65. We're in the Money (1933)

Release date: August 26th, 1933

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: Johnny Murray (Soldier), Marcellite Garner (Girl), The King's Men (Chorus), Ken Darby (Bass)

The final Merrie Melody and final cartoon by Harman and Ising at Warner Bros! I’ve mentioned it before, but they left because of budget disputes with Leon Schlesinger, who was notoriously cheap and the reason why Looney Tunes shorts didn’t go into color until 1942. They headed to Van Beuren studios and produced a few Cubby Bear cartoons, but contract issues rose and they left for MGM. They kept their cartoons and released them in the 40s. They also brought bosko with them over to mgm and made a few cartoons as a part of the Happy Harmonies series, but were let go in 1937 after running over budget. The two would separate in 1942 when Rudolf Ising went into the military, but reunited in 1951 and kept making cartoons up to the '60s. Anyway, not much to describe plot wise here—a bunch of toys come to life at night and sing “We're in the Money”.

It’s night, and the department store is barren as we watch an old man lock up shop and shuffle around. 

This is a great setup, very moody and immersive as we get an inside view of the toys. It’s like we’re one of them, waiting for the watchman to leave. He eventually does, and a toy soldier shouts “WHOOPEE!” with glee as he darts away, climbing up some toy blocks and sliding down a violin, urging the others to join him.

Overjoyed at their brief session of freedom for the night, the toys waste no time in following. A little bead toy repeatedly jumps on a bulb connected to a toy dog, making the dog bark with each jump.

In an unspoken cue, all of the toys assemble around various musical instruments. Here comes the song portion! Sure enough, they launch into an instrumental version of “We're in the Money” while the toy soldier conducts them. Gags featured are a clown playing the keys of an accordion while two dolls push and pull and a toy soldier using an air pump to blow into a trombone while the other soldier slides it.

A doll sings “We're in the Money” in a gratingly high voice, and then there is a funny gag where she sings into a tuba, a deep, rolling bass substituting her falsetto.

All the clothes begin to dance: mannequins, hats, shoes playing jump rope with shoe strings... The toy soldier conductor jumps on the cash register and opens it up, and a few coins sing “We are the money”. Gloves and clothes alike applaud the performance.

Elsewhere, a little doll gets herself all dolled up with some jewelry. She puffs out her chest and places a hat on her head, sauntering over to a mannequin. She croons “Hello there, dark ‘n handsome. Why don’t you come up sometime?” The mannequins applaud her Mae West impression while another bead man toy plays “We're in the Money” on the xylophone.

The Charlie Chaplin-esque mannequin from A Great Big Bunch of You makes another appearance as he dances to the music and wheels down the stairs. Love the animation! Again, stair scenes always have my respect. He leaps off of an armchair and wheels himself over to a three way mirror, where he and his reflective counterparts give a lovely barbershop rendition of “We're in the Money”. There’s a segment where pajamas dance along to the music and tap their butt flaps against hat boxes to the beat of the movement.

After more wheeling around and dancing, the mannequin makes his way over to a piano, or two, or five, or ten. He slides past an array of pianos, playing them all perfectly (only pausing to use a few hat mannequins as drums, including caricatures of Laurel and Hardy). He snags a trombone and plays a brassy, fun solo while the remaining mannequins around him give one last chorus.

Caught up in the spectacle, the mannequin crashes right into a shelf full of hat boxes. He pops his head up from the sea of cardboard, giving a few last wimpy, tired notes on the trombone as we iris out.

Well, that’s that for Harman and Ising! I think it’s very fitting that their last cartoon at WB is about money, especially since they left over budget disputes. It’s like a last goodbye—see ya! We’re off to bigger and better things! This was a very fun Merrie Melody. Not much plot whatsoever, but it was very upbeat, happy, and energetic. The gags didn’t really stand out to me, they just felt more... present than anything. It’s obvious the focus was on the music. Even after all these years of great cartoons, You Don’t Know What You’re Doin! is still my favorite Merrie Melody, and possibly my favorite cartoon in the Harman and Ising period! I really like Young and Healthy, too. It gets stuck in my head constantly. Overall, this cartoon isn’t the cartoon to end all cartoons, there are certainly funnier and more intriguing cartoons made by Harman and Ising, but it’s far from the worst. I think it serves well as a good farewell. I’d recommend it, just because it’s happy to watch and listen to! 

