This cartoon, Max Fleischer's Mysterious Mose, was one of the early ones that starred a girl voiced by Mae Questel who would be eventually known as Betty Boop, here drawn with dog ears. She's all alone in bed at night and scared because she finds a human bulge in her blanket and literally has her shirt float out of her twice! (though we don't see her naked body!) She then sings the title song as her head pops forward and back. That's before we see who the stranger is. It's Bimbo, the one who's actually credited above the title here. Then he sings the song as all sorts of surreal morphing come about...A little atmospheric in the beginning with some good humor provided before the surreal musical finish makes this one of the more entertaining of the early sound Fleischer cartoons. This one is well worth a look for animation buffs.
9 Reviews
"That's Mysterious Mose!"
Foreverisacastironmess12329 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Ever been so scared that your dress ran away? In her third appearance the legendary Betty Boop is pretty scary-looking herself as at this point, but not for much longer she's still in the bizarre form of a she-dog, and is miles away from the classic kooky 'sexy' image that everyone knows her for. Her design looks really rubbery and poor-although on the plus side, I thought she had a bigger range of facial expressions in this one than usual. Betty's so scared in a dark spooky house with eerie voices whispering that even her toes hug each other for comfort! The animation is impressive, particularly so when you consider how old it is. They had so much less, technology-wise to work with back then, and yet the Fleischers were able to create so many wondrous little works of their imaginations, of which many can still blow the pants off most cartoons of today! For me Mysterious Mose isn't necessarily the creepiest Boop short ever, but it's definitely one of the weirdest! The most bizarre sight gag for me was when the fish come out of the pipe(or whatever that is...) and all combine together to form a jazz-playing caterpillar!? As with a lot of the Fleischer shorts that I like the main attraction for me is the patented creativity and imaginative trippy nonsense and musical warping characters on display, and especially the motions of the title character who flits about the cabin like a morphing splodge of trickster ink! He sure looked a lot like Bimbo. I think the character was supposed to be some kind of alternate version of Bimbo, but I'm pretty sure it was him. The antics of the house soon become too fearful even for him, and he's the star of the show! Right when he turns up is when things really get mysterious as the trademark surreal ghostly chaos explodes onto the screen with all kinds of things appearing out of nowhere, and disappearing into it again! But in my opinion this one's actually fairly normal compared to to some of the real infamous outings like "Snow White" or "Old Man of the Mountain", but there's still plenty to gawk at that'll make your head spin! All of the Fleischer cartoons have a certain endearing zaniness to them that sets them apart from the rest, sort of an anti-Disney sweetness kind of thing. Crude, but a delight!
Surreal...
planktonrules20 November 2012
"Mysterious Mose" is certainly one of the stranger cartoons I've ever seen. It stars Bimbo as Mose and co-stars a very early incarnation of Betty Boop. However, this early Betty is quite a bit different from the typical later character, as she sports dog's ears (in the first half dozen of so of her films) and is very rubber-faced. In addition, viewers might be a bit shocked by what happens early in the film--when Betty is scared and her blouse flies off! You don't really see much, but it's very suggestive---and the sort of thing which would be eliminated once the new Production Code would be implemented in mid-1934. Following 1934, Betty's clothing became less skimpy and she became a bit more wholesome!
As far as the plot goes, there is not a lot here. Betty is in bed and is afraid. Then, she discovers that Mysterious Mose--a nice but freaky sort of ghost is running about--and results in a song and dance number where Bimbo disappears, stretches and cavorts about for the audience in a very odd and surreal manner. As I said, there isn't a lot of plot here! Not a bad cartoon--just not a particularly distinguished one, either.
As far as the plot goes, there is not a lot here. Betty is in bed and is afraid. Then, she discovers that Mysterious Mose--a nice but freaky sort of ghost is running about--and results in a song and dance number where Bimbo disappears, stretches and cavorts about for the audience in a very odd and surreal manner. As I said, there isn't a lot of plot here! Not a bad cartoon--just not a particularly distinguished one, either.
A good early Betty cartoon
Horst_In_Translation29 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Mysterious Mose" is a 6-minute cartoon from 1930 and like almost all the other Betty Boop cartoons it is in black-and-white and with sound. This one is over 85 years old and one of the earliest Betty Boop cartoons. But this does not keep it from being one of the best. The title song is really catchy with the different voices we hear it from in the movie and the first 90 seconds or so we even get to go to bet with Betty. The way her night gown keeps flying away more than once, it was really obvious how Fleischer was keen on taking the sexy route for her Betty character and she does not look as canine here anymore as she did in the very first Betty cartoon for example. She turned more human in the years to come and you could certainly call her one of the biggest animated sex icons. I don't think that's a bad thing though. Different is good and this approach was really not common back in the day. As for this one here, the title already suggests that it is slightly creepy, but not really that much. Nothing too scary here, at least for today's standards. I recommend the watch, especially because of the music. By the way, Bimbo shows up in here too and the way he is depicted, I wonder if they were maybe planning on him taking the villain path. Not sure though as the way he gets defeated (or defeats himself) at the very end is just as bizarre as it gets.
