"The Reel Hollywood Treasure Hunt" is an episode from The All-New Popeye Hour's "Popeye's Treasure Hunt" segment for Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with King Features Syndicate.
Plot[]
Popeye and Olive are invited to a real Hollywood Movie Studio. The studio is question is Magnum Studios. Its president, Opus Magnum informs the treasure seekers about missing reels of films of the studio's big star Douglass Darepranks. Darepranks was an actor who was big in his heyday. So big that he was allowed to keep the original prints of his movies, but they have since disappeared. The studio has been search them with no success. So finally in desperation, Opus calls on Popeye and Olive to find the prints for them. So what do Popeye and Olive do, they take the assignment. They start their search at Darepranks's estate called Darefair.
But as usual, Bluto (who's employed by Baxter Stabber, president of Devry Pictures (never shown)) is not making things easy for our heroes. To start, Bluto spies on the group by standing on towers of sandwiches from his sandwich vending service. But his plan backfires when two actors grabs two of the sandwiches, causing his towers to fall down and Bluto with them. Without knowing that they were being sold by Bluto, Popeye and Olive takes sandwiches of their own.
Bluto's first trick is selling our heroes a phony map to the celebrities' homes. The one he sold them leads them to the La Brea Tarpits. Popeye thought it was a street leading up to Darefair. Popeye spins his wheels to no avail, although doing so splatters some of the tar onto Bluto's shirt and scaring him to a pit with dinosaur bones in it. A head of one of the fossils lands on Bluto's head. Popeye and Olive eventually escapes with dinosaur bones of their own.
They eventually arrive at Darefair. There, Popeye and Olive look over the props, set pieces and knick-knacks of Darepranks's movies. Soon they come across an old picture album. One of the pictures shows Dareprank putting something under his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and it was circled in red. Thinking that's a clue, Popeye and Olive go to the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, but not before Bluto in cases them in a giant thimble and putting swords around it. They get out pretty easily.
At the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Bluto comes to Darepranks's star but not before Popeye arrives to check it out himself. And by dropping the sidewalk, Darepranks's star falls onto Bluto's head. Underneath the star is a note leading them to the Hollywood Sign. Popeye is eager to go, but Olive won't go unless she sees footprints of the stars. Bluto overhears this a creates a fake spot for footprints of her favorite actor Dustin Chimney. Olive steps in them and gets stuck and Popeye gets stuck after. In desperation, Olive grabs Popeye's feet and breaks them free. Shortly after, they arrive at the Hollywood Sign where they find a picture of Douglass Darepranks. But Bluto takes it from them and cuts the line from the "H" in Hollywood off. Popeye and Olive hang on for dear life, but Olive rescues them by doing a trick she learned from her mountaineering class.
In a rare move, Bluto figures out the next clue, by going to Swabs Drug Store. Popeye and Olive go there after him, without realizing that it is the place to find the next clue. They come there to get some ice cream sodas, but Bluto was ready for them and throws two scoops to their faces and squirts them to a greeting card area. Popeye answers back by flinging books at Bluto, sending him to the shake machine. Shortly after, Popeye and Olive spot a movie clapper under a seat. It's for Ali-Bla-Bla and the Forty Thieves, Darepranks's last movie. So for the final leg of the treasure hunt, they return to Magnum Studios, thinking that the missing reels are there.
Night falls just as they arrive. Popeye and Olive take one of the studio tour cars without knowing that Bluto messed with the brakes, in an attempt to kill the treasure seekers. They realize this when they come to the collapsing bridge. So in desperation, Popeye catches the car by its wheels, and it slingshots itself back to Bluto and a movie set falls on him.
Popeye and Olive arrive at stage five, where a tank is located. Bluto catches the treasure seeking pair, hangman's noose style. He dumps them into the tank, where waiting inside is a mechanical shark named Herman. Just after Olive gets eaten by the mechanical beast, Popeye eats his spinach and takes its teeth out. The teeth would soon bite onto Bluto pants and strips him of them. Popeye shakes the shark in hoping that Olive is alright. Olive is not only alright, but she finds the missing movie reels. Bluto tries to take them away with no success as Popeye takes them back and flings Bluto to a nearby snow machine.
The episode ends with Opus Magnum thanking Popeye and Olive for their services and for letting them use Bluto as a new studio tour guide.