35. The Queen Was in the Parlor (1932)

Release date: July 9th, 1932

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: Johnny Murray (Goopy), Ken Darby (King), The King's Men (Chorus)

Another cartoon with Goopy Geer! As the title suggests, the king returns to his castle to find his queen in the parlor, refusing to see anyone else.

As all good cartoons do, this one opens with a swaggering king atop his mule, greeted to thunderous applause as he steps off and marches down the aisle, eating up the attention.

Quickly he grows tired of the “Long live the king!” chants, snarling “But where’s the queen?” A group of knights whisper “The queen!” to each other down the line (imagine “Hermie doesn’t want to make toys” from the Rudolph special. It’s basically that), including a stereotypical Jewish king at the end of the line. That certainly didn’t age well and makes me cringe as I watch it, but I digress.

A group of squires launch into a call and response rendition of “The Queen Was in the Parlor”, the king providing various interjections throughout. Love the barbershop harmonies as always! Gags including a mouse popping out of a knight’s helmet to interject a verse, and a dog (an actual dog) clad in armor itches itself through the armor and lets out a bunch of fleas that have been hiding.

Look at the personality in that walk! You know me, I’m all about my walk cycles and how they’re great indicators of personality when executed properly. Great example of a prideful, no-nonsense and ultimately hard-to-take-seriously walk! The king marches into the castle to see what the fuss is about.

It turns out the queen WAS in the parlor! Who would’ve guessed? She’s knitting away at a sock, while the poodle from the Goopy Geer cartoons (and Freddy the Freshman) is riveting away at a suit of armor. The king enters as his throne takes a life of its own and scuttles up to him, ready to be sat on in an act of servitude.

The king summons his jester, who is none other than Goopy Geer. Again, another great walk cycle! Unfortunately, it doesn’t say too much about his personality: it seems he adapts to whatever setting he’s in, whether he’s a lounge piano player, a redneck, or a jester. Gotta give him credit on his versatility, though! 

Goopy provides a few bars about the king (Old King Cole), who “called for his crooners three!” the dog on his jester stick(?) says “Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee!”, which prompts the Rudy Vallee caricature from Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee to pop out of a jack in the box and sing “For You”. I love my caricatures, so I find this particularly amusing, especially when Old King Cole hits Rudy on the head and gripes “I’D RATHER HEAR AMOS N’ ANDY!”, a reference to the popular radio comedy show hosted by Freeman Gosden (Amos) and Charles Corell (Andy). Unfortunately, as you can probably guess, the comedy show was a minstrel show—but it was adapted to television in 1951 where actual black actors took the stage. You learn something everyday! Even though I was oblivious to what Amos ‘n Andy was until a google search later, the delivery is spot on and the joke hits just as well. I’m loving this bastard of a king—finally, personality! 

After a brief impression of Amos ‘n Andy (again, this aged poorly), goopy skips down through the parlor, pressing his ear to a door. A dog, doing an impression of Tony Wons, asks “Are ya listenin’?” he raises his fist and asks “HMMM?” to which Goopy stammers “Yeah, I’m Walter Winchell”, referring to newspaper columnist and radio commentator Walter Winchell, known for trading gossip around. A few alcohol bottles explode and Goopy runs towards the camera, yelling “OKAY, CHICAGO!”, another reference to Winchell. Even though these icons aren’t at all relevant or known today, these jokes still fascinate me and I can only imagine how funny they were to a relevant audience! 

We have our standard Merrie Melodies dancing interlude, with Goopy dancing around and bouncing his feet off of a few spittoons. Fun synchronization as always! There’s also a shot of a cat (the one from It’s Got MeAgain!) hunting a mouse, but getting scared off once the mouse emerges from its hole, clad in armor.

Once more, the villain enters! He slams the door in the face of the fan-faring trumpeter, who blows out a few notes (sounding like a car horn) on his crinkled horn. The trademark “Harman-Ising flameball spit” comes into play once the villain spits on a suit of armor, reducing it to nothing but bones.

The poodle girl who was riveting a suit of armor is singing, and the villain advances on her, ready to kidnap. He runs off with her captive, but Goopy swoops in to save the day.

Spittoons, flaming spit, villains, damsels in distress, all of the essentials to a Harman-Ising produced cartoon all in one! Sword fights can also be added to that list as goopy and the kidnapper engage in combat. Goopy momentarily gets thrown into a cabinet, the crash forming a suit of armor made of pots and pans. Goopy charges are the villain, who swings at him. Now, a stuffed goat’s head falls on Goopy.

In the manner of a goat, Goopy rams into the villain, forcing his armor to break. The villain is exposed in his long underwear, and in some delightful, melty, rubber hose goodness, he mixes the shrapnel in a cocktail shaker (just like Bosko in Ups ‘n Downs) and pours himself a brand new suit of armor, iris out as he runs for the hills.

As for as Merrie Melodies go, this one wasn’t half bad! The highlight of the short was definitely Old King Cole. I love him! I wish he had a bigger role in the short, he’s oozing with personality and all sorts of great possibilities. No offense to Goopy, but he doesn’t do much for me. He’s pretty bland and lacking in personality, maybe even more so than Foxy and Piggy. He comes off as more of a plot vehicle than a standalone character. I enjoyed the celebrity references—I learned some interesting new information today (though Goopy talking in a minstrel dialect doesn’t age well at all, even for a quick joke, and the Jewish knight joke is in extremely poor taste). There are better Merrie Melodies out there, but there are worse ones, too. I’d give it a watch, just because the king amuses me so much, but it wouldn’t be a crime if you skipped it this time.

Link!