151. He Was Her Man (1937)

Release date: January 2nd, 1937

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Friz Freleng

Starring: Abe Dinovitch (Johnny), Jeane Cowan (Girl Singing)

1937, what a year you are! This is the year that the Looney Tunes become loony to me, when they truly become recognizable as the shorts we love today. The biggest contribution of the year is Mel Blanc’s debut with Porky the Wrestler. Daffy and Elmer Fudd are born (as is Petunia), Ub Iwerks becomes a director, his unit soon taken over by Bob Clampett, The Merry Go Round Broke Down is instated as the Looney Tunes theme song, Porky says his first “That’s all, folks” ... we have lots to look forward to!

So as not to get too ahead of ourselves, we’ll focus on He Was Her Man: the leave of a mouse’s husband does little to soften the blow of the Great Depression, and the poor mouse struggles to survive in the harsh world.

For once, Berneice Hansell isn’t providing the vocals for the poor, freezing mouse unsuccessfully peddling apples in the snowy streets. I’m not sure who it is—regardless, selling apples at five cents a pop isn’t going too well for her as apathetic townspeople trudge by. There’s a rather prolonged and tedious gag of a thermometer dipping in temperature with each temperature. The gag itself is too drawn out to get a good laugh, but the catcall whistle as the temperature reaches WAY WAY BELOW! makes the gag slightly rewarding.

The mouse’s customers aren’t buying, and certainly aren’t in the consumer spirit. One passerby goes as far as to bite the apple straight out of her hand, leaving just the core, refusing to pay. The mouse is just about to pack up when a rather portly gentleman who seems to have his share of money approaches her for one. She thanks him as she ogles at her shiny, silver coin, unable to believe it. For safekeeping, she drops the coin down her shirt, the coin slithering all the way into her shoe.

Content with the transaction, she heads home, skipping along gaily as she totes her basket of apples. The walk cycle is rather amusing because of how awkward it is—at first I thought it was because she had an entire COIN in her shoe, but I don’t think that’s the case. Amusing regardless. As she gallops along, she thinks of her sweetheart, a rather brute, tough, scrappy looking mouse who doesn’t seem to be very friendly. Regardless, she views him as a regular Clark Gable—literally, as his head turns into that of an amusing Clark Gable caricature. A very funny way of storytelling, but sad at the same time, as you can imagine her real boyfriend doesn’t treat her too kindly.

Approaching her apartment, we get a rather long, stretched out gag that’s amusing at first but becomes stale rather quickly. As the little mouse tinkers up the stairs, a naked pig exits a bathroom, covered only by a towel. He spots the approaching mouse and hides back in the bathroom, doing a Hugh Hubert “woo-woo!” shriek. The oblivious little mouse heads up to the next floor, and the same exact gag resumes—the naked pig exits another bathroom and hides when the mouse approaches. The gag then repeats for a THIRD and final time as she heads up the next staircase. It’s an amusing gag, but certainly extended its welcome.

Next, we hone in on a closeup of an upturned hat being used as a basket for playing cards. A pan out reveals that the mouse’s “Clark Gable” is perched on his bed, throwing playing cards into the hat, cigar in mouth and beer by his side. His girlfriend pokes her head in—“Yoohoo! Hello, Johnny!”

 Johnny doesn’t answer. The mouse places her shawl and basket of apples by the door, approaching Johnny’s chaise lounge. “Good evening, Johnny.” “Well? Fork over the dough.”

An amusing closeup of the mouse’s shoe as she presses one of her buttons reading NO SALE. Surely enough, the tongue of her shoe serves as a red NO SALE sign while the bottom sole extends like a cash register, its contents just a couple of coins. “I did pretty good today,” she tells Johnny, collecting the four coins and placing them in Johnny’s outstretched palm. 

The timing is very nice and heavy in the next scene as Johnny counts the coins and freezes. “Come on, come on, where’s the dough?” His girl shakes her head and gives a muffled “I don’t know”, but it’s clear she’s hiding something in her mouth. Johnny pries her mouth open, and a telltale gold coin is perched right on top of her tongue. “Sooo... holding out on me, huh?” Johnny threatens to hit her, and she shields herself. She attempts to explain herself, but Johnny switches the topic. “How about some dinner?” Gladly, the mouse takes her leave.

While the mouse prepares to make dinner, Johnny looks out of his window. Outside in the snowy streets is a voluptuous Mae West caricatured mouse heading into the nearby saloon, and Johnny is sold. Shifty eyed, Johnny appears to take leave as we transition to his innocent girlfriend cooking him bacon and eggs, singing “I’d Love to Take Orders from You” (how appropriate.) The eggs and bacon on the skillet are arranged in a skull and crossbones, bubbling along to the music. Good timing as the mouse notices this, squeaks, and turns her sunny side up meal into scrambled eggs as she hurriedly rearranges the eggs on the skillet. “Oh Johnny, dinner’s ready!” 