Link! 

My next review will be a biggie: the day Warner Bros. turned on its axis, and why a little buddy of ours is responsible for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, you name it.

62. The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon (1933)

Release date: August 5th, 1933

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: The Rhythmettes (Chorus)

The second to last Merrie Melody in the Harman-Ising era! The next Merrie Melody (after 2 Bosko shorts), We’re in the Money, would be the last cartoon produced under Harman and Ising at Warner Bros. The antics of sentient silverware is highlighted, and a dough monster threatens to ruin their fun.

A lovely shot of a bakery on rainy night. The camera peers into the window, identifying the lovely harmonized voices singing “The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon” as various pieces of kitchenware. I love how the cartoon eases in, it starts immediately with the song before showing the voices. A tea kettle whistles to the tune of the song, as do various pots and pans boiling over and letting out steam. Catchy and amusing to watch as always.

Some of the dishes are getting cleaned, swimming in a kitchen sink like a pool and using a spatula as a diving board. There are some amusing spot gags of the routine a piece of kitchenware takes to get clean. A fork lathers itself up in soap and uses a spray bottle as a shower, whereas a spoon grinds a meat grinder filled with water to spray a plate clear of suds. Elsewhere, plates dive into a toaster, the heat evaporating any water and the plates neatly stacking themselves into a pile. There’s also a shot of a spatula using a panini press to dry a handful of other plates. Standard and expected as they are, I always love gags like these.

Can’t go wrong with Beethoven playing silverware like a glockenspiel/piano cross, right? He segues us into another musical sequence, sung beautifully by various shakers. I can’t get enough of the lush harmonies in the '30s cartoons.

As the shakers sing more of “The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon”, we have more of an array of gags, such as a fork and spoon playing jump rope with a mini salt shaker via macaroni noodle.

Here come our titular dish and spoon, the spoon flirting with the dish and singing “I’d like to make a proposition, dear!” the dish recoils, and quickly the spoon swoops in with “But not the kind that’s your suspicion, dear!” they march away hand in hand as the dish sings her own verses. The first time I heard the dish, she really sounded like Mae Questel to me. Curse you internet for a lack of vocal credits! 

The dish sings about the possibility of having a baby, answered by the sounds of a baby spoon crying. The regular spoon assures her they’ll discuss it later, and uses the opportunity to launch into a musical sequence by drumming on some pots and pans.

Just look at that background! The backgrounds are stellar in this one. Teacups kickline to the music, eventually joined by a teapot. Together they all form a train and gingerly chug along—the world’s most graceful train.

Just as I had thought “Wow, this is a good cartoon, no stereotypes or anything for a change!” I was proved wrong. A brush with feathers that resemble a war bonnet does a war chant as the spoon drums out a percussive Native American beat. There’s also a bottle of blueing in what looks to be blackface singing “Am I blue?”, a song sung by Al Jolson, which further proves my hypothesis. Nevertheless, the am I blue gag is very amusing, but, as always, could be done without the blackface. I’ll be very relieved when this isn’t a common occurrence.

An egg starts a dance routine and falls, cracking open to reveal a baby chick who sings “Young and Healthy”. That’s been such an earworm for me lately. Curse you, Rudy Ising! All of the other dishes find it just as catchy, including an anthropomorphized ball of dough. I love his movements, the animation is very melty and stringy but in a way that’s solid and intentional. Bob McKimson animation, maybe? 

The ball of dough pours some yeast into a glass of water and drinks it. À la Jekyll and Hyde, he turns into a hideous monster with a ravenous appetite for destruction. He approaches the dish, who’s dancing along to “Young and Healthy”.

Some great gags as the various cutlery work against the dough ball. There’s some very loose animation of the monster getting hit with various cans (above). Emphasis on loose—the animation suddenly lacks its confidence and solidify that it had before. You can still do loose and have it controlled, but here it feels discombobulated and melty in the wrong sense.

Back to the gags, cheese graters slice the doughy monster’s crotch (ouch), whereas popcorn is being utilized as bullets. A few spoons flatten the dough with the rolling pin, who staggers along, desperately trying to come out on top.

In a daze, the dough walks straight into a fan. The fan slices him up and tosses various parts of his doughy body around, all of the pieces landing conveniently in muffin tins, pie tins, waffle irons, you name in. The spoon presses down on the dough filled waffle iron, and iris out as his cutlery comrades celebrate.

