Minnie the Moocher (film)

Minnie the Moocher
Minnie the Moocher
	Original opening card
Directed by	Dave Fleischer
Produced by	Max Fleischer
Starring	Cab Calloway and His Orchestra; Mae Questel; Margie Hines
Animation by	Willard Bowsky; Ralph Somerville; Bernard Wolf
Color process	Black-and-white
Production; company	Fleischer Studios
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	February 26, 1932;
Running time	8 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Minnie the Moocher is a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures.^[2]

In 1994, Minnie the Moocher was voted #20 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.^[3]

Plot

The cartoon opens with a live action sequence of the famous black musician Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing an instrumental rendition of "St. James Infirmary".^[4] Betty Boop gets into an argument with her strict immigrant parents^[5] when she will not eat the traditional Hasenpfeffer. She runs away with her puppy boyfriend Bimbo, and sings excerpts of the Harry Von Tilzer song "They Always Pick on Me" and the song "Mean to Me". Koko the Clown from the earlier short Out of the Inkwell makes a cameo appearance as Betty writes her note.

Betty and Bimbo end up in a cave where a walrus-like apparition appears (voiced by Calloway), who sings "Minnie the Moocher" and dances to the melancholy song. Calloway is joined in the performance by other ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and other creatures. Betty and Bimbo are subjected to skeletons drinking at a bar; ghost prisoners sitting in electric chairs; a cat with empty eye-sockets feeding her equally empty-eyed kittens; and so on. Betty and Bimbo both change their minds about running away and rush back home with the ghouls in hot pursuit. Betty makes it safely back to her home and hides under the blankets of her bed. As she shakes in terror, the note she earlier wrote to her parents tears, leaving "Home Sweet Home" on it. The film ends with Calloway performing the instrumental "Vine Street Blues".

Cast

Mae Questel/Margie Hines as Betty Boop
Margie Hines as Betty's mother
Claude Reese as Bimbo
William Pennell as Betty's father^[6]
Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra as Cavern Monsters

Reception

The Film Daily, on January 10, 1932, wrote: "This Max Fleischer musical cartoon is one of the best turned out so far with the cute pen-and-ink star, Betty Boop, who seems to be getting more sexy and alluring each time, and her boyfriend, Bimbo. The musical portion is supplied by Cab Calloway and his orchestra, and what these boys can't do to the 'Minnie the Moocher' number isn't worth mentioning. Cab and his boys are shown only for a brief moment at the opening. Then a cartoon character, a big walrus with serpentine hips, performs the gyrations to the tune of the 'Minnie' song. The effect is short of a knockout, especially to those who are familiar with Cab's stuff on the radio or stage or night club. Betty Boop's part in the action concerns her running away from home because of her bad parents. With Bimbo she goes into a cave, where spooky figures and eerie noise give them such a scare that they beat it back home".^[7]

Notes

Clips of the redrawn colorized version were used in the compilation film Betty Boop for President: The Movie (1980).
In a scene from the film Look Who's Talking Too (1990) there is a little Mickey watching this cartoon on TV.

References

^ Scott, Keith (2022). Cartoon Voices from the Golden Age, 1930-70. BearManor Media. p. 332. ISBN 979-8-88771-010-5.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 142. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
^ Beck, Jerry (1994). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Turner Publishing. ISBN 978-1878685490.
^ Vilas-Boas, Eric; Maher, John, eds. (October 5, 2020). "The 100 Sequences That Shaped Animation". Vulture. The film was a follow-up to Calloway's popular Minnie the Moocher Fleischer short from the year prior, which opened with live footage of Calloway dancing before rendering him into a walrus.
^ Hunt, Kristin (August 29, 2019). "Remaking Betty Boop in the Image of a Housewife". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
^ Pointer, Ray (June 9, 2017). The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer. McFarland. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-4766-2741-0. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
^ Sampson, Henry T. (1998). That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960. Scarecrow Press. pp. 188–189. ISBN 978-0810832503.

External links

[1] Scott, Keith (2022). Cartoon Voices from the Golden Age, 1930-70. BearManor Media. p. 332. ISBN 979-8-88771-010-5.

[2] Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 142. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.

[3] Beck, Jerry (1994). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Turner Publishing. ISBN 978-1878685490.

