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ducktracy · 3 years

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186. september in the rain (1937)

disclaimer: this review contains racist content and imagery. i do not condone any of this content whatsoever—it’s being displayed purely for educational and historical reasons. with that said, i have much to learn myself. PLEASE let me know if i say something wrong or offensive. it’s never my intention to do so, yet i want to learn from my mistakes and own up to them provided that should happen. thank you for your patience and understanding.

release date: december 18th, 1937

series: merrie melodies

director: friz freleng

starring: james c. morton (various), danny webb (various), wini shaw (blue dye bottle, morton salt girl), mel blanc (louis armstrong’s speaking voice)

(original title card courtesy of jerry beck.)

the final cartoon of 1937 is an interesting one: it’s the shortest cartoon in the WB library, with a runtime of about 5 minutes and 50 seconds. when the cartoon aired on TV in the ‘90s, the blackface caricatures were cut, further shortening the runtime to about 3-4 minutes. not only that, but a bulk of the animation is recycled from previous cartoons, such as how do i know it’s sunday? and clean pastures—both freleng entries.

like we’ve seen from many a cartoon before, this short chronicles the adventures of store products coming to life and putting on various acts.

open to the interior of a store on a rainy night (hence the title), the eponymous song underscoring the scene. the camera pans right, closing into a bottle of blueing singing “am i blue?”.

the gags, at least in the first half, are relatively disjointed: immediately after the blueing sequence, a snake charmer prompts a bottle of toothpaste to squirt out a strand of toothpaste and wave in the air like a snake. little time is wasted cutting to a can of searchlight (salmon), a searchlight on the can’s label sparking to life for a full 3 seconds before moving onto the next gag: maids from “old maid cleanser” doing a dance, a gag repurposed from how do i know it’s sunday?

a loose precursor to the camel’s breakdown in porky in egypt (which is much more thrilling than what is presented here), a rubber glove comes to life, inflating itself and serving as a makeshift pair of bagpipes, accompanying a line of camels strutting along on the camel cigarettes logo. reused from freleng’s 1935 entry flowers for madame, two dandelions perform the highland fling along to the music.

wipe to a bunch of apples, where a worm pokes its head out from a hole and tentatively crawls along. stalling’s bumpkin score of “in the shade of the old apple tree” is fitting and fun to listen to, as are treg brown’s sound effects of the worm inching its way along. however, bad news for the worm: a line of hungry chicks plastered on the bon ami powder cans (here labeled “my am i”) pursue the worm, who flees like he’s never fleed before. stalling’s score is masterful, the score morphing into a flurry of excitement as the chicks all gang up on the worm. one of the chicks manages to swallow the worm, who thus is thrown about and inches along like the worm as it struggles to be freed. finally, the worm manages to separate itself from the chick, and hurries back into an apple for safety. while nothing new, stalling’s music score manages to breathe some life into a tired scene.

the next scene is directly reused from how do i know it’s sunday, just with different vocals: the morton salt girl and the u-needa biscuit boy sing a duet together beneath the “rain” from the shredded wheat box’s waterfall. if anything, it’s interesting to see old footage now colorized.

cue the barrage of blackface caricatures: the al jolson caricature from clean pastures sings the title song--the jolson way, of course. the premise of jolson singing this song would be reused in future cartoons, such as the grand finale to 1941′s porky’s preview. he and aunt emma (a parody of aunt jemima) engage in the whole “sonny boy” shtick--i suppose if anything, subtle movements on jolson such as the head tilts bring a nice feeling of depth and construction to him (i wonder if this is the work of bob mckimson?), but the entire sequence is merely too gross and uncomfortable for it to have any merit. jolson finishes the performance by singing “good evening, frieeeeends!”, an opening/closing line that he sung on his radio show shell chateu. daffy would borrow this as late as 1950, closing out his own rendition of “the merry go round broke down” in bob mckimson’s boobs in the woods.

caricatures of fred astaire and ginger rogers dance together to a perky waltz rendition of “september in the rain” as an interlude. the animation is rotoscoped, and therefore quite elegant, though i do wish they had attempted to push the caricatures just a bit more, especially when the two of them begin their tap dance routine--the graceful, realistic human designs fit well with the waltz, but seem a bit out of place with the mood shift brought on by the ending tap dance. nevertheless, props to carl stalling for finding a way to turn the title song into a waltz. his music is the highlight of the cartoon.

