The Paneless Window Washer

The Paneless Window Washer (1937)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Bluto is in the window washing business where his racket is to get windows dirty so that he can clean them. He gets to the window's of Olive Oyl but she rejects his service because Popeye is going to do the cleaning. Soon the two men are battling over the proper way to clean a window.

Here's another very good entry int he Fleischer series, which included some very good shorts. This one here is extremely fast-paced and best of all is the fact that there's plenty of fights and violence to keep things very entertaining. Once again the animation itself is wonderful and especially a sequence where Popeye is beating Bluto every which way he can and Bluto's body just floats around like a feather.

Bluto runs a window cleaning service. The problem is that he also supplies the grim on the windows. He would be fine, crooked as he is, if he would leave Olive and Popeye alone. But he can't and soon the two are going at it. There are some clever fight scenes. And, eventually, the spinach comes out. One thing already mentioned is that Olive is not the object of Bluto's affection, as she usually is. It's one of the better of the series, in my opinion.

This is a comparatively rare short, in that Popeye and Bluto aren't fighting over the "honor" of having Olive Oyl for a girlfriend (a battle which never ceases to amaze me-Olive is a vain, shrewish, flighty and not terribly intelligent woman. But then Popeye and Bluto aren't prizes either. C'est le vie.) but rather Bluto's questionable business tactics. Window washer Bluto creates work by splashing mud far and wide. Popeye one ups him at his stock and trade and the battle for the ages has another, very funny and quite creative installment. Having temporarily de-commissioned the U.S.S. Popeye and ever the gentleman, introduces his hands to her neck, but Popeye eats his vegetable and rides to the rescue. Excellent short, well worth watching. Recommended.

Bluto has a window-cleaning business and a racket. He squirts dirt on the windows and then offers to clean them. This works until he gets to Olive Oyl's stenographic office. There he finds that Popeye is already on the job of cleaning her windows. So they fight.

And that's it in this Fleischer studio Popeye. Usually there's a build-up to the violence, but it starts almost immediately here, and winds up with Bluto beating up Olive Oyl. This is the only movie in which he does that, and it's shocking and unfunny, even as the variety of ways that Bluto and Popeye beat each other up on the close-packed skyscrapers continues to astonish.

Bluto and Popeye are rival window washers. Bluto uses underhanded methods to get work. Olive Oyl refuses to hire him since she has already hired Popeye. The two battle on the outside ledge of the highrise building. This is simple Popeye fun. Bluto is bad and Popeye fights him. It's simple and fun.