[4] Vilas-Boas, Eric; Maher, John, eds. (October 5, 2020). "The 100 Sequences That Shaped Animation". Vulture. The film was a follow-up to Calloway's popular Minnie the Moocher Fleischer short from the year prior, which opened with live footage of Calloway dancing before rendering him into a walrus.

[5] Hunt, Kristin (August 29, 2019). "Remaking Betty Boop in the Image of a Housewife". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved April 3, 2022.

[6] Pointer, Ray (June 9, 2017). The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer. McFarland. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-4766-2741-0. Retrieved August 12, 2022.

[Enough-7] Sampson, Henry T. (1998). That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960. Scarecrow Press. pp. 188–189. ISBN 978-0810832503.

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v t e Betty Boop films
1932	Stopping the Show Betty Boop's Bizzy Bee Betty Boop, M.D. Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle Betty Boop's Ups and Downs Betty Boop for President Minnie the Moocher I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You Betty Boop's Museum
1933	Betty Boop's Ker-Choo Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions Is My Palm Read? Betty Boop's Penthouse Snow-White Betty Boop's Birthday Party Betty Boop's May Party Betty Boop's Big Boss Mother Goose Land Popeye the Sailor The Old Man of the Mountain I Heard Morning, Noon and Night Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
1934	She Wronged Him Right Red Hot Mamma Ha! Ha! Ha! Betty in Blunderland Betty Boop's Rise to Fame Betty Boop's Trial Betty Boop's Life Guard Poor Cinderella There's Something About a Soldier Betty Boop's Little Pal Betty Boop's Prize Show Keep in Style When My Ship Comes In
1935	Baby Be Good Taking the Blame Stop That Noise Swat the Fly No! No! A Thousand Times No!! A Little Soap and Water A Language All My Own Betty Boop and Grampy Judge for a Day Making Stars Betty Boop with Henry, the Funniest Living American
1936	Little Nobody Betty Boop and the Little King Not Now Betty Boop and Little Jimmy We Did It A Song a Day More Pep You're Not Built That Way Happy You and Merry Me Training Pigeons Grampy's Indoor Outing Be Human Making Friends
1937	House Cleaning Blues Whoops! I'm a Cowboy The Hot Air Salesman Pudgy Takes a Bow-Wow Pudgy Picks a Fight! The Impractical Joker Ding Dong Doggie The Candid Candidate Service with a Smile The New Deal Show The Foxy Hunter Zula Hula
1938	Riding the Rails Be Up to Date Honest Love and True Out of the Inkwell The Swing School Pudgy and the Lost Kitten Buzzy Boop Pudgy the Watchman Buzzy Boop at the Concert Sally Swing On with the New Thrills and Chills
1939	My Friend the Monkey So Does an Automobile Musical Mountaineers The Scared Crows Rhythm on the Reservation

v t e Cab Calloway
Singles	"Saint Louis Blues" (1930) "Minnie the Moocher" (1931) "St. James Infirmary" (1931) "Nobody's Sweetheart" (1931) "Six or Seven Times" (1931) "You Rascal, You" (1931) "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" (1931) "Reefer Man" (1932) "I've Got the World on a String" (1932) "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (1933) "(Hep Hep!) The Jumpin' Jive" (1939) "Bye Bye Blues" (1941) "Blues in the Night" (1942) "The Honeydripper" (1946) "Little Child" (1956) "History Repeats Itself" (1966) "Minnie the Moocher" (1978)
Musical shorts	Minnie the Moocher (1932) Snow-White (1933) The Old Man of the Mountain (1933) Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934) Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935) Alright (1990)
Band members	Eddie Barefield Danny Barker Mario Bauzá Chu Berry Jerry Blake Andrew Brown Doc Cheatham Cozy Cole Shad Collins R.Q. Dickerson Panama Francis Dizzy Gillespie Tyree Glenn J. C. Heard Milt Hinton Quentin Jackson Illinois Jacquet Hilton Jefferson Keg Johnson Claude Jones Jonah Jones Al Morgan Rudy Powell Ike Quebec Reuben Reeves Edwin Swayze Walter Thomas Ben Webster Morris White Lammar Wright Sr.
Related topics	The Cab Calloway Orchestra Blanche Calloway Camay Calloway Murphy Sunset Cafe The Missourians Cotton Club Hepcat Jive talk Zoot suit Jitterbug Cab Calloway School of the Arts "Hi-De-Ho"