House Cleaning Blues

The Betty Boop cartoons of the late 1930s were a pale shadow of the earlier ones. The best of them included the character of Grampy in support of Betty.

Grampy was cartooning answer to MacGyver-I suspect he could have made a helicopter out of two spoons and some chicken-wire. He was also the only recurring character in the series other than Betty herself and KoKo the Clown who was the least bit funny. Betty and KoKo both starred in their own cartoon series for the Fleischers, but Grampy only made one solo effort that I can recall-a color short called Christmas Comes But Once a Year. Oh, well-maybe it was in his contract that he had to be a second banana to Betty Boop. Recommended.

A good deal of the pre-Production Code Betty Boop cartoons are daring and creative, with content that makes one amazed at what's gotten away with. While the later Betty Boop cartoons made after the Code was enforced are still watchable and exceptionally well-made, they are so toned down that they feel bland.

Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style was often stunning and some of the most imaginative and ahead of its time in animation. The character of Betty Boop, one of their most famous and prolific characters, may not be for all tastes and sadly not as popular now, but her sex appeal was quite daring for the time and to me there is an adorable sensual charm about her. The good news is that she has not lost her charm, despite being significantly toned down, she is still cute and her comic timing is good.

Grampy steals the show, an endearing and riotous character with ingenious inventions.

The animation, as always, in 'House Cleaning Blues' is fantastic, especially in the backgrounds and in the wondrous 3D effects. The music is infectious, lush and dynamic. There are some amusing moments and it is cute without being too saccharine. The voice is reliably good.

However, there is a vast preference for the Betty Boop cartoons that have a more surreal edge to the visuals and sharper and more risqué material. Although cute and entertaining, there is still a tame feel and slight blandness. The story is also slight and predictable and the cartoon starts off in a not particularly interesting fashion, coming to life when Grampy arrives on the scene.

In summary, decent Betty Boop cartoon but she's done much better. 7/10 Bethany Cox

House Clearing Blues (1937)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fun short has Betty Boop waking up after a wild party only to discover that her house is a mess. She tries to clean up everything that the people left behind but she can't do it. Thankfully Grampy shows up with an invention to do it for her. HOUSE CLEARING BLUES is a fun short even if it doesn't come close to being a classic. I think there's a lot of charm running throughout the film and especially early on when Betty is trying to get her house clean but there's just one mistake after another leading to bigger messes. There's a line here about Betty not liking people smoking and you gotta believe that. Just take a look at how many cigarette butts are laying around the house. It's a miracle the house didn't burn down! Once Grampy arrives on the scene things stay pretty fast and there's no doubt that his inventions contain some nice imagination from the Fleischer boys. As you'd expect the animation is high quality throughout and of course Betty's charm is running high.

Apart from the wonderful 3-D look that the Fleischer Brothers used in some of their films and consistently nice animation, there really isn't much to distinguish this short film. That's because there's practically no plot in "House Cleaning Blues". Betty apparently had a HUGE party the night before and now she is singing about how she hates to clean house. During this song, Grampy arrives and helps her clean up. As for the jokes, they are okay but nothing above the ordinary. Not a bad cartoon---just not a particularly good or memorable one--and one where the usual weirdness Grampy displays is VERY muted. In fact in this film he's almost normal! It certainly needed some edge—some sort of friction. Instead, it's just about cleaning house—a subject dull beyond belief.

Betty wakes up in bed when her pet canary spills water on her from taking his early birdbath. "Oooh, good morning, Canary," says Betty as stretches in her nightgown and then shrieks when she looks at the rest of her house. "Wow, what a mess. I forgot all about it. What a swell party, though!!! The place is in shambles. Yes, it must have really been a wild party.

Well, in no time she's up, dressed and singing "I've got those housecleaning blues." The lyrics are very funny. Things get worse in the house when tables collapse, dishes break and Betty almost gets knocked out with her own broom.

Then we see "Grampy" driving down the street in his sleek roadster. He drives up to Betty's house, honks the horn and discovers his friend can't go riding with him today because she has too much housecleaning to do.

Well, you know Grampy - the wizard of inventions (most of which are extremely humorous) will save the day with more of his gadget ideas. "Just leave this to me," he says while he puts his thinking cap on (literally). Before you know it, he's figured out fantastic ways to clean the house.

Grampy's the best. His inventions are so clever, so much fun to watch that I love it when I see him in a Betty Boop cartoon! Not only does he always solve Betty's problems but he does it while dancing, which also is funny.