EGYPTIAN MELODIES (1931)

 NOW WE'RE VISITING A PRETTY EARLY DISNEY SILLY SYMPHONY. 

This B&W cartoon is fairly Halloween-appropriate as it has dancing mummies in it.  And our hero is a cute-as-a-bug spider who is building his web under the Sphinx when a secret door opens leading inside. 

Our spider traverses the inner catacombs in a really very awesome sequence which has a somewhat 3-D animation look to it and reminds me very much of an old POV video game. 

Spidey winds his way down tunnels and corridors until he comes to an inner chamber.  An hourglass takes his fancy until the alarm bell at the top goes off

and wakes up a quartet of mummies who leap out of their coffins and begin to dance. 

Things then get real trippy as the hieroglyphics on the walls begin to move about. 

This sequence goes on perhaps a big long but eventually morphs into more 3-D animation which is really cool. 

Spider is really freaked out by this point and makes a run for it; scrambling back up the winding tunnels until he emerges outside the Sphinx and hightails it outta there! 

There is not much here that we haven't seen before in early 1930's B&W cartoons but the beginning descent through the catacombs are a real standout! 

MOTHER GOOSE GOES HOLLYWOOD (1938)

 IT'S BEEN ALMOST A YEAR SINCE I'VE DONE ONE OF THESE "WHO'S THAT OLD CELEBRITY IN THAT CARTOON" POSTS. 

Almost a year, in fact, when I did the Columbia cartoon "MOTHER GOOSE IN SWINGTIME" from 1939.  This Disney Silly Symphony cartoon arises from outta the previous year but is much in the same vein.  I see my pal Cheekies gave this 4 stars when he watched it a while ago.  And that's without me even explaining it to him.  Well, here I am explaining it in case he wants to watch it again! And at the end, I'll post 4 pages about the cartoon that appeared in a 1939 issue of PHOTOPLAY magazine which I borrowed from "Andreas Deja View" blog (and I hope they don't mind). 

So, the cartoon opens with Mother Goose mimicking the MGM lion (with Ars Gratia Artis replaced by Ertznay to Ouyay!).  Next we go to Little Bo Peep who has lost her sheep.  Bo Peep is, of course, Katharine Hepburn. 

Next we have Old King Cole calling for his fiddlers three.  Old King Cole is another familiar face from these types of cartoons:  Hugh Herbert. 

And his fiddlers are, of course, the Marx Brothers.  And another familiar face from these cartoons is grumpy Ned Sparks as the Jester.  The Marx Brothers tune up on their violins, stomp out the time with their feet and smash the fiddles over their knees.  King Cole calls for his bowl which is delivered by 1930's comedian Joe Penner; whose catchphrase was "You wanna buy a duck?" 

And this being a Disney cartoon, up pops Donald Duck out of the bowl!  Next we have "Rub a dub dub three men in a tub" and they are Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh from MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and Spencer Tracy & Freddie Bartholomew from CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS. 

Interestingly, Katharine Hepburn putt-putts by still looking for her sheep.  This is a few years before she and Spencer would meet on screen in WOMAN OF THE YEAR!  Humpty Dumpty is next and he is, predictably, W.C. Fields who disturbs a nest looking for his "little chickadee" and out pops Edgar Bergen's ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy. 

Fields & McCarthy had a long time "feud" on THE EDGAR BERGEN & CHARLIE MCCARTHY SHOW at the time.  Next Simple Simon met a pieman -- or rather Stan Laurel met Oliver Hardy. 

"See Saw Margery Daw" find Edward G. Robinson and Greta Garbo on the see saw. 

Little Jack Horner is Eddie Cantor.  Unfortunately, what comes out of his pie is Cab Calloway & His Orchestra in a simply racist stereotype no matter how you look at it.  Joining them are jazz great Fats Waller and Stepin Fetchit (unfortunately).

Then Little Boy Blue blows his horn:  actor Wallace Beery. 

The we go to "The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" with all of the cast milling around like maniacs.  Edna Mae Oliver, Mae West and (I think) Claudette Colbert appear as a trio

and then we see Clark Gable and George Arliss (famous for playing Disraeli)

followed by Laurel & Hardy again.  Fats Waller is tormented by the Marx Brothers while trying to play his piano. 

Fred Astaire appears to give us a little dance

and (sadly) Stepin Fetchit appears again.  Damn.  Cab Calloway & His Orchestra come back, as well as W.C. Fields & Charlie McCarthy on the stand-up bass. The two "big mouths" of Hollywood - that's how they were known then -- comic actor Joe E. Brown ("Well . . . nobody's perfect") and Martha Raye make an appearance skatting. 

And to wrap everything up, Katharine Hepburn is still looking for her lost sheep.

           

Here's a link to the blog post on Deja View which talks about this same cartoon.

MOTHER GOOSE IN SWINGTIME [1939]

 OK, SO HERE'S ANOTHER INSTALLMENT IN THAT "WHO'S THAT CELEBRITY IN THAT OLD CARTOON" SERIES.  Yes folks, my friend Cheeks once again has been cornfused by an old 1930's cartoon containing celebrity caricatures he's unfamiliar with so I'm here to set him (and you all) straight on who they are.  The cartoon is the 1939 Columbia Pictures "Color Rhapsody" MOTHER GOOSE IN SWINGTIME directed by Manny Gould who seems to have mostly specialised in Krazy Kat cartoons before this.

