Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection starts with a delightful early Mickey Mouse movie, The Gorilla Mystery (1930). This short film was somewhat spoofing the 1925 play The Gorilla which also involved a dark house and a sinister gorilla. This play had been made into a silent feature film, The Gorilla (1927). The same year as this cartoon was released a talkie remake, The Gorilla (1930). A more comedic approach to this story was the later Ritz Brothers feature, The Gorilla (1939). The gorilla used in this Mickey cartoon (according to studio documentation) is the same one who would appear in the future Mickey Mouse shorts, Mickey's Mechanical Man (1933) and The Pet Store (1933). This movie benefits from some great atmospheric touches that show just how advanced the Disney studio was even at this point. Those of you who have seen the Mickey Mouse short film, Get a Horse (2013), should note that that Mickey's shout of "Minnie" in this cartoon was reused in that film. Mickey's cry of "Bring her back Mr. Ingagi" is a reference to the movie, Ingagi (1930), which also featured an evil gorilla.
Next we join Sylvester and Hippety Hopper in Lighthouse Mouse (1955). This duo had made a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, all featuring the same basic plot where Sylvester would mistake baby kangaroo Hippety for a giant mouse. Each cartoon in this series would be directed by Robert McKimson. McKimson had directed the second most classic cartoons with Sylvester (with Friz Freleng directing the most).
Next comes one of my favorite Terrytoons made during the era when Gene Deitch was heading the studio, The Juggler of Our Lady (1958). Gene Deitch was not someone who one would except to ever head the Terrytoons Studio. For one, he had a completely different style of filmmaking. Secondly, he was not a fan of Terrytoons. Even today the studio is known for creating cheap and quickly made films. While some of them are quite entertaining, none of them ever desired to be art. Deitch took advantage of now being in charge of this studio by getting rid of nearly all the characters the studio had created (most famously Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle) and making the type of films he wanted to make. About taking over the studio Deitch stated, "It was the dream challenge of every red-blooded American boy animator, a chance to remake the world's worst cartoon studio into the best." For this movie Deitch wanted to make a film based off of R. O. Blechman's story, The Juggler of Our Lady. It took a while for Blechman to agree to this movie being made. Deitch later remembered, "I was literally on the phone with Bob every night for nearly a year before he finally relented. I assured him over and over again, that we would be absolutely true to his story and faithful to his graphic style. My ace card was Al Kouzel, one of the finest artists who ever worked with me. I knew that I could rely on Al to perfectly get Bob Blechman's images unscathed onto the big screen." Al Kouzel would be the only animator as well as the director of this movie.
Van Beuren's Rainbow Parade cartoon like Disney's Silly Symphonies rarely had reoccurring characters. However also like the Silly Symphonies there were a few exceptions one of these was the character of Molly Moo Cow. When Joseph Barbera later wrote about his time at Van Beuren, he would have little nice to say about this character. "With a staff of about 150, the organizational chaos at Van Bueren was a serious problem, but the worse fault was exemplified by the very idea of Molly Moo Cow herself. This was the best character they could come up with? I mean what can you do with a cow? It isn't intelligent. It certainly isn't beautiful - except to a farmer or a bull. It is sedentary rather than lively and even with rubber legs it doesn't move in interesting ways or in a way that allows much range or variety of action. As animated characters go, cows do not work." I may not be a farmer or a bull but I think cows can be really beautiful.
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Next is the last black and white Silly Symphony, Bugs in Love (1932). This is a rather typical Silly Symphony of its time, following the well-established formula of animated characters having a grand time to music until the villain of the piece appears and tries to wreck their fun. As you can guess by the title this film's story involves various bugs. Bugs were a common site in the early Silly Symphonies and the newspaper comic strip. In fact, the newspaper comic strip featured a complete remake of this cartoon. The Silly Symphonies were a series that at this time was constantly improving and audiences and exhibitors quickly took note of this improvement. For evidence here is an exhibitors review from 1934 (two years after the film's original release), "BUGS IN LOVE: Silly Symphonies—An old Silly Symphony. Not as good as the new ones. Running time, one reel.—A. B. Jefferis, New Piedmont Theatre, Piedmont, Mo. Small Town Patronage." Of course the Silly Symphonies were quite appropriately one of the most popular cartoon series of the time. The following is an exhibitors review from The Motion Picture Herald, "BUGS IN LOVE: Another great Silly Symphony. Give it extra billing.—Charles Niles, Niles Theatre, Anamosa, Iowa." Not everybody was so impressed with the series though as shown through the following exhibitors review from The Motion Picture Herald, "BUGS IN LOVE: Silly Symphony—This is just an- other Walt Disney cartoon comedy. Nothing good about it; just ordinary and is only fair entertainment. We have only played one good comedy of this series and every time we hope the next one will be better. Disappointed in these. Running time, nine minutes. - J. J. Medford, Orpheum Theatre, Oxford, N.C., General Patronage."
Up next is The Inspector in Bear De Guerre (1968). This film is a rare time, when we see the Inspector when he is not on duty. Here he is simply taking a hunting trip. Unfortunately for him he seems to be just as incompetent at hunting as he is at his police work.
Today's cartoon selection ends with Betty Boop in A Language All My Own (1935). While this may not be as wild and crazy as many other Betty Boop cartoons, it has a certain sweet charm that I find irresistible. Though there still are a few surreal gags that you except from these films (I especially love the on involving the statue of liberty). By the way Betty is singing actual Japanese in this movie.
Motion Picture Herald, 1932
Resources Used
Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation by Amid Amidi
My Life in Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century by Joseph Barbera
I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety by Jerry Beck.
Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein.
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
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