I've Got to Sing a Torch Song (1933)

. . . than they did on food. At least, that's one of the main Take-Aways of I'VE GOT TO SING A TORCH SONG, which doesn't even reach its title tune until about five minutes of this seven-minute animated short have passed by. In the Looney Tunes Universe, American families would exercise to radio music while grouped together in their underwear, with 12-year-old Little Sis just wearing her panties. Rooms full of college coeds would come together in their bras and panties as Bing Crosby crooned. Harem gals would dance for their owners clad in even less. Beyond animated sex, TORCH is crammed full of Racist sight "gags" and recurring cameos by long-forgotten Dead People. Most folks Today cannot recall very many key cast members of MY AMER!CAN COUSIN (which Abe Lincoln was viewing when a Racist shot him to keep Black Lives from Mattering), and the caricatures incorporated into TORCH are of equal Unimportance. That's why very few of Today's cartoons are built around "immortalizing" fleeting personalities such as Tiny Tim, PeeWee Herman, or Donald "You're Fired!" Trump. As Warner learned, "celebrities" are here Today, but gone Tomorrow.

"I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" is an unusually wacky black-and-white Warner Bros. cartoon, made before any star characters such as Porky Pig and Daffy Duck were even created. This cartoon is essentially about THE RADIO, one of the entertainment industry's finest inventions during the early 20th Century. Where there's a radio, you can be darn sure there will be scores of ardent fans tuning in! Here are my favorite highlights from "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song". I especially like the hilarious physical & vocal caricatures of Bing Crosby (ALL the gals listen to him!), Mae West, and Marlene Dietrich. In addition, a bearded, hookah-puffing sultan thinks nothing of his harem girl's dance; he'd much rather listen to Amos 'n' Andy! If you want to see an early thirties cartoon with a lot of quirk, try "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song". By no means my favorite Warner Bros. cartoon, but certainly not one that makes a descent into inferiority!

They didn't have videos way back in the 1930s, and they didn't have television, either. However, you can still do aerobics from a voice on the radio encouraging and instructing you. That's what we see in the opening minutes as people of all ages are seen exercising in unique and clever ways. One guys is doing pulleys from the girdle on his fat wife! An old rich guy is doing arm exercises while reading ticker tape on the stock market quotations. There are a lot of these type of things, all in a short space of time.Then the story, if you want to call it that, switches from aerobics to celebrities as we see movie stars and others on the radio and people listening to it from all over the globe, from Shanghai to Alaska. Some of the celebrities I couldn't recognize, making this a cartoon more for folks back in the that era.This cartoon was a showcase by Warner Brothers for some of its stars and the title song comes from "Gold Diggers Of 1933," one of their films.

This short doesn't really have a plot to speak of, but is instead a series of sight gags, celebrity caricatures and a version of the song which provides the title. Consider this a spoiler warning: The cartoon is a bunch of gags loosely connected by radios. The viewer is bounced around the world from one radio to the next. Some of the bits would probably be offensive to some in this day and age, like scenes involving Chinese policemen and African natives and a slightly risqué (for 1933, anyway) scene with a harem girl.There are also celebrity caricatures, including Ben Bernie, a takeoff on Bing Crosby (here, he's Cros Bingby), Greta Garbo, Zazu Pitts and Mae West, plus quite a few who clearly were caricatures whom I didn't recognize. Oh-there's also a scene where Jimmy Cagney and an actress have a bit together.The performance of "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" is done by, among others, Garbo, Pitts and West and the end title has Garbo saying, "That's all, folks!" All in all, a nice little short, if nothing special. Well worth watching once. Recommended.