A feast of prime Grade A titles from MGM, Paramount, and Warner Brothers is on the table today, well-garnished with industry-referential gags and piping hot. Despite all being from 1944 and 1945, you won’t need your ration book to dig in – we have priorities. This juicy batch even includes a perennial favorite from Tex Avery, directly appropriate to the Thanksgiving season. So bow your heads, give thanks – and have at it.
She-Sick Sailors (Paramount/Famous, Popeye, 12/8/44 – Seymour Kneitel, dir,) – Again, an attempt to settle the question as to who is stronger – Popeye or Superman. However, as the super guy in this film is an imposter (Bluto), the answer to the question turns out differently than in “Fleets of Stren’th”. This episode begins with Olive, rather than Popeye, reading the comic book exploits of the Man of Steel. It is obvious from her love-struck attitude that she is of the opinion that Super is much more super than her present boyfriend. She largely ignores Popeye as if a has-been. Bluto overhears the bickering between them in Olive’s apartment, and sees an opening to get in good with Olive. For one of the few times in his screen career (though the “unkindest cut of all” is not actually witnessed on screen), Bluto shaves off his whiskers (though leaving a visible “5 o’clock shadow”), and rents a set of blue tights and red cape in a somewhat portly size range. While Popeye engages in a heated game of “keep-away” by concealing Olive’s comic book behind his back, an oversize “amazing stranger” bursts through the wall to defend the lady’s honor, dealing Popeye a blow to the chops that crashes him into Olive’s sofa. Blutoman tells Olive he’ll stick to her like glue, and Olive replies with a giggle, “The feeling is mucilage.” Popeye, with his head springing out of the sofa cushions, is shocked. “Well, blow me down. If he ain’t a real humane being!” However, Popeye is as usual up to the challenge, addressing Bluto as “Stupidman”, and insisting that he has to prove he’s the better man than the sailor. “All right, you milk muscled midget, let’s see if you can save the fair damsel”, says Bluto, casually dropping Olive from a window 20 stories above ground. (Makes one wonder how Bluto managed to break through the wall at such a height.) “Wow!”, shouts Popeye, and begins racing at his fastest speed down flight after flight of stairs. Bluto instead uses gravity for speed (of course taking nothing into account as to how he can possibly fall faster than Olive so as to catch up with her), and jumps out the window himself. Miraculously, he does overtake Olive, then pops an umbrella out of the back of his shirt, tied by its handle to his waist, floating the two of them gently to the ground. When Popeye arrives, catcher’s mitt in hand, he merely runs himself in circles looking upwatds for someone to save – as Bluto and Olive are already on the ground, laughing at his hapless effort. (A notable continuity error commences from this point in the cartoon, as the “S” insignia on Bluto’s chest disappears entirely for the remainder of the picture once he reaches the ground.) Popeye sighs, “I’m flabberblasted!”
Popeye pursues the strolling couple, and insists that the would-be superhero still hasn’t proved “nothin’” yet. Stepping onto a railroad track, Bluto waits in the path of an oncoming train, seemingly bringing the engine to a stop with the force of only one hand. However, Bluto is well aware of the train’s schedule, and conceals view from the other side of the cars that the engine has come to a stop using its own brakes, to unload passengers at a concealed station just up the tracks. “If you can dood it, I can dood it”, said Popeye. He stands on the track with one arm outstretched, and tells Bluto to “Let ‘er go.” Bluto glances back at the station, where the conductor is giving the signal for “All aboard”, and releases his hand’s pressure on the engine just as the vehicle builds up steam and takes off. Popeye stands steadfast on the tracks – so much so that he carves a silhouette-shaped hole through the front of the engine, then through and out the caboose for the entire length of the train – leaving him in a wobbling walk on the tracks with the conductor’s red lantern in his outstretched hand. Bluto guffaws heartily, but Popeye weakly insists he’s still not convinced.