Who he is, or what he is, nobody seems to know
wmorrow599 February 2008
It's hard to believe that this amazing cartoon runs slightly less than six minutes. Somehow those wildly imaginative animators at the Fleischer Studio managed to pack a lifetime supply of nightmare imagery, sexual gags, dreamlike transformations, and stupefying weirdness into this brief black & white short. And they make it look easy! It takes a couple of viewings to absorb it all, and even then it leaves you feeling dazed.
First there was Walter Doyle's song: "Mysterious Mose" was recorded by several bands in the spring of 1930, several months before this film was released. It's a great, jaunty novelty tune with a Halloween-like atmosphere, all about a ghostly character who roams the land and scares everyone silly. The rendition by Bobby Dixon's Broadcasters is a really cool record, complete with slide whistles and other "haunted house" sound effects, but the version in this cartoon is even better. The mood set by the song, combined with the genius of these animators, makes for a genuinely eerie experience.
We first see a young woman huddled in her bed, pop-eyed with fright as the wind howls outside, and mysterious moans and thumps are heard. She's an embryonic version of Betty Boop, not yet the Betty we know. She's so scared her hair turns from black to gray and back again. A ghostly shape appears in bed alongside her, but when she lifts the covers she finds no one there. From under the sheets her nightdress jumps right off her body and she has to grab it back again. (A gag so nice they use it twice.) Even Betty's big toes come to life, huddle together, and pull the covers over themselves in fright. Why? In a trembling, girlish voice, Betty sings to us about that man of mystery who is roaming the land. We first see Mose in silhouette as his shadow glides along a fence. (He's "portrayed" by Bimbo, the studio's familiar dog character.) When a cat yowls at him, he smacks it so hard it's reduced to nine kittens! Soon thereafter, Mysterious Mose enters Betty's house through the keyhole, and then the serious hallucinations kick in.
The next couple of minutes are just wild, and better seen than described. Let it suffice to say that Mose sails through the air like a blob of ectoplasm, singing and bringing bric-a-brac to life; the moose-head over the fireplace joins in the song; a mouse pops out of Mose's shoe and plays the flute; a monkey pops out from under the rug and plays a trumpet; then several goldfish emerge from his trumpet and "swim" through the air before morphing together and transforming into a single, huge caterpillar, who finishes the song on his saxophone.
There's more, but you just have to see for yourself. I love animation from the silent days right through the heyday of Bugs Bunny, but there was nobody who did it quite like the Fleischer gang, and Mysterious Mose is one of their mini-masterpieces of Surrealism.
First there was Walter Doyle's song: "Mysterious Mose" was recorded by several bands in the spring of 1930, several months before this film was released. It's a great, jaunty novelty tune with a Halloween-like atmosphere, all about a ghostly character who roams the land and scares everyone silly. The rendition by Bobby Dixon's Broadcasters is a really cool record, complete with slide whistles and other "haunted house" sound effects, but the version in this cartoon is even better. The mood set by the song, combined with the genius of these animators, makes for a genuinely eerie experience.
We first see a young woman huddled in her bed, pop-eyed with fright as the wind howls outside, and mysterious moans and thumps are heard. She's an embryonic version of Betty Boop, not yet the Betty we know. She's so scared her hair turns from black to gray and back again. A ghostly shape appears in bed alongside her, but when she lifts the covers she finds no one there. From under the sheets her nightdress jumps right off her body and she has to grab it back again. (A gag so nice they use it twice.) Even Betty's big toes come to life, huddle together, and pull the covers over themselves in fright. Why? In a trembling, girlish voice, Betty sings to us about that man of mystery who is roaming the land. We first see Mose in silhouette as his shadow glides along a fence. (He's "portrayed" by Bimbo, the studio's familiar dog character.) When a cat yowls at him, he smacks it so hard it's reduced to nine kittens! Soon thereafter, Mysterious Mose enters Betty's house through the keyhole, and then the serious hallucinations kick in.
