Gold Diggers of '49

This is not another of those Warner Brothers cartoons kind of promoting their "Gold Digger" musicals of the 1930s, but a story about the real gold diggers of 1849. It stars "Beans," and takes place in "Goldville." Beans, trying to woo Porky Pig's daughter (who is not a pig), is out on the mountain when he strikes gold (via pulling a slot-machine-like arm!). He goes back into town and tells everyone.

From that point, we mainly see Beans and Porky out digging for gold. A bad guys is nearby and he snags a bag full of gold. Porky tells Beans that if gets the bag back, he can marry his daughter. Beans hops into his jalopy and races up the hill, firing with a shotgun! Beans isn't really a funny guy but the cartoon has some good moments and the car is a real hoot. In the end, the bag of gold is only Porky's lunch, but that's gold to him!

It certainly looks dated, but that's the case with most 1930s black-and-white cartoons, and sometimes that's just fine with me. This was a fast-paced, inventive cartoon.

At the time this cartoon was made, Porky Pig (of course to be one of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies biggest stars) and Beans (the Boston cat who sadly didn't catch on), had been introduced to viewers as schoolkids in 'I Haven't Got a Hat'. That was a charming cartoon with strong characterisations.

'Gold Diggers ...' makes both characters into adults, and not only that, Beans wants to marry Porky's daughter (who appears to be another cat, and not a pig ...). To do this he needs to get into Porky's good books by finding and guarding gold.

Some fun gags (Beans driving a car so fast he turns into a blur of lines) and the interest factor of seeing another embryonic version of Porky Pig - still not quite the classic version we know and love - makes this film more important that it perhaps would have been without those associations.

Gold Diggers of '49 (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Beans is out digging for gold and hits the big one. He rushes into town and soon everyone is out there digging. Porky Pig is helping Beans when their bag of gold is stolen so Beans must go after it.

GOLD DIGGERS OF '49 is a fairly entertaining short from Tex Avery and it features that wonderful animation that he is known for. There are a lot of good gags scattered throughout the running time but for me the highlight is simply the animation. This is especially true during a sequence where Beans feeds his car some extra fast gas. Just look at the detail as they go zipping by various things including picking up Porky. Speaking of Porky, this here was his second short and he's bigger than he's ever been, weight wise, and makes for an interesting father.

"Gold DIggers of '49"* is a first...as well as a second. First, it is the first cartoon directed by Fred 'Tex' Avery. While it lacks the wonderful weirdness of his later MGM films, it is significantly better than the Harmon-Ising singing cartoons Looney Tunes was known for at the time. Second, it's Porky Pig's second film. And, unlike the first ("I Haven't Got a Hat"), Porky is older and fatter.

The cartoon is one starring a character long forgotten...mostly because he just wasn't that interesting. 'Beans' (I think he's supposed to be a cat) is the hero here and he and Porky and many others are all out looking for gold in 19th century California. There are a few nice laughs here and there...as well as a few nasty 1930s racial stereotypes which were not that unusual for the time.



*Nearly all of the cartoons by Looney Tunes and most other studios (aside from Disney) made black & white cartoons in 1935. This is because Disney bought exclusive cartoon rights to Three-Color Technicolor--the first true color film stock widely used by filmmakers. As a result, other studios either needed to use black & white or a two-color process, such as those made by Technicolor and Cinecolor....and the colors tended to be more orangy-green than color.

Beans (the character that resembles all kinds of others) is a prospector. He finds gold and announces it to all the people in town. They head out. Soon he is fighting off the bad guys (with an early version of Porky Pig). There are a few funny little bits as they dig for the yellow stuff, but it isn't all that remarkable. Special effects fall short.