Private Eye Popeye

This article is about the theatrical short. For the television episode, see Private Eye Popeye (Popeye the Sailor).

Private Eye Popeye
Number 207
Guide
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Private Eye Popeye is Popeye's 207th theatrical cartoon, produced by Famous Studios and released on November 12, 1954.

Plot

Private Eye Popeye sits in his office wearing a Sherlock Holmes-like suit and cap, in addition to his usual pipe. When he receives a phone call consisting of only a woman's scream and a gunshot, he decides to trace the call along telephone wires with the aid of his magnifying glass. He ends up at a mansion and is about to enter, but the door opens itself and makes Popeye enter. After being welcomed by the butler, he is met by machine gun fire from the lady of the house herself. Popeye tells the girl to stop shooting him which she does. The girl Popeye encountered is Olive. Reassured that he is indeed a detective, Ms. Oyl entrusts him with the protection of her valuable emerald in a piggy bank as she fears someone is trying to steal it. As if on cue, both Olive and the jewel are snatched away, and Popeye promptly discovers that the butler did it. Popeye goes after the butler, but when he is about to exit, a brick wall prevents him from doing so.

The thief leaves Olive tied up and makes his escape with the jewel. Popeye follows his getaway plane on goose-back, but when the goose is cooked, he is brought down. Still, he catches up with the villain in Paris, where the thief encounters him as a waiter, a taxi driver and the Eiffel Tower's lift operator. Unable to shake his pursuer, the butler drives a motorcycle all the way from Paris to Switzerland, where he comes across the detective atop the Alps, disguised as a St. Bernard. Popeye attempts to trick the butler, but is instead knocked out. Later, somewhere in the Middle East, Popeye attempts to trick the robber again by disguising as a lovely local princess, but is knocked out, this time onto a vegetable cart. Realizing it is a spinach cart as he sees the sign that says "Spinach" in Arabic, he chomps away, catches up with the thief and punches him from island to island across the ocean after pocketing the gem. When the criminal drops into Alcatraz Island, Popeye returns the emerald to Ms. Oyl and the case is solved. She rewards him with a kiss, causing his red face to become brighter than the emerald's green glow.

Trivia

• You might see the Famous Studios logo on the a.a.p. print if you pause on the right frame at the ending.
• Final Paramount cartoon to use the 1945 Paramount Cartoons logo.
• Olive shooting at Popeye is something more likely to be seen in the original comics, where such displays of violence are not that uncommon. Firearms are rarely used in the cartoons.
• One of the islands featured: Hawaii was at the time a U.S. territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii would become a U.S. state.
• Olive impressing Popeye with the emerald is similar to Popeye impressing her with the cave's treasure from Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.
• Olive seems to have managed to free herself from being tangled up, as she is seen sitting on the couch with a bored look on her face. Yet it is unknown how she managed to do so, unlike in Tops in the Big Top.

Gallery

Title card with a magnifying glass showing the words

External links

• "Private Eye Popeye" 4k (Audio Fixed) at Youtube
• Private Eye Popeye at the Internet Movie Database