Beware of Barnacle Bill

Popeye visits Olive Oyl's home. He proposes marriage to her, but she rejects him out of hand. She is in love with Barnacle Bill the sailor. He comes barging in and the fight is on. It's a musical.

This is a fun Popeye short. Barnacle Bill is basically Bluto. It is a name from old drinking songs. It makes sense that this is a musical Popeye short. It is just fun to add a twist to the standard Popeye trio story. I do have to say that I have seen this one or know that much about it. Everybody knows the iconic theme, but Popeye is not known for its music. Quite frankly, I am serious about Popeye the Musical.

My introduction to the song"Barnacle Bill" was via this film, which I first saw as a kid on Richmond's then popular Sailor Bob show. It's an example of how Fleischer,unlike most of Popeye's later producers, understood the character. And it's also an example of how well the Fleischers were with animated syncopation. The character's actions are in perfect match with the music's rhythm. Compare this to the earlier Fleischer BARNACLE BILL(l930) and you will see how the Fleischer studio itself progressed in five years.

I love this cartoon!! The song, Barnacle Bill the Sailor" is a favorite of mine and this is one of the few cartoons in the series where Olive Oyl gets her comeuppance. Although occasionally, Olive and Popeye treat each other as though they are truly in love, Olive all too often treats Popeye rather shabbily, in my view, and I've frequently wondered why he doesn't just quit seeing her. She can't seem to make up her mind between Bluto and Popeye, anyway. While I believe that a gentleman treats a lady like a lady even if she periodically doesn't behave like one (a man who does not act like a gentleman unless expressly requested to behave otherwise should be ignored), I also believe that constantly having the same woman throw one over in favor of the same clown indicates a permanent change of interests is of mutual benefit to all parties. It's a delightful short and the ending is a hoot! The army won't even know what hit them!

Beware of Barnacle Bill (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye asks Olive Oyl to marry him but she turns him down because she's in love with Barnacle Bill (played by Bluto). This short isn't as funny as most in the series and the fighting scenes aren't the greatest but the movie remains quite fresh since all of the dialogue is being sung by the characters. This was done before but it works quite well here as the dialogue sounds very good being sung and makes for some smile enticing charm.

Available from Warner.

Popeye visits Olive Oyl to tell her she can ask him to marry her. Olive, alas, is in love with Barnacle Bill the Sailor, a particularly large version of Bluto.

All this is explained in a cleaned-up version of the 19th Century drinking song, which contains a number of words which could not be used under the Production Code. Bill/Bluto shows up and proceeds to murderlize Popeye, until the inevitable can of spinach.

The details on this one are excellent, including the strange way that Mae Questal sings her lines. It's a partial remake of a 1930 talkarton with Bimbo and Betty Boop, in which the lines were not so severely bowdlerized.