Studio: Famous Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Seymour Kneitel, Isadore Sparber
Short Synopsis
Popeye is a private detective, trench coat and all, and Olive Oyl hires him to guard a priceless jewel. Bluto, a master thief, wants it, and the case becomes a chase across the world: the thief snatches the gem and Popeye pursues him through a series of foreign capitals, each introduced by a travel-poster backdrop, with Bluto adopting a disguise in every one, as a Parisian, a Scot and the rest, and Popeye unmasking him each time only to lose him again. The chase ends in the usual way, with the spinach, a beating, and the jewel returned to Olive, who pays her detective in kisses. The plot is slight even by the standards of the series, and the cartoon is really a string of travel and disguise gags.
Why It Matters
- The disguise chase, with its postcard backgrounds and Bluto in national costumes, is the Famous Studios unit doing travelogue parody on a Popeye budget, and the hard-boiled narration Popeye supplies in the detective manner is a pleasant change from his usual mutter.
- Private Eye Popeye is in the public domain in the United States through non-renewal and so is widely available; it was also the last cartoon of the 1953-54 Popeye season. Reliable production notes on the film are thin beyond the credits, and the plot summary above is drawn from the cartoon itself.
Notes and Trivia
- The detective Popeye returned in Popeye's later television cartoons of 1960-62.
- I. Klein, the writer, was a veteran of Fleischer and Terrytoons and a prolific cartoonist.
- See also: Fright to the Finish (1954), Taxi-Turvy (1954), Cookin' with Gags (1955).
