Klondike Casanova

Klondike Casanova
Number 139
Guide
previous Service with a Guile	next Peep in the Deep

Klondike Casanova is Popeye's 139th theatrical cartoon, which was released by Famous Studios on May 31, 1946. The storyline is based on the 1907 narrative poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert Service.

Plot

The Klondike is an inhospitable, snow-covered region. There stands Popeye and Olive's 'Polar Bar & Grill', where help is wanted - dead or alive. The grizzled men of the Klondike gather there to enjoy the place's coziness, Popeye's piano playing and Olive's song-and dance number - going into a pause every time Popeye takes a food order. The patrons go wild with Olive, especially when she begins to strip of her clothes and, unbeknownst to them, down to a maid apron as she hurries to wash the dishes backstage. She slips back into her dress in order for the show to go on.

At this point, a polar bear-like creature enters the hostel and shakes off the snow it is covered in to reveal the dreaded Dangerous Dan McBluto. All other patrons run away as he strolls in, singing. He invites the dancing lady to share a milkshake and she accepts. At first, they are both struck by Cupid, but Popeye intervenes and ends up sucked into McBluto's mouth by mistake. The would-be Klondike Casanova locates Olive again, this time snatching her away more rudely with obviously lecherous intentions. She tries to excuse herself, only to be choked by the much larger man. When her sailor paramour tries to save her, he is sent flying to the frozen waters outside to be encased in ice, leaving McBluto to tie the damsel up into a parcel and carry her away through the frozen wasteland.

Popeye is able to use his pipe as a blowtorch to escape his imprisonment, proceeding to chase the kidnapper up the steep mountainside topped by 'Dan McBluto's Fur Farm'. Olive meets face-to-face with three vicious, imprisoned bears (that briefly interrupt their snarling to do a spirited imitation of the Andrews Sisters) as Popeye is made to fall off the peak he was about to conquer. Thanks to the power of spinach, however, his fall is broken and his pipe turned into a propeller. Atop the mountain, he easily defeats the bears McBluto has now let out, depriving them of their fur coats - which are welcomed to cover the scantily-clad Olive. She and Popeye wear these as they ride their new sleigh back home, with the only beast pulling it, Dangerous Dan McBluto, being whipped vigorously.

Gallery

Trivia

• The sign at the beginning of the short implies that Nome is located in the Klondike, but in truth Nome, Alaska is 800 miles outside of the Klondike (which is in fact in Canada).
• This is one of the few cartoons in which Popeye wears a blue Navy outfit.
• When this short aired on Boomerang, the 1951 theme was erroneously used, as well as the 1954 to 1957 Paramount logo and the a.a.p. closing theme at the end.

External links

• Klondike Casanova at the Internet Movie Database