The Spinach Overture

This time it's Popeye trying to hold his own in concert hall. He has been deserted by Olive and is left behind to fend for himself. He uses spinach to become a great pianist. Of course, by this time, Bluto is conducting a symphony orchestra. It is going to end up in fisticuffs. This is a moderately entertaining feature, using a different angle.

Popeye is rehearsing his band -- Wimpy, Olive Oyl, her brother Castor, and Oscar -- and pretty off-key in their rendition of the "Poet and Peasant Overture. In comes Bluto, who shows off his musical chops and steals the players away. Fortunately, Popeye has a can of spinach hidden in the spinet.

It's a good, if standard plot for the Popeye cartoons, but it is enlivened by its side. Whoever is playing the piano does a nice jazz version of von Suppe's music.

If you don't recognize Castor Oyl and Oscar, don't worry. They were characters in Elzie Segar's THIMBLE THEATER comic strip, where the Popster, Olive, and Wimpy originated.

Last Saturday I watched this Popeye cartoon on TCM at someone's apartment in New York City. The sailor man has a band with Olive and Wimpy as members. Bluto, with the long hair associated with symphony conductors at the time, shows him up with his more classically professional playing. Because of that, Popeye's bandmates leave him to join Bluto. Then a spinach can comes into play...This was quite an amusing cartoon from the Fleischer period of the character. Oh, course, that theme song also gets played along the way...

Popeye is conducting a quartet which includes Olive Oyl and Wimpy. Bluto and his orchestra next door are not impressed. They break out laughing at Popeye. Bluto pushes Popeye aside and takes over his quartet. Popeye tries to match Bluto and fails in an embarrassing fashion. With his musicians leaving him, Popeye brings out the spinach.

This is all about the overture from "Poet and Peasant". The last minute and a half is an epic musical performance. The earlier parts are fine although the point is that the music isn't that good. The last bit is Popeye highlight material. I feel like that's where I first saw this. It is a lot of fun.

Spinach Overture was a well put-together Popeye cartoon, with Popeye leading his amateur band, Olive Oyl playing harp, Wimpy as drummer, and two others, playing Von Suppe's Poet and Peasant Overture. The Rehearsal Hall was in a high-rise office building; trouble was that in the NEXT room, Maestro Bluto, conducting a symphony orchestra, JEERED at Popeye, sought to outdo him, first playing violin and leading the combo, then on piano. Popeye, after his band was invited by Bluto to come next door, ate his spinach, played the piano superbly, THEN-- took over as orchestra conductor, coming out on top. What is also significant about this Popeye is that in 1948, Famous Studios produced Symphony in Spinach, about a musical rivalry between Popeye and Bluto, in a Rehearsal Hall ALSO in a high-rise office building. Not only had this remake of Spinach Overture the same basic theme. Some of the gags in the Fleischer version repeated in the Famous remake, like Popeye's punching Bluto with trombone slide. Both Popeyes involving musical rivalry are excellent; the Spinach Overture is the more amusing of the two