The cartoon opens when a little girl bounces into the room where her father is working at his desk demanding he read her a story.  We then go into a fantasy world where the little girl enters the land of Mother Goose.  The little girl is a caricature of  Fanny Brice's radio character Baby Snooks with Hanley Stafford as Daddy; both voices here are spot on but the characters' physical appearance in the cartoon doesn't match the real actors' physiognomy; it's the voices that are immediately recognizable.

Fanny Brice & Hanley Stafford

The little girl then encounters Mother Goose who tells her to run along and play.  This is a perfect cariacature of Edna May Oliver who appeared in the 30's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, LITTLE WOMEN, DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK and the Hildregard Withers series of mystery movies.  

Edna May Oliver

L.G. (I'm abbreviating "little girl" from here on out) then encounters a group playing ring around the rosie and singing "A Tisket, A Tasket".  Holy crap, there's a lot of them.  I hate you, Cheeks!  OK so first outside the ring we have a woman in purple prancing around who's about to sing "Little Boy Blue"; this is Martha Raye:  famed "big mouth" of Abbott & Costello's KEEP 'EM FLYING, Chaplin's MONSIEUR VERDOUS, FOUR JILLS & A JEEP, TV's THE BUGALOOS by Sid & Marty Kroft and those 80's Polygrip commercials.  

Martha Raye

In the first picture below facing the camera from L to R are George Raft, Edward G. Robinson, Claudette Colbert, James Cagney and I'm assuming Katharine Hepburn.  

In the second picture (below) from L to R is what looks to be famous cranky actor Ned Sparks (who we've seen in previous cartoon examinations of this kind). 

Ned Sparks

Greta Garbo, a fat guy I'm not sure of but, because he speaks a bit later with a rolling RRRRRRR accent it SOUNDS like Jack Pearl (a radio comedian who played Baron Munchausen), 

Jack Pearl

a little blonde who I guess could be Shirley Temple but I really have no idea and Hugh Herbert; another popular actor to be caricatured in these types of cartoons and who appeared in movies such as the 1941 THE BLACK CAT, HELLZAPOPPIN, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935, DAMES and FOOTLIGHT PARADE.

Hugh Herbert

When Martha Raye starts singing "Little Boy Blue", we see the boy himself played by Cary Grant blowing his trumpet for a couple sheep.

Next we cut to Martha Raye accompanied by the 'piper' Benny Goodman on his clarinet; soon to be joined by Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum or Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy.

Old King Cole and his Fiddlers Three are next up:  W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers

Next we get a better look at Hugh Herbert playing his drum.

Martha Raye is next accompanied by silent film comedian Joe E. Brown on the trombone.  Not only was Brown in the phenomenal THE COMEDY OF TERRORS in a cameo as the cemetery caretaker who opens his big mouth and YELLLLLLLLLLLLS but also said the immortal final line in SOME LIKE IT HOT:  "Well . . . . nobody's perfect!"

Joe E. Brown

We next see a trio of guys who alternately play musical instruments that fade in and out:  Spencer Tracy on the clarinet, Bing Crosby on the bass drum and William Powell on the piano.

Spencer Tracy, Bing Crosby & William Powell

We next cut to an entire orchestra (geez!!!) where we find (from L to R):  George Raft on piano, John Barrymore on the bass, Jack Benny fittingly on the violin, Joe E. Brown on trombone, a bald guy with grey hair on saxophone whom I can't identify, James Cagney on trumpet, Clark Gable on clarinet and Hugh Herbert on drums!  In just a moment, famous conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra Leopold Stokowski will join the orchestra to conduct them.

Leopold Stokowski

Next we cut to Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire dancing . . . 

Fred & Ginger

then we see a grotesquely-cariacatured man dancing with an old lady.  No idea, sorry.

then we have a rotund Italian-accented man I can't identify asking another man "Why you no swing?  The other man is character actor Edward Everett Horton from TOP HAT, HOLIDAY and the voice of FRACTURED FAIRY TALES!

Edward Everett Horton

Next we see Greta Garbo dancing with Leopold Stokowski . . . 

We next see L.G. with "Georgie Porgie" played by Mickey Rooney.

Little Jack Horner (played by Ned Sparks) is next seen with Katharine Hepburn.

Katharine Hepburn

Next we have the excruciating singing duo of Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy.

Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy

and then a singing trio of women:  Kay Francis (the wavishing Kay Fwancis, that is), Joan Crawford and Claudette Colbert.

Kay Francis

Joan Crawford

Claudette Colbert

and then a singing trio of guys: I think (L to R) it's Tyrone Power, Edward G. Robinson and Robert Taylor.

Tyrone Power, Edward G. Robinson & Robert Taylor

And then the whole damn thing's over with!  I actually enjoyed this cartoon quite a lot; obviously because I'm very familiar with not only all the movie stars but also the radio stars of the time.  Yep, this was a good one.