Betty Boop, M.D.
| Betty Boop, M.D. | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Dave Fleischer |
| Produced by | Max Fleischer |
| Animation by | Willard Bowsky Thomas Goodson |
| Color process | Black-and-white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Running time | 7 mins |
Betty Boop, M.D. is a 1932 Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop, and featuring Koko the Clown and Bimbo. The animated short is certainly one of the more surreal entries in the Betty Boop filmography.
Plot
Betty, Bimbo and Koko are the owners of a traveling medicine show. They are selling "Jippo", an all-purpose health tonic. Koko's contortionist display doesn't convince the local townsfolk to open their wallets, but Betty gets the whole town eager to buy their product. Even though it's only water, drinking the tonic causes everyone to exhibit strange side-effects, from unusual hair growth to rapid de-aging or even death.
Music
The animated short features the song "Nobody's Sweetheart", followed by a scat song. The recording artist was long assumed to be Cliff Edwards aka "Ukulele Ike"; it is certainly in the style which he made famous. However, some state it was William Costello, which wouldn't be unlikely, considering he did the voice acting of later Popeye shorts, and that Costello recorded very good imitations of the "Ukulele Ike" style under the pseudonym "Red Pepper Sam".
References
The cartoon's ending makes a reference to "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", a movie adaptation which was released earlier that year by Paramount pictures.