Studio: Van Beuren Studios
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Produced by: Amedee J. Van Beuren
Short Synopsis
Plot documentation for this short is thin, and this summary is based on the restored film. The setting is a farmyard, with a barn, a doghouse and hens sitting on nests in wooden crates. The bully of the title is a big, swaggering rooster in a striped sweater, who struts through the yard picking on the smaller birds. Two little birds, a duckling and a chick, walk off down a country lane together, and the rooster's bullying catches up with the farmyard community. Later, by a roadside gasoline pump, the rooster confronts a group of birds, a goose, a turkey and others, who stand up to him together. As the title promises, the bully gets what is coming to him; exactly how he is brought down is not described in any source this book could check.
Why It Matters
- The rooster is a vivid comic creation: a barnyard tough in a striped jersey, all chest and strut, drawn with the bouncy, rubbery line of early-1930s cartoons. The idea of the small creatures banding together against a bigger bully is simple, but the film plays it with clear, readable staging and a strong sense of character.
- It is a late entry in the sound-era Aesop's Fables, the long-running series that Van Beuren inherited from Paul Terry, and it was directed by Harry Bailey, who the following year led the union meetings that ended the series when Van Beuren fired those who attended. The film was cleaned up and released on Thunderbean's Aesop's Fables Blu-ray collection.
Notes and Trivia
- Bailey had worked on the Aesop's Fables since the silent days; his union organising was inspired by the cartoonist Otto Soglow, some of whose comics he adapted for the screen.
- See also: Opening Night (1933), Midnight (1930).