Review of Boilesk

Boilesk (1933)
10/10
Someone Did Their Research For This One
11 September 2009
A year before the Production Code enforcement really began, there were lots of sexy movies being produced and the Fleischer Brothers, working for Paramount, did a lot of cartoons with overt sexual content: just think of Betty Boop. So this Screen Song, showing an abbreviated cartoon burlesque show, is right in there, with its black-out gags, its pneumatic chorines -- typified as hippopotami -- and even a stripper. The gags are spot on and the cartoon variations are spot on. There is, of course, a stripper, even though she never gets much nakeder than her Merry Widows.

The live section is the Watson Sisters -- I'm unfamiliar with them outside this effort. They sing the title song, the pretty one as a ballad, the older one as a burlesque in which she is rescued from a literal fire by a fireman named MacGuire.

All in all, a hoot. If you have any interest in cartoons, burlesque or pre-code movies, this is a wonderful short.
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