What -- No Spinach?

What? No Spinach! (1936)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Popeye stops into Bluto's restaurant and orders a roasted duck but Wimpy thinks it's better for him to have a hamburger. Soon a fight breaks out between Popeye and Bluto.

The title is a tad bit misleading since Popeye never even requests any spinach but that's besides the point. This is certainly another winning Popeye short, which has all of the wonderful trademarks. We have a very good and catchy song by Wimpy about hamburgers. We get some great action scenes including the ending where just about everything in the restaurant is thrown. Then there's the humor, which is especially good when Popeye is complaining about the food being served to him. Fans of the series will certainly find plenty to enjoy with this one.

After Popeye, Wimpy was the most popular character in E.C. Segar's "Thimble Theater" comic strip, but in the Fleischer and Famous Studio cartoons, he was usually just a bit player. This film marks the one time he took center stage.

And it's 100% Wimpy. It takes place in a diner, Wimpy's favorite hangout in the strip. The only difference is that here, Wimpy is an employee, not a patron, but he's still trying to filch free hamburgers from the proprietor, Bluto (who is more or less subbing for Rough House, the greasy spoon cook from the strip). When Popeye enters and orders a roast duck, Wimpy tricks the two into fighting so that he can pilfer some food.

Bluto's a bit more aggressive than Popeye, but they're not playing hero and villain this time, just two straight-men for J. Wellington Wimpy, the comic compilation of the worst traits of W. C. Fields, Stan Laurel, and Oliver Hardy.

It's clear from the film why the cartoonists preferred the more action-oriented Popeye, but it's nice to know that they gave Wimpy his due at least once.

Bluto runs a greasy spoon. For some reason, Wimpy is hanging around, eating up all the profits. When he sabotages all the efforts of his boss, Popeye, a customer, is furious. Soon he and Bluto have it out. There are great sight gags and it is quite original.

The man reason that the early Popeye cartoons were popular was that the characters were depicted as ordinary working-class types in everyday urban surroundings, which many in the Depression era could identify with. This more or less ended when Paramount bought out the series in the early 1940's and put their own take on it.

Very popular among viewers were the asides mumbled by the voice of Popeye Jack Mercer. The quick-witted Mercer would often ad-lib these asides randomly. Some needed to be edited out, because they wouldn't get past the censor, but most were left in as-is. Mercer continued to voice Popeye, except when overseas during World War 2, until his death in 1984.

Gus Wickie was the voice of Bluto in about 20 of the early cartoons. When the Fleischer brothers moved from New York City to Florida, Wickie decided to stay in The Big Apple, where could more-easily find work as an entertainer.

In this cartoon, and others in the series, Wickie was also allowed to ad-lib asides, which were also popular with the public. Neither Wickie's predecessor, William Pennell, nor his successor, the talented Jackson Beck, opted much for the same ad-libbing,

Also, the character of Wimpy had a more prominent role in this cartoon than in others during the era.

The interaction and dialog between the three is among the best in the series.

Popeye goes into Bluto's diner and tries to order roast duck. However, Wimpy is the waiter, and he tries to mooch everything... especially the hamburgers.

Lou Fleischer provides Wimpy's voice, and yes, he was a relative of Max and Dave: their brother. There was a lot of nepotism in Hollywood at the time; Universal was famous for it under 'Uncle' Carl Laemmle. The Fleischers had brothers-in-laws, nephews, and such on the payroll, but they definitely earned their keep.

As is often the case with the Fleischer cartoons in this period, you had to keep an attentive eye open for all the throwaway gags that Dave instructed his staff to put in.