Slick Sleuths

Mutt and Jeff, SLICK SLEUTHS for their own detective agency, try to catch an elusive thief known as the Phantom. They are not successful.

This short -- available on YouTube in its original black and white -- is a surprisingly well-drawn and imaginative little short, which makes great use of its medium. The backgrounds are well drawn, with shade of gray (not just crude black and white.) The character of the phantom -- one of these ghostly type villains -- allows for a lot of interesting "transforming" that gives the whole short a surreal character that's reminiscent of a Felix the Cat cartoon. Mutt and Jeff themselves don't have a lot of character -- its the outlandish sight gags that drive this one.

Worth finding.

This fun little cartoon was one of the last Mutt and Jeff cartoons ever made. Over three hundred Mutt and Jeff cartoons had been released since 1913. In this cartoon, Mutt and Jeff are detectives on the trail of 'The Phantom'. The Phantom is easy to find, but since he seems to be half-shadow and half-smoke, he is impossible to catch. When the boys finally corner their prey and summon the police, they are in for a surprise.

This cartoon is interesting because in the early 1930s, it was colorized (by hand) and re-released with a music score. WESTWARD WHOA is another Mutt and Jeff cartoon that received the same treatment. The film was reissued by Modern Sound productions in two-strip Kromocolor. The effect is much more pleasing and natural than later computerized colorization, and you would never know that the cartoon was originally in black and white.

I found this Mutt & Jeff short really interesting for two reasons. First, it was directed by the obscure comedian, Charley Bowers, whose live-action shorts are among the funniest and most inventive of the silent era....period. And, it's nice to see one of his animated films--especially since it, too, has a weirdness that is refreshing. Second, I was shocked to see the beautiful full-color in a film released only in 1926---long before true color became common. In the 1920s, the only options for color I'd seen were the Pathe color process (where paint rollers and stencils were used to hand-color the cels) or Two-Color Technicolor--which worked okay but tended to make all the colors look very green and orange. Here, however, the colors are vibrant and truly ahead of their time.

As for the short itself, it was okay. Mutt & Jeff find themselves as detectives--something that only made sense at the very end. They spend the film chasing a weird shadow that can assume human forms (one of them a bit politically incorrect, but hey, this was 1926). All this is action is 'enhanced' with weird sounds that are hard to describe and were also supposed to be innovative--which they were, but also a bit crudely done as well.

All in all, cinemaniacs and film historians would adore this short. Others probably won't be so impressed.