A Spanish Twist has to be the most disjointed Tom and Jerry cartoon from the Van Beuren studio. First, Tom and Jerry are on the ocean menaced by an octopus. Then suddenly they’re in a cantina in Spain where a rubber hose dancer gets the spotlight. Then they’re beating up bulls in a ring with no gags in sight. Suddenly the cartoon is interrupted by an aged Western Union boy. The message?
Yes, Prohibition is over. Hurrah! Tom kisses the Western Union deliverer then kicks him out of the cartoon.
As Gene Rodemich plays “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” on the soundtrack, our heroes (?) row their way back to the U.S.A., the whitecaps forming a glass of beer, then an American flag.
What?! Wait, the cartoon is over? That’s it? I swear the writers and animators partook of a bit too much of now-legal beverages before writing this thing.
John Foster and George Stallings get the “by” credit.
The title tune is a 1926 song called “In a Little Spanish Town (‘Twas on a Night Like This)” written by Sam Lewis, Joe Young and Mabel Wayne. Listen to the Paul Whiteman version below.
On the positive side, the end beer gag did beat the one that closed out "Betty Boop for President" into theaters by about four weeks. My guess is the Fleischer and Van Buren crews may have celebrated the passage of the 21st amendment together at some local speakeasy before working on the cartoons (though at least the rest of Betty's cartoon was coherent...)
ReplyDeletewho ever wrote the gags for this cartoon might have done a good job for surreal humor!
ReplyDeleteBuster Keaton also sang "In a Little Spanish Town" in his first Columbia short subject, "Pest from the West." Here's a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOTWN8apuA8
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