Have you got any castles?

I recently rediscovered a great old cartoon that I used to watch as a kid.  It is one of those Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes cartoons from the 1930s.  I love the music from these old cartoons.  Because jazz was becoming popular they use a lot of it as background or as a vehicle for the cartoon's action.  But plenty of other music was used as well.  Who hasn't seen Bugs Bunny as the Barber of Seville?

The cartoon I rediscovered is called "Have You Got Any Castles?"  It is a Warner Bros cartoon directed by Frank Taschlin, and produced by Leon Schlesinger.  The plot centers around what happens in a library after hours, and all of the literary characters come to life.  Why did I suddenly go looking for this cartoon?  Last week, while giving a clarinet lesson, a student was assigned to play a Gavotte by Francois-Joseph Gossec (French composer, 1734-1829.)  This particular melody always reminded me of this old cartoon that opens with Frankenstein, Fu Manchu, Mr. Hyde, and the Phantom of the Opera coming out of their books.  They growl menacingly, then after a beat of silence, all four begin to daintily dance a minuet to this melody.  Funny stuff.

The title comes from a song called Have You Got Any Castles (I was actually wondering where such a non-related-to-libraries title came from).  This song can be heard in the background at the beginning and later in full form when the Three Muskateers make an appearance.

This cartoon is fabulous for anyone looking for great gags: seven identical Clark Gables come out of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables, Heidi is singing her name is the style of Cab Calloway's Hi-Dee-Ho, The Thin Man exits his book, enters a cookbook and comes out thicker.

What I love most about this whole treasure hunt though, is the appearance of a caricature of Cab Calloway singing Swing for Sale.  The tune is great, but it seems unusual at first as to why Cab and his band are all dressed like angels.  The answer: these clips were recycled from another Merrie Melodies cartoon called "Clean Pastures" which is based on the play (and later film) The Green Pastures by Marc Connelly.  "Clean Pastures" is by modern standards extremely offensive in its portrayal of African-Americans.  Because the cartoon (and ten others, together known as the Censored Eleven) can't be trimmed or edited without losing primary plot motives, they were banned form syndication.  "Clean Pastures" is about God's attempt to bring more people into Pair-O-Dice, and is told that the best way to attract the sinful folk is through something that swings.  So, anyway, that's why Cab, Lunceford, Armstrong, and Waller are all dressed like angels. 

"Whistler's Mother" whistles, Oliver Twist twists, a shawm (remember those? They show up everywhere to me now!) is heard making snakes dance in Mother India, Rip Van Winkle can't take all of the noise ("Old King Cole was a noisy old soul!"), and the Pied Piper plays a jazzy clarinet while leading the rats out of town.  Great fun!