Very fun and inventive! The gags were extremely creative and fun to watch. The music was a delight to listen to as always, and the backgrounds were crisp and beautiful. Animation was very good for the most part, falling flat at part of the dough climax scene, but it isn’t too much of a distraction. Only downfall would be that and the stereotypical gags of the Native American duster and the blueing in blackface. Thankfully they’re quick enough and don’t detriment the whole short, but it’s enough to make you wince. Give it a watch! It’s a very fun and upbeat cartoon.

Link!

60. Shuffle Off to Buffalo (1933)

Release date: July 8th, 1933

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising and Friz Freleng

Starring: Johnny Murray (Baby), The Rhythmettes (Singing Babies), Eddie Bartell (Ed Wynn, Vocalist)

A concept that would be revisited in Bob Clampett's Baby Bottleneck 13 years later, an old man is in charge of sending storks to deliver babies to their rightful parents, and we get an inside look at the process.

A flock of storks are carrying their weight in babies, their wings flapping to a jazzy and addicting underscore of “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” (another song from the musical 42nd Street). The animation is done particularly well, especially when more storks emerge from the windows of a tower, flying in opposite directions and overlapping with each other. One of the storks flies straight towards the camera, a baby crying and opening its mouth, segueing us into the next scene.

Writing in a book, sitting at a messy desk with papers strewn about and telephones galore is an old man. He takes a few calls, the phones seldom providing any relief (like a less frenetic, more orderly version of Daffy answering all the phones in Baby Bottleneck) as he answers “Okay” over and over again.

One call in particular grabs his attention. We don’t hear what the other man is saying except for garbled nonsense, but the old man replies “Yes sir! What a man!” in delight. He grabs a stray paper off his desk and reads it, which says “Please send us twins. Hopefully, Mr. + Mrs. Nanook of the North”, the paper dated July 1933 and sourced from the north pole. Nanook from the North is in reference to the 1922 documentary of the same name.

The man shuffles his way to a freezer, opening it to reveal two Inuit babies inside wearing parkas. Funny gag, would be funnier if the babies weren’t so... stereotypical. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of that happening in this cartoon. He places the babies in two swaddles carried by a stork, one labeled “upper birth” and one labeled “lower birth”. The stork takes off and leaves the man to his duties.

He reads another paper, this time in Hebrew. He can’t decipher it, scratching his head, and places it in a basket attached to a pulley system above him. The basket is sent to the “Stork room” and a stereotypical Jewish baby with curly hair and a big nose returns to him. Safe to say I don’t think I need to explain why that’s not good.

The man stamps the baby’s diaper, deeming him kosher. Of course, this is a very opportune time to launch into the eponymous “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”. The baby carries on the song, dancing his way into a nursery where baby backup singers provide vocals—including a baby caricature of Maurice Chevalier. Very catchy song, another earworm for the collection! 

Similarities between this and Baby Bottleneck just keep on coming! We get a glimpse of the “baby factory” if you will, run by elves. It’s parallel almost exactly to the one in Baby Bottleneck, same gags and inventions. Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse” is sorely missed!

Babies are thrown into a washing machine and dried via roller towel and a nozzle connected to a fan. Talcum powder is grinder onto them, much like a pepper grinder, and there’s a bar that flips the babies onto their stomachs so they can be powdered once more. Paper towels are substituted for diapers and are stapled shut with a staple gun. To make the safety practices even worse, one of the babies cries, and an elf throws it into the washing machine again and leaves his post! There’s also a scene (again parallel exactly to Baby Bottleneck) where the babies are fed milk through a crank operated tube, like a gas station. Finally, the babies are dropped off in bassinets and sent out to be delivered. Do all this and you’ll have your very own factory made baby in no time! 

The babies waiting to be delivered are fussy, screaming and crying. One of the elves snaps and insists “WELL, WHADDAYA WANT? WHADDAYA WANT?” of course, the babies cry for their hero, Eddie Cantor! This totally threw me for a loop. I love it! Even if you don’t know who he is, the fact that the babies will only be pacified by a celebrity is a hilarious concept in itself.