Bluto devises the ultimate test of he-manship. “Dis is something only Superman can do. Pepper me chest with dis’.” He hands Popeye a machine gun. “Th-That’d be moider!” says Popeye. “Yeah…when it’s your turn!”, replies Bluto. As Popeye carries the gun back to a firing position, Bluto ducks behind a tree, and inserts a heavy armor plate within the chest cavity of his costume. Popeye can’t even bear to look as he pulls the trigger – but the bullets indeed bounce off Bluto’s chest as advertised. As Popeye’s eye pops when he takes a peek, Bluto takes the gun and announces, “Now you’re gonna be the big shot.” Popeye attempts to stand with courage to meet the hopeless challenge, throwing out his chest (which wobbles and withers like a wilting leaf to the ground). Olive tries to divert the shot, but Bluto launches a hail of bullets at the helpless sailor, until he falls to the ground. Then Bluto makes off with a struggling, screaming Olive, and for good measure ties her to the railroad track when she refuses to come gracefully.
Popeye, however, is not entirely motionless, and reaches into his shirt, producing his trusty spinach can – riddled with bullets. “Saved by me spinach”, says the sailor, and downs the can’s contents, shrapnel-flavor and all. The vegetable instantly produces a red cape for Popeye, and a large yellow “P” on the chest of his shirt. Back at the tracks, Bluto’s sailor hat falls out from the chest of his costume, revealing his “secret identity”. But a streaking form in the skies prompts the nearly trademark reactions from Olive and Bluto. “Look, up in the shy! It’s an eagle. It’s a rocket. It’s a meteor.” Of course, it’s Popeye, flying with a jet from his pipe. (Just to match Bluto’s continuity error. Popeye’s “P” now disappears from his shirt, too – I guess the alphabet wasn’t the ink-and-paint girls’ specialty.) Bluto pries a boulder loose on a mountaintop to roll at Popeye – but with a blast of super-breath, Popeye blows the boulder back up the mountain, and straight at Bluto. It intercepts him within a grove of nine trees – resulting in a crushing strike with Bluto as the headpin. The score as to who is the strongest is finally settled, with a shot that tells us we should have known the outcome all the time – as it is identical to the ending of the original “Popeye the Sailor” seen back in 1933. Popeye, without sufficient time to untie Olive from the tracks, takes aim with his fist at another oncoming locomotive – and this time demolishes the entire train into rubble, giving us his pipe “toot toot” for the iris out.
The Screwy Truant (MGM, Screwy Squirrel, 1/13/45 – Tex Avery, dir.) – I have never quite understood why Screwy underwent a hair transplant in this and other appearances, sprouting a puff of blonde hair upon his dome. I never found the redesign to be an improvement, and the reworking of the top of his skull to fit always to me made him look a bit topheavy and lopsided. My only guess is that some of Avery’s new crew may have been uncomfortable with the tapered curve of a Bugs Bunny-style skull and angled eyes, and were able to increase speed of production with a skull shaped more like a cylinder and eyes that merely point straight up instead of curved back.
The film begins with a gag that takes some explanation today. A country schoolhouse is shown, in an unusual color – bright blue. A sign at the door, formerly saying “Little Red School House”, has the word “Red” crossed out. and the word “Blue” handwritten over it. No, it’s not a reference to post-war communism scares, as explained by a second sign hung beneath it, reading. “Technicolor Red Has Gone To War.” This was an off-the-wall reference to a major ad campaign for Lucky Strike cigarettes, which before the war had been marketed in a pack featuring green ink. Chromium, used in making green ink, was in short supply, apparently needed for the war effort. So Lucky Strike changed to a primarily white package, with the slogan, “Lucky Strike Green has gone to war.” An oblique gag if ever there was one. But it probably got the expected chuckle from a savvy audience of the day.
While the rest of the kids answer the call of the school bell, Screwy, at some distance away, has no such parallel intentions. “Can you imagine those dumb kids going to school on a day like this? What a bunch of chumps.” He pulls out a fishing rod and can of worms from behind a tree, and sets off for the pond, singing, “In the Good Old Summertime”. However, he is observed by a dog wearing an official black hat, who holds up a sign with neon arrows pointing to himself, to identify his position as truant officer, then flips the sign to the back side to tell us to “Sh-sh!” In typical nutty Avery style, he stalks his prey from behind trees, various parts of his body separating and moving independently for extra stealth. At the pond, Screwy casts in his line, gets a nibble, and reels in. On the end of the line is the dog, who had been hiding in the water. “Why ain’t you in school?”, he demands. “Don’t worry,” says Screwy. “I’ve got a plenty good reason.” Without telling what, Screwy pulls out some scissors, cuts the line, and dunks the dog in the drink.
