Minnie the Moocher (film)
| Minnie the Moocher | |
|---|---|
| File:Minnie the Moocher (1932).webm Still from the film | |
| Directed by | Dave Fleischer |
| Produced by | Max Fleischer |
| Animation by | Willard Bowsky Ralph Somerville |
| Color process | Black-and-white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (National Amusements) |
Running time | 7 mins |
Minnie the Moocher (1932) is a Betty Boop cartoon produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures.[1]
Plot
The cartoon opens with a live action sequence of Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing an instrumental rendition of "St. James Infirmary". Then Betty Boop gets into a fight with her parents, runs away from home with her friend Bimbo, and sings excerpts of the Harry Von Tilzer song "They Always Pick on Me" (1911) and the song "Mean to Me" (1929).
Betty and Bimbo end up in a cave where a walrus, with Cab Calloway's voice, sings "Minnie the Moocher" and dances to the melancholy song. Calloway is joined in the performance by various ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and other frightening things. Betty and Bimbo are subjected to skeletons drinking at a bar; ghost prisoners sitting in electric chairs; a mother cat with skull-like eyes feeding her equally empty-eyed kittens; and so on. Betty and Bimbo both change their minds about running away and rush back home with every ghost right behind them. The film ends with Calloway performing the instrumental "Vine Street Blues".
Notes
Clips of the redrawn colorized version were used in the compilation movie Betty Boop For President: The Movie (1980).