Extremely clever sight gag of the ambulance arriving on the cinema stage to pick up the ailing Bluto, right out of the cartoon. WB shorts would use this element, too, when a character would break the fourth wall in search of a person (usually a doctor), and someone (in silhouette) would be seen responding.
The U. S. was in the throes of WW2 when this short was released. The subtle message here was to keep on working for victory, no matter what.
Two seldom seen occurrences here: Bluto, not Popeye, ears the spinach, and Popeye does not close the show with a song (only a wink).
Bluto breaks the fourth wall in this short, something he seldom does.
One of a number of Popeye shorts that was sent to Asia in the 1980s to undergo the infamous redraw and colorization process.