(friz freleng’s september in the rain on the left, 1937, bob clampett’s 1943 tin pan alley cats on the right.)

fats waller and louis armstrong (whose caricatures are reused from clean pastures) don a box labeled “gold rust twins”, a parody of fairbank’s gold dust washing powder (warning for blackface with the link). mel blanc voice’s louis’ cry of “SWING IT, BROTHER!” cue an admittedly rousing rendition of “nagasaki”, with fats waller on the piano and louis on the vocals. the animation of waller playing the piano would be directly reused in bob clampett’s tin pan alley cats in 1943, proving to be a rather anachronistic caricature in comparison to the more streamlined--yet equally offensive--caricatures brought on in that cartoon.

though the entire sequence is gross and uncomfortable, the energy it possesses is much needed in comparison to the rest of the cartoon. it feels much more on par with the energy in clean pastures. ken harris does some great smear animation of two chickens angrily bobbing their heads to the music, and the animation of aunt emma dancing to the music is snappy and jaunty. all of this is being analyzed from a technical standpoint--good animation does NOT make the caricatures or content being animated any more okay, but the techniques put into conveying the animation do constitute some recognition. at the very least, here, it feels as though freleng actually has his heart in the cartoon. the rest of it, not so much.

the sequence draws to a close, as does the cartoon: we do one last pan across the shop, trucking in to the shop’s window, revealing the rain pouring in the night sky. iris out.

this cartoon is not one of freleng’s stellar entries, even without all of the disgusting caricatures. if anything, this is more of an obligation than a cartoon, something to please the boss with song and dance numbers and tired gags that have been antiquated since the mid ‘30s. reprehensible as the caricatures are, the “nagasaki” number at the end was admittedly the short’s highlight. the animation is snappy, fun, energetic, and stalling’s score is infectiously energetic. however, that doesn’t redeem any of the content being animated, or the short in total for that matter. you are not missing anything by skipping this entry.

but, despite such a sour end to a great year, 1937 has been a GREAT year for WB, undeniably the best year of cartoons thus far. the acquisition of mel blanc was the turning point. porky is finally growing some personality and is able to display it, more and more notable characters (such as daffy and even elmer, despite being a prototype) are popping up, the directors are all feeding off of each other and competing to put out funnier cartoons, etc. this is the year where the tunes become truly loony. and 1938 is even better! porky and daffy become an established duo, tex avery hits the sweet spot with his cartoons, chuck jones becomes a director of his own... there’s much to look forward to. we’re only just getting started!

as per tradition, here’s a link to the cartoon--obviously view this with discretion.

#lt #september in the rain #looney tunes #freleng #reviews #long post #racism tw #blackface tw #ugh

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ducktracy · 4 years

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158. porky’s romance (1937)

release date: april 3rd, 1937

series: looney tunes

director: frank tashlin

starring: joe dougherty (porky), berneice hansell (petunia, babies), mel blanc (excited petunia), billy bletcher (time munches on narrator)

i’ve been looking forward to reviewing this since the day i first typed my review for bosko, the talk-ink kid. so you’ll have to excuse me for rambling on more than normal, i’m really passionate about this cartoon. there’s so much to say!

first off, this cartoon means a lot to me. it’s the first one i checked out on my own accord. i caught wind of who carl stalling was and wanted to listen to a piece of his music to familiarize myself. i saw his depression era compilation of music, and included was the opening number for this cartoon, which absolutely blew me away. i looked up the cartoon and watched it and instantly fell in love. porky was fat! porky has a different voice actor! porky was INTERESTING! porky was killing himself! i had never seen anything like it, so it holds a special place in my heart. i had a vague idea of some directors, like bob clampett and chuck jones, but had no idea who the hell this “frank tash” guy was. but after watching it, i knew i’d love him. and i do!

secondly, this is joe dougherty’s final appearance. while mel is undoubtedly the better porky, i’ve really come to appreciate joe. he gets a hard time because he had a real stutter, and one of the repeated criticisms i see is that it sounds too overdone. true as that may be, he couldn’t help it, and i applaud him for working as long as he did. i mean, a little over 2 years, that’s a decent amount of time! and he does have talent. we’ve seen and heard much worse. so i’m a little sad to see him go, but excited at the same time knowing wonderful things are ahead. i love this particular era in looney tunes history, the porky’s romance to, say, porky’s badtime story era. there’s this sense of newness and freshness—new voices, new characters, new directors. you feel the change happening before your very eyes. it’s all so exciting!

i’ve rambled enough, and i’m certainly going to ramble much more, so buckle up! after petunia pig rejects porky’s marriage proposal, porky seeks a noose for comfort. when the suicide attempt goes wrong, he’s then launched into a dream sequence about their potential marriage life... and realizes marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

this cartoon has a unique opening to it. before the title card itself, we are presented with “leon schlesinger’s new looney tunes star: petunia pig!” curtains draw to reveal petunia positioned in front of a microphone. yes, this is petunia’s first appearance! she has quite an interesting history. she appears only in 3 frank tashlin cartoons, where she was depicted as a sultry, sexy foil for the bumbling, not very sexy porky. bob clampett would adopt her in 1939 and make her to be much cuter, giving her hair and a much more naïve demeanor. she hardly has any cartoons at all, yet somehow managed to live on through the dell looney tunes comics and in future looney iterations.

petunia greets her audience warmly, opening with “my public! i hope you pictured my liking--i mean, i hope you lictured my picking... i mean... i--” overcome by nerves, petunia struggles to read the script in front of her and greet the audience. this little bit was inspired by the short lived 1936-1937 radio program community sings. the offscreen announcer attempts to calm her down. “shhh, petunia. don’t get excited, don’t get excited...” petunia’s furious outburst (vocals by mel blanc, of course) of “EXCITED!? WHO’S EXCITED?? I’M NOT EXCITED!!!” comes from comedian professor tommy mack, who would do the same slow routine and then the explosion with the “WHO’S EXCITED?” line. tashlin’s the woods are full of cuckoos is an entire tribute to community sing.