What follows is a typical potpourri of unpredictable Avery chase gags, common to the Screwy series. A few highlights include Screwy pulling off the dog’s nose, yelling, “Fore”, and launching it with a golf club for a hole in one on a nearby green. The dog reaches into the hole to rescue his appendage, but briefly walks off with a golf ball on his snout, while Screwy flattens the real nose with a hammer blow on an anvil. Eventually, the dog gets flattened with the anvil as well, producing an anvil-shaped lump on his head. Another sequence has Screwy disappear into a tree trunk, with the dog seeming to have grabbed Screwy’s tail. The dog pulls and pulls on the tail, but the camera reveals that behind the tree has been placed a large spool reading “500 yards of phoney squirrel tail” (a prop exclusively available only from Marvin Acme). At the end of the line is one of Avery’s favorite stand-by gags – a tag, reading “Long darn tail, wasn’t it.” A random gag leads into a sequence at Red Riding Hood’s Grandma’s house, by Screwy accidentally encountering Red (a kid this time) being chased by the wolf back and forth across the screen, and Screwy alerting the wolf that he is in the wrong picture, by pulling down as curtains the main titles of the film again for the wolf to see. “Oh, one of them corny B-Pictures”, says the wolf.”, Offended, Screwy challenges, “If you were my size, I’d punch you right in the nose.” The wolf obliges, by shrinking to Screwy’s size. But Screwy skrinks himself to keep the odds uneven, and makes his getaway. Returning to the chase with the dog, Screwy finds a random trunk, labeled, “assorted swell stuff to hit dog on head”, and, in lghtning-fast changes, pulls out assorted heavy objects to hit the dog again and again, each blow transforming the dog’s hat to a different style, including witch’s hat, Indian headdress, football helmet, and crown. (Use your freeze framer if possible to keep track of it all.) “Gee whiz”, says the dazed dog to the camera, “He hit me with everything but the kitchen sink.” “Well, don’t want to disappoint ya, chum”, says Screwy, slamming down the expected plumbing equipment upon the dog, whose eyelids close, lettering appearing on them, reading “Closed for the duration.”
Reaching for his endless supply of background curtains, Screwy pulls down a background reading “The End”, and tells us, “Now that dumb truant officer never will know why I wasn’t in school.” Miraculously, the dog revives, entering the shot and grabbing up Screwy in his hand, and demands to know why Screwy wasn’t in school. “Because”, says Screwy, giving the dog a Bugs Bunny style kiss, “I’ve got measles!” Screwy instantly breaks out into a face of red dots – and so does the dog – – and so do the letters of the “The End” sign, as the scene irises out to Screwy’s laughter.
The Shooting of Dan McGoo (MGM (Droopy), 3/3/45 – Tex Avery, dir.) – The first “summit meeting” between Avery’s big 3 characters – Droopy, the Wolf, and Red, all together. No wonder this one is remembered nearly as well as the original “Red Hot Riding Hood”. It was popular enough that the studio went to the extra effort of re-filming several shots in later years, to allow the film to be re-released post-war without dated references to wartime rationing, changes which will be noted below.