To make matters even funnier, an elf make his way into the nursery and takes off his mask (you meddling kids!), and it’s none other than Eddie Cantor. Our hero! He sings “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” call and response with a group of babies. Very entertaining to watch and listen to, and just full of absurd goodness.

One of Cantor’s lines include “I can impersonate Ed Wynn,” and sure enough he turns into a caricature of radio star turned actor Ed Wynn, warbling horribly off key. We then get our fill of MORE stereotypes, including a stereotypical Chinese baby singing some lines and a pair of blackface caricatured babies dancing offscreen.

One of the elves pull a curtain, and behind it cantor is playing the piano, complete with an elven orchestra. I adore how bizarre this is!

There isn’t much else to describe—Cantor continues to play and the babies get a kick out of it. The show ends and we fade out as the curtain draws to a close on Cantor.

Obviously, this cartoon had a fair amount of stereotypes, which were quite cringeworthy and awkward. Didn’t age well at all. But aside from that (with that acknowledged and considered), this was a good cartoon! Upbeat, bizarre, and swingy. Of course, I MUCH prefer Baby Bottleneck, which is a lot better in execution, in animation, in practically everything—but it’s also tied for my favorite cartoon of all time, so I have my biases. This was a good effort, though! Another Merrie Melody that didn’t really feel sentimental, just silly and bizarre. Let’s put these celebrity caricatures in here for the hell of it, huh? I’d recommend it! “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” should be criminal for how much of an earworm it is. If you do watch it, obviously view at your discretion with a few of the stereotyped babies.

Link!

57. I Like Mountain Music (1933)

Release date: June 10th, 1933

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: The King's Men (Quartet), Rudy Ising ("Whoopee!")

Though the cartoon titles share the name of the songs they showcase, they can make for some pretty intriguing titles, like here. This is another installment of the books come to life series, pertaining to magazines instead.

Open to a drugstore after closing. There are some wonderfully beautiful backgrounds as we view the interior, settling onto a magazine rack. All is quiet and peaceful... Until a cowboy from a magazine titled “WESTERN THRILLER” tears a hole in the cover page with a spray of bullets.

He hops out of the book and motions for his dozing cowboy buddies to wake up, yelling “C’mon, fellers!” No further cue is necessary as they grab some instruments and launch into an instrumental solo of the titular song “I Like Mountain Music”. An interesting array of gags: the double fisting gun slinging cowboy leaps onto a counter top and dances to the music, spinning around. His spurs cut a hole in the counter top and he plummets into the glass display case below, spraying himself with perfume. Elsewhere, one of the cowboy musicians rides his accordion like a horse, making for some intriguing visuals. Standard as these gags may be, the animation has come quite a ways since the beginning of our journey, and are thusly more enjoyable.

After receiving warm applause, the lead cowboy and some backup singers sing the vocals to the song. Catchy and beautiful as always! A variety of spot gags accompany the song, such as polish pianist and prime minister Ignacy Paderewski playing the piano and singing along.

A caricature of Eddie Cantor pops out of a magazine and pulls a violinists beard, shouting “Look, Jimmy! It’s Rubinoff!” Dave Rubinoff was Cantor’s violinist for one of his radio shows.

Out saunters Will Rogers, actor slash vaudeville performer slash cowboy slash comedian. He makes his way towards a magazine covered in cobwebs dated October 1929, detailing the catastrophic stock market crash. He gingerly places a “NO SALE” sign by the magazine and says “Well folks, all I know is what I read in the paper!” A group of babies from a baby magazine cheer him on and applaud.

Some lovely animation as a figure skater from “Dance Magazine” leaps onto a mirror, tilting it horizontally beneath her weight and skating on it.

To top the gag off, a steady snowfall enhances her elegant routine... and it’s revealed to be a cowboy pouring talcum powder on her! Highly predictable, but it got a good smile out of me regardless.

There are some babies waving jingle bells to the beat of the music... and members of an African tribe making clicking sounds to the music. Not too fond of that one. Otherwise a beautiful and amusing scene, but yeesh. As you can imagine, their depictions aren’t very savory.

The skater finishes her beautiful routine with a split, a group of toys applauding her (frequently reused from Red-headed Baby. I’ve noticed the amount of recycled animation has certainly dwindled within the past handful of shorts, which is always a refreshing sight to see!) 

