77. Those Were Wonderful Days (1934)

Release date: April 28th, 1934

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Bernard Brown

Starring: The Singing Guardsmen (Chorus), Bernard Brown (Lillian Bustle, Villain)

The Merrie Melodies are back to black and white momentarily as they make the switch from two strip Cinecolor to two strip technicolor, Those Beautiful Dames being the first cartoon to use such. If I’m correct, this is Bernard Brown’s last directorial credit. Friz would continue to crank out shorts, and Ben Hardaway and Jack King not far behind in joining. Here, we reflect on those wonderful days of 1898, including the wonderous days of kidnappings. Joy! 

It’s Merrie Melodies tradition! The cartoon opens with four men in a bar singing “Those Were Wonderful Days”, the song catchy and beautiful as standard. I always like to see when exactly they launch into the song sequence in these Merrie Melodies. Sometimes it’s at the beginning, sometimes it’s elsewhere. This song would also be parodied in Love and Curses and Prehistoric Porky. A lady by the name of Lillian Bussle (as indicated by the poster she resides in) contributes to vocals in a big, brassy voice.

A man behind the cash register plays “Chopsticks” on his register, whereas beer steins on top of a player piano sing along. A portrait of two boxers, Jake Kilrain and John Sullivan begin to box. The boxing match turns into a heartfelt waltz, topped off by some good ol' smacking around. Kilrain and Sullivan were famed boxers in the 1880s, duking it out in an 1889 fight.

Meanwhile, a man enters the bar, and it’s not long until he’s enticed by a buffet and a sign that reads “FREE LUNCH”. The logical solution, of course, is to grab the table cloth, wrap up the entire buffet, and go out the door. It said free lunch! He places the luncheon on top of a rather curvaceous woman’s hat and dines in to her oblivion. Quite amusing! There’s also a guy cutting a man’s single strand of hair in the barber shop, splitting the strand into two. Ah, the good old days! 

A squad of cops patrol the streets, stopping to read a sign as they bounce their nightsticks off of their hats in rhythm. The sign reads “GALA PICNIC and CELEBRATION at the FAIR GROUNDS — July 4th, 1898”. I wondered if 1898 was a significant year, Bernard Brown’s birth year? I looked it up and sure enough it is! July 24th, 1898. Nice choice! 

We arrive to the picnic, the happy peoples riding their bicycles and chugging their free beer. The unseen chorus sings more of “Those Were Wonderful Days” as we have many a gag of people jumping off a diving board. A man hits his head, a woman’s skirt opens like a parachute as she gracefully floats down to the water, a man’s pants slip off and reattach themselves to him. You know, the usual. There’s also a gag of a woman swinging above a sleeping man, narrowly avoiding his chest.

Enter the villain! I see why this trope is so tired now. Though it feels like a parody within itself in this one, which is good. The Dover Boys at Pimento University will REALLY nail the self awareness of the trope and then some. The villain spots a beautiful woman seesawing with her boyfriend, and decides that she should be his. He motions for the tree to follow him (genius!) as he sneaks along. To get her off the seesaw, he tosses a stick of dynamite. It explodes beneath the man, the man flying off along with his sweetheart. The girl lands in the villains arms as the man lands on the ground.

The villain takes the girl to a hot air balloon—I noticed she wasn’t making any noise, which was odd. Usually all you hear in the kidnapping sequences is blood curdling screams. However, this may be intentional as we see later on—and rides away with her in it. The boyfriend, out of options, loads himself into a cannon and rockets towards the balloon like a human cannonball.

Nice overhead shot! I’ve noticed that brown likes his overhead shots and angles, always a good thing to have. The hero lands on top of the balloon and the villain joins him as they duke it out, the shanghaied sweetheart in the basket below. The hero is knocked off of the balloon, landing against a flagpole (another great overhead shot) that bends beneath him and propels him back. Elsewhere, the villain cuts the ropes connecting the balloon and the basket. NOW we get our bloodcurdling screams as the girl plummets to certain doom.

The boys duke it out on the balloon in the air. The animation is nice of the balloon rolling around! Full of depth. Meanwhile, the girl slips out of the basket as it turns in the air: right into the little hoop by the ropes, fashioning it into a homemade balloon. I love it! Cartoon physics, can’t go wrong.

Our buff hero sets the balloon on fire (or at the very least lights a fuse) and jumps off, using a cape to fly like a flying squirrel. Superman the flying squirrel! The balloon explodes and the villain flops to the ground, whereas superman rescues his sweetheart as she hitched a ride on his back.

All of them land on the ground, even the villain. The hero grabs a nearby mallet and pummels the villain’s head in for good measure. So does the girl—hitting the HERO’s head! He’s knocked out of the picture as the girl KISSES the kidnapper! Man, what a twist! Iris out on the two unlikely lovebirds.

Good god, I loved that ending! I never saw it coming. It occurs so nonchalantly—the timing and the pacing is great. This cartoon wasn’t the most thrilling, but it certainly picked up in the second half. The villain, albeit archetypal, was enjoyable to watch. I like that this was set in 1898—especially because the director was BORN in 1898, so there’s no way he would have been able to recall what it was like. One of those things that gets funnier as the years go on. Anyway: the animation wasn’t groundbreaking, but there were some nice aerial shots and the rotating balloon was a plus. The music contributed to the enjoyment of the short as always. I’d give it a watch, not the most thrilling cartoon you’ll ever see but not the worst, either.

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