Thursday 26 March 2020

Fred is Falling For You

Betty Boop’s Prize Show is her version of an 1890s Western melodrama, except she is performing it as a play in a small town theatre. This gives Dave Fleischer and the writers a chance to toss in some theatre gags.

One is when the bad guy punches Fearless Fred out the door and over a cliff. As he falls, it’s revealed the falling effect is pure theatre, as the stagehands operating the rolling background are revealed.



The backdrop restored, Fred falls toward the rocks below, but swims in place in mid-air until he can attach the branch that breaks his fall. (Don’t ask what happened to the board holding Fred aloft. It was only there for the sake of the gag. The gag’s done).



Myron Waldman and Lillian Friedman are the credited animators.

1 comment:

  1. Someone at Warners must have liked the moving background gag, since it showed up 15 years later in Freleng's color re-do of "Porky in Wackyland" (in place of Porky going down a pipe and emerging as a drop of water in Clanpett's original version).

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