Freshly picked from Pagan Moon, a hula girl dances to “It’s Time to Sing ‘Sweet Adeline’ Again”, a chorus of steel guitar players backing her up in vocals. My affinity for steel guitars prevails, recycled as this scene may be.

A yodeler from Travel Magazine yodels as he hops from cliff to cliff, mountain to mountain, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The yodeling yokel sings “I Like Mountain Music” from a woman sourced from the “College Rumor” magazine. Look at the difference in designs here! I know it falls under the category of “Look at the sexy woman... and this man is ‘normal’ (not in this case but)”, but I can’t help but love the contrast in design anyways. Very funny and intriguing. A caricature of Ed Wynn also lends his out of tune voice to the song as magazine creatures applaud the spectacle.

What’s a cartoon without a little nefarious doings, huh? A mobster ushers his cronies to follow him as he sneaks along the countertop. The screenshot doesn’t do it justice, but his toadies are actually walking at different intervals, but still synchronized! Great animation as always. The musical synchronization is on par as always. Sherlock and Watson make an appearance, sherlock bending low and sniffing the ground like a dog for clues. Words fail me in describing how much that amuses me.

The gangster’s plan becomes evident once he and his cronies make their way towards a cash register. The mobster pours some lighter fluid in a spray bottle, lighting it and using the makeshift blowtorch to weld a hole in the cashier and steal the contents inside.

Edward Robinson makes a cameo, grunting “They can dish it out, but they can’t take it” while the mobsters use a spoon to pour coins in a dish. Good use of sound effects! Robinson takes out a pair of guns and begins to shoot at the gangsters. One of the gangsters fires in retaliation, missing.

A phonograph from “RADIO Magazine” calls out all the cop cars to stop the theft. Even Mussolini sends his Italian policemen after the gangsters.

A barrage of artillery is used against the thieves, such as gumball bullets and pins shot through a pencil sharpener (I love those pencil sharpener machine gun gags so much).

One of the gangsters (whose butt serves as a nice pin cushion) seeks refuge in a magazine with Jean Harlow on the front. Quickly he learns to regret his decision, running from the pages as we get a ferocious shot of Ping Pong. Not King Kong, no! Ping Pong! 

Ping Pong barrels towards the camera and chases down the mobster. Desperate for any source of shelter, the mobster dives into a glass. Ping pong approaches a syrup tap and presses down on “razzberry”, the tap blowing an actual raspberry instead of any syrup. The gag is topped off as the mobster winced with each raspberry blown. The crowd celebrates his loss, and we get a rather interesting iris out—I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s like a double iris out. Regardless, it’s pretty cool! 

One of the more interesting Merrie Melodies for sure! This was a really entertaining cartoon! With the books come to life cartoons, you have a certain standard of what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was about magazines instead. Especially in a drugstore, there’s a lot more room to work with the setting. The animation was beautiful and the gags were on point, and the celebrity caricatures were drawn great. Even if you don’t know who they are, you still get a good laugh. The only downfall would be the racist gag with the stereotypical African tribe members making clicking sounds... that speaks for itself. Needs to be addressed (as all the blackface and stereotypical gags do), but doesn’t necessarily drain the short too much of its charm. Overall, definitely worth a watch. Paced nicely and very high energy and silly! Just express caution at the clicking gag with the ice skating scene.

Link!

55. Wake Up the G*psy in Me (1933)

Release date: May 13th, 1933

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: The King's Men (Chorus), Rudy Ising (Rice Pudding)

I'll preface this by apologizing for the slur in the title--I'll be censoring the titles of shorts that have slurs in their titles out of personal preference, so I ask for your understanding. This short details Romani villagers dancing and singing, their celebration cut short when the mad monk Rice-Puddin’ kidnaps one of the girls.

Open to a joyful celebration in the streets of a Russian village. A man is doing a kazatsky, among other dances. There’s a shot of a man conducting the orchestra, revealed to be a caricature of bandleader Paul Whiteman. There’s also a shot of a man playing a balalaika with a herring—very creative and strange! Back to the man, who dances straight towards the camera into the next scene.

A group of men are chugging their beer, singing “The Song of the Volga Boatmen” in gargles, a reoccurring motif in many a Warner Bros. cartoon. Elsewhere, a group of men are struggling to pull a rope to the beat of the music. A pan down reveals that they’re dragging a tiny little puppy who’s holding on the other end. Great gag! Size disparity is always great for humor.

