Jungle Jitters
About Jungle Jitters
A salesman calls on a cartoon village of cannibals drawn as racist caricatures. They sing and dance, then drop him in a cooking pot. The queen decides she will marry him instead of serving him. When he sees the bride he has to kiss, he picks the pot.
Cast & crew
More about Jungle Jitters
Friz Freleng directed this Merrie Melodies short, the 90th in the series, and Leon Schlesinger produced it for a Warner Bros. and Vitaphone release on 19 February 1938. Carl W. Stalling wrote the music, George Manuell the story, and Phil Monroe animated. It is in Technicolor and runs 7 minutes.
Themes
In film history
Since 1968 it has been grouped with the Censored Eleven, Warner cartoons held out of the television package because of racist caricature.
Reviews
The Film Daily of 31 January 1938 praised the gags. National Exhibitor of 1 February 1938 said the short would play both to a class house and to a general crowd.
Music
Carl W. Stalling scored it. The villagers sing The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, the Looney Tunes theme by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin.
Preservation
The copyright was not renewed. Prints circulate, including a copy on Wikimedia Commons. United Artists withheld it from the 1968 television package.
Notes
- Mel Blanc and Tedd Pierce are the credited voices.
- The Film Daily reviewed it on 31 January 1938 and called the gags funny.
- National Exhibitor, on 1 February 1938, said a class audience would catch the small touches and a mass audience would still laugh.
- United Artists kept it off U.S. television syndication in 1968. It is one of the Censored Eleven.
- The copyright lapsed, so secondhand prints stayed in circulation.
Scenes
- The salesman is lowered into the pot.
- He bolts from the bride and heads back toward the stew.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Friz Freleng - Merrie Melodies - Jungle Jitters (1938).webm)
