One of the creepiest cartoons I've ever seen is "The Hot Cha Melody" which was released March 15, 1935. By this time the studio was beginning to go into free fall and the quality of the cartoons the year following fell drastically as animators either left Mintz or were shifted from the Krazy Kat and Scrappy series to The Color Rhapsodies. The crew brought in as their replacements had not much talent for either drawing or animating. 1935 was the turning point: an uneven year for the black & white series but still produced some very good and at least one great cartoon in my opinion. This particular entry falls under the heading of "quite good". The 'modified' more boy-like Krazy design is not to everyone's taste but the story of this cartoon is so bizarre and creepy I thought it would be good to share. "You stole my mel-o-dy. You stole my mel-o-dy"
Better be good or the ghost of Robert Schumann will climb a building and kick your ass!
I'm scared ... hide me.
UPDATE: April 2010. The internet sometimes gives up some surprising stuff. Here is a movie review from a 1935 issue of The Ottawa Citizen which mentions 'Hot Cha Melody' opened with the film 'Chinatown Squad' starring Lyle Talbot. How about that! (Click to enlarge)
5 comments:
…and implicit in the happy ending is the notion that Satan was right, after all, to recommend stealing the melody.
This cartoon is kind of evil. Thanks for stopping by!
Those semi-realistic faces among Krazy's more cartoony look also creeps me out. And how about Satan's udder smothering Krazy's face in that last still? Talk about breath Mintz! (last sentence doesn't really work but I wanted to fit it in somehow).
Where did you ever find this? I still remember the terror of Robert Schumann rising from the grave more than 50 years after first seeing this on the old B&W console!
Most of the cartoons on this blog, including 'Hotcha Melody' can be purchased from the Cartoon Research Garage Sale in my links. It's a great cartoon isn't it? I can't imagine what it would have been like seeing this as a child. It scares me as an adult!
Thanks for stopping by!
Post a Comment