A man plays a pan flute, tuning himself by twisting his ear a few times to get the right pitch. He and a few other singers sing the titular song. A great visual gag while they sing is how they walk back and forth—above, the tallest guy is the lead singer, but once they march the other way, he’s now the shortest, with the shortest man being the tallest. A dog bounds up on stage and barks a few bars, and the hats that they’re wearing turn out to be cats, who all hiss at the dog before morphing back into hats again. There are a lot of really great gags in this one nonstop! 

A little Romani girl comes out of her caravan and dances to the music with her tambourine. As we get another brief glimpse at the singers, the camera pans to a shifty man in a trench coat, sneaking about. It’s actually a very short man with a ton of bombs stacked on his head, the top bomb having eyes drawn on it to avoid further suspicion. Because why not? 

The title card clues us in that this very obvious caricature of Rasputin is “RICE-PUDDIN’, ‘THE MAD MONK’”. Great name beyond words. He’s playing a jigsaw puzzle and cheating, cutting the corners so it fits just right and jeering at his handiwork.

Elsewhere, the man carrying the bombs sneaks into the palace. He realizes that he can’t be seen holding two bombs, so, logically, he fashions them into breasts and saunters past the guard, who hugs himself in delight.

Back to Rice-Puddin’ and his conniving jigsaw game. He throws down another jigsaw piece that won’t fit in frustration and hisses.

Lucky for him, a portrait of the czar is hanging right in front of him. He cuts up the photograph, and it fits perfectly in place to form a jackass (“You’re a Horse’s Ass” underscoring in the background). Well, he has personality! 

Finished with his game, Rice-Puddin’ snags a pair of binoculars and peers out into the streets outside, where the festivities rage on. He sneers “THE FOOLS!” as he listens to another verse of our eponymous song . He lays eyes on the Romani girl with the tambourine and rubs his hands together connivingly. Again, we’re overdue for a kidnapping, a Harman-Ising staple! He orders a guard to snag her for him, grabbing a cigar from the guard’s uniform and lighting it (with the aid of a mouse striking a match after popping out from the lighter). He chuffs on his cigar, and sure enough the girl is dragged inside by force.

Rice-Puddin’s motives are clear once he opens a trap door, sending his guard into who knows where. He makes advances on the girl, who pooh-poohs him. He chases after her, and there’s this weirdly cool shot of him lumbering around and laughing maniacally. Good run cycle with plenty of warped personality! The girl shrieks for help by sticking her head out a window, but Rice-Puddin’ silences her.

Thankfully, the whole town comes to her aid, armed with axes and torches. Rice-Puddin’ takes note, and turns to the audience. He cries in an American accent “Holy mackerel—I’m a loser!” Whoever voiced that line deserves an award of some sort. The timing is impeccable and the tone sounds so hushed.

He rushes out of the palace, jumping onto a mule and riding off. Remember the guy with the bomb from earlier? He places a bomb in Rice-Puddin’s pants. Rice-Puddin’ pulls the tail of the mule, turning it into a helicopter as he rides off unharmed... or so he thinks. The bomb explodes and as the clouds settle, we iris out as he has gone from a caricature of Rasputin to Gandhi.

Title aside, this was actually a very entertaining cartoon. The gags were on point and the music was fun and lively. Usually the Merrie Melodies have some sort of sentimentality to it, but this one didn’t—in fact, it didn’t take itself seriously at all, which makes it funnier and boosts its rating. The use of the g-slur in the title and song is awkward and doesn’t age well, but thankfully it’s one of those scenarios where the cartoon is still enjoyable elsewhere, yet still keeping that in mind. High energy and great gags, worth a watch! 

Link!

54. The Organ Grinder (1933)

Release date: April 8th, 1933

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: Johnny Murray (Woman, Cat, Maurice Chevalier), Shirley Reed (Boop-Oop-a-Doop Singing), Ken Darby (Organ Grinder Singing), Rudy Ising (Organ Grinder)

Don’t worry, the cartoon isn’t as terrifying as the title lets on (You can imagine my surprise when I briefly forgot what an organ grinder was.) We follow the antics of the organ grinder and his monkey, entertaining the citizens of the street.

