TIME ON MY HANDS - "Betty Boop, You Bad Girl" (1932)

 

This week's Saturday Night Special is probably one of the most interesting and provocative of all of Betty Boop's cartoons. "Time On My Hands" was another cartoon made by The Fleischer Brothers in 1932, and has me completely convinced that early cartoons were made for adults, and not children.

 

"Time On My Hands" is a krazy cartoon that opens with this fisherman doing his fisherman thing! Take note that this fisherman is fishing in what appears to be a lake, not the ocean.

The fisherman's bait is not happy!

Looks so enticing, it's making me hungry!

The worm attracts all the hot babe fish in town, who are dressed for some reason.

There is also a mermaid at the bottom of this lake that is portrayed by Betty Boop!

In a rather risque move, for the role of the mermaid, they decided to have Betty be topless, even though the fishes have dresses on. I guess it makes about as much sense as having a water pump underwater.

Despite being topless, it's been pretty tame so far, then Betty The Mermaid amps up the sexy factor a bit!

Then this diver shows up and thinks Betty is pretty hot!

The fisherman finally gets a bite, but he's caught a lot more than he bargained for, and slings Betty all across the landscape!

Somehow by some miracle, Betty ends up on this giant clock face, on a clock tower somewhere!

What a time she is having!

Now, if none of that was weird enough for you, at this point, through the miracle of Hollywood, Betty The Mermaid turns into the full blown Ethel Merman, and she sings "Time On My Hands," that had music written by Vincent Youmans, the man who wrote "Tea For Two," a song that has been used in movies up until last year. The lyrics were written by Harold Adamson and Mack Gordon who between the two of them have a uncanny amount of credits for lyrics in the movies and TV at 853.

I guess no one wanted to see Ethel Merman topless even when she was fairly young!

After the song is over, Betty is returned to the water and is attacked by this huge octopus.

Fleeing the octopus, Betty and her new boyfriend are then eaten by a giant fish that turns into this giant flying fish. If you look close, you can see them peering out the window in the side of the fish.

Within two years, the Hays Code would be initiated for films and would be in effect until 1968, and it would be a long time before viewers would have a chance to see anything this offensive again.

According to IMDB, there's going to be a new feature called "Betty Boop, The Movie" coming out some day, but there is basically zero information besides this picture!