She goes to retrieve her abusive boyfriend, but with no luck. He isn’t in his usual chaise lounge, but there IS a note in his place: “I’m thru with you — so long! Johnny” 

In a panic, she looks for her boyfriend, calling his name repeatedly. There are a few intriguing angles, such as an up shot as the mouse searches under the bed. The wipe transitions break momentum and urgency, though—no transition is needed. There IS a rather funny scene as she begins to faint, but catches herself. She skitters a few step backwards, approaching a pillow on the floor, and decides she’s much more comfortable passing out there.

Another clever gag as we have a time card that reads “time staggers on!” with that, a drunken, hiccuping alarm clock stumbles across the screen. The gag in itself is very much reminiscent of the gag in The Girl at the Ironing Board, another Friz cartoon where a knight literally topples over to the ground (“and then—(k)night fell.”)

In the saloon, the heartbroken mouse sings a lovely rendition of “He Was Her Man”, while the gangsters and other bad seeds fight over the free lunch, paying little attention to the song. While she’s singing, none other than Johnny himself strolls arm in arm with his Mae West mouse into the saloon, patrons tipping their hats out of respect. Johnny’s ex-girl spots him and happily declares “JOHNNY!”, leaping off the stage and rushing to meet him. 

She embraces him, but Johnny pushes her off coldly. “Beat it! I’m through with you!” The mouse begs for Johnny return, clinging onto him, but he refuses. Her incessant clinging turns into a mini dance routine as both try to push each other opposite ends, with Johnny hitting her and she smacking him back (good for her!) on the head, pounding him into his own shoes, with just a bowler hat poking out. Johnny waddles around, pulling himself out of his hat, and whacks her repeatedly. The musical timing is excellent, a mini dance routine on its own, but very morbid and disturbing. Johnny beats her senseless and propels her across the room, a spittoon decorating her head to contribute to the humiliation.

Thankfully, she fights back with a vengeance. The mouse grabs a nearby gun on a table and fires, repeatedly. Paul Smith animates the outcome as Johnny narrowly dodges the bullets. “Hey, be careful! You’s gonna hurt someone!” 

While this doesn’t come off as a joking manner, this is the first time that line has been used, which would often be used as a punchline (like Daffy in Riff Raffy Daffy: “Just a minute! You’re gonna hurt somebody that way! ...Probably me!”)

He’s right; a bullet pings him right in the chest. Johnny staggers around, gasping “Ya got me... Ya got me...”, eventually collapsing to the ground.

Johnny’s “girlfriend” panics, rushing to his side. She begs that he speak to her, crying and shaking him, but to no avail. Just as she puts her head in her arms, Johnny perks up, totally fine. “Aww,” he sneers, “ya just grazed me.” The mouse is not having it, and smashes Johnny over the head with a bottle, rendering him unconscious. Good! 

The next shot we find a mouse freezing out in the snow, bracing against the blustery wind, peddling apples. But it isn’t Johnny’s girlfriend. In fact, it’s Johnny himself. “Nice red apple. Apples? Apples?” We pan up to see Johnny’s girlfriend lounging on the all too familiar chaise, contentedly tossing playing cards into a hat. The Mae West mouse from before strolls by, and Johnny takes kindly to her, calling her a babe and buttering her up. All we see is a bottle hitting johnny on the head, but we know who the perpetrator is as Johnny reverts back to peddling his apples like before. Iris out.

An interesting approach for sure. Not often you find a Looney Tunes drama—eventually, most dramas would be very clear parodies of themselves (such as Tex Avery’s Dangerous Dan McFoo.) This is a much more somber cartoon for sure, but still has its share of laughs. Some scenes dragged on too long for my tastes, primarily in the beginning half, like the thermometer gag or the gag of the naked pig, but the second half picked up the pace rather nicely. 

This isn’t my favorite Friz cartoon (it was certainly hard to watch at times), but I commend him for making such a moody cartoon. It has a VERY good story with good storytelling, and certainly arises interest. His musical timing is superb as always, especially during the confrontation at the saloon between Johnny and his girlfriend. I’m neutral on this one: I’d watch it just to check out the storytelling and see such a different, moody approach to a cartoon, but there are better cartoons out there. If you do watch it, view with discretion because it deals with abuse and some scenes are definitely hard to watch. But Johnny gets what he deserves in the end, and that’s all that matters to me.

Link!