the curtains close on petunia, and then we’re actually greeted with the title card. an absolutely stellar rendition of “i wanna woo” underscores the title and the opening scene. a happy porky whistles along to the music as we have a montage of him buying necessities for petunia. a diamond ring, some roses, some chocolates. what a good guy! i love the visuals in this cartoon. everything is so sleek and modern--it’s evident tashlin was enamored with the art deco style. and that song again is just beautiful--it’s why i investigated this cartoon in the first place!

porky finishes his routine as he approaches petunia’s house, dancing up and down the stairs before ringing the doorbell. i love that face of his as he poses by the doorbell, throwing his bouquet in the air and catching them in his hand. he’s awfully full of himself.

inside, petunia approaches the door, her brat of a dog fluffnums by her side. for some reason, fluffnums was attempted to be pushed as a reoccurring character, with model sheets and drawings of him surfacing around the studio, i guess for publicity, but he only appeared in this cartoon. same goes for the iceman in i only have eyes for you (his name is sammy sparrow?) and the parrot in i wanna be a sailor. petunia opens the top portion of her door to see her visitor, and we see cocky old porky posing with his hat hilariously tipped on his face. petunia, for whatever, isn’t very pleased, turning her nose and marching away, stomping her foot. “porky pig! pooh-pooh!” in the same rhythm, the dog barks the same amount of syllables, stomping its little paw. warm welcome.

a lovely, downtrodden chorus scores porky as he trudges away tearfully, wilting, pausing only to kiss petunia’s nameplate on her house. suddenly, fluffnums looks out the window and barks for petunia. “what is it, fluffnums?” then, petunia spots the box of chocolates porky carries along behind his back. we then get this BEHEMOTH of a scene that displays how tasteful of a director frank tashlin is: 6.5 seconds, 157 frames, 10 cuts. petunia rushes out of her house at the speed of light and urges porky back inside her home. the scene has CLARITY--you can understand what’s happening, unlike the rapid cutting in porky in the north woods. this scene is genius. petunia throws a dazed porky on her couch while she gorges herself on the chocolates, cooing about how glad she is to see him.

mark kausler identifies the animator as volney white (though the thick eyebrows make me think of bob bentley. mark’s a wonderful source of information i gladly accept everything he says, because he’s right 99.9% of the time) for the scene where porky tries to reach for a chocolate himself. fluffnums, ever the threatening guard dog, growls. we have a great back and forth scene as porky sheepishly pets the dog on the head, reaching for a chocolate and still getting growled at. the charade continues until porky finally snatches one, sticking his tongue out in childish defiance at the dog. as porky lifts up his trophy, winking towards the audience at his act of outsmarting, the dog jumps up and eats the chocolate himself, breaking a hole in porky’s boater hat in the process. (no dogs were harmed in the making of this cartoon!)

seeing as this is joe dougherty’s last cartoon, he doesn’t speak very much at all. in this scene, the animators had porky facing AWAY from the audience so they wouldn’t have to animate his lip movements. it was pretty clear that everyone was tired of working for dougherty. instead, porky’s body jitters as he speaks. they used a technique called staggered exposure, which was mixing up a sequence of drawings to get that jittery effect (so instead of going in a sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and so forth, it would be more like 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and so on.) “why petunia, i want you... you.. you to.. be in love.. that is.. um.. will you.. uh... er, uh.. may i.. that is... won’t you... will you... aw, shucks. will you marry me?”

just as porky finally manages to spit out his confession, disaster strikes. petunia’s bastard of a dog pulls the carpet out from under porky, sending him flipping and falling in the air. because of this, petunia ridicules and laughs at him. porky is now absolutely devastated, leaving petunia’s house for good. i love the detail of his ears and bow tie wilting. carl stalling’s music is on point in this cartoon: an underscore of “the little things you used to do” backs up the scene here. that song was sung at the end of the coo-coo nut grove, where the entire nightclub was flooded in tears.

the next scene is strikingly somber and surprised me greatly the first time i watched it. we iris in on porky writing a suicide note, a noose tied around his neck, tied to a tree branch. the note simply reads “dear petunia, i love you. goodbye forever -- porky” the camera panning out is a little janky and rough, but i digress. porky wipes away his tears, pulling a photo of petunia from his pocket and giving it a kiss. with that, porky jumps.

because of his weight, the suicide attempt fails as the tree branch breaks, porky toppling to the ground and hitting his head. thus launches a dream sequence as his surroundings spin around (by unscrewing the lens of the camera, screwing it (counter)clockwise in front of the aperture), melting away to the exterior of a church. wedding bells chime victoriously. inside, petunia and porky give their vows. porky struggles, stuttering “i d-d-d.... i-d..d-” the officiator whistles (a dougherty era running gag), and porky spits out his final “do.”

