Release Date:

December 21, 1940

Main Character(s):

Blabbermouse

Summary:

A direct sequel to “Little Blabbermouse” with the WC Fields mouse giving Blabbermouse and the other mouse tourists a tour around a closed department store and showing off various works of art and contraptions.

That’s Not All, Folks:

This is the second and last appearance of Blabbermouse and the Fields mouse. Interestingly, one of the last Looney Tunes characters created was Merlin the Magic Mouse, who is also a mouse with a WC Fields voice.

In one scene, Blabbermouse is so impressed with an automatic gift wrapper (that he believes is even more impressive than the telephone) that he asks if Don Ameche also invented that. Ameche had played Alexander Graham Bell in the 1939 movie “The Story of Alexander Graham Bell”.

What I Like About This One:

The “JT Gimlet Department Store” having a neon sign advertising it as a shoplifter’s paradise.

Since the store is closing out soon, a banner says “Everything Must Go (Including Gimlet)”.

The store hours for Sunday being 9 to 6- “if we were open Sundays”.

As the tour begins, Fields shows off different “species” of shoes: suede, pumps, slippers and (literal) mules that are literally red and green.

Fields saying they have blocks, clocks, slocks, socks, clippers, slippers, nippers, snippers, zippers-” to which Blabbermouse retorts, “I bet you haven’t got ventilators, mutilators, oscillators, insulators, perculators, refrigerators, dabulators, and excavators, I betcha”.

When showing off various works of art, “Whistler’s Mother” whistles “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain” and saying her son is a whistler too, the Thinker looks over his 1940 taxes and saying, “Confidentially, I think,” the Hunter’s dog goes wild over the Lonesome Pine, and another Indian knocks another Indian out just so he can be the Last of the Mohicans.

After a cigar disposer is demonstrated, Blabbermouse points out that his father smokes a pipe and there’s no way it will fit in there, causing Fields to snap at him to be quiet.

The automatic poker table not only shuffles, cuts, and deals- it also cheats, causing another robot player to angrily shoot it! Fields comments, “You can’t cheat an honest man”, which is a reference to the movie of the same name that WC Fields starred in.

Fields then shows off an automatic gift wrapper that wraps gifts with any color of ribbon you choose (Fields selects pink for the demonstration). The demonstration really impresses Blabbermouse who says, “Gee, that’s keen. I guess you gotta be pretty smart to think up something like that. Gee, that’s better than the telephone. Did Don Ameche invent that too?”

Fields dealing with Blabbermouse’s constant yammering by having him wrapped up in the automatic gift wrapper. When Blabbermouse pops out of the package to complain to his father (who is a policeman) about this, Fields then has Blabbermouse’s mouth sealed with a “Do Not Open Till Xmas” sticker!

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