Screen Gems' She-Wolf

Columbia cartoons may have had problems with stories (Tangled Television and Kongo-Roo anyone?) but the animation was generally pretty good.

Here’s a neat transformation scene from Simple Siren (released Oct. 25, 1945). Man-crazy Vera Vague of the Bob Hope radio show inspired this story by Ed Seward of a homely siren trying to snare a shipwrecked sailor. When the she spots the sailor, she turns into a female wolf.



Wonder whose animation this is? When the siren backs up, you can tell. The multiple eyes and snouts are Don Williams’ stock-in-trade. He gets screen credit on this short, as does Volus Jones.



She transforms back.



Consecutive drawings on twos.



Paul Sommer directed the short, rated “poor” by Film Daily: “The laugh content of this animated cartoon is very limited indeed.” The ending is an Avery-like iris gag which may be the best part of the short.

Sara Berner does her Vera Vague impression as the siren, and John Ployardt/McLeish shows up at the end as a cop. I can't tell if the sea bird is Harry Lang.

P.S. Thanks to Craig Davison for posting this cartoon on YouTube. The version's been edited; there's an odd fade-out a little more than a third of the way through.