Spooks
About Spooks
A masked phantom leaves a graveyard, flies to a studio, and finds a cat who wants to sing at an audition but cannot get a word out. He hides a phonograph in her skirt. On stage the record sticks and slows, and he cranks it from the wings until the house cheers. She then walks past him to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He drags her to a locked room, plays the organ, and tells her not to lift the mask. She does, and the face under it is a bare skull. Oswald breaks in, tumbles into a hole full of lizards, and fails the phantom's riddle about a chicken laying a square egg. The phantom slaps him — the answer is 'Ouch!' — and disappears.
Cast & crew
More about Spooks
Walter Lantz produced and directed this Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short for Universal. Pinto Colvig voices the characters. James Dietrich wrote the music. Animation is by Bill Nolan, Ray Abrams, Manuel Moreno, Clyde Geronimi, and Pinto Colvig.
Themes
Music
James Dietrich composed the score for this early sound Oswald cartoon.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The phantom's riddle is 'What does a chicken say when it lays a square egg?' The slap supplies the answer: 'Ouch!'
- Pinto Colvig, later the voice of Disney's Goofy, both animates and performs the voices.
- Universal distributed the short on 21 July 1930.
Scenes
- The record in the cat's skirt sticks, and the phantom leans in to crank it while she takes the bow.
- She lifts the mask and finds a skeleton in a coat and hat.
Influenced by
- The Phantom of the Opera
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Spooks (1930).webm)
Quotes
What does a chicken say when it lays a square egg?