Only a few gags are of the break-the-fourth-wall screen-consciousness variety, so we’ll try to keep the description brief, and let the film speak for itself. For the first time, we visit the later-to-be oft-referenced community of Coldernell, Alaska. (Say the name slow, and you’ll get the gag – Avery must have remembered Buster Keaton, who reported his nautical position in “The Boat” with the response, “Damfino.”) The number on the sign reflecting the population goes down a notch on rotating wheels every time a gunshot is heard from the town. Another sign advertises a “Double header today”, followed by a glimpse of two hangman’s gallows, and an additional shorter noose with a sign reading “Kids 15¢”. (Any wonder why this film wasn’t included in the standard television packages?) The action of the Robert W. Service poem takes place in the Malamute saloon (with separate entrances for “Beer” and the smaller “Short Beer”). Certain shots of the entrance in the original release included a small sign to the right of the main door advertising cigarettes, but crossed out in red, with the added words below, “Are you kiddin’?”, due to wartime unavailability. The general brawl going on inside includes the usual sign, “Noisy, isn’t it?” Droopy plays Dan McGoo, while Red plays his girlfriend, the lady who’s known as Lou.
Droopy alters his usual greeting to the audience: “Hello, all you happy taxpayers.” A bartender stands behind the bar as drinks slide down the polished table (with traffic signals for cross-traffic of mugs and martini glasses), before a large wall painting, the head and feet of which suggest an image of a glamorous nude. The bartender, however, stands in the middle, blocking the view, and addresses us: “You might as well move on, Doc. I don’t move from here all through the picture.” Enter the wolf, in a limousine so long, it bends to fit the curves in the road, and has inscribed upon it, “Long, wasn’t it?” He and Droopy take an instant disliking to each other, with one of Droopy’s remarks prompting the wolf to pull a knife, and react, “T’aint funny, McGoo” (slight change of Molly’s standard reaction to Fibber McGee’s bad jokes on the popular radio program of Jim and Marian Jordan), then follows with an aside to the audience: “What corny dialogue.” The wolf’s effort to murder Droopy is interrupted by the appearance of Red onstage, and a vigorous update of the wolf’s over-reactions to her seductiveness ensues, while Droopy largely takes it all in stride. During the number, the wolf displays a large box to Red, offering her a large jeweled necklace. In the original release, the box was a carton chock full of packages of cigarettes. At the end of the number, the wolf grabs Red.
“You’re my gal now, baby, and I’ll murder the bum that don’t like it.” He begins shooting up the place, knocking off one by one drinkers at the bar, who fall dead to the floor – then rise as ghosts to resume drinking again. One shot finally frightens away the bartender, revealing the hidden middle of the large painting behind him – which is entirely blank, excepting a small sign reading “I ain’t got no body” (pun on the song title, “I Ain’t Got Nobody” – check out the Louis Proma version when you have time). The wolf exits the saloon doors, but comes face to face with the barrel of an oversized gun held by Droopy. The two shoot it out in the dark, but when the lights come back on, Droopy’s gun is smoking, while the wolf lays on the floor with a lily on his chest. (Yes, heroes have a license to kill.) Red gives Droopy a kiss in gratitude, and the Droop again steps out of character, celebrating and whooping it up like the wolf, then reverts to form for his signature, “You know what? I’m happy.”
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Jerky Turkey (MGM, 4/6/45 – Tex Avery, dir.) – Once again, Avery cartoons were not for the illiterate. The sheer number of sign gags in this film keeps you reading all through the picture – and don’t be slow. Not to mention nearly a record number of wartime references, far more than would have permitted any reshoots as in the last cartoon to allow for a post-war re-release. The Mayflower crosses the sea in year 1620 7/8, still bearing a plaque on its bow of the Henrye J. Kiser Construction Co., and a “C” card on its side for gas rationing. It carries the usual contingent of pilgrims (one half of which are heaving over the side), an a U.S. Navy gun crew – and is escorted to shore by a convoy of battleships and carriers. (What nation were we at war with back then?) A pilgrim in a literal crow’s nest sights land – Plymouth Rock (shaped like a huge hen), and a billboard bearing the wartime slogan, “Was this trip really necessary?” The colony of Plymouth is founded, divided down the middle into respective sectors for Democrats and Republicans. (Things haven’t changed much.) The entire community seems to be lined up in single file, waiting their turn at the Cut Rate Drug Store, which boasts “Ye Cigarettes Today”. A town crier wails like a baby off to one side – his reason, a draft notice that declares him 1-A. But still further on, another pilgrim need not fear the draft, as displayed by the license plate on the beat-up trailer he calls home (Oklahoma 4-F). He is the star of our story, out to shoot a thanksgiving turkey. (Notably, his wash line hanging outside includes a work jersey bearing the inscription “Lockheed Dept. 37″, indicating he probably spends his evenings as an airplane welder or riveter.)
