The Lady in Red (1935 film)

Last updated

The Lady in Red
Directed by I. Freleng
Produced by Leon Schlesinger
StarringThe Varsity Three
Bernard B. Brown
Count Cutelli
Jeanne Dunne
Edited by Treg Brown
Music byBernard Brown
Norman Spencer
Animation by Bob McKimson
Ben Clopton
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • September 7, 1935 (1935-09-07)
Running time
7 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Lady in Red is a 1935 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Friz Freleng. [1] The short was released on September 7, 1935. [2]

Contents

The film score was composed by Bernard B. Brown and Norman Spencer. The two-strip Technicolor was credited on the reissue.

The cartoon follows the early custom of Warner Bros. cartoons in being built around (and thus pushing) a melody from the Warners catalog, in this case, a song called "The Lady in Red" from the 1935 Warner film In Caliente (also known as Viva Señorita). [3]

Plot

The film features the antics of a society of cockroaches in a Mexican café in the absence of its owner. The owner Manuel is reportedly "off to the bullfights".

The film opens with an instrumental of the title song, but interrupts the song with a solo performed by the gondolier cockroach hero. He sings the 1926 John Stepan Zamecnik-Harry D. Kerr composition, "Neapolitan Nights". The title song begins again and is interrupted with a solo by a cockroach parody of Rudy Vallee. He sings the Al Dubin-Harry Warren song, "Sweet Music" from the 1935 Warner Bros. film of the same name,

The scene shifts to a rendition of the title song by a cockroach chorus. They are performing as the background singers to a lady cockroach, who performs as dancer. Her "red velvet gown" consists of a scarlet meat frill. The rest of the film is devoted to the attempts of a parrot to make off with the cockroach heroine. His plans are foiled by the hero.

Home video release

This cartoon was included as an extra on the Blu-ray release of the film Joe's Apartment . [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Merrie Melodies</i> Cartoon series owned by Warner Bros. (1931–1969 and 1988–1997)

Merrie Melodies is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the Looney Tunes franchise and featured many of the same characters. It originally ran from August 2, 1931, to September 20, 1969, during the golden age of American animation, though it was revived in 1979, with new shorts sporadically released until June 13, 1997. Originally, Merrie Melodies placed emphasis on one-shot color films in comparison to the black-and-white Looney Tunes films. After Bugs Bunny became the breakout character of Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes transitioned to color production in the early 1940s, the two series gradually lost their distinctions and shorts were assigned to each series randomly.

<i>Bugs and Thugs</i> 1954 animated short film directed by Friz Freleng

Bugs and Thugs is a 1954 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on March 13, 1954, and stars Bugs Bunny, with Rocky and Mugsy. The film is a semi-remake of the 1946 cartoon Racketeer Rabbit. It is also the first Warner Bros short to feature Milt Franklyn as a musical director.

<i>Life with Feathers</i> 1945 film

Life with Feathers is a 1945 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on March 24, 1945, and is the first cartoon to feature Sylvester the Cat.

<i>I Havent Got a Hat</i> 1935 film

I Haven't Got a Hat is a 1935 animated short film, directed by Isadore Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of the Merrie Melodies series. Released on March 2, 1935, the short is notable for featuring the first appearance of several Warner Bros. cartoon characters, most notably future cartoon star Porky Pig. Beans the Cat, a minor Looney Tunes star in 1935-1936, also made his first appearance in this cartoon.

<i>Hiawathas Rabbit Hunt</i> 1941 Bugs Bunny cartoon

Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt is a 1941 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. Mel Blanc voiced all characters. This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (cartoons), but lost to Walt Disney's Lend a Paw. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short makes several direct references to The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

<i>I Love to Singa</i> 1936 film

I Love to Singa is a 1936 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery. The short was released on July 18, 1936.

<i>Book Revue</i> 1946 film by Bob Clampett

Book Revue is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The cartoon was released on January 5, 1946, and features Daffy Duck.

<i>She Was an Acrobats Daughter</i> 1937 film

She Was an Acrobat's Daughter is an animated short in the Merrie Melodies series, produced by Vitaphone Productions and released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. on April 10, 1937. This animated short was directed by I. Freleng and produced by Leon Schlesinger. The short is currently available to stream on Max and is a part of the Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and iTunes releases of Goodfellas as a part of a Merrie Melodies & Looney Tunes bonus features compilation.

<i>The Scarlet Pumpernickel</i> 1950 film by Chuck Jones

The Scarlet Pumpernickel is a 1950 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon was released on March 4, 1950, and stars Daffy Duck along with a number of other prominent Looney Tunes characters. The title is a play on the 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel.

<i>Lady, Play Your Mandolin!</i> 1931 film

Lady, Play Your Mandolin! is the first Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Rudolf Ising of Harman and Ising. The short was released in August 1931, and stars Foxy, a character who appeared in three 1931 shorts.

<i>Katnip Kollege</i> 1938 American film

Katnip Kollege is a 1938 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Cal Howard and Cal Dalton. The short was released on June 11, 1938.

"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is a song written in 1937 by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin and published by Harms Inc., New York. It is best known as the theme tune for the Looney Tunes cartoon series and Merrie Melodies reissued cartoon series produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, used from 1937 to 1969.

<i>Show Biz Bugs</i> 1957 film

Show Biz Bugs is a 1957 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated short directed by Friz Freleng and featuring Mel Blanc. The short was released on November 2, 1957, and stars Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

<i>Mad as a Mars Hare</i> 1963 film

Mad as a Mars Hare is a 1963 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble. The short was released on October 19, 1963, and stars Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian. The cartoon's title is a play-on-words of the phrase "mad as a March hare". This is Marvin's final appearance in the Looney Tunes shorts during the Golden Age of American Animation.

"The Lady in Red" is a 1935 song with lyrics by Mort Dixon and music by Allie Wrubel. Its title may have been inspired by Ana Cumpănaș, referred to in newspapers at the time as the "lady in red." She was in the company of John Dillinger just before he was shot by the FBI in July 1934, and was said to have betrayed him to the law. The song makes no mention of such subject matter, and it is written in a quasi-Latin rhumba style.

My Green Fedora is a 1935 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on May 4, 1935.

<i>Wholly Smoke</i> 1938 animated short film by Frank Tashlin

Wholly Smoke is a 1938 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin. The short was released on August 27, 1938, and stars Porky Pig.

Beauty and the Beast is a 1934 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film, directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on April 14, 1934.

<i>Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3</i> 2014 American cartoon anthology

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3 is a Blu-ray and DVD release by Warner Home Video. It contains 50 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements. It was released on Blu-ray on August 12, 2014, and was released on DVD on November 4, 2014.

Looney Tunes Collector's Choice is a series of Blu-ray discs from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Warner Archive division collecting various Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical animated short subjects from Warner Bros. Cartoons. According to Jerry Beck, the aim of this series is to release Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts that have been previously unavailable in restored form to animation fans and collectors on the various DVD and Blu-ray sets, such as the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Looney Tunes Super Stars, and Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection sets. Roughly 400 shorts had yet to be released in said DVD or Blu-ray format before the release of this series, but the series also includes shorts that were previously released as bonus features on various Warner Bros. DVDs. However those shorts included as bonus features were usually presented in unrestored form, whereas the Collector’s Choice series uses newly restored versions.

References

  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 39. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 104–106. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. In Caliente (1935)
  4. Gonzales, Dillon. "'Joe's Apartment' Blu-Ray Review – Jerry O'Connell Cockroach Comedy Is Given The Platinum Treatment". Geek Vibes Nation. Retrieved 2 February 2024.