Slipping One Past the Censor

Professor Crackpot tells us he bade his wife a fond farewell, but (and here’s the gag) she actually threw him out of the house.



Here’s a throw-away gag. His suitcase bursts open. Inside is a nudie picture.



The cartoon is The Egg Collector, one of Ub Iwerks’ last theatrical cartoons under a contract to Columbia/Screen Gems. (Hmm. Maybe the nude was left over from a Flip the Frog cartoon).

This cartoon gives us a radio reference that’s pure Warner Bros. The professor asks a uniformed guard: “Is this the train to the Gobi Desert?” The Chinese stereotype turns Jewish, specifically into Kitzel from the Al Pearce Show, and answers: “Hmmm...could be.”



Boxoffice magazine’s review is anything but complimentary: “A crackpot professor offers a lecture with the aid of motion pictures. The Technicolor cartoon attempts to satirize similar ventures but instead of being sharp and witty it is dull and preposterous.”

Maybe the best gag is another cultural reference, one involving another cartoon. The narrating professor tells us about spotting “a wild, duck-billed platypus.” Cut to a dinosaur with a duck bill. After looking at the cartoon viewer, he launches into a Donald Duck impersonation, his fists up, and unintelligibly quacking in annoyance just like Clarence Nash.



There’s no animation credit on this, just music credits for Paul Worth and Eddie Kilfeather. Mel Blanc provides a couple of English accents and some other voices.