84. The Girl at the Ironing Board (1934)

Release date: August 23rd, 1934

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Friz Freleng

Starring: The Rhythmettes (Chorus), Andy Andrews (Comic Singer)

Our next entry in a string of Friz dominated Merrie Melodies is The Girl at the Ironing Board, a song from the 1934 movie Dames. Here, we view the antics in the laundromat, including some clothes that have antics of their own.

Open immediately to the title song “The Girl at the Ironing Board”, sung by a lovely trio of voices, some ladies jauntily ironing their clothes. The animation is nice and bouncy and a joy to watch. A bit of contrast adds some humor and entertainment as three other women scrub aggressively at their clothes, their song deliveries gruff and frustrated.

Premise reused from I’ve Got to Sing a Torch Song, three pairs of legs dance to the music, upper halves of the bodies hidden by a sheet. As it turns out, it’s merely three women with socks on their hands: a popular gag that would be reused time and time again, yet amusing with each reuse.

Other branches of the laundromat are explored, such as the collar sharpening department and the button breaking department, lampooning the too frequent tragedy that would happen when you got your clothes back from the laundry and a button or five would somehow be broken.

A poster of an eagle signals closing time by blowing steam out of its mouth. The poster is labeled NRA — WE DO OUR PART. Obviously not THAT NRA, but the National Recovery Act, included in FDR’s new deal. It essential enforced certain standards in industries, like minimum wage, reasonable prices, etc. The mascot was a blue eagle, holding a gear and some lightning bolts in each of its talons. Everyone clocks out, moving the hand on the clock to make it seem as if they clocked out later than they did—a gag reused in shorts such as Swooner Crooner and Tick Tock Tuckered.

This speaks for itself for how great it is. A gag that feels it lives up to its loony namesake! 

Nighttime as a few stragglers deposit their donations into the laundry chute. A man and a woman come across each other and flirt—laundromats are just the place for a budding romance. The newfound lovebirds stroll away arm in arm, and we get a shot of the laundromat inside. THEIR clothes come to life and proceed to flirt. I know this genre is SO worn out (believe me, I know! It’s not easy to review these, trying not to say “this is boring/not funny/cliché”) but it’s always fascinating to see what they come up with. A cartoon dedicated purely to clothes! The clothes sing and flirt with each other. I’m sure it wasn’t easy to animate at all! 

Musical gags galore as gloves play a piano on an advertisement, more gloves play a skirt like an accordion, and a pair of pajamas used irons as skates, topped off by a waltz between the main pair of clothes. The music boosts the scene and improves it from being too dull or overused. A pair of pajamas engage in a dance routine, bouncing their buttflaps off of upturned tubs. Another family of pajamas changes their “baby”, who wets himself. The magic of clothes! 

I don’t know how you can connect a villain to clothes (actually I do, imagination, but) but Friz does it anyway. A nefarious villain drops off his share of laundry, the laundry sporting a mustache and a top hat. Okay, that’s good. After a few nefarious tugs at the mustache, the “dirty laundry” (I’m making up more stupid nicknames, beware!) interrupts the lovebird laundry, pulling down the guy’s pants and making off with his sweetie.

They hop on an ironing board, using it like a horse (nice animation) as the “girl” screams for help. Music is nice, jaunty, and hurried, but very happy and lively. They hit a wall, and the guy charges at the dirty laundry, a boxing match ensuing between the two. Oh, agony! Oh, worry! The peril! Actually, the animation is nice and entertaining.

As always, good triumphs evil as the guy knocks the dirty laundry into a washtub, then into a washer where he scrambles him up for good measure. The now ragged laundry pops back up in a daze, the guy and the girl flirting in celebration. One last shove down into the washer ends our cartoon as we iris out.

A very tired premise, but fascinatingly executed. It’s nothing special by any means, just average, but I suppose the fact that these are clothes and not your normal advertisements or book characters or what have you breathes some fresh life into the cliché. Friz’s problem with these shorts is that he’s trying too hard to be like Harman and Ising. The cartoons aren’t terrible, but they all blend together and don’t particularly stand out. It makes sense that he’d try to do that—he co-directed with them and was very close. Hugh Harman was even the one who GAVE him the nickname Friz, short for “Congressman Frizby”, a fictional character that appeared in satirical pieces in the LA newspaper. It’s not that that’s BAD, but it lacks individuality. Friz’s best cartoons are the ones where he truly has his own style, his own signature. Let that be a lesson! Your best work comes from within! You can certainly imitate others, but the best comes from your own originality and individuality. It’ll develop over time, as we’ll see. Anyway, not terrible. Music was nice, the archetypal roles between clothes was amusing, and the (k)night fell gag was hilarious. You could go either way on this one, watch or skip. I’m honestly indifferent. I don’t know if I’ll watch it again; but I don’t REGRET watching it.

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