Showing posts with label Screen Songs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Screen Songs. Show all posts

Monday, August 1, 2022

Musical Monday with Ethel Merman & Betty Boop

Screen Songs: Let Me Call You Sweetheart (1932)
Starring: Ethel Merman, Billy Murray, and Mae Questal
Director: Dave Fleisher and Shamus Culhane
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

After a nanny (Betty Boop, voiced by Questal) turns down his advances, a police officer (Bimbo, voiced by Murray) proceeds to rape her while putting the baby she's supposed to care for in deadly danger. Meanwhile, Ethel Merman invites viewers to join her in singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart".


 I watched "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" twice, with four days between viewings, just to make sure I hadn't been in a dark frame of mind when I viewed it the first time. I hadn't been.

The cartoon sequences are among the most disturbing I think I've ever come across... because the sense is that there's nothing wrong with the fact that Bilbo is a police officer who forces is "affection" on a clearly-not-interested Betty Boop. Also, we're clearly supposed to find it hilarious that Bilbo, while setting about to rape Betty,  intentionally kicks the baby carriage she was tending, sending it careening down a hill where it and the baby ultimately plunges and sinks into a pond. Although the baby doesn't die (no one really thought that it would, did they?) and is saved via some visually amusing cartoon antics, the circumstances under which it is placed in danger are so distasteful it was hard for me to enjoy it. Just to make the Betty and Bimbo sequence as repulsive as possible, the animators later show them in a state of blissful embrace--Betty really wanted it all along, see?--where we should have seen her standing over Bimbo's broken and twisted corpse.

For all my irritation at main animated sequence of this Screen Songs installment, I can also see a possibility that it was intended as an ironic juxtaposition of the featured song, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", because the on-screen lyrics get really crazy type-setting wise toward the end. The animated sequence after the Ethel Merman sing-along section supports this idea, as it features a predator singing "Let me Call You Sweet-heart" while chasing down its prey. (Bimbo and Betty being shown in a loving embrace after he forces himself upon her in a brutal fashion undermines that interpretation though. Unless one assumes they were "roleplaying"...)

Although I had a very hard time enjoying this cartoon, I recognize it's well-animated with some amusing visual, quickly paced, and features a pleasant song, hence the Seven-Star rating. I just can't get past some of the messaging. (Oh... and while I can't think of a way to do rape "right", the creators of this cartoon and this one did present child endangerment in a fashion that was more amusing than troubling.)

But are the flaws of "Let Me Call Me Sweetheart" are severe as I feel they are? Take a look for yourself and let me know!


Monday, June 20, 2022

Musical Monday with My Gal Sal

Are you unhappy because you're working on a Monday? Did you come here, hoping your friends at Shades of Gray would have something to life your spirits? Well, you're in luck, old pal! We have a really fun cartoon that you can sing along with!


At the dawn of the talkies, Max Fleischer produced a series of animated shorts based around popular songs and/or folk tunes. Each would, at some point, put the lyrics to the song up on the screen and would encourage the audience to sing along. And, by all accounts, they did and had a great time doing it!

On this very special Musical Monday, we bring you Fleischer's take on "My Gal Sal", a barbershop quartet standard. This short film contains not just one sequence of funny animal characters singing, but three different ones. These vignettes cross over with one another and get progressively weirder as they go. The cartoon can even be held up as having some social relevance as one of the segments carries a suicide prevention message. And, last but not least, it is also one of the very best the series has to offer.

So... gather coworkers around your computer! Lift your spirits by singing along with a classic cartoon, just like they did in 1930!


My Gal Sal (1930)
Starring: Anonymous Singers
Director: Dave Fleischer
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars