039 The One Armed Bandit

Title: The One-Armed Bandit
Studio: Walter Lantz
Date: 3/27/39
Credits:
Director
Alex Lovy
Story .... Vic McLeod .... James Miele
Music ... Frank Marsales
Animators
Geo. Granpre ... Hicks Lokey
Series:
Running time (of viewed version): 6:47

Synopsis: Old man gambles his welfare check away, then his mortgage (I think they meant "deed"; a mortgage is a debt secured with real property; in order for it to have value to someone it was traded to, the person giving it away would need to be in the position of the lender or the lender's successor in interest; while this is not impossible (see the securitization of sub prime mortgages recently), it seems more likely they just don't know what they're talking about); the gambling house proprietor Ratbone offers to give up the "mortgage" if the gambler's daughter Nell will marry him; instead, she hussies herself close enough to steal the mortgage, a blonde hero beats up the "villain", and the gambler shoves metal into the unconscious Ratbone and steals back the mortgage.


























Comments: The hero is the same guy (Dan) who was mated to a tree in Birth of a Toothpick; he seems to have at least some interest in human women in this, even if she is kind of wooden. I can't tell if the daughter is supposed to be hot; she's kinda like a sack full mostly of hubcaps but also with a ham in it. Little man in a tall hat and dark glasses was used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon I think... The dance between nature boy and the villain is very fluid; I suspect they reused reference footage from the earlier jitterbug cartoon. A self reflexive "movies are your best entertainment value" banner moves through the cartoon. Plus a reference to Bank Night, which was a movie theater prize giveaway (I'm not sure if it existed outside theaters; the reference in the cartoon implies it will take place in the gambling parlour, but that may just be comedy). Nell's waggle reminds me a bit of Coal Black. Then there's the southern accent. There's a ladies' entrance. There's a mat with the Greek letters Rho Delta Kappa on it. This does not seem to be an actual sorority. I wonder if there is a joke in it as an acronym for something (RDK if they're proper, PDK or PAK if they're going by what Roman letters they look like). Ratbone chokes Nell on a cycle. Afterwards her tongue just hangs out. At least, it's probably her tongue. She's a regular Krampus. Ratbone has a portable phone in his cape, but it ends up working like a safe. I suppose Nell kissing the downed Dan was a role reversal at the time.

038 Prest-O Change-O

Title: Prest-O Change-O
Studio: Warner Brothers
Date: 3/25/39
Credits:
Series: Merrie Melodies (on Blue Ribbon print)
Running time (of viewed version): 7:02

Synopsis: Two dogs break into a magician's home to hide from the authorities, where they are harassed by a rabbit who likely has a lot more right to be there than they do.






















Comments: I'm uncertain how the capitalization should work in the title, but I didn't want it in all caps like the title card. Return of the pair of dogs from Dog Gone Modern. Horse-voiced magic rabbit is an obvious precursor to you-know-who's early appearances. The rabbit even kisses the big dog. Twice. The dogs end up on top in the end tho, because if you punch anything hard enough, even something magic, you win (that was the message in Lord of the Rings, right?). The music moves well in this cartoon. Noticeably Warner-y, it adds plenty to the movements. This is the second WB cartoon in a row to save some animation with a mostly invisible character. I wonder how much work it saved for the animators, who needed to still plan the whole character to move just some gloves; I'm sure it saved plenty of ink and paint work, at least. The unseen (assuming he's not the rabbit) magician's name is Sham-Fu. This resonates now with both Sham Wow and Shaq Fu. I assume it was a reference to a popular magician of the day (there was a magician named Fu Manchu at the time, but then the joke would seem more likely to be Fu Shamchu...). The cuckoo is vested as the Shadow, but "It's 12 o'clock, muahahahaha" doesn't sound like iconic shadow-speak to me; perhaps it's a gap in my education. There's a silhouette cutout of the devil in the hallway.

037 The Nutty Network

Title: The Nutty Network
Studio: Terry
Date: 3/24/39
Credits:
Story by
JOHN FOSTER
Directed by MANNIE DAVIS
Music by
PHILIP A. SCHEIB
Series:
Running time (of viewed version): 6:51

Synopsis: Monkeys broadcast in bandstand form, then switch to their "the moon men are coming" spiel; the king lion fights phantoms, calls the monkeys to task and visits the moon himself.




















Comments: Presumably this was based on the Orson Welles's Mercury Theater War of the Worlds broadcast from October '38.
http://www.archive.org/details/OrsonWellesMrBruns
The hallucinated moon men the king sees look great (except to the extent the print makes them unviewable, which happens a fair amount). The opening music is also quite good. The thrown brown items look like feces again, just like in the Owl and the Pussycat, tho here they are explicitly nuts. For some reason the monkeys seem to be tossing them in perfect harmony, which doesn't exactly look good on screen. Yet more silhouettes; it's practically a trope. I'm not sure if the parachuting gingerbread men are a novelty available at the time. The lispy lion would be used again in The Wizard of Oz. This one's a little more Paul Lynde, tho.