Oh, boy, our cartoon stars my favorite – Popeye the Sailor! And not only that, but it’s THE Popeye the Sailor cartoon – it’s called Popeye the Sailor, and it introduced the spinach-swilling sailor to the big screen in 1933 as a “guest” in a Betty Boop cartoon.
Popeye first appeared in 1929 as a supporting character in Elzie Segar’s Thimble Theatre comic strip, but within a short period of time was the star. The Popeye cartoons were produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave until the early 1940s, when Paramount seized the Fleischer studio.
	This cartoon is a series of sight gags, as Popeye punches an anchor and turns it into a pile of fish hooks, socks a large clock and transforms it into several small time-pieces, and wallops a large fish and turns it into a stack of canned sardines. Eventually, he and his gal Olive Oyl make it to a carnival midway, where they watch Betty Boop do a hula. Popeye joins her on stage, but when Bluto tries to make time with Olive, out comes the can of spinach and Popeye's "fisks".
This is very much a Fleischer cartoon; note the many funny animals and the way no one stands still, they all bounce up and down. It’s one of the greatest cartoons, for it brought to the screen a legend that would soon surpass Mickey Mouse as the #1 cartoon star in America.
	The song "I'm Popeye, The Sailor Man" (written by Sammy Lerner) was introduced in this cartoon. Is there ANYBODY alive that doesn't know that song?

Popeye the Sailor and dozens of other vintage Popeye cartoons -- restored and remastered -- are coming to DVD from Warners in 2007.

	Our short subject is an Our Gang film called Hi’-Neighbor!, directed by Gus Meins and released in 1934.
Whoever programs these Matinees in the Balcony is a genius with great taste (and probably good looking, too) because this is one of the greatest 2-reelers Hal Roach ever produced. A snotty rich kid (Jerry Tucker) comes to town with his expensive miniature fire engine, and so the Gang builds its own engine and challenges him to a race.
	Naturally, Wally Albright’s girl Jackie Taylor is the prize in the contest, having dumped him for Mr. Snotty, but she’s going to get hers. The first half of the film, with the Gang building its amazing fire engine, is highlighted by little 5-year-old Spanky’s attempts to assist; “Just keep passing me a wheel!” Stymie advises, and Spank does that, removing each wheel just after Stymie clamps it on. “Somebody done LOST somethin’” is all Stymie can muse.
George "Spanky" McFarland is one of the most popular kids to ever appear in the Our Gang films; others include Jackie Cooper, Mickey Daniels, "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, and Robert Blake.
	Little Tommy Bond is one of the Gang in this film; a few years later, he'd return to the series as their nemesis, the dreaded Butch.
Hal Roach produced the Our Gang comedies from 1922 until he sold the series to MGM in 1938. They continued to produce increasingly unfunny shorts until 1944.
	Roach sold the "Our Gang" name along with the series, and so when the shorts he produced were reissued theatrically and sold to television, they were renamed "The Little Rascals".
The race is about to begin! Looking at the track chosen for the big contest, Wally seems nervous. “Whatsa matter,” Jerry sneers, “afraid of a little hill?”   “WHAT hill?” Stymie retorts.
	The race is a pip, as pedestrians go flying. The kids end up hurtling through a bush, leaving their clothes behind.
When Spanky sees the other kids san outer garments, he hurriedly begins undressing himself!

Hi’-Neighbor! was issued on the out-of-print Little Rascals Collectors Series Vols. 11-12 from Cabin Fever; I’m not sure if it’s on any of the myriad Rascals collections other than that.

