Studio: Fleischer Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Max Fleischer, Adolph Zukor
Short Synopsis
Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy are on duty at a Coast Guard station when news arrives that the bandit Abu Hassan and his Forty Thieves are terrorising a town in Arabia. They set off in a flying boat, crash in the desert, and trek across the sand to the town, just as the Thieves ride in and loot it. Abu Hassan, who looks a lot like Bluto, carries off Olive and Wimpy to his treasure cave. Popeye follows and sneaks in, demanding that Hassan return the stolen jewels to the people. He is captured and thrown into a pit with a killer whale, ties the whale's teeth in a knot, and climbs out. Then he eats his spinach, declaring "open sez-me", and takes on the whole gang, beating the Forty Thieves one after another and Hassan last. The bandits are chained to a cart loaded with their loot and made to haul Popeye, Olive and Wimpy back to town, where the freed townspeople cheer. Popeye sums it up: he may be a shorty, but he licked the Forty.
Why It Matters
- The battle with the Forty Thieves, one sailor against an army, is pure Fleischer escalation. The Stereoptical model sets give the town and the treasure cave a real sense of depth.
- It was the second of the three two-reel Popeye Color Specials, made while Disney was preparing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The specials were the Fleischers' trial runs at longer storytelling, and they led directly to the studio's own feature, Gulliver's Travels (1939).
Notes and Trivia
- Abu Hassan gets his own song, by Tot Seymour and Vee Lawnhurst.
- See also: Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936), Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939).