The storyline is basic. A revamped version of Farmer Alfalfa is trying to sleep but is awoken by a quartet of cats singing “Ida.” To stop them, he calls in the dog catcher, who releases a pile of dogs into his back yard (the dogs beat the crap out of the cats in cycle animation). But then Farmer Al can’t sleep because the dogs start singing to the “Sextette from Lucia.” A Jewish stereotype kicks him in the butt several times, which causes the farmer to go insane, as he dances and sings along with the doggie quartet.
The singing causes him to rise into the air.
Uh, oh. He realises he’s falling to the ground.
After watching the thud to the ground, the dogs resume singing.
They stop and everyone turns to the camera.
Here’s the zoom for two more notes. You’ll notice how the background goes black. You can’t tell with one frame, but these zooming heads always stopped and alternated two drawings, one with wavy lines and one without to animate the vibrato.
After holding the characters, their mouths resume their zoom toward the theatre audience.
John Foster and Mannie Davis get the "by" credit.
I love Van Beuren cartoons, but somehow I managed to miss out on "Midnight" until today. I was very amused to hear two passages from Wagner over the opening credits: one from the Prelude to Act III of "Lohengrin", a cartoon standard, and the other from the aria "O Du mein holder Abendstern" from "Tannhaeuser", which I don't recall ever hearing in a cartoon before. It's ironic, though probably unintentionally so, that Wagner's music was used to introduce a cartoon featuring that of Donizetti.
ReplyDeleteIn 1840, five years after the success of "Lucia di Lammermoor" and its famous sextet, Donizetti was living in Paris, where, after the retirement of Rossini and the death of Bellini, he was lionised as the greatest living Italian opera composer. Also living in Paris, in considerably more straitened circumstances, was young Richard Wagner, who had fled thither from debt collectors in Germany. Desperate for money, Wagner accepted a music publisher's offer of 500 francs to transcribe a piano score to Donizetti's new opera "La favorite", as well as some instrumental arrangements of its musical numbers. Some years later, when Wagner had become famous, the publisher reissued this music with Wagner's name prominently displayed on the covers. Wagner was furious that his name was being used to promote Donizetti's music, but there was nothing he could do about it. For the rest of his life he bitterly disparaged Donizetti as a hack composer.
I was also amused by the trademark Van Beuren mouth-merger in "Midnight". Thank you for bringing this cartoon to my attention.