Hollywood Capers

Despite the best efforts of the security guard, "Beans" - one of the "Boston Beans" don't you know, manages to smuggle himself into the Warner Bros. Set disguised as Oliver Hardy and to gatecrash a film shoot (which might well have been the best thing that could have happened to it!). With the ambidextrous turtle providing the soundtrack, "Beans" is soon causing chaos and gets chucked out - only to find himself on one of James Whale's fully plugged in Frankenstein sets! Even more mayhem now ensues as the monster wakes up and runs riot. Somehow "Beans" has to put things right whilst there's still studio left standing. It's quite good fun, this animation, with plenty going on and a bit of insider Hollywood humour to keep it a bit different.

Jack King's "Hollywood Capers" came out during the first year in which Warner Bros. animation really had the recognition that it has had ever since. Featuring many of the characters from "I Haven't Got a Hat", it portrays simple-minded feline Beans getting to Warmer (yes, in this case it's Warmer, not Warner) Bros. studios, only to cause a series of problems, culminating in Frankenstein's monster coming to life.

The cartoon has a very simple story - as did most of their cartoons during the animation department's early years - but comes up with some really crazy sight gags, namely Frankie's meal; no live action film, no matter how silly, could ever show that! So, it's far from a great cartoon, but an eye-opening look into the early days of what would soon be the domain of Bugs, Daffy, etc. And it's a neat jab at Hollywood. Speaking of which, why does no one rip at Hollywood more than Hollywood itself?

"Beans," one of Boston Beans (according to him) gets rudely rebuffed from entering "Warmer Brothers" studio. In fact, he gets thrown out twice, once at the entrance in his car, and later, bodily given the heave-ho out of the studio.

There is no real story here, just Beans getting into the studio, accidentally getting in the way, accidentally pulling a switch and bringing the Frankenstein monster to life, and then dealing with him. The "story" has a very abrupt ending.

Humorous moments included the dancing camera on tripod; bartender playing music to cash register keys and the monster eating the camera, spitting it out and adjusting his jaw.

Although there wasn't much to it, I enjoyed it. The scenes were fast-moving and you have to keep in mind this was made over 70 years ago. This was part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3 DVD.

Hollywood Capers (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Warner animation has Beans trying to sneak into their studio but he keeps getting kick out until he decides to dress as Oliver Hardy. Once inside he can't stay out of trouble when he accidentally brings to life Frankenstein's monster. This Looney Tunes short manages to be quite funny from start to finish and the nice pace makes it one of the better shorts I've seen from Beans. His character certainly isn't the greatest thing the company ever made but he has enough innocent charm to make you care for him. The monster here looks pretty good and that includes that square head and it's good to see what those bolts in the side of his neck are really used for. One of the best scenes in the movie has the monster coming towards the camera and screaming right before eating it. The way the animation has this play out is very well done and it's clearly the highlight.

While the Looney Tunes unit at Warner Brothers made the best and most enjoyable shorts of the 1940s and 50s, during the 1930s they were in search of an identity and tried out many different forgettable characters. Bosco came and went as did Beans, the cat star of "Hollywood Capers". The biggest reason these characters didn't do very well was that they were very forgettable and lacked the edge characters like Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny had. When you see "Hollywood Capers", you'll see what I mean in regard to Beans.

The story starts off much like the brilliant "Autograph Hound" from Disney (starring Donald Duck). Both he and Beans are trying to sneak into a film studio to get some autographs. But unlike Donald, Beans does make it into the lot...but once he's there, he totally forgets why he came there in the first place. And, there's a gruesome battle with a robotic Frankenstein at the end that just seemed out of place. Overall, a big disappointment as you only see three stars of the day parodied (four if you count when Beans dresses like Oliver Hardy)...including Chaplin and W.C. Fields.

By the way, in some of the Beans cartoons (such as this one), Beans was voiced by Tommy Bond...the kid who played the bully in the Little Rascals shorts of the late 1930s. When it wasn't Bond, Billy Bletcher (who voiced Pete in Disney films and Barney Bear for MGM) was Beans' voice.