more volney white animation as the lovebirds exit the church, waving to the crowd that surrounds them. and, of course, fluffnums is there too, begrudgingly carrying petunia’s veil in its mouth. we cut to porky and petunia happily riding in their car, a victorious JUST MARRIED banner waving in the wind, with shoes attached to strings on the bumper marching along in time to “in my merry oldsmobile”. porky’s license plate reads BOOB -- a good indicator of how frank tashlin felt about porky.

a lovely overhead layout of the honeymoon hotel porky and petunia stay at (with, of course, an underscore of “honeymoon hotel”, which was also the title of a 1934 earl duvall merrie melody). the elevator rises to the top floor in syncopation with the music. a nice silhouette shot of porky and petunia, and rather suggestive at that. they kiss, and the last we see before a fade out is porky turning off the light in the apartment.

billy bletcher voices the narrator as a triumphant fanfare blares. “TIME... MUNCHES ON!” rather disconcerting eating noises, and then we open to a very rotund petunia and fluffnums gorging themselves on chocolate. not the most flattering depiction of a woman, but the ironic “laughing” of the clarinets and horns playing “oh, you beautiful doll!” is a wonderful touch. i love when the scores themselves serve as jokes.

pan across the apartment, the score melting into another rendition of “i wanna woo” as we see poor porky hard at work. i adore the layout of this entire scene. porky busies himself with all the odd jobs petunia has (presumably) thrown onto him, washing the clothes, ironing a dress, cooking the food, washing the dishes. he unsuccessfully attempts to balance the chaos, trying not to kill himself in the process. pay attention to how the furniture is arranged. the stove, the sink, even the ironing board, they’re all slightly diagonal and at an angle. practical? absolutely not, no one has their furniture arranged like that, just jutting out. but in animation terms, it’s more than practical. it’s so that you can see the details clearly, so that you can see every little thing happening. the clarity of the scene would be muddied if the furniture was arranged the way it should be--you may miss details like the pan burning on the stove or the looming pile of dishes. this is some super smart staging, and the architecture is just beautiful within itself. porky struggles to keep up with the demands, but fails, burning food, clothes, etc. you’ll notice that when he fails to balance a pile of dishes, the china crashing into him as he flops down on the floor, whatever he’s cooking in the pot boils over as well. everything just explodes at once.

meet porky pig jr, porky pig jr, porky pig jr, porky pig jr, porky pig jr, porky pig jr, porky pig jr, porky pig jr, and so on. all of the babies start screaming at the noise (bob bentley animation), and petunia puts in her two cents by yelling “porky pig! shut those kids up!” porky rocks one of the cradles back and forth, reassuring her “i’m doing the best i can, petunia dear.” petunia marches forth, wielding a rolling pin as she retorts “don’t dear me, you WORM!” with that, she beats porky relentlessly over the head with the rolling pin, all of the kids shouting “GIVE IT TO HIM, MAMA! GIVE IT TO HIM!” which is another radio show catchphrase of some sort.

finally, we’re met with reality. porky sits in a daze on the ground, petunia stroking his cheek with fluffnums at porky’s other side. petunia puts on her best sympathy act, cooing “oh porky, i’m so so-ree! you’re my honey man. i’ll marry you, darling, honey bunny boo...” while petunia showers porky in all sorts of pet names, he looks up at his suicide note, remembering his dream where petunia was an abusive slob. they had trouble with the camera movements again--when they came out of the dissolve, the camera was in the wrong position slightly, creating a double image.

this is one of my favorite endings to any looney tunes short. a terrified porky jumps up at zips away into the horizon (with that great electric guitar zoom/twang sound effect i love so much), petunia shrugging and fluffnums making a ! mark appear over his head. suddenly, porky retreats, snagging his chocolates from petunia and running for the hills. a beat... and he returns once more, only to give fluffnums a well deserved swift kick in the ass. the music score in this scene is just lovely, nice and jazzy. the timing is succinct, and i love the guitar zoom sound effect. iris out.

as you can see, i love this short, a lot. while i love the blow out, i think this is my first true favorite that we’ve seen so far. it’s so dark, and i don’t even like dark stuff! it just feels so different. carl stalling is in tip top shape with his music scores. every single piece is lovely, especially that beginning. the animation is fun, the expressions are great. i wish i could articulate my thoughts better, because i really just love this cartoon a lot. i’m super happy it was one of the first i had seen, because i probably wouldn’t be typing these reviews had i not. frank tashlin’s cinematography is STRONG in this one. the camera cuts, the angles... this is a beautiful cartoon, inside and out. i feel bad that it’s joe dougherty’s last appearance, but understand at the same time. great things are ahead, revolutionary things! i’ve warmed up to joe quite a lot. i’ve found nothing in terms of what he did after his tenure as porky--wikipedia (not reliable, i know) states that he attended medical school before becoming a voice actor, so good on him! anyway, i absolutely love this cartoon and have seen it multiple, multiple, multiple, MULTIPLE times. it’s strikingly different in tone than what we’ve seen and what we WILL be seeing. it’s not just your everyday frank tashlin porky cartoon. this one stands out, and i implore you to watch it.

link!

