Cops is Tops
| Cops is Tops | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Isadore Sparber |
| Produced by | Seymour Kneitel Isadore Sparber Dave Tendlar |
| Written by | Carl Meyer |
| Starring | Jack Mercer Mae Questel Jackson Beck |
| Music by | Winston Sharples |
| Animation by | Anton Loeb Frank Endres Thomas Johnson |
| Studio | Famous Studios |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 4, 1955 |
| Running time | 6:00 |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Mister and Mistletoe |
| Followed by | A Job for a Gob |
| IMDb profile | |
Plot
Popeye heads to Olive Oyl's house to pay a visit when he discovers to his surprise that his girlfriend has joined the local police force as its first female officer. Popeye voices his belief that police work is too dangerous a job for a woman, but Olive sets out to prove him wrong as she heads off to work. Popeye decides to secretly tail Olive on the job to see that she avoids trouble.
The sailor starts out by disguising himself as a cigar store Indian to watch Olive while she is on patrol as a runaway horse dashes by. Popeye tries to stop the horse by pulling on its reins but fails when he keeps getting hit in the face with cobblestones sent flying from the road by his feet, but Olive drives by on her patrol motorcycle and successfully stops the horse by laying tar on the road in front of a roadblock, causing the horse to get stuck and sending Popeye flying into a cement mixer. After getting deposited onto the road by the mixer, Popeye watches as Olive reassures the stuck horse.
Next, Olive walks by a bank when she catches a robbery in progress; she pulls out her gun and nervously orders the bank robber to surrender while looking away from the bank entrance. Popeye, hiding in a baby carriage in front of a market while disguised as a baby, acts quickly to get Olive out of harm's way by bumping her aside with the carriage before stopping in front of the door, where the robber stops just long enough to pound Popeye through the sidewalk before running to his car for a quick getaway. The escaping robber loses the stolen loot at first when Popeye emerges from a manhole in the road and grabs the money out of the car, only to get whacked on the head with a wrench as the robber reclaims the money. Olive distracts the robber by lifting her skirt just enough to show some leg, causing him to crash into a brick wall and enabling her to make the arrest and recover the money. Popeye watches with astonishment while Olive takes the robber to jail at gunpoint.
Soon after, Olive is powdering her face while riding her bike at the same time as an incognito Popeye follows discreetly along in a wheeled street-sweeper's bin when Olive discovers a brawl happening at a mobile diner; when she runs over to try to stop the brawl, she gets hit in the face with a frying pan moments after she opens the diner door. Unknown to Olive, Popeye runs into the diner to put a stop to the brawl, yelling to the brawlers that they cannot hit an officer, just as Olive hitches the diner to her bike and tows it to the city jail, where she orders the brawlers inside. Olive is stunned when she sees Popeye exit the diner next and he tries to explain why he was there, but she refuses to listen and she marches him into the jail.
Later at a park while on foot patrol, Olive discovers a bald goon swimming in the water in violation of the park's "No swimming allowed" rule. Remarking at the goon's nerve in breaking the law, Olive gets a canoe and paddles out to arrest him. The goon disregards Olive's arrest of him with a laugh and tries to get a kiss from her as he seizes her canoe, but Olive smashes him in the face with her paddle. Undeterred, the goon then climbs into the canoe and advances toward Olive, who finds herself in over her head against him as she desperately tries to swim away with the goon pursuing her in the canoe.
Meanwhile in his jail cell, Popeye hears Olive's cries for help and pulls a can of spinach from his sailor's uniform and eats its contents, then turns his left forearm into a jackhammer and uses it to break out of the cell and rush to Olive's aid. Popeye heads to a bridge over a creek where Olive swims underneath with the goon still pursuing her, so Popeye goes to the other side of the bridge and pulls Olive out of the water, then jumps into the canoe as it passes under, sending the goon airborne for a moment before Popeye delivers a mighty punch that sends him flying toward the jail and through its roof. Moments later, the battered and defeated goon gets up and sticks his head between the bars on his jail cell's window.
Some time later at a ceremony as Olive watches at attention in the background, a police matron awards Popeye for bravery above and beyond the call of duty by a civilian for his rescue of Olive by presenting him with a badge and bestowing honorary membership in the police department's female unit. Popeye is in full police uniform for the ceremony, but the other female officers start giggling when they notice that he is wearing the female officer's uniform, complete with skirt - which exposes the stockings and garters he has on his lower legs, much to his embarrassment.
Trivia
- The bald goon who tries to make unwelcome advances on Olive at the park first appeared as the Champ, Popeye's boxing opponent, in the 1951 Popeye short Punch and Judo.