	And now back to our thrilling serial, The Hurricane Express! Last week, John Wayne looked like a goner, but he manages to wake up and slow the train just enough to create a major jostle, not a major accident. All lives are saved, and a legend is born.
Wayne swears that the conductor slugged him, and so must be the Wrecker, but a porter has found a mask resembling the conductor and has mistaken it for the man himself: “The conductor’s done been MURDERED! Somebody’s cut his head off!”		Nearly everybody on the train has a motive for wanting to wreck the railroad (but why would they be on the train if they knew it was going to be wrecked, you might well ask), especially because there was a fortune in gold on it.
Wayne’s father-in-law-to-be wants to steal the gold and use it as ransom to clear his own name for a trumped-up charge of embezzlement, but that seems like a rather ill-thought-out plan to me.		The car with the gold has been hijacked by Glenn Strange and Charles King, who certainly aren’t good guys, but they’re foiled by John Wayne, who steals their plane to make his escape with his sweetie Gloria. The villains shoot a tommy gun at the fleeing plane, but Gloria exclaims, “We’re too far away for the bullets to reach us! Thank heavens we’re safe now!”

Just then the bullets rip through the fuselage and the plane’s gas tanks explode in a burst of primal fury. Next: The Masked Menace!

I don't know about you folks, but I sure am on the edge of my seat when the trailer is about to announce next week's feature. And we're rewarded with a sci-fi classic starring Marie Windsor, Sonny Tufts, and Victor Jory -- Next week at MATINEE IN THE BALCONY! Plus Selected Short Subjects!

Hey, Balconeers! This week’s feature attraction is the third installment in the long-running series of comedies starring a talking mule. There were 7 films in all, one released each year by Universal-International from 1950 through 1956. All but the last starred Donald O’Connor and the voice of Chill Wills.
	As our story opens, Peter Stirling (O'Connor) is on his first day on the job at an atomic defense plant. His buddy Francis, a talking mule, advises him that there's a sabotage plot to blow up the plant at 10:15 that night.
Now, it may be that you are wondering (a) how a mule got to talk, and (b) how it is that the mule is the smartest one in the movie. Well, we'll tell you how a mule got to talk: the same way that Cinderella's glass slipper didn't turn back into a skanky old shoe at midnight, that's how.
	Sterling discovers that a water deliver truck is actually hauling nitro, and through quick thinking (and dumb luck) he foils the plot. As a reward, Peter and Francis are shipped off to West Point to become, respectively, an officer and a mascot for the football team.
The plot is actually pretty complicated. There’s a bit about the general’s daughter, who has a crush on our star (O’Connor, not Francis) and one of O’Connor’s roommates, who is secretly dating the college widow (Lori Nelson). Plus, you'll also find a couple of nasty upperclassmen who try to make Peter's life a living heck. The one on the right in this picture is David Janssen, in his pre-Dondi days.
	O’Connor is quickly ranked 687th in his class of 687, but with some tutoring from Francis is soon challenging for class honors. Francis likes his human pal, but gets in some zingers from time to time, including “From one jackass to another…” and later, describing his relationship to O’Connor, he says, “I know every bone in his so-called head.”
Critics don't much like the Francis films, thinking they're a one-joke series, but heck -- the joke is a good one, and the films are very pleasant. No, they're not full of belly laughs, but they're good for a lot of smiles, especially when Francis comes "out of the stable" and reveals himself to Peter's superior officers/bosses/unbelieving friends.
	A running joke in the film is Stirling constantly being assigned to meaningless guard duty due to his constant messing up. In the end, though, he ends up a Big Man on Campus -- well, not as big as Francis, but...
A couple of the guys on the football team. The one on the right keeps telling Francis "Live long and prosper." Okay, not really. We made that up. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention. You were.
	Francis starts out as mascot for the West Point football team, but he’s soon sending in plays from the sidelines, much to the coach’s chagrin.
During the climactic Army-Navy game, though, Francis coaches the team to victory.
	If you look closely at the center of the picture, you can see Francis delivering a stirring halftime speech. Quite the talker, that boy. Er, that mule.
Francis Goes to West Point is available with three other films in the series in the Universal Franchise Collection set The Adventures of Francis the Talking Mule Vol. 1. And that's our show for this week! Discuss it on our Message Boards and we'll see you next week for Cat-Women of the Moon!