A couple of posts ago I asserted that some of the Popeye cartoons from the 40’s and 50’s seem to have a sadistic bent. One thing I’ve noticed they have in common is they were directed by Max Fleischer’s son-in-law, Seymour Kneitel. Here’s another example of sadistic brutality that I recall from childhood.
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“She-Sick Sailors” is from 1944, the year after the last Superman cartoon had been produced by the Fleischer/Famous studio. Note how the Superman “S” emblem is quickly dropped to simplify the animation work. The cartoon features a scene where Bluto challenges Popeye to shoot him with a machine gun, and to let him shoot Popeye in return. When I was a kid I was really bothered by this sequence, and now I realize why.
Unlike the black & white Fleischer cartoons, Bluto was no longer Popeye’s rival for Olive. Instead, he had become a truly evil villain. He intended to cut Popeye to ribbons with the machine gun, then assault and murder Olive. Unreal cartoon violence this isn’t. Perhaps it was an attempt at returning to the Perils of Pauline of the silent movie days, but I now think there’s more psychology behind these flashes of cruelty than just an interest in creating suspense and to entertain.