The Rare and Unknown : " A Mad House "

In the early Thirties the Horror genre was very popular in Hollywood , thanks to brilliant directors like Tod Browning ( " Freaks " ; " Dracula " ) or James Whale ( the director of the great " Frankestein " and the marvellous " The Bride of Frankestein " ) and studios like Universal ( " Dracula " ; " The Mummy "... ) .

The medium of animation could not resist this trend . Ub Iwers directed and animated a considerable number of cartoons starring an unlimited number of skeletons , from the first Silly Symphony " the Skeleton Dance ( 1929 ) to " Skeleton Frolics " ( 1937 ) . Also , Tashlin directed a magnificent horror spoof starring our favorite ham actor , " The Case of the Stuttering Pig " that is undoubtely a masterpiece .

Mickey Mouse , in these same year , found a lot of skeletons on his way in such cartoons like " The Haunted House " ( again , an Iwerks at work ! ) and " The Mad Doctor " .

Even Terrytoons spoofed the now more than popular genre , with this unknown short .
" A Mad House " ( 1934 ) starts in an old dark house where several skeletons are having fun , dancing and singing ( of course , the influence from both " The Skeleton Dance " and " the Haunted House " is great ) . then , a villanious mad scientist enters ! He created a formula that can make a guy invisible ! He first tries it on a skeleton cat ( ! ) which first returns a normal cat ( !! ) and then becomes invisible ( !!! ) .
The wacky scientist kidnaps the hero's leading lady ( a female dog . Terry in this period did a lot of cartoons with these two dogs as protagonists ) , but the damsel is easily saved for an happy ending .

The supposed protagonists appeared only near the end of the pictures . The real highlights of the show are the skeletons ' gags ! Enjoy !




























Yours Truly ,

Duck Dodgers

Blog Founder and Administrator