#lt #porky’s romance #reviews #looney tunes #tashlin #long post

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ducktracy · 4 years

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147. little beau porky (1936)

disclaimer: this cartoon contains racial stereotypes and caricatures. while perhaps not as extreme in depiction as other cartoons, the racism and stereotypes are still very much there and deserve addressing. i do not at all condone these depictions, i find them gross and wrong, but to gloss over them would be just as wrong. thank you for understanding.

release date: november 14th, 1936

series: looney tunes

director: frank tashlin

starring: joe dougherty (porky), billy bletcher (ali-mode, le commandant)

frank tashlin’s second cartoon, and it’s yet another foreign legion short. bosko had one, buddy had one, and now porky has one. porky would have another legion short in 1940 with bob clampett’s ali-baba bound. this time, a bumbling yet eager porky is ready to go out and get the treacherous ali-mode. unfortunately, his snobbish commandant dismisses him to camel scrubbing duties, deeming him incapable of the mission. but no matter—while holding up the fort, porky receives an unexpected visitor.

the opening sequence is an impressive one at that. essentially a montage of silhouettes at the foreign legion, the execution is very well done. a silhouette trumpets a fanfare, while another shot displays the shadow of a flag being raised, the shadow reflecting across both the floor and the wall. a legionnaire begins a drum march, and we get this lovely marching scene, the silhouettes weaving in and out as they travel across various walls, some receding into the distance, some not. all in all, a very impressive scene that displays frank tashlin’s eye for staging and cinematography. this rigjt here is why he’s one of my favorite directors—his cartoons are so innovative in approach.

next, we pan across a long wall, getting to a sign that reads LE COMMANDANT. the mystery of offscreen jangling is solved as le commandant himself pompously marches on screen, his plethora of medals clanging profusely against his giant chest with each step. man, i would NOT want to animate that. (i find myself saying this often in some of tashlin’s cartoons) the animation of the commandant turning around to face the audience isn’t as smooth, feeling a bit rough around the edges (maybe an assistant did it?) but the scene of him marching along is very strong and humorous.

another rolling pan—tashlin and clampett both liked their pans, clampett especially (the entire first minute of falling hare is basically one giant pan to save budgets)—od the legionnaires, all standing at attention. though they vary in all shapes and sizes, their respect for the commandant is front and center. each stiff as a board, going down the line... and then there’s porky, slouched over asleep as he leans on the guy next to him. a lovely display of devotion and veneration. the commandant takes notice, barking “PORKY PIG! ATTENTION!”

porky snaps awake and dutifully stands at attention. in fact, he tries so hard to prove that he has been dutifully standing still the entire time that he kicks his leg out to snap it back in position, knocking over the entire line of legionnaires in the process like bowling pins. another “ATTENTION!” reverses the bowling pin soldiers, who all pile up back into place, cleverly accompanied by the reverse sound effects of bowling pins being knocked over. the commandant calls for porky once more, and there’s a long, drawn out, hilariously timed pause as porky doesn’t move. one more “PORKY PIG!” snags his attention. porky stutters profusely (more than usual), “wh-wh-w-who-uh-wh-who-uh-who-uh-who-uh-wh-who, me-uh-m-mm-me-uh-me-mmm——me?” great combination of sound effects as the commandant mocks porky furiously, the angry jangle of his medals drowning out his retort as he stutters back “YE-YE-YE-YE-YE-YES Y-YO-YOU-UH... YES, YOU!!!”

with a dutiful march forward, porky arrives at the commandant’s side and gives a salute. “FORWARD MARCH!” the commandant turns around, his giant saber sheath knocking porky to the ground. porky recovers, and we get this wonderful scene of porky mocking the commandant. he winks at the audience, shoving his hat forward on his face (almost like daffy in baby bottleneck. listen, if there’s a will to connect anything to that cartoon, there’s a way) and following in time with the commandant, swinging his belly around pompously and all, even popping one eye open at the audience as if to make sure they’re still watching. he gives another wink, completely oblivious that the commandant has stopped his march. porky climbs up the saber sheath, bumping into the commandant’s arm and tumbling down to the ground. he recovers in no time with a dutiful salute.

“YOU, SCRUB MY CAMEL! AND BE CAREFUL YOU DO NOT HURT HIM!” the commandant orders. porky makes his way towards the camel, situated by a wash tub and a ladder for convenience, giving a high pitched “okey-dokey”—seemingly a failed catchphrase of his? i can’t recall which shorts the phrase was used in, but it was used in more than one. might be porky in the north woods or porky the wrestler. i guess we’ll find out regardless. now that i think about it, not counting this one, we only have 5 more dougherty porky cartoons left. how time flies!

porky scrubs his brush against a bar of soap, whistling a jolly rendition of “fella with the fiddle”. he climbs the ladder and prepares to scrub the camel, when the camel lies down on the ground in protest. porky shrugs, making his way back down to the ladder, the camel standing back up. thinking for a moment, porky winks at the audience and inconspicuously saunters to the ladder slowly, whistling nonchalantly, when he scrambles to the top of the ladder as fast as he could, just in time for the camel to duck again. what ensues is a great scene of porky repeatedly climbing up and down the ladder, the camel standing and sitting when necessary. combined with carl stalling’s score, the musical timing is excellent as both porky and the camel rocket back and forth, the ladder eventually breaking under porky’s weight, porky flopping to the ground and glaring at the audience in exasperated defeat.

