Of Pups and Puzzles is a 1941 short film (10 minutes) directed by George Sidney.
It is part of John Nesbitt's "Passing Parade" series of short documentaries and faux documentaries. In this one Nesbitt, narrating as always, describes new hiring practices that are being put into use as America ramps up its military arsenal. Nesbitt explains that in the old days, people were hired for jobs largely at random, but in more enlightened 1941 sophisticated tests are used to select job applicants. Three applicants for work at an aircraft factory are put through elaborate tests to judge what sort of work they are best suited for. Nesbitt, narrating, then says that these tests were derived from work with animals, and then shows how dogs and a chimpanzee react to Pavlovian conditioning and simple puzzles.
Tropes:
- Animal Testing: An innocuous example in which three dogs are shown given Pavlovian food tests. The dogs are trained to expect food when they see a circle, and to *not* expect food when they see a flat oval. The real test comes when they are shown a figure halfway between the oval and the circle. The different breeds of dog react in different ways, underlining the principle that humans will also react in different ways to tests.
- Behavioral Conditioning: Three dogs are trained in classic Pavlovian manner to expect food when they see a circle with a screen on it, and to not expect food when they see an oval (the food is behind a glass screen).
- Narrator: As usual in the "Passing Parade" series, John Nesbitt narrates, explaining what is going on.
- No Name Given: Herbert, the smartest one who aces the intelligence tests and gets the supervisor job, is given a name. His dumber peers are called only the first and second man.
- Mockumentary: The film claims that it is showing real intelligence tests given to real job applicants. It's doubtful that such elaborate, painstaking tests were used in the great hiring frenzy that was America's war effort, and the psychiatrist and the three applicants are definitely all actors.
- "Shut Up!" Gunshot: A variation. In the most bizarre test, the psychiatrist sets the three applicants to doing simple math sums, then stands behind them and fires a pistol into the air (hopefully with blanks!). The idea is to see how they react to a sudden shock. Herbert, the one who stays the calmest, gets a supervisory job.
- Silly Simian: In the one part of the movie that looks legit instead of staged (Nesbitt calls it "unrehearsed footage"), a chimpanzee is shown reacting to a bunch of bananas, hanging 11 feet above the floor. First the monkey tries to stand on the scientist's shoulders to jump, and, when the scientist crouches down, literally pushes the scientist's butt in order to get him to stand up straight (this works, as the monkey leaps from the scientist's shoulders to the bananas). Then, given a pole, the monkey stands the pole on end and more or less pole vaults up to the bunch of bananas.
- Stock Lateral Thinking Puzzle: The three applicants are given a pool with an island in the middle, and two planks they are supposed to use to reach the island—but each plank is too short. The dumbest one bails. The slightly less dumb one tries to put one plank on top of the other, and also fails. Finally Herbert, the smart one, makes a T with one plank diagonally across a corner and the second resting on the first and reaching the island. He succeeds and gets the best job.
- Title Drop: For the overall series, as John Nesbitt says that America's rapidly expanding war industry is just one of "a hundred new and interesting stories in the passing parade."
- Unusual Hiring Practices: Some very elaborate and frankly impractical and excessively time-consuming job application tests, like firing a gun (!!!) to see how the applicants respond to a sudden surprise, or staging a puzzle in which applicants have to use two wooden planks to cross a pool.