As the pilgrim blows a turkey call (which develops lips and merely calls out in a loud human voice, “Hey, turkey!”), our co-star is introduced, emerging from his home in “Ye House of Seven Gobbles” (word pun on the book and film, “House of the Seven Gables”, even though the film was produced by Universal!) – what Jimmy Durante would look like if he was born a turkey. “Another customer”, he observes. He quickly moves to a spot where a scene that appears to be only snow-covered forest is revealed to be a theater curtain backdrop, which the turkey pulls up to reveal a structure reading “Ye Black Market.” (The underground means of obtaining rationed goods illegally at exorbitant prices.) Oddly, we never see any money exchanged between the pilgrom and turkey, so it’s unclear whether the turkey does this for profit or just for fun, but the turkey quickly fast-talks the pilgrim into a purchase- of himself, for thanksgiving dinner. Bundling himself in a package, the turkey presents himself to the pilgrim to take home. However, the turkey drops a goodly dose of gunpowder into the pilgrim’s pants from the bundle, then lights the powder. The pilgrim gets blasted, and appears in bandages, while the turkey accompanies him in a manner resembling a patriotic fife and drum corps. The pilgrim finally gets wise, and pulls out a musket that shoots like a rapid-fire machine gun. In a referential crossover to another of the cartoon world, the turkey quickly responds with a costume change to a mock outfit of Superman (bearing a “T” insignia on his chest), and the bullets bounce right off. Endless chase gags follow, but repeatedly are punctuated by the appearance of a bear, wearing an advertising sandwich-sign reading “Eat at Joe’s”. As the cartoon wanes short on running time, the bear appears again, and the turkey confronts the pilgrim. “Listen, Junior. You ain’t never gonna catch me for no Thanksgiving dinner. Therefore, why don’t we eat at Joes?” The pilgrim agrees, and they both follow the bear into Joe’s diner, and the door closes behind them. Suddenly, the background shakes with the sounds of a brawl inside. Then, the door slowly opens, as the bear emerges, removing a dining bib from around his neck and picking his teeth. He turns to lock up shop, and letters appear on his back reading “I’m Joe.” He happily trods away into the woods, as an x-ray view reveals the insides of his stomach, where the turkey and pilgrim sit tightly scrunched together, with just enough room between them for the pilgrim to address the audience with yet another sign, reading “Don’t eat at Joe’s.’
Hare Trigger (Warner, Bugs Bunny, 4/21/45 – I. (Friz) Freleng, dir.) – The debut appearance of Yosemite Sam finds Bugs Bunny aboard a mail car on a train traveling through the West. Although there is a mail tag around his neck, no indication is given who mailed him, nor is he in any sort of cage – so the suggestion may be that he mailed himself for cheap transportation – a gag that would be fully realized in a later McKimson cartoon, “Rebel Rabbit”. Bugs occupies his time strumming the banjo to a nonsense tune, “Go Get the Axe”, and keeping sunglasses handy to pass incognito by fields dotted with the holes of other rabbits, whom Bugs refers to as “Some of my poor relations. They’re always ready for a touch.” Onto the tracks steps Yosemite Sam, his pair of six-guns taking dead aim at the oncoming locomotive. However, the aim doesn’t stay trained very long, as the engine and cars pass right over the diminutive bandit without even hitting him! Yosemite has to resort to more orthodox method of committing robbery, mounting his horse with an airline-style mobile staircase, and galloping until he can catch hold of the ladder steps on the side of the mail car. The postal employee inside the car is quickly dispatched at the sight of Sam’s revolvers, jumping into a box and sealing himself in, with a tag reading “Do Not Open Until Xmas”. Sam begins cleaning out the valuables in the mail, including Bugs – and history is made.
