33. Moonlight for Two (1932)

Release date: June 11th, 1932

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: Johnny Murray (Goopy), Rudy Ising (Stove), The King's Men (Chorus), Marcellite Garner (Girl)

Our old pal Goopy returns! As you may have noticed, each of the 1932 cartoons has alternated between Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies consecutively, until now! Two Merrie Melodies in a row. Moonlight for Two has the dog and his girlfriend going to a dance, but, as always, trouble brews.

Look at that beautiful background! Already getting a beautifully atmospheric start. The little poodle from Freddy the Freshman and Goopy Geer meets this lanky goopy doppelgänger, who’s leaning against a tree and playing the harmonica while the poodle hums “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain”. Smitten, the dog greets her with a “Howdy, y’all!” and doing a little dance reused from Goopy Geer. Some birds atop a tree branch twitter and tweet, indicating there’s a flame between the two. Lovebirds.

Since it’s a Merrie Melody, the happy couple launch into the song “Moonlight for Two”. As is standard, the vocals aren’t the greatest, but the music is catchy regardless. There’s also a scene where they skip and frolic to an interlude of “Spring Song”, complete with the bird’s chirping in the background. What a creative little interlude! It certainly reminds me of carl stalling’s scores (he comes into the scene with Porky’s Poultry Plant in 1936, which is also Frank Tashlin’s first directorial credit).

Just because, the two of them hop on a cart that goes barreling down a hill towards a log cabin. They crash into the cabin but remain unharmed, the cabin logs neatly stacking up one by one to reassemble, good as new. A cartoon staple! 

Another obstacle blocks them in their path, this time a tree. They crash, and the cart turns into a wheelbarrow, with the lanky dog pushing his sweetheart around. They go over a bridge (that sags into the water, borrowed from Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land).

Cut to a good ol’ fashioned barn dance. We have some shots of two dogs square dancing (above), a goat using his foot as fiddle strings (strange substitute), and two mules with their tails tied together, forming a jump rope for a little cat to jump with.

Nighttime shots with a giant moon and the appropriate lighting like here make me so happy. They’re so beautiful! I love how rustic the setting is here, very nostalgic and cozy. The lovebirds arrive to the dance and crash the party.

Cue the dance sequence! The lovebirds do their thing, and in early 30s fashion, a wood stove takes a life of its own and shows off a jig of its own. These inanimate objects coming to live gags amuse me to no end, just because of how corny and trite they are. The background vocals for this scene are divine! Good music is so important to me in a cartoon. It can totally make or break a short. A bad cartoon can be saved with a good music score, but even the best of cartoons suffer if the music score is poor.

A wiener dog couple is happily dancing together, when one of the dogs chugs some alcohol (moonshine?). The alcohol is potent, and literally burns his abdomen, making him short and squat instead of tall and skinny like his girlfriend. No matter, they continue to dance. Disparity in height also makes for a good source of comedy, and here we see it work. Highlights also include a goat using his banjo as a spittoon and the goopy doppelgänger dancing rhythmically with the stove.

Is it a Harman and Ising cartoon without a villain? Of course not! Enter this rifle sporting villain, who immediately flirts the lanky dog’s girlfriend. The lanky dog cries “Stand back, villain!” and receives gunshots in response.

Lanky dog tries his best to dodge the array of bullets coming at him hot. As shown above, he lands in some spittoons in the midst of his panicked scramble, and dashed away, spittoon clad and all. He kicks them off, decking the villain squarely in the face.

Enraged, the villain throws himself on top of the dog, and the two of them tussle (complete with some blinding flashing action going on in the background).

Anthropomorphized wood stoves come in handy! The stove leans over and burns the villain twice, threatening to spit fire in his face. The wood stove corners the villain and blocks the dog from any harm, turning to the side to expose a crank. The dog turns the crank and hot coals shoot out of the stove at the villain like a machine gun, sending him running.

Thus, our story ends with the stove and the dog shaking hands. Iris out! 

This cartoon is relatively average as far as Harman and Ising cartoons go. The pacing is a little slow at times, primarily towards the beginning, but it picks up as time goes on. The backgrounds were stunning! They were very moody and beautiful, so that’s always a plus. The underscore was gorgeous, and the harmonized voices during the dance sequence with the wood stove were captivating. Unfortunately, a lack of distinct personality in the characters (and the female counterpart disappearing for half the short once more—seriously, it feels like every cartoon the woman just disappears!) does bring down the rating of this short, but there’s more personality in it now than there was a year ago or two years ago. Slow and steady! So, average cartoon, not terrible, but nothing outstanding either.