elsewhere, an urgent legionnaire bounds through the desert on his camel. animation is smooth and bouncy as the legionnaire bounces up and down on the camel, not unlike a similar gag in porky in egypt. a guard spots the legionnaire and pulls a lever to open the doors into the legion. eventually, the legionnaire slides off of the camel’s neck, still galloping frantically. grabbing a paper, he yells “le commandant, le commandant!”, tripping over a rock in the process. the paper flies over to the commandant, who glares at it with steely eyes as the paper floats around him like a paper airplane. finally, the commandant uses his sharp, needle point beard to pierce the paper in place.

another amusing facial hair gag as the commandant’s mustache furls into a pair of glasses. the animation is a little rough, but the joke is still there. the telegram (or, in this case, camelgram) alerts the commandant that ali-mode’s gang is on the attack, and that he must come at once. great detail of the hole pierced through the paper from the commandant’s beard.

next up is a lovely sequence of overlays. a legionnaire trumpets a fanfare, and images flash by one by one of the preparations. legionnaires running through the barracks, shouting and yelling, grabbing their rifles, and embarking on their camels. another great cinematographic trick of tashlin’s that works in his favor, successfully adding moodiness and a sense of adventure.

all of the legionnaires stream out on camelback, with porky not too far behind, jauntily making his way towards the exit. now i know for certain this animation was reused in porky in egypt, or at the very least inspired from. porky’s sense of nonchalant confidence is interrupted when the commandant yanks him back by the camel’s tail. we then get another tashlin favorite, characters getting up close and personal to the screen. the commandant barks at the screen, “where do you think YOU’RE going!?” cut to a closeup of a tearful porky lying on the ground. “we need MEN, not CAMEL SCRUBBERS!”

with that, the commandant leaves on his camel, catching his hat that flew off his head with his saber. porky grovels on top of a fitting accompaniment of “am i blue?”. “shucks! so i’m a camel scrubber, huh? i’d rather be a camel scrubber than an old jingle bell general.” this is the most controlled delivery i’ve ever heard joe dougherty give, and probably the longest. he really does have talent, he can voice act, and he sounds good once he gets his stutter under control, but i think people are so put off by his stuttering that it’s easier to pity him than commend him. i’ve also seen all of this cartoons before, though, so maybe i’m used to it.

pan to a threatening poster of ali-mode. WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE — “PREFERABLY DEAD”! porky shuffles up to the poster, rambling about how he isn’t afraid of ali. “i’d like to meet him face to face. i’d punch him in the jaw, the big sissy!” caught up in moping, staring at the ground, porky finally glances at the poster. his tough guy act is extinguished immediately as he screams and dashes to barricade the open door shut. even better, porky rushes back to the poster, dismissing it as “i wasn’t scared! i just felt a draft.”

next cut reveals the legion being viewed by a pair of binoculars, belonging to none other than ali-mode himself. he whistles to signal for his gang to follow. there’s some wonderfully bouncy animation as ali tiptoes to the door of the legion. as i mentioned in the disclaimer, the stereotyping is certainly there (and he’s also... inexplicably in blackface? the lips aren’t too noticeable, but when they are they are rather prominent), and i’m not defending his depiction, but in terms of technicalities he is a very good villain. billy bletcher’s vocal talents shine with this next scene, and his overall animation is very smooth, flouncy, and calculated. he isn’t as harshly caricatured as other depictions i’ve seen (but that’s not for me to decide in the first place), but it was enough that it turned me off from this cartoon for awhile, and i forgot how many good qualities this cartoon had.

ali knocks on the door, mimicking the sound of porky, who’s nailing boards to the other side of the door. porky shudders, tentatively hammering a few times, with ali knocking right back. porky looks at his camel and hilariously declares in a womanly falsetto, “it’s an echo!” ali also mimics the falsetto, bletcher’s just as entertaining as dougherty’s. “it’s an echo!” porky (poorly) yodels, eagerly awaiting a response. ali yodels right back with an impressive, jazzy twist. i’m not sure if that’s bletcher doing the entire thing or not, but kudos to him if so! porky, thinking it’s himself, announces to the camel “pretty good, huh?” ali mocks porky’s stutter, answering “p-pr-pre-pre-pretty g-g-g-good, huh?” finally, his egotism gets to him. “HECK! that’s PERFECT!”

now realizing he’s most definitely not conversing with an echo, a timid porky dives under his camel for safety and asks “who’s there?” ali puts on his womanly falsetto. “i’m a poor little sheik with no place to sleep. won’t you please let me in?” sound familiar? it should—it was used in disney’s the three little pigs in 1933, with “sheep” in place of “sheik”. with bletcher’s disney connections, the line is all the more amusing. funnily enough, frank tashlin would head to disney in 1938 after leaving schlesinger’s. porky checks to see who’s outside, and recognizes the man plucking his machete as ali-mode. another porky “catchphrase” (really just a frequent reuse of a clip) as he exclaims “uh oh!”

