Out to Punch
| Out to Punch | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Seymour Kneitel |
| Produced by | Seymour Kneitel Isadore Sparber |
| Written by | Carl Meyer |
| Starring | Jack Mercer Mae Questel Jackson Beck |
| Music by | Winston Sharples |
| Animation by | John Zago John Gentilella Tom Johnson |
| Studio | Famous Studios |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 8, 1956 |
| Running time | 6:00 |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Popeye for President |
| Followed by | Assault and Flattery |
| IMDb profile | |
Plot
Popeye and Bluto are in training for an upcoming boxing match. The overconfident Bluto is not taking his training seriously, thinking he will have an easy match against Popeye, but when he goes over to Popeye's training camp and sees the sailor skipping rope with a heavy iron chain while being coached by Olive Oyl, Bluto realizes he has to sabotage his opponent to have any kind of chance against him.
Popeye tries (and fails) twice to budge the sandbag he is working out on (not knowing that Bluto had switched the regular sandbag with one filled with scrap iron), so he pulls out his trademark twister punch and knocks it right off its hook and onto Bluto. Popeye works out his arm muscles by pulling on workout springs attached to a wall next, but Bluto tries his luck again by attaching a hook to the springs' base outside the gym and then pulling on the base with the hook attached to his motorcycle, forcing Popeye to pull on the springs hard enough to pull Bluto and his bike through the gym wall and out the other side into a well across the way.
Olive then has Popeye finish up his training with roadwork by jogging behind his girlfriend's car to the arena where the match will take place. Bluto tries to slow Popeye down by first greasing a spot on the road to keep him in place on the slippery spot, but when that fails when Olive retrieves Popeye and sets him back on course, Bluto then fills a puddle of water with quick-drying cement. Popeye gets his feet stuck in the cement and has to pull them out, but now finding himself stuck with cement shoes, he is greatly slowed down by them during his roadwork and is exhausted by the time he reaches the arena and flops onto his face while a gloating Bluto runs by and ducks inside.
Worn out by Bluto's last dirty trick, Popeye is unable to mount much of a challenge at first as his foe delivers a one-sided beatdown against him before knocking him into the air and through the ring to the floor below. Olive goes under the ring and brings the unconscious Popeye a can of spinach, which he eats to regain his strength and get his second wind as he jumps through the Popeye-shaped hole in the ring and back into the match to beat the referee's count. Bluto tries throwing repeated punches at the now-iron-jawed Popeye's face but only ends up shredding his gloves in the process, then tries clubbing the advancing Popeye over the head with a ringpost and fails that as well. Popeye then finishes Bluto and wins the match by punching him through the arena roof and toward a nearby hospital, whose entrance the injured Bluto rolls out of in a wheelchair. The triumphant Popeye then poses for a picture for sports photographers and as he flexes his muscles, his biceps form the words "THE END".
Production notes
- Out to Punch is one of a number of Famous Studios-produced Popeye the Sailor cartoons in the public domain in the United States.
- This is a semi-remake of the 1951 Popeye the Sailor short Punch and Judo.
External links
- Out to Punch public domain cartoon at the Internet Archive
