This is an early sound cartoon produced by the Van Beuren studio. There will be spoilers ahead:
This is an early sound cartoon from the Van Beuren studio, with Paul Terry and Amadee J. Van Beuren listed as producers. The sound is pretty typical of 1929. It was still a novelty then and it's a bit exaggerated and emphasized in spots. Some of the silent conventions are retained, as words are occasionally written on screen when characters speak.
I almost got the feeling I was watching two separate shorts, as the first half and the second half are tenuously connected by one character. Personally, I think the cartoon turns out this way primarily because it looks like the director(s) got painted into a corner, couldn't figure any other way out and just had a minor character take off and came up with the second half so as to not have to discard the earlier footage. The earlier footage is actually better than the part which has a plot (what little there is to the plot).
The short begins with a fly orchestra and has one or two good gags and some reused footage. It then jumps incongruously to a fly patrol cop directing traffic to detour flies around a sheet of fly paper. A fly on a velocipede manages to get stuck and the whole thing unravels into a mess due to his carelessness and the poor planning of other flies.
At this point comes the departure of the fly on the velocipede, who simply abandons the scene by flying off and not giving the other flies a second thought. He puts on a top hat and calls a girl fly to say he'll be by soon. He walks past Bill Beetle, who's washing up (there's a nice gag here) and Bill starts following him The fly hides next to a cask of Apple Cider as Bill runs by him. The fly gets soaked by a drop of the cider and immediately gets drunk-and brave enough to go kick Bill. After some aggressive gestures by the fly, Bill runs off and the now drunken fly heads off to his girl's, where we see here becoming increasingly angry and upset at his lateness.
Cue cartoon peril the second (and more serious) in the form of a spider, who spots her, grabs her and runs off with her. Her screams get the attention of her tardy beau and he gives chase. Even though the spider is cowering and has thrust the girl fly forward, our "hero" draws a pistol and shoots, missing the girl, hitting the spider and insuring a happy ending for everyone except the spider.
This short can be found on the Classics From the Van Beuren Studio Blu-Ray/DVD release from Thunderbean Animation. The disc is well worth getting and this short is worth watching.
This is an early sound cartoon from the Van Beuren studio, with Paul Terry and Amadee J. Van Beuren listed as producers. The sound is pretty typical of 1929. It was still a novelty then and it's a bit exaggerated and emphasized in spots. Some of the silent conventions are retained, as words are occasionally written on screen when characters speak.
I almost got the feeling I was watching two separate shorts, as the first half and the second half are tenuously connected by one character. Personally, I think the cartoon turns out this way primarily because it looks like the director(s) got painted into a corner, couldn't figure any other way out and just had a minor character take off and came up with the second half so as to not have to discard the earlier footage. The earlier footage is actually better than the part which has a plot (what little there is to the plot).
The short begins with a fly orchestra and has one or two good gags and some reused footage. It then jumps incongruously to a fly patrol cop directing traffic to detour flies around a sheet of fly paper. A fly on a velocipede manages to get stuck and the whole thing unravels into a mess due to his carelessness and the poor planning of other flies.
At this point comes the departure of the fly on the velocipede, who simply abandons the scene by flying off and not giving the other flies a second thought. He puts on a top hat and calls a girl fly to say he'll be by soon. He walks past Bill Beetle, who's washing up (there's a nice gag here) and Bill starts following him The fly hides next to a cask of Apple Cider as Bill runs by him. The fly gets soaked by a drop of the cider and immediately gets drunk-and brave enough to go kick Bill. After some aggressive gestures by the fly, Bill runs off and the now drunken fly heads off to his girl's, where we see here becoming increasingly angry and upset at his lateness.
Cue cartoon peril the second (and more serious) in the form of a spider, who spots her, grabs her and runs off with her. Her screams get the attention of her tardy beau and he gives chase. Even though the spider is cowering and has thrust the girl fly forward, our "hero" draws a pistol and shoots, missing the girl, hitting the spider and insuring a happy ending for everyone except the spider.
This short can be found on the Classics From the Van Beuren Studio Blu-Ray/DVD release from Thunderbean Animation. The disc is well worth getting and this short is worth watching.