ali demands to be let in, slamming on the door repeatedly as porky refuses. yet ANOTHER “catchphrase” as porky insists “no, no, a thousand times no!” tashlin’s next cartoon, porky in the north woods, would have porky nailing a ton of signs that day “NO” on a bunch of trees, eventually ending with a giant sign that reads “A THOUSAND TIMES NO!” ali-mode speaks in pig latin to his followers, eventually yelling “AMSCRAY!” his followers dig in the ground, making it to the inside of the legion. porky hacks away at a palm tree, which falls and konks all of the enemies on the head in succession, sending them flying back outside.

the climax fires at rapid pace, almost too rapid for coherency. i’d rather take too fast than too slow, though, and it isn’t TOO detrimental to the cartoon. it adds a sense of urgency and exhilaration, and forces you to be captivated so you don’t miss any details. a gunman fires his machine gun at porky, who’s running up a tower. the stairs disintegrate beneath him from the shower of bullets. porky reaches his own machine gun and fires back from his respective tower, the bullets breaking the gunman’s perch and sending him toppling into a water well. he lands in the bucket, causing the handle on the well to spin repeatedly and smack the guy firing next to the well.

ali-mode is making his way up towards the tower, poking his head out of the floor hatch. porky stomps down on the hatch, which sends ali flying down his ladder and down to the ground. this charade is repeated again, as is the handle smacking gag as another gunman falls into the bucket and smacks the bystander. when porky goes to squash ali a third time, he misses the door and falls right down with ali. ali flops onto porky’s camel, who beats him senseless with its humps. very amusing, quick animation. porky whistles for the camel, and the camel bucks ali into an open barrel of syrup. with that, ali-mode is taken care of, the camel repeatedly licking his face.

iris in to the familiar jangling of the commandant’s medals. in fact, it’s a different commandant: a smaller, piggy, stuttering commandant, marching along with his medals twice as long as his body width. porky whistles for his camel, and even his camel struts out, his humps decorated and his tail high in the air. iris out.

not porky’s best cartoon ever, but this is a VERY good entry, especially for the dougherty era. maybe the best one yet. i haven’t seen this short in full since i first watched it in november, because i was so put off by the stereotyping. it’s not nearly as abundant as i remembered it to be, but they’re still very much there and deserve addressing. with that said, though, and i’m not defending the depiction, ali-mode is a good villain. billy bletcher’s vocals are absolutely phenomenal, whether it be voicing the commandant or ali. lots of falsettos, lots of yelling, even yodeling. that, combined with the amusing character acting where ali tricks porky into thinking he’s an echo at the door, makes for some amusing entertainment. also, porky was full of personality in this one, probably the most we’ve seen thus far. i’ve noticed that tashlin’s porky is a lot more personal than tex’s at this time, ub iwerks’, and bob clampett’s in 1937. lots of winking towards the audience or talking to the audience. there’s a scene in porky’s railroad where porky has a closeup on the ground, straight up lamenting towards the audience. tex avery was, of course, the fourth wall master (as we’ll soon see in the village smithy, one of my favorites), but tashlin harnesses a much more personal feeling that is still sardonic and amusing.

the pacing of this cartoon seems to be at opposite ends: it’s a rather lengthy cartoon, running over 8 minutes. the beginning seems a bit too slow, and the end too fast, but in all it’s a highly entertaining cartoon that’s worth of watch. again, there are stereotypes and caricatures, so view with discretion. i don’t try to be like “this short is racist. watch it!” (though i know that’s what i sound like), but i do think it’s worth at least a one time watch. there’s a lot to absorb and learn from this one: voice acting, character acting, camera angles, silhouettes, overlays, etc. it’s worth a watch.

link!

#i think this is my longest review yet #lt #little beau porky #reviews #looney tunes #long post #tashlin #racism tw #i’m putting this in the actual looney tunes tag bc i want people to see em

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ducktracy · 4 years

Text

51. bosko in person (1933)

release date: february 11th, 1933

series: looney tunes

director: hugh harman and friz freleng

starring: johnny murray (bosko), rochelle hudson (honey)

it’s back to bosko in bosko in person! it’s a plotless cartoon, with bosko and honey giving us boundless entertainment.

the title card curtain peels away to reveal an asbestos curtain, which goes up in flames (foreshadowing i wonder?) to reveal bosko banging out “whistle and blow your blues away” on the piano, the current looney tunes theme song for the 1932-1933 season. he recognizes us and greets “howdy, folks!” before going back to tickle the ivory.

honey makes her entrance, snapping and dancing along to the music as the two banter. immediately, they launch into a complicated, cute, and endearing dance routine, making a regular fred astaire and ginger rogers of themselves. though the bosko dance scenes are everywhere, i really enjoy this one! it feels more complex than usual. i’m sure friz’s co-directorial credit has something to do with it.