Bugs and Sam engage in typical gunplay throughout the train, as Bugs assumes the weakly-disguised role of a gunslinger in the next car. However, Bugs does not at first wield a gun, and when asked to draw, produces a pencil and sketch pad. Sam tries his hand at this kind of dueling, but is infuriated when Bugs critiques his work. “It stinks.” More pistol play results in a fake out of Sam by dropping a bottle of red ink on his jead, with Bugs performing a serenading eulogy on guitar of “Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie.” A race through the cars has Bugs encounter stock footage of a live-action bawl in the club car. He graciously opens the car door to allow Yosemite to enter and get clobbered. Finally, Sam engages in a rolling brawl with Bugs atop the moving cars, and the next thing we see is Bugs all tied up with a heavy anvil bound to his feet, dangling from a mail hook over the side of the train, above a high trestle. Sam stands poised just below the mail hook, laboring to cut the rope holding Bugs and drop him to his doom. Suddenly, the screen goes black, and words begin appearing on the screen set to an announcer’s voice, as if we are watching the ending of a chapter of a standard movie serial of the day. “Is this the end of Bugs Bunny? Will our hero be dashed to bits on the jagged rocks below?” Just as suddenly, the announcer’s voice is no longer heard, nor do the words change upon the screen. Instead, the voice of Bugs substitutes to continue the narration. “Is he to be doomed to utter destruction? Will he be rendered non compos mentis?” But Bugs appears as he speaks these words, walking in front of the theater screen, dragging behind him the tied and knocked-out Sam, and somehow having already claimed the reward for his capture, as Bugs carries a hefty sack of money, and is dressed as a dude gentleman in top hat and wearing a diamond stick pin. Bugs turns to the audience, and remarks as to the narrator with Red Skelton’s catch phrase “Eh, he don’t know me very well, do he?” Fitting to end with a Red Skelton line, since Red’s Western character Deadeye was a direct inspiration for Yosemite.
• If any reader knows a clean copy of this cartoon (in English) we can embed – let us know!
Swing Shift Cinderella (MGM, 4/25/45 – Tex Avery, dir.), finds Avery characters getting confused by main title backdrops again. It begins as a chase passes before the titles, between a junior Little Red Riding Hood and a wolf named Joe. (Note a well-executed but giveaway bit of reanimation for the reissue, where the card includes a belated credit to Fred Quimby on the first pass, but transforms to “Directed by Tex Avery” on subsequent passes of the characters, indicating Quimby’s name was not on the original credits.) Little Red halts the wolf. “Hey, wait a minute, Joe. Ain’t we in the wrong picture? That title don’t say nothin’ about Little Red Riding Hood.” They return to the card, reading the film title aloud. The wolf suddenly dismisses Little Red abruptly, telling her to run along home, and turns to the audience, remarking of Cinderella, “Now there’s a dame I’d like to meet.” He pulls a small curtain down in front of the screen, and quick-changes into his Hollywood wolf garb from the original “Red Hot Riding Hood”. He hails a passing taxi, and is quickly whisked to Cinderella’s home. Knocking at the door, he encounters Cindy, dressed in rags, but obviously our shapely Red within the tattered garments. “Beg pardon, miss. I was looking for that dame they call Swi…” Suddenly, the wolf gasps for air, as he takes in the sight of Cindy. He goes through the usual fit of male enthusiasm, but Cindy slams the door in his face, knocking out all his teeth, then bashes him down to two feet tall with a frying pan when he enters the back way. She places a call to the local “watering hole”, Duffy’s Cavern (play on the radio show, “Duffy’s Tavern”), and finds her fairy godmother downing martinis at the bar. Cindy advises the godmother to get there quick if she’s going to help Cindy get to the ball, and remarks that there’s a wolf in the house. The godmother (the same character as Grandma in “Red Hot Riding Hood”) reacts, “A wolf!”, and with a wave of her wand produces a motor scooter with an “A” ration card for gas upon it, zooming off to Cindy’s. A sign in her wake appears, reading “Gone With the Wand” – and a corn ear sprouts from the sign’s top. The godmother is soon in pursuit of the wolf, zapping him to miniature form in a bird cage. “Stick around, big boy. I’ll be right back”, she says, as she gets to work providing Cindy with a glamorous wardrobe and a “Woody” sedan for transportation. “You do wave a mean wand”, remarks Cindy.
