The Man on the Flying Trapeze

Plot synopsis:
Ambrose Wolfinger works as a "memory expert" for a manufacturing company's president; he keeps files of details about all the people President Malloy (Oscar Apfel) meets with, so that Malloy will never be embarrassed about not remembering things when meeting with them. Ambrose supports himself, his shrewish wife Leona (Kathleen Howard), his loving daughter Hope (from a previous marriage; played by Mary Brian), his freeloading brother-in-law Claude (Grady Sutton), and his abusive mother-in-law Cordelia (Vera Lewis).
At the start of the film, two burglars, played by Tammany Young and Walter Brennan, break into Ambrose's cellar late at night, get drunk on his homemade applejack, and start singing "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away"; Ambrose is forced to handle the situation, and he winds up being arrested for distilling liquor without a license. This is done on the order of the night court judge hearing the case. He forgets about dealing with the burglars. While on the way to the night court Ambrose talks about the wrestling match scheduled for that day and demonstrates an "unbreakable" hold on the neighborhood watch policeman who arrested the burglars. The policeman throws him into the street. When he asks Ambrose if he hurt him, Ambrose asks him how someone could be hurt by being dropped on his head.
The next day, Ambrose falsely tells Malloy that Cordelia had died from drinking poisoned liquor, and asks for the afternoon off to attend the funeral; in fact, he wants to go to see the big wrestling match. Malloy, touched by Ambrose's tale, lets him go for the day, and Ambrose's immediate supervisor, Mr. Peabody (Lucien Littlefield), tells all the other employees the tragic news so they can pay their respects to the family. In fact, Ambrose does not explicitly say that his mother-in-law died from poisoned liquor. Rather, when his employer asks him how she died, he begins to improvise a story. He says she was taken with a "chill" and that he poured her a drink. Then Malloy interrupts him and, assuming it was the liquor that killed her, says excitedly that he has read in the paper recently of many instances of people dying from poisoned liquor. Ambrose is too timid to contradict him.
Throughout that day, Ambrose has one problem after another: He has encounters with ticket-writing policemen and cars that are parked too close to his; he finds himself chasing a tire along railroad tracks and narrowly avoids getting hit by an electric interurban car; and while trying to get into the wrestling arena (Claude had stolen his ticket earlier), he gets knocked down by a wrestler who is thrown out of the building by his opponent.
Later that day, Ambrose comes home to find that Cordelia and Leona are furious about seeing Cordelia's obituary in the newspaper and receiving a huge amount of flowers, sympathy cards, and funeral wreaths. Claude sees Ambrose sprawled on the sidewalk after he is knocked over by a wrestler. Ambrose's secretary, who had been in the wrestling match audience (she said her mother is a friend of the contender, a Turk named Hookalaka Meshobbab) is bent over him expressing her concern over his injury. When Claude returns home ahead of Ambrose, he falsely tell his mother and his sister that he saw Ambrose and the secretary "drunk in the gutter". Furthermore, Peabody calls to say that Ambrose is fired because of his deception. Ambrose, who has been meek and mild through the entire film, finally has had enough, and in a rare moment of overt violence for Fields' characters, knocks Claude unconscious, and frightens his wife and mother-in-law into hiding. The angry Ambrose wants to beat them also ("I'll knock 'em for a row of lib-labs"), but soon he and his daughter leave the house to go live elsewhere.
Later, Malloy demands that Peabody rehire Ambrose because no one else can figure out Wolfinger's filing system; Hope answers the telephone, and says (falsely) that Ambrose has a better offer from another company. After some bargaining, Ambrose is rehired with a huge raise in pay and four weeks' vacation. Meanwhile, Leona realizes that she still loves Ambrose, scolds Claude for his laziness, and stands up to her disagreeable mother.
The film ends with Ambrose taking the family for a ride in his new car. Hope and Leona ride inside the car with him, while Claude and Cordelia ride in the rumble seat during a heavy rain.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
A Singing Popeye Cartoon.
This is an unusual Popeye cartoon in that 98 percent of the dialog is sung - and all of it one song: "The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trepeze." It gets to be a little much after awhile and I'm glad this sort of thing wasn't the normal fare.
In fact, I don't if it ever was done again in a Popeye animated short.
You can't use any verbal jokes or add to the story when all you are doing is repeating verses of the same song over and over.However, the sight gags are very good in the beginning before the "trapeze song" took over, as Popeye sails an ocean liner through the dock and down the main street of a big city, right to Olive's house.
We also see something else unique (at least, I've never seen her): what looks to be Olive Oyl's mom.
It's a shorter, fatter and older version of Olive.
