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<\/a>Popeye pursues the strolling couple, and insists that the would-be superhero still hasn\u2019t proved \u201cnothin\u2019\u201d 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\u2019s 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. \u201cIf you can dood it, I can dood it\u201d, said Popeye. He stands on the track with one arm outstretched, and tells Bluto to \u201cLet \u2018er go.\u201d Bluto glances back at the station, where the conductor is giving the signal for \u201cAll aboard\u201d, and releases his hand\u2019s pressure on the engine just as the vehicle builds up steam and takes off. Popeye stands steadfast on the tracks \u2013 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 \u2013 leaving him in a wobbling walk on the tracks with the conductor\u2019s red lantern in his outstretched hand. Bluto guffaws heartily, but Popeye weakly insists he\u2019s still not convinced. <\/p>\nBluto devises the ultimate test of he-manship. \u201cDis is something only Superman can do. Pepper me chest with dis\u2019.\u201d He hands Popeye a machine gun. \u201cTh-That\u2019d be moider!\u201d says Popeye. \u201cYeah\u2026when it\u2019s your turn!\u201d, 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\u2019t even bear to look as he pulls the trigger \u2013 but the bullets indeed bounce off Bluto\u2019s chest as advertised. As Popeye\u2019s eye pops when he takes a peek, Bluto takes the gun and announces, \u201cNow you\u2019re gonna be the big shot.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Popeye, however, is not entirely motionless, and reaches into his shirt, producing his trusty spinach can \u2013 riddled with bullets. \u201cSaved by me spinach\u201d, says the sailor, and downs the can\u2019s contents, shrapnel-flavor and all. The vegetable instantly produces a red cape for Popeye, and a large yellow \u201cP\u201d on the chest of his shirt. Back at the tracks, Bluto\u2019s sailor hat falls out from the chest of his costume, revealing his \u201csecret identity\u201d. But a streaking form in the skies prompts the nearly trademark reactions from Olive and Bluto. \u201cLook, up in the shy! It\u2019s an eagle. It\u2019s a rocket. It\u2019s a meteor.\u201d Of course, it\u2019s Popeye, flying with a jet from his pipe. (Just to match Bluto\u2019s continuity error. Popeye\u2019s \u201cP\u201d now disappears from his shirt, too \u2013 I guess the alphabet wasn\u2019t the ink-and-paint girls\u2019 specialty.) Bluto pries a boulder loose on a mountaintop to roll at Popeye \u2013 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 \u2013 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 \u2013 as it is identical to the ending of the original \u201cPopeye the Sailor\u201d seen back in 1933. Popeye, without sufficient time to untie Olive from the tracks, takes aim with his fist at another oncoming locomotive \u2013 and this time demolishes the entire train into rubble, giving us his pipe \u201ctoot toot\u201d for the iris out.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>She-Sick Sailors<\/strong> (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 \u201cFleets of Stren\u2019th\u201d. 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\u2019s apartment, and sees an opening to get in good with Olive. For one of the few times in his screen career (though the \u201cunkindest cut of all\u201d is not actually witnessed on screen), Bluto shaves off his whiskers (though leaving a visible \u201c5 o\u2019clock shadow\u201d), and rents a set of blue tights and red cape in a somewhat portly size range. While Popeye engages in a heated game of \u201ckeep-away\u201d by concealing Olive\u2019s comic book behind his back, an oversize \u201camazing stranger\u201d bursts through the wall to defend the lady\u2019s honor, dealing Popeye a blow to the chops that crashes him into Olive\u2019s sofa. Blutoman tells Olive he\u2019ll stick to her like glue, and Olive replies with a giggle, \u201cThe feeling is mucilage.\u201d Popeye, with his head springing out of the sofa cushions, is shocked. \u201cWell, blow me down. If he ain\u2019t a real humane being!\u201d However, Popeye is as usual up to the challenge, addressing Bluto as \u201cStupidman\u201d, and insisting that he has to prove he\u2019s the better man than the sailor. \u201cAll right, you milk muscled midget, let\u2019s see if you can save the fair damsel\u201d, 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.) \u201cWow!\u201d, 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\u2019s mitt in hand, he merely runs himself in circles looking upwatds for someone to save \u2013 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 \u201cS\u201d insignia on Bluto\u2019s chest disappears entirely for the remainder of the picture once he reaches the ground.) Popeye sighs, \u201cI\u2019m flabberblasted!\u201d<\/p>\n