Medicine Show

I don't know if there were still medicine shows in the depths of the Depression -- those traveling emporia that drew crowds with entertainment and sold their snake oil to whoever was on the street had been a phenomenon of the 19th Century, before the establishment of movies and the Federal Drug Administration drove them out of business. However, they still held the imagination of the audience -- or at least the film makers when Manny Gould and Ben Harrison directed this Krazy Kat cartoon.

Although the gags are good, I don't find them as compelling as probably should. There's a mix of extreme fantasy (sawing a woman in half) and bog- (hot dogs that act like dogs) that don't show up well. When you're dealing with a cartoon in which anything can happen, then you need rules to make the gags stand out. If there are rules here, then they're not the ones I'm familiar with. You may find it more amusing. I certainly hope so.