Another Zooming Head

An outlaw has his eye on Minnie, um, Rita Mouse in the Van Beuren short Western Whoopee (1930). She shakes in shock and grows an exclamation mark. “Don’t you touch me!” says a male falsetto voice.

The villain swats a beer glass off the table.

The outlaw’s head zooms toward the camera. Why? Because it’s a Van Beuren cartoon. For added fun, his pupils swim into the opposite eye.

This has all that you expect in an early sound Fable. A fake Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Skeletons ballet dancing. Mechanical horses. And someone running away into the background. As a bonus, we get a laconic ostrich playing a piano in a tavern.

Milton Mouse disposes of the villain by slicing him with a sword (in a western?) like a cucumber.

The story to the right is from the Pathé Sun of April 5, 1930 (the Van Beuren cartoons were released by Pathé at the time). I can’t tell you anything about the “patented process” but there are seven couples plus the pianist moving in the dancing scene to Gene Rodemich’s score.

The Motion Picture News of April 19, 1930 raved “Don’t Miss This One,” and urged exhibitors to book it.

The frame grabs are from someone’s old VHS dub. The sound Fables deserve restoration for home viewing. Who doesn’t want to see a saloon table come alive, kick a feisty woman out the door and laugh?