a “gee bosko, you’re swell!” from honey turns bosko bashful, and he dedicates a song to her, “i love her, she loves me” which, as far as i know, seems to be an original song? his ridiculous falsetto really making it a lot funnier. honey joins him in the dance number, the two of them awkwardly dancing and scatting before waltzing off stage together.

bosko plays some more upbeat bars on the piano, throwing his glove off which slides down the keys and runs back to him, the process repeating. eventually, the glove hops on his knee. bosko urges it on, asking “well, what can ya do?” (parallel to his first appearance in bosko, the talk-ink kid. how the tables have turned!) the glove’s voice is drop dead hilarious. it’s a squeaky violin that sounds almost like a kazoo—no words are being said, but the inflection is perfectly understood, the glove insisting “i dunno/i don’t wanna!”. finally, bosko suggests that it sing mary had a little lamb, and it does, giggling and leaping back on his hand. bosko finishes out the skit with a few chords of “shave and a haircut”.

next, bosko decides to do a tapping routine, looking at the audience instead of his feet. gotta applaud him for trying! he loses his balance and falls, and the audience laughs at him. he limps back over to his previous spot and gives it another go, with the same results. gotta admire his perserverance. i’m curious as to who animated this. bob mckimson maybe? i think was after his car crash.

^^ that sounds weird, but it’s true! bob mckimson got in a car crash sometime in the early 30s, i think around 1931 or 1932. he was (thankfully) fine. he was actually MORE than fine. before the crash, bob would come into work and take a nap before lunch (which, according to bob clampett, rudolf ising did the same thing too, which is probably how he got away with it). after lunch, he’d churn out a TON of animation, more than what the other animators who worked all full hours did. after the car crash, something must’ve happened to his brain. he didn’t sleep anymore, his animation was extremely professional and calculating, he didn’t even have to do rough sketches first, he was just that good. i love his animation work under tex avery and bob clampett, more than i love his directorial work in all honesty. he was insanely talented, and also credited for really nailing down bugs’ look starting with tortoise wins by a hare. you can read bob clampett talk about him here. (with all the corrections made, since clampett is notorious for getting details wrong)

anyway. point is, the animation looks great! cut to honey, who sings “was that the human thing to do?” in a big, belty, raspy voice and later doing a hilarious impression of greta garbo. i love her saunter! it totally reminds me of daffy’s strip tease in the wise quacking duck. greta garbo would also be parodied in a few cartoons, such as in porky’s road race, porky’s five and ten, hollywood steps out, etc. her catchphrase “i want to be alone” would also be parodied in the daffy duckaroo as “i want to be a lone... ranger.”

bosko finishes of “whistle and blow your blues away” by doing an impression of maurice chevalier. i love love love all these celebrity references! even if you don’t understand them, they’re funny just to watch. they’re drawn to be funny and sound funny—pales in comparison to what we’ll be seeing when mel blanc comes aboard and the animation becomes more refined, but very entertaining.

jimmy durante strikes again! bosko blows up a balloon to use as his bulbous nose and even remarks “schnozzle! HAAAAAA!” i can’t get enough of that drawing! the uglier and weirder it is, the more i love it! the best caricatures (not of racial stereotypes LOL) are the ones that get a gut reaction out of you. one of my favorite lines from a bosko cartoon that sums this up perfectly is what he says next: “i know i’m not good looking, folks, but that’s one opinion against a million!”

bosko durante receives boos from the audience (and a single cheer from me). he declares “am i mortified! am i mortified!!”. honey cheers him on in the wings and motions for the audience to do the same.

switching from jimmy durante, bosko now opts to do an impression of ted lewis, asking “is everybody happy?” and playing some wonderful jazz through his clarinet. the animation is great! i especially love the detail of him playing the drums with his feet (above). i’m always glad to see the animators having fun with their work. eventually, he loses and balance and falls through the drum. all the instruments are rattled with the impact, but fall back into place as porky bosko bursts through the drum, once again clad in his terrifying yet funny jimmy durante face.

bosko climbs back on stage and switches from clarinet to drum, complete with a franklin d. roosevelt caricature on the side swinging a pint of beer. it’s actually contested whether that’s FDR or ted lewis, who bosko imitated earlier. my odds are on FDR, as honey comes out of the wings waving an american flag, and he’s swinging a pint of beer, aligning with his anti-prohibition status. however, he got inaugurated on march 4th—this cartoon is said to have come out on february 11th according to a few sources, but one lists the release date as april 10th (which would make sense). confusions aside, it’s interesting to note. fade out as bosko goes into the wings.

i adore this cartoon! definitely one of my favorites. even though it has no plot, the gags all hit hard. understanding of the celebrity references or not, they’re fascinating to watch and listen to regardless. the music is upbeat and beautifully jazzy, and bosko and honey are rather endearing as they play off each other. the animation is absolutely beautiful, more intricate than usual. it’s worth a watch! it’s such a feel good cartoon, and the ending with the FDR reference could pose as a symbol that indicates better things are coming. in the long run, it’s true!

link!

#lt #bosko in person #reviews #long post #racism tw

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