Hold the Wire

Olive Oyl becomes romance-obsessed after reading her magazine. Popeye calls her on the phone and plays along with the lovey talk. Bluto overhears it and grows terribly jealous. He climbs up the telephone pole and taps into the call. He interferes with their conversation and Popeye confronts him. It is a battle among the telephone wires.

This is the standard Popeye trio. The start has some fun with the love poetry. The location is a bit unusual. Being high up is not usual. High-wire fighting is. At the end of the day, the poetry is funnier than expected, but the fighting could be more interesting.

Hold The Wire (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye is on the phone with Olive Oyl and saying sweet things to her. Then Bluto cuts in on the line, pretending to be Popeye, and begins to insult her. Olive throws a fit so Popeye rushes over and catches Bluto on the line and a fight follows.

HOLD THE WIRE is another fun entry in the long-running series, which was certainly in its Golder Era during this period. Once again the animation from Fleischer is wonderful and there are so many wonderful details in each scene. One of the best moments in the film are when Popeye and Bluto are throwing punches at each other and every time one lands that person goes flying while still attached to the phone wire. The action is very fast just as fans would expect.

All of a sudden Popeye isn't "romantic enough," according to Olive Oyl, who is immersed in a romance magazine called "Love and More Love."

So Popeye reads her a poem over the phone and says, "Roses is red, violets is blue, next to spinach, I love you!"

"Oh, what a man!" Olive is quickly won over.

Bluto, with his apparent super-hearing, can hear Popeye talking through a phone miles away as he's giving Olive all his rhymes and Olive is swooning away on the couch. The brute was outside at Miss Oyl's front door with a handful of flowers. (He and Popeye always seem to pick the same time to call on Olive.)

Bluto, who isn't dumb, climbs a nearby telephone poll, rips out some wires and interrupts Olive's call, pretending he's Popeye at the other end. He imitates the sailor man's voice and says: "You're homely, skinny and thin; You looks like something the cat drugged in!"

Olive, of course, freaks out and tells off Popeye off. Bluto keeps laying it on thick.

Popeye, who isn't stupid, either, comes over to Miss Oyl's house and quickly figures things out, especially when he sees Bluto still fooling around on top of the phone wires.

Popeye and Bluto then get into their customary boxing match but this time it's on top of the phone wires and the sight gags are very funny as the two go bouncing and flying around on top like trapeze artists.

The best part of this cartoon, however, was the dialog and the man lines of humorous poetry to the guys throw at Olive and at each other and they knocking the daylights out of the other. A fun cartoon.

Popeye is reading romantic quotes on the telephone to Olive Oyl. Bluto sees this and taps in from the top of the lines. They get into a fight on top of the lines.

It's a standard plot for Popeye and would be for the next twenty years, so there isn't much to praise on that account. But in any comedy, it's the details that make it work, and they're pretty good here, from the details of what Popeye (mis)quotes to the care taken in drawing the details, including the inevitable can of spinach and why Popeye hasn't pulled it out so far.

In sum, it's another solid Popeye cartoon, even though it won't earn the sailor man new fans.

Dave Fleischer was responsible for many gems. Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.

'Hold the Wire' is classic Popeye the Sailor. It is great and never less than very funny and most of them even hilarious, for me one of my favourite Popeye cartoons and one of the best Popeye/Olive Oyl/Bluto outings. Have always enjoyed many of the Popeye cartoons a good deal and like Popeye very much, Fleischer's efforts were always well animated and scored with lots of entertainment value and great chemistry between Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto. 'Hold the Wire' has much of makes the Popeye series so appealing in its prime era and does nothing to waste the three main characters or make them less interesting.

The story is an interesting and beautifully paced one, never being dull, if formulaic (not uncommon with the Popeye cartoons). The humour and gags make it even more entertaining, the best parts are properly wild and are hilarious, with even a few clever twists included. The ending is one of my favourite endings of all the Popeye cartoons.

All the characters are great, though Olive Oyl's material is not quite as great as Popeye and Bluto's, though her and Popeye's roles are enjoyable and there is some great dialogue between the two of them. It is more with Popeye and Bluto where the cartoon especially entertains. The three are spot on and their chemistry drives 'Hold the Wire' and has so much energy. Popeye is always amusing and likeable enough but for me Bluto is here the funnier and more interesting character.

Furthermore, the animation is beautifully drawn and with enough visual detail to not make it cluttered or static and lively and smooth movement. The music is also outstanding, lots of merry energy and lush orchestration, adding a lot to the action and making the impact even better without being too cartoonish. Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it.

Voice acting is dynamic and of very good quality on the whole, Mae Questel is a good fit for Olive Oyl, the voice that most sticks in my mind for the character and who voiced her the best, but Gus Wickie is even better and gives Bluto so much life. Jack Mercer fares the same as Questel for Popeye.

All in all, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox