Three's a Crowd

This was perhaps one of the earliest of the Merrie Melodie cartoons to feature characters from famous books coming to life which happens here when an old man stops reading one to go to bed. I didn't find much funny here though the music was pretty entertaining and seeing all that action done to it was also pretty good. This was directed by Rudolf Ising who was partnered with Hugh Harmon as co-producers. Their last names make that musical description sound, if you didn't know (Harmon-Ising, harmonizing, get it?). They were partnered with Leon Schlesinger at this time though disagreements over budgets got them leaving him at Warner Bros. and ending up at M-G-M. Anyway, Three's a Crowd is worth a look for any animation buffs out there.

I came across this in my search to see screen representations of Lewis Carroll's Alice books. It's a short Merrie Melody cartoon--basic filler before the feature, for an evening's entertainment of yesteryear. In it, after an old man finishes reading by the fireplace and walks away, presumably to bed, characters from his books emerge from the pages and begin dancing and running around. Appropriately enough, the instigator of this dream-land nonsense is Alice, who turns on the radio to the titular song. In the end, she's attacked by Mr. Hyde, but rescued by Tarzan, Robin Hood and others.

To today's sensibility, the caricatures in this of African Americans is problematic, which, of course, was common back then. Worse still, I think, is Uncle Tom lifted from the pages of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel. Once upon a time, this was a powerful anti-slavery text, but, here, Uncle Tom sings about the South in his soul. He's turned into a singing stereotype. True, all of the literary characters are debased to some extent in this short cartoon, but the Uncle Tom is offensive--more a representation of a minstrel show than the novel where he originated. Alice, on the other hand, makes some sense as a curious girl transported to a dreamworld where she encounters strange creatures. Likewise, Hyde makes sense as a monster chasing after her, as do the literary heroes who rescue her. One, characters from the books; two, caricatures in the cartoon; and, three, stereotypes reflecting racial discrimination--indeed, three's a crowd.

Very few of the cartoons directed by Rudolf Ising -- or his partner, Hugh Harman -- for Merrie Melodies were very good. They were still far too busy trying to create Disney look-alikes (like Bosko, for Mickey Mouse), maintain their contracts and deal with their intermediary, Leon Schlesinger, whom they would shortly try to cut out of the equation and who would reply by raiding their shop and forming the nucleus of Termite Terrace. Nonetheless, they had a few good ideas and this one, in which a man leaves his library and characters emerge from books, would become a staple of cartoons for the next dozen years, leading to pictures set in drug stores, road signs, neon lights and book stores.

This cartoon, therefore, is not very good, but is important enough to warrant your looking at it.