The remainder of the film becomes the usual triangle, as the godmother pursues the wolf (transforming her own outfit accidentally into the suit she wore as the winner of the Miss Repulsive beauty contest of 1898), while the wolf grabs the wand to transform a bathtub into a shiny red convertible to pursue Cindy to the ball, while the godmother also follows in a trash can transformed into a jeep. Of course, Cindy doesn’t seem to be at the ball at all for dancing, but as part of the entertainment, allowing her to perform “Oh Wolfie” (set to “Oh, Johnny, Oh, Johnny, Oh”). The wolf does his usual thing, while the godmother tries to keep him on a leash for herself. Finally, the wolf knocks out the godmother, while Cindy knocks out him. Cindy makes it back to the house just before her sedan turns back into a pumpkin, bit only has time to dart inside the door, change into her welding outfit, and catch the night shift bus to Lockweed aircraft. “Thank heavens”, says Cindy aboard the bus, “I finally got rid of that wolf.” “Oh yeah?”, responds a unison of male voices from the other seats. The entire remaining members of the shift occupying the bus are all wolves. “That’s what you think, sister”, they all remark, then howl at her in unison for the fade out.
Shape Ahoy (Paramount/Famous, Popeye, 4/27/45 – I. Sparber, dir,) – On a remote, uncharted island far off the sea lanes, we find Popeye and Bluto, currently the best of friends, as they have found themselves a paradise where temptation cannot come between them. Signs in the form od a Burma-Shave style advertisement dot the shoreline, presenting these new life mottos: “No Dames Allowed.” “No Frills.” “No Wrens.” “No Jills” “No Hens.” “This Island Is Only For Mens,” “Durma Shave.” Obviously, with the girls gone, Popeye and Bluto have nothing to fight about, and they relax, unshaven and in their BVD’s, dirty dishes poled high to the sky unwashed, and reminisce at their good fortune in having not seen a frail in three years. Popeye remarks, “A woman is like an appendix – she’s something a man’s better off without.” Bluto matches him with “A dame’s like a bottle of milk. If she hangs around long enoigh, she turns sour.” But who should turn up in the bay, aboard a raft from a shipwreck, but Olive, using a pair of polka-dot bloomers to blow into as a makeshift sail. One look, and the sailors’ eyes bug out. Bluto claims to be seeing spots before his eyes, and takes his leave to go inside and rest. Popeye claims to have seen the same spots – “Me eyes must be gettin’ the measles.” They both vanish into their huts, but emerge in shits and trousers, with Popeye clean shaven, and even Bluto’s beard a bit neater, both respectively rushing down to the shore with bouquets of flowers. They meet Olive simultaneously, and are dismayed when they see their rival is here too. Both feign warning to Olive that dames are taboo on this island – but their feet instinctively kick the raft away from shore, so that Olive won’t leave. Olive complains that she’s “almost hungry”, and has forgotten what food tastes like. In unison, still keeping up their front before each other, Popeye and Bluto respond, “Lady, it’s got the same old taste.”
Of course, it isn’t long before each sailor is slipping Olive food on the sly, Popeye stuffing whole stalks of bananas into Olive’s head, while Bluto installs seltzer bottle nozzles into coconuts to provide Olive fresh coconut milk. Each sailor receives a kiss. Popeye jumps around like a kicking mule, while Bluto transforms into a rocket, skywriting the word “Wow.” Eventially, it becomes apparent to each that the other is back in business as a dame chaser. “I thought we wuz friends to the end”, states Popeye. “Yeah, well this is the end”, snarls Bluto. In energetic Jim Tyer animation, the brawl begins, shaking the whole island. However, the film ends abruptly, as a scream of Olive is heard. No, Olive is not in distress. She has merely swooned at the arrival of another survivor of a shipwreck – a caricature of Frank Sinatra, aboard his own raft. Olive floats away aboard the raft, while Frankie croons “Let’s Get Lost.” The two frustrated sailors are left to grumble, “Well, I’ll be a…”, while live-action hands appear over the screen, to paste across each of their mouths labels reading “Censored.”
