as the whole film was made as a promotion for Westinghouse appliances. Most of the film consists of talking Westinghouse products shilling their superior functions.
- The Savage Indian: Among the many pointless diversions provided by the living mannequins are a few scenes of a Native American mannequin (apparently named “Chief Running Water”) chasing a girl mannequin from the swimsuit section.
- Shout-Out: At one point, a very annoying mannequin marksman is referred to as “Daniel Boone” by a few other mannequins.
- Speak in Unison: “The Laundry Twins” Leyna and Dinah do this, at least until Ellis gets annoyed and asks them to speak one at a time.
- Storybook Opening: The opening credits of the movie are depicted as pages of a book.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Ellis, rather than being shocked by his store’s appliances suddenly becoming able to speak, takes it in stride and immediately strikes up a conversation with them about sales techniques.
- William Telling: At one point in the film, a military mannequin shoots an (already dead) bird on a female mannequin’s hat. Like most scenes involving the mannequins, this does not have any plot relevance whatsoever.
