Studio: Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, for Winkler Pictures
Distributor: Winkler Pictures (M. J. Winkler)
Short Synopsis
Alice is stuck on a hard crossword puzzle, so Julius the cat suggests the beach. After a swim the two dry off and Alice goes back to the puzzle, and the trouble begins: Bootleg Pete, a huge bear-like crook who collects rare crosswords, recognises hers as the one missing from his collection and demands it. She refuses, slaps him, and runs for a lighthouse with Pete smashing through the door after her. Julius comes to the rescue, climbs the lighthouse and fights Pete at the top, winning by knocking him off. Alice then finds the last answer to her puzzle: "The End". The crossword craze of 1924-25 is the joke, and the film survives in good condition.
Why It Matters
- Pete, here a fat bootlegger with a peg leg and a cigar, is the oldest Disney character still in use, the villain of Oswald and Mickey cartoons and of Goof Troop and Kingdom Hearts a century later; his debut is reason enough to watch. The lighthouse fight is also the most elaborate action the series had yet staged.
- This is the first film with Margie Gay as Alice, after Virginia Davis's departure, and the first in which Julius is named on screen. It was also, by the standards of 1925, heavily censored: some state boards cut Pete's bootlegging references and Alice's bathing scene, which makes it an early case of a cartoon running into the censors.
Notes and Trivia
- Why the date: the manifest places this film in July 1925, but Disney's release records and Wikipedia give 15 February 1925; the entry should be moved.
- A sound version was released on 15 April 1931.
- See also: Alice the Toreador (1925), Alice's Balloon Race (1926), Steamboat Willie (1928).