Puttin on the Act

Puttin on the Act (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Olive comes rushing into Popeye's house with the exciting news that vaudeville is coming back, which gives the two of them a reason to break out their act.

PUTTIN ON THE ACT isn't the best film in the series but there are certainly enough good moments to make it worth watching. The highlight of the film would have to be the sequence where Popeye does impersonations of Stan Laurel, Jimmy Durante and Groucho Marx. There are other cute moments like the song and dance, which is so funny because their voices are so bad! As usual the animation is terrific and fans should certainly enjoy this.

Olive Oyl rushes home to show Popeye a newspaper headline, "Vaudeville coming back!". They decide to break out their old act. Popeye digs through their old trunk in their dusty attic. The couple starts practicing the old act with Swee'Pea doing the cards. In fact, Swee'Pea gets in a couple of words at the end. Popeye gets to impersonate a few comedians of its day which is an excuse to do them without having to pay them. I have two opinions. First, this doesn't feel like a Popeye cartoon. It feels like a clip show for that era's comedy or even an earlier era. Second, I do appreciate doing something different.

A good many cartoons used caricatures of actual stars of the time. Popeye does three impressions: Stan Laurel, Jimmy Durante, and Groucho Marx. He also does a crazy act where he spins Olive like a baton. It turns out they were an act in the past. I guess that was created just so they could revive their talents. It's not bad. I just doesn't go anywhere.

As has been said, 'Puttin on the Act' is a very different Popeye cartoon. No Bluto, no good versus bad, no use of spinach and by Popeye standards it's very tame. Plot-wise it is basically a series of popular variety/vaudeville acts common at the time, very unusual for a Popeye cartoon, so one shouldn't expect too much on that front. Despite liking the 1940 Popeye output overall, a big part of me was hoping that 'Puttin on the Act' would be better than the previous Popeye and Olive cartoon 'Wimmin Hadn't Oughta Drive'.

Luckily, it was. Much, much better. Despite being plotless and structurally on the episodic side, 'Puttin on the Act' was a great and hugely entertaining cartoon that made me feel nostalgic somewhat as well. For me, it's one of the best 1940 Popeye cartoons and proof that Fleischer Studios were capable of doing good work during such a drastic decline period for them, outside of the Popeye cartoons 1940 and the early 40s were not a good period for them.

'Puttin on the Act' has so many great things and executed its elements so brilliantly that it did make me forget about the cartoon being a non-event when it comes to the story. The animation is colourful and expressive, was amazed at how Olive's contortions were animated (goodness isn't she flexible) and the movements are so well synchronised.

Even better is the music, which is fantastic throughout. It is like its own character and is so beautifully and characterfully orchestrated, it gels so well with what goes on and enhances it even (which is what has always been great about the music in the series, even later on).

Jack Mercer displays everything that shows how his voicing for Popeye being so well regarded is richly deserved, he is the most prolific of the voice actors, the one to embody his personality the most and nobody did asides and mumblings quite like him. Margie Hines usually didn't quite work for me as Olive, Mae Questel is a much better fit, but considering the concept she was fine here. The asides are delightful and the cartoon goes at an exuberant pace.

There are many very funny to hilarious moments and all the acts included are classic vaudeville while with nothing tasteless. Popeye's caricature impersonations are agreed the highlight, closely followed by the unique ways of how his muscles and tattoo are used.

In summary, great. 9/10.

Olive shows up with a theatrical newspaper with exciting news: vaudeville is back! So she and Popeye begin practicing their act, which includes song, dance, impersonations and a fall from a three-story building.

It certainly is a change of pace for the Popeye cartoons, which is a good thing in any long-running. Franchise. Yet for a cartoon franchise, it is a bit worrisome. Perhaps the characters have grown stale, or the staff has simply run out of ideas. Perhaps the death of Elzie Segar a couple of years earlier had penetrated to the studio, and they thought that without the boost of the newspaper strip, interest in the cartoons would wane.

If so, it was a passing fancy. For good or bad, Bluto would show up next time, and the fight, and the spinach.