She sings to Popeye that Olive has run off with the "man in the flying...."Fortunately, the circus is right across the street so Popeye takes a bunch of nearby street kids to the tent, watches the big musclebound guy on the trapeze swing a terrified Oliver around like a wet towel, and then goes to get his girl.
The ending is funny and unexpected.
Olive really took her lumps in this episode!.
Popeye at the circus.
Dave Fleischer was responsible for many gems.
Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.'The Man on the Flying Trapeze' is not quite one of the best Popeye cartoons to me.
It is extremely well done though and has a lot going for it.
Have always enjoyed many of the Popeye cartoons a good deal and like Popeye very much, Fleischer's efforts were always well animated and scored with lots of entertainment value and great chemistry between the characters.
'The Man on the Flying Trapeze' has much of what makes the Popeye series so appealing in its prime era and does nothing to waste the three main characters or make them less interesting.
Bluto is missed but Wimpy works well here.The story is an interesting and beautifully paced one, never being dull, if formulaic (not uncommon with the Popeye cartoons).
The material make it even more entertaining, 'The Man on the Flying Trapeze' is non-stop fast-paced fun, avoiding the trap of repetition.
It has to be said though that the titular character is a bland one and the one exception to the animation being good, unappealingly and hastily drawn.The characters are great generally, apart from the titular character.
There is a lot of energy here and the danger and excitement of the circus setting is well realised.
Popeye is always amusing and likeable and Wimpy is great support and the best character here.
The circus is like its own character too.Furthermore, the animation is beautifully drawn and with enough visual detail to not make it cluttered or static and lively and smooth movement.
The music is also outstanding, lots of merry energy and lush orchestration, adding a lot to the action and making the impact even better without being too cartoonish.
Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it.Voice acting is dynamic and of very good quality, Mae Questel is a good fit for Olive Oyl, the voice that most sticks in my mind for the character and who voiced her the best, but William Costello is even better.Overall, very good.
8/10 Bethany Cox. A bit of a letdown.
While "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" features a villain other than Bluto, it is a substandard cartoon of the day.
Much of this is because the title character is poorly animated and creepy looking.
Additionally, I am not a huge fan of singing in cartoons--and there's a bit too much of it for my taste.The story itself features perhaps the grandest entrance by Popeye ever.
However, after all that, he finds that Olive Oyl isn't home--she's joined the circus.
Popeye goes to investigate and finds her boss, the trapeze artist, is a bit of a Bluto-like character--so Popeye does his usual routing--taking spinach and delivering a huge butt-whipping.
All in all, a decent cartoon but just not as well made as you'd expect..
Good Short.
Man on the Flying Trapeze, The (1934) *** (out of 4) Unusual Popeye cartoon has him sailing in to ask Olive Oyl out but she's left him for the title character.
Popeye then goes to the circus to see the man and gets into a battle.
This is a rather unusual short because the majority of the dialogue comes from singing.
The songs in the film are very good and most of the charm comes from them.
There's your typical nice animation and some very good direction in the storytelling and that includes some very good fight scenes in the air.
There's also a funny sequence with a woman whom I'm guessing is Olive's mother.
we also get Wimpy as the announcer at the circus.
This isn't the best Popeye short I've seen but the strange musical numbers make it work watching..
One of the best in the series!.
William Costello (Popeye), Mae Questel (Olive Oyl).
Other characters include Wimpy, the man on the flying trapeze, three urchins, and a cat.Director: DAVE FLEISCHER.
Based on characters created by Segar.
Animators: Willard Bowsky, Dave Tendlar.
Title song revised (from an 1868 tune) by Walter O'Keefe.Copyright 29 March 1934 by Paramount Productions, Inc. A "Popeye the Sailor" cartoon.
1 reel.NOTES: One of the few Popeyes in which Bluto does not appear, his usual villainous place being here usurped by the title character.COMMENT: A delightful musical entry in the series, with Jack Mercer and company in fine voice as they reprise the title song amidst the perils of the big top.
We love the three youngsters (and the cat) whom Popeye helps into the circus.
Some wonderful sight gags ensue from this confrontation, in which Wimpy figures as ringmaster, alternately blowing a whistle (in his left hand) and eating a hamburger (in his right).This entry also provides a rousing rendition of the title song - nicely orchestrated and vocalized - which occupies just about all the film's running time, which makes this entry one of the most pleasing and must-sees of the whole series.
As usual, Olive gets the thin end of the stick.
Not only is she stretched and booted from trapeze bar to horizontal, but Popeye misses her as she plummets from the high wire.
But on the other hand, he does catch her on first bounce.