This is a color short done by Van Beuren studio. There will be spoilers ahead:
This short had potential and in the hands of a better studio and/or a better director, something more effective might have been done. Van Beuren was one of the lower-tier studios in the 1930s. While the studio had some good shorts in their time, this is a misfire, which is too bad, because the premise was a good one.
The short starts out showing how cupids prepare themselves to make people fall in love. Col. Dan Cupid oversees the enterprise and sends lower-ranked Cupids out on assignment, giving them "mugshots" of couples to pierce with arrows. There's a stereotypical black cupid speaking in dialect some might be perturbed by in here briefly.
One agent comes back on a stretcher, reporting a failure to unite in "bliss" a pair drawn as caricatures of W.C. Fields and Edna May Oliver, a confirmed bachelor and dedicated spinster. The scenes where they do battle, first with each other and then against the forces of love are reasonably good, though the caricatures themselves are average. The two character actors were among the most easily done caricatures, but they aren't done with much sharpness. There's a nice gag involving a checkered tablecloth and a pair of long johns.
It's with the Cupids where the cartoon becomes flat, particularly Dan Cupid. He needs the starch taken out of his spine. He launches an all-out attack on the two, who don't wish to marry anyone, let alone one another. The ending, a largely predictable outcome, is poorly handled and a running gag with a doctor stork (I believe this is a caricature of some radio personality, but I don't know who it is) doesn't really work very well.
This short is available on DVD and online as well. It's worth a look.
This short had potential and in the hands of a better studio and/or a better director, something more effective might have been done. Van Beuren was one of the lower-tier studios in the 1930s. While the studio had some good shorts in their time, this is a misfire, which is too bad, because the premise was a good one.
The short starts out showing how cupids prepare themselves to make people fall in love. Col. Dan Cupid oversees the enterprise and sends lower-ranked Cupids out on assignment, giving them "mugshots" of couples to pierce with arrows. There's a stereotypical black cupid speaking in dialect some might be perturbed by in here briefly.
One agent comes back on a stretcher, reporting a failure to unite in "bliss" a pair drawn as caricatures of W.C. Fields and Edna May Oliver, a confirmed bachelor and dedicated spinster. The scenes where they do battle, first with each other and then against the forces of love are reasonably good, though the caricatures themselves are average. The two character actors were among the most easily done caricatures, but they aren't done with much sharpness. There's a nice gag involving a checkered tablecloth and a pair of long johns.
It's with the Cupids where the cartoon becomes flat, particularly Dan Cupid. He needs the starch taken out of his spine. He launches an all-out attack on the two, who don't wish to marry anyone, let alone one another. The ending, a largely predictable outcome, is poorly handled and a running gag with a doctor stork (I believe this is a caricature of some radio personality, but I don't know who it is) doesn't really work very well.
This short is available on DVD and online as well. It's worth a look.
