The Betty Boop Limited (1932)

"♫Ain'tcha kind of glad, and ain'tcha kind of gay, when you hear me say I loooves ya? Aww, tell me, baby, aw ain'tcha? Boop-Oop-A-Doop♫." -Betty Boop

Ever wonder what goes on during the train rides with the traveling troupe of performers for Betty Boop's show? Me neither, but The Betty Boop Limited affords us the opportunity to see behind the scenes and just how Betty motivates her cabinet of curiosities to rehearse one last time before the big show. Apparently, they are not afraid to risk life and limb to rehearse the finale by dancing on top of the moving train. (Since I'm just coming off of it, I am reminded a little of American Horror Story: Freak Show for likely no good reason.)

This was the last Talkartoons episode before Betty would fully take over as the lead and have her own show, and it's a harmless bout of surreal madness that is more about the music, song, and dance performances than any sort of plot. Betty gets the ball rolling, exemplifying her one of a kind charisma, by singing an appropriately Betty Boop-ish song "Ain'tcha" that will stay with you.

It's apparent Betty runs the show now at this point, despite that it was previously Bimbo's show in the earlier episodes, as Bimbo doesn't do much but a short juggling act. A rotoscoped Koko the Clown does a cute soft-shoe dance that is technically impressive but a long way from his St. Infirmary Blues performance in Betty Boop's Snow White (1933). There's a Running gag with a warbling cat crooning the lyrics from the song Silver Threads Among the Gold "darling I am growing oldeeer" who I'm pretty sure is Mae Questel pretending to sing bad. These lyrics are revisited in Betty Boop, M.D. (1932).

All in all, a worthy finale to the Talkartoons series.

Mysterious Mose (1930)

Although her character was still in the early developmental phase, with puppy ears and a darker complexion, the atmospheric and haunting Mysterious Mose was the fourth Talkartoons animated short to feature Betty (voiced here by Margie Hines), but she was not yet known as Betty Boop at this point (she would not be named Betty Boop until the episode Silly Scandals in 1931). She's nameless here, but she was referred to as ?Nancy Lee? in a previous episode, Barnacle Bill (1930).

Mysterious Mose is one spooky, fun episode with a bit of a gothic horror slant to it. Part of its success as an eerie cartoon comes from the ghostly sound effects at the beginning, with Betty being awoken at night by a serious haunting. The cartoon takes a stylish turn when spooked Betty slips out of bed in her nightgown to explore the dark house with a lit candle. The antics ramp up when Betty breaks into the episode's theme song, before being joined by ghostly Bimbo and other midnight spooks.

Mysterious Mose would definitely pair well with Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party (1933) and has been noted for brief flashes of quasi-nudity a couple times when Betty cartoonishly has the shirt scared off of her, which was most risque for the time.

Betty Boop Socks

Socks can be pretty unexciting, unless they're Betty Boop socks. It's too bad I can't show off in these manly knee-highs around my friends, as the socks appear to be too small, and I don't want to risk stretching out and damaging them.

Betty's image on the gray pair is charmingly pixelated, which I imagine is for ease of manufacturing, but as someone who grew up on classic Nintendo, it makes me wonder why we never had a Betty Boop game on the NES. There's a couple of recent mobile game apps featuring Betty Boop that I enjoyed, including Betty Boop Bop, Betty Boop Beat, and Dress Betty Boop. In Betty Boop Bop there is a classic gaming homage level that's also kind of Tron-ish called Biterial Girl that contains some rocking chip-tune music. Check it out if you can.

From Keep In Style (1934)