The next couple of minutes are just wild, and better seen than described. Let it suffice to say that Mose sails through the air like a blob of ectoplasm, singing and bringing bric-a-brac to life; the moose-head over the fireplace joins in the song; a mouse pops out of Mose's shoe and plays the flute; a monkey pops out from under the rug and plays a trumpet; then several goldfish emerge from his trumpet and "swim" through the air before morphing together and transforming into a single, huge caterpillar, who finishes the song on his saxophone.
There's more, but you just have to see for yourself. I love animation from the silent days right through the heyday of Bugs Bunny, but there was nobody who did it quite like the Fleischer gang, and Mysterious Mose is one of their mini-masterpieces of Surrealism.
Extremely good early Betty Boop
llltdesq18 July 2004
This short has most of the strengths and none of the weaknesses of the early Fleischer sound shorts. The Fleischers were almost invariably well animated and had odd and wonderful touches scattered throughout the cartoon. Watch the early stages of fright with Betty and various objects in the bedroom. The title song is quite memorable, the scoring helps set the mood and it gets quite scary here and there. This is the kind of thing the Fleischers did extremely well. They did this type of thing better later on in the Betty Boop series in shorts like Old Man of the Mountain, Bimbo's Initiation and Snow White. This cartoon was probably an early attempt at this type of spooky short-sort of a trial run. The ending is very good here. This is on VHS as part of Betty Boop-The Definitive Collection. Most recommended.
May be the best piece of animation I have ever seen
Fabo6 May 1999
I saw this piece as the opening work at a funky little church-basement art film festival a good twenty-five years ago. When it was over the entire audience stood up and cheered. Then they made the projectionist show it two more times! As with all good Fleischer cartoons the transformations (this guy invented morphing) were breathtaking, the music was fantastic, and the synchrony between the two was literally stunning. it's head-and-shoulders above 99% of what's out there in animation. I've been looking for a video copy of this ever since.
Mysteriously surreal
TheLittleSongbird15 April 2018
Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style was often stunning and some of the most imaginative and ahead of its time in animation.
The character of Betty Boop, one of their most famous and prolific characters, may not be for all tastes and sadly not as popular now, but her sex appeal was quite daring for the time and to me there is an adorable sensual charm about her. That charm, sensuality and adorable factor is not lost anywhere here, nor her comic timing and she is very well supported by the ever fun Bimbo in a more surreal role to usual.
'Mysterious Mose' is for me among the better early period Betty Boop cartoons. It has all the elements that make her pre-Code cartoons so worthwhile and does do so much, almost everything, right and little wrong. Story-wise, will agree somewhat that it is very slight and not too hard to figure out.
However, the animation is outstanding, everything is beautifully and meticulously drawn and the whole cartoon is rich in visual detail and imagination. Every bit as good is the music score, which delivers on the energy, lusciousness and infectiousness, great for putting anybody in a good mood.
As hoped, the fun is ceaseless, with some very well timed and funny gags, and delivers on the creativity and imagination as well as (for Betty Boop especially) a surprising darkness and surrealism. As well as a raciness that one associates pre-code Betty Boop with. The voice work and such is good.
In summary, Betty Boop fans will find a lot to enjoy here in 'Mysterious Mose'. 9/10 Bethany Cox
The character of Betty Boop, one of their most famous and prolific characters, may not be for all tastes and sadly not as popular now, but her sex appeal was quite daring for the time and to me there is an adorable sensual charm about her. That charm, sensuality and adorable factor is not lost anywhere here, nor her comic timing and she is very well supported by the ever fun Bimbo in a more surreal role to usual.
'Mysterious Mose' is for me among the better early period Betty Boop cartoons. It has all the elements that make her pre-Code cartoons so worthwhile and does do so much, almost everything, right and little wrong. Story-wise, will agree somewhat that it is very slight and not too hard to figure out.
However, the animation is outstanding, everything is beautifully and meticulously drawn and the whole cartoon is rich in visual detail and imagination. Every bit as good is the music score, which delivers on the energy, lusciousness and infectiousness, great for putting anybody in a good mood.
As hoped, the fun is ceaseless, with some very well timed and funny gags, and delivers on the creativity and imagination as well as (for Betty Boop especially) a surprising darkness and surrealism. As well as a raciness that one associates pre-code Betty Boop with. The voice work and such is good.
In summary, Betty Boop fans will find a lot to enjoy here in 'Mysterious Mose'. 9/10 Bethany Cox
Great Song
Hitchcoc5 December 2018
Berry makes another appearance as a dog (even though the ears are barely visible). She is having trouble sleeping because there is some kind of shape shifter named Mose out there. His primary shape is of Bimbo, her "close" best friend. This is so creative and quite frightening with wonderful individual bits and cool animation.
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