Today I am posting a cartoon that I had glossed over for years: Betty Boop's Trial (1934). By this point in the series Betty was beginning to tank. This came out around the time of all those disastrous team-up cartoons (Little King, Henry, Little Jimmy) and those infamous yawners (in my opinion anyway) "No No A Thousand Times No" and "She Done Him Wrong". The Waldman credit doesn't exactly encourage curiosity either. So I always skipped over it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered what a filthy (and freaky) little gem this is. If you are checking back regularly you may notice that I sometimes change the text of my posts. That's simply because I'd like this blog to be more about images and video than pontification (which I stink at anyway). So, enjoy the cartoon and may the judge character and his little piggy legs haunt your nightmares for years to come!
A doctored publicity photograph reflected a more demure Betty. The lower image hails from 'Betty Boop's Movie Cartoon Lessons'. By Betty's transitional outfit (see cycle below) I'm guessing the book was published in 1934 - the same year as "Betty Boop's Trial". Incidentally I would say both photos practically define "exquisite".
One Note: There is a brief black-face gag (an Amos N' Andy parody) in "Betty Boop's Trial". I try and avoid such images here (they are covered on other blogs in detail anyway) but sometimes can't as here. The film is kind of a forgotten Betty Boop (and Youtube has only the re-colored version) - so I wanted to post it. And now the cheap jokes...
7 comments:
Neat post. You're a great pontificator. I say don't stop.
I find the cardboard hat difficult to navigate through doorways. And the robes are itchy and smell of nacho cheese. In spite I'll probably continue anyway. Thanks for stopping by!
Speaking of robes, I love that overhead grab of the judge and Betty.
haha ...a great post in my opinion.
Beautiful cartoon. Thanks for posting it!
For some reason I mistakenly clicked 'reject comment' for a reply to this post by Frank M. Young and could not get it back. My apologies - here it is:
Say, a good deal of that courtroom animation is reissued/repurposed from a great 1930 Talkartoon called HOT DOG, in which lecherour reckless driver Bimbo is hauled into court. He gives, as his testimony, "St. Louis Blues" on the banjo, with some hot scat singing, and rides away on said (now ambulatory) banjo at cartoon's end.
The helen kane trial was also in 1934 which makes this seem very odd o.o...
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