She Done Him Right

The 1890s was one of those times for which people were nostalgic — and which would have astonished anyone who had to deal with it. The US was in a major depression and the music was soppy and sentimental. What people probably looked back on was there were no automobiles — and the streets were filled with horse manure.In any case, for the movies, the Gay Nineties was the decade in which movies like Mae West’s SHE DONE HIM WRONG and THE BOWERY were set, so Walter Lantz set this musical cartoon starring Pooch the Pup — his answer to the Fleischer’s Bimbo — in that millieu. It starts out with “In the Good Old Summertime” and ends with “Minnie the Moocher’s Wedding Day”. For the first half the gags are sight gags and rather adult and there are some interesting shots, like a camera freeze and a pan shot. About two-thirds of the way through they shift to the more cartoon-standard “rubber tube” animation gags.All in all, it looks like Lantz’ staff couldn’t make up its mind whether they wanted to do a general audience cartoon like the first half or a children’s cartoon.