Ain’t That Ducky (Warner, Daffy Duck, 5/19/45 – I. (Friz) Freleng, dir.) – The real-life comedy actor Victor Moore shares the recording booth anonymously with Mel Blanc for this one, appearing in caricatured form as a hunter in place of the usual Elmer Fudd. But he is only a part of the storyline for this unusual, curious episode, which is largely about an endless running gag involving a third character with some definite issues, and a despairing cognizance of the existence they all lead. The film begins with Daffy enjoying a morning bubble bath, having poured bath suds into the duck pond producing bubbles covering half the lake. The sound of weeping is heard on shore. A yellow duckling stands there, looking inside the flap of a large red satchel, and wailing bitterly. “Blessings on thee, little man, barefoot duck”, says Daffy cheerily, as he emerges from the lake in a bath towel. “What’s all the hubbub, bib?”. he further asks. To his surprise, the little duck responds with a shout, “AW, SHUT UP!!” Daffy persists, inquiring what’s in the satchel, as he may be able to solve the duck’s problem. The little duck snatches the satchel back before Daffy can peer in, and utters another shout: “Keep your hands off, Mr. Anthony!” (Reference to John J. Anthony, a marriage counselor who hosted several radio show formats, including “The Goodwill Hour”, and became associated with a catch-phrases paraphrasing the inquiries of listeners – “Mr. Anthony, I have a problem” – which also appeared as a curtain line in the Daffy and Porky cartoon, Baby Bottleneck”.) Daffy decides to wash his hands of the whole affair. Enter Victor Moore. Daffy thinks this isn’t a safe place for ducks, and grabs the little duck’s hand in an effort to hide him. But the duck still refuses help, standing firm and telling Daffy to “Lay off’”.
Daffy hides to save his own skin, but witnesses the hunter getting the same pushing around from the kid when he also offers to help. Daffy sizes the hunter up as a pushover, and decides to intervene to get rid of him. But mild-mannered Moore merely checks out Daffy for size in a roasting pan, and decides Daffy is a perfect fit and the one to hunt. Lots of chasing follows, but with recurring appearances by the little duck, who becomes a common adversary to both Daffy and the hunter, who attempt to join forces to find out just what is in the satchel to cause the weeping. The little duck remains effective in thwarting their efforts, whether singly or combined. An unusual gag appears amidst Daffy’s efforts to elude the hunter. Daffy runs onto a barnyard set, then stops to address some unknown artist beyond the screen. “What’s the idea? There’s supposed to be a barrel for me to hide in. It says so right here in the script. Somebody’s been laying down on the job. J. L. (reference to J. L. Warner) will hear of this.” An animator’s hand and brush (rendered in standard 2-D animation) enter the shot, quickly painting in the missing barrel. “That’s more like it” says Daffy. It turns out the little duck is already inside, and when the hunter lifts the barrel lid, the little duck gives Daffy away, pointing to him clinging to the underside of the lid. Finally, both hunter and Daffy are conked on the head by the little duck, and slide in liquified form down the slopes of an embankment. Daffy addresses the hunter in the chasm below. “You’re not gonna let that little sew and sew get the best of us, are ya?” But the hunter has pulled a fast one, and has somehow managed to snatch the satchel on his way down. “Sufferin’ succotash!” shouts Daffy, even before the line became Sylvester’s by-line. “Open it. Open it!” Inside, all they find is a piece of paper, which they read. “Oh my, this is awful”, weeps Moore. “It’s worse than that, responds a distraught Daffy, “It’s fantasmagorical. How can we face it?” In a close-up, Moore turns the paper to the audience. It simply reads, “The End.”\
NEXT WEEK: Tricks from ‘45 and ‘46.
Charles Gardner is an animation enthusiast who toils by day as a member of LA Law – but by nights and weekends indulges in classic jazz and ragtime as a performer; and studies classic Hollywood cartoons… maybe a little too much.
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