Let It Be Me

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. Actually appreciate it even more through young adults eyes, due to having more knowledge of it, various animation styles, studios, directors and how it all works.

'Let It Be Me' is not one of Friz Freleng's, a director who did many great cartoons and a director held in high admiration by me, best, not being one of his funniest, wittiest or freshest. For relatively early Freleng, 'Let It Be Me' is watchable though he would do much better later. Freleng's later efforts show more evenness and confidence in directing and the story.

It is quite thin in terms of story, despite a clever and unusual spin the basic premise is predictable and melodramatic and not executed with enough freshness, and the structure is basically an excuse to string events along.

The content is similarly thin on the ground, lacking freshness and feels more tired than witty. Laughs are lacking and the morality aspect a bit heavy-handed and of the time. The Bing Crosby caricature that is the lead character is interesting if unflattering and the character is difficult to get behind.

'Let It Be Me' has a few amusing and charming moments in the second half, the ending lifting it to a better level when things got more involving. Emily is appealing, really felt sorry for her.

Animation is very good, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading, vibrant in colour and very meticulous in detail. The music is outstanding, being lovely on the ears, lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action but also enhancing it. The title song is very catchy.

Overall, very watchable but other than the animation, music and the ending there is not an awful lot exceptional. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Wow, what a incredible dated cartoon....but still a lot of fun to watch. It winds up being a dramatic and romantic cartoon...and a tale of sweet forgiveness.

A shallow crooner named "Rooster Bingo" wows the women on the radio, especially a hen called "Emily." One day Emily's good-guy boyfriend comes calling with his flowers, but Bingo comes riding by in his expensive roadster (a very cool car) and sweeps her away. By the way, the crooner sounds more than just a little like Bing Crosby. Emily, meanwhile, giggles like Betty Boop. She is voiced by Bernice Hansen, who did a lot of cartoon voice-work in the 1930s. In this parable, Emily discovers the glamorous life isn't so much fun after all and the simpler existence with a man who truly loves her would have been the best choice in the end.

There wasn't much funny here except the very ending. I found this as one of the features on the DVD, "Follow The Fleet."

During the 1930s, Looney Tunes generally made black & white cartoons like most of their competition. But some of these studios, including Looney Tunes, sometimes made color cartoons and I have no idea why they did this for some and not others. Regardless, "Let It Be Me" is a full color cartoon...and a lovely one when you see it today...full restored and on HBOMax.

The story involves chickens. One is a crooner chicken, much like Bing Crosby. Another is a country bumpkin who is in love with Emily the chicken. However, when Mr. Bingo the crooner arrives, she runs off to the big city with him. After a bit, he gets bored with her and dumps her...and she's stuck a long way from home. What's next for this chick?

Like you'd expect from Looney Tunes in 1936, the animation quality is lovely and hold up well today...especially since it used Technicolor...the three-color variety, not a two-color process which Looney Tunes had been using in most of their color cartoons before this point.

As for the story, it's not bad...but not especially funny like their later films. The message is also a bit heavy-handed. I am also wondering how Bing Crosby felt about this one...was he offended at what a jerk they made him out to be?? Who knows...but what I do know is that the cartoon is just okay....despite the lovely animation.

I've seen a couple of old Warner Bros. cartoons containing Bing Crosby caricatures. To this list I now add "Let It Be Me". A crooner rooster named Bingo makes all the hens swoon. While driving down a country road, he gets a hen named Emily to go into town with him. But once they arrive at a night club, he pretty much ignores her, and has her thrown out when she tries to get his attention. Emily's former beau, meanwhile, decides to take charge.

Personally, I like how they portray Bing Crosby negatively. It's not just that his music style doesn't appeal to me. Crosby was strict with his family almost to the point of cruelty, and his children ended up very damaged. Also, as I understand it, he was an anti-Semite. His nice guy public image must have been the perfect way to get women to like him, hiding what sort of person he really was.

But let's not get sidetracked. While this is an early cartoon (before the Termite Terrace crowd had figured out exactly what path their cartoons would take), it's always worth seeing as a historical reference.