An Italian man and his monkey prowl the streets of the city, the man grinding away at the organ while the monkey bounds around, chattering. An offscreen whistle calls the attention of the monkey, who scales a lamppost to meet the source of the sound. A woman is sticking her head out of her apartment window, holding a coin. The monkey takes off his hat with his tail and graciously accepts the coin, sliding back down the lamppost to his master.

As typical for a Merrie Melody, the man launches into “The Organ Grinder” while his monkey partner continues to run around him.

The monkey comes across a hanging bunch of bananas outside of a store front, and helps himself. Love this gag of the monkey peeling the banana with zippers.

While the duo traipse down the streets, we get an inside look of one of the apartments. A woman is washing a giant sweater that’s defined to look like it suits a burly man, her “What a man!” asserting that hypothesis. She overhears the organ grinder and sings some bars herself—I love her belty, raspy singing voice! She’s rather large, so it fits. I also love that above shot of the streets. Is that beautiful or what? 

Another woman across from her grabs a coin and signals for the monkey to come to her, the organ grinder urging him on. There are some very fun visuals of the monkey scaling the towering building, using curtains to propel himself upward.

The monkey makes his way to the woman and accepts the coin, stuffing it in his pocket and tipping his hat. He jumps into a pair of underwear hanging on the clothesline and reels himself forward to the voluptuous woman from before, and accepts her tip. I’ll always say this, but the music is beautifully jazzy and upbeat! They always did a good job of making each Merrie Melody an earworm.

To get down, the monkey climbs onto a pair of hanging socks, which tears beneath his weight. He plummets to the ground, a few awnings breaking his fall as he bounces beneath them, finally landing in a pair of pajamas that he gets out by unbuttoning the butt flap. The gags and the animation are so fun and imaginative!

Hurrying back to the organ grinder, the monkey gives him the coins he collected to put in the cup, prompting the organ grinder to pinch his cheeks.

Suddenly, a group of children crowd around the organ grinder. The organ grinder instructs the monkey, Tony, to do some tricks, instructing him to dance and to shake his little can. Tony shakes his ass in front of the children, and the organ grinder quickly stops him (“What’s-a matta you?”), giving him the actual collection can for him to shake. There’s some fun animation of tony dancing to the organ music, cranking a nearby alley cat’s tail like an organ and prompting it to yowl out the notes of the song.

Frightened by the cat’s hissing, the monkey runs by a nearby thrift store. He spots a mannequin and plucks off its wig and puts it on, making a caricature of Harpo Marx. Certainly an interesting first Harpo caricature! 

He then rushes to a nearby harp and plucks the strings, pulling a string that sends him rocketing through the air. He uses his tail as a spring and hops back over to the crowd of kiddies, who applaud him.

First caricatures of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy! Another looney tunes favorite to caricature, especially Hardy. He was often portrayed as a pig in a few cartoons, such as The Case of the Stuttering Pig (evidently a relative of Porky’s), You Ought to Be in Pictures (ACTUALLY Porky disguising himself as Hardy), and The Timid Toreador (once again Porky). The monkey transforms his face into Laurel and then Hardy.

Interest lost with caricatures, the monkey turns his attention to a piano, swiping the keys with his tail. He hops on the stool and plays the piano, the children of the street singing “The Organ Grinder” (complete with a baby singing a verse in a bass voice). Another piano comes into view, and the monkey plays the dueling pianos with his hands and feet.

Now the monkey launches into “42nd Street”, sitting on an accordion, beating a drum with his tale, and playing a clarinet. The eponymous musical birthed a few songs you may have heard of: "We’re in the Money", "Lullaby on Broadway", "Young and Healthy", "Shuffle off to Buffalo"... three of those would all be Merrie Melodies, too.

Like anyone would, the monkey gets carried away by the spirit of the song. He ends up hijacking a car, running into a fruit stand and eventually into a music shop (where the organ grinder narrowly avoids being crushed).

The monkey comes out on top, his car now tricked out with various instruments. The organ grinder pops up in the backseat and grinds his organ as they parade through the streets, playing music for all to hear. Iris out.

For a relatively plotless cartoon, this one was really enjoyable! The music was very catchy (the organ grinding was a little hard on the ears, but the jazz score was fantastic) and the gags were fun, fresh, and crisply animated. There was a lot of personality in this cartoon, and celebrity caricatures are always a plus! Very enjoyable, I’d recommend a watch! 

Link!