Red Hot Mamma

After a misleadingly innocuous opening this cartoon quickly goes bizarre, and I do mean bizarre. Our plucky heroine Betty Boop makes like Odysseus, visits the Underworld and returns to tell the tale. All the elements of a great Pre-Code Fleischer cartoon are here, from the swinging jazz score and oddball gags to those delightfully gratuitous silhouette images of Betty in her nightgown, striding past the hell-fire. I love the jaunty song she sings, the design of the demons, and the visual pun when Betty turns a "cold shoulder" to Satan himself. Some of these Betty Boop cartoons -- the best ones, I mean -- are so strange they inspire not amusement, exactly, but something closer to queasiness, only it's a pleasant kind of queasiness. Which makes no sense, but neither does Red Hot Mamma. Personally I love the Fleischer output from this period, and find more film-making skill, panache, and sheer rampant imagination in these 7-minute epics than I find in most of D. W. Griffith's features. Plus, Betty is way cuter than Carol Dempster.

Betty Boop literally goes to Hell in this one, as she takes to sleeping by the fireside one cold night and everything around her is set ablaze in the process. Needless to say, the devils (with every new arrival getting fitted with their proverbial tail and horns!) prove to be a lecherous lot – albeit musically-inclined as well (they are seen letting rip during a jazz number). Ironically, given the suggestive title, the heroine wears a dress for much of the duration! Still, when she rebuffs the chief's advances and gives him the cold gaze, the whole place freezes over accordingly…and, suddenly brought back to reality, we realize Betty's house had been extensively damaged from the raging blizzard!

Betty Boop is sleeping when her alarm goes off. It turns out the windows have opened and she is freezing. She goes to her fireplace, throws both logs and coal into it, sets a fire, and goes to sleep in front of the hearth. Suddenly, it gets intensely hot. Several sight gags show the extent. She, herself, goes into the fireplace, tumbles, and finds herself in Hell. But we know how enterprising this woman is and she makes life miserable for the devils. Well done.

I found this cartoon on YouTube and watched it because it said it had been banned. Now whether it really was banned, I have no idea and IMDB makes no mention of this. I would not be too surprised if it had been, as the film came out just before the toughened Production Code was adopted by Hollywood, as it does glamorize Hell...something not explicitely banned by the Code but not exactly in the spirit of it either!

The story begins with Betty sleeping. However, the weather changes and the house is freezing, so she builds a huge fire in the fireplace....and the house becomes like a furnace. Not surprisingly, she now dreams she's in Hell and it's an amazingly nice place all things considered.

As usual, the Fleischer Brothers' animation is top notch even if it is in black & white. As for the story, it's diverting and strange but not among Betty's best. Worth seeing, however, just for the novelty of the story!

This cartoon is a perfect example of the creativity and inventiveness that was possible prior to the advent of the Hays Office and The Code that tamed Betty Boop and made many of the subsequent shorts so much more dull and lifeless. The irony is that Will Hays was a politician who was involved in the Harding administration, which found no rival for corruption until the Nixon administration. Mr. Hays was the last person to lecture anyone on behavior! The details of this cartoon would never have found acceptance under Hays or The Code, so I'm glad it was made and released before all the nonsense went into effect. Wonderful short. In print and available. Well worth watching. Most highly recommended.