| Beach Peach | |
| Number 171 | |
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Beach Peach is Popeye's 171st cartoon, released by Famous Studios on May 12, 1950. It features Popeye as the protagonist and Olive Oyl as the titular love interest. It marks the one-time appearance of an antagonistic lifeguard who can be seen either as a blond, beardless Bluto or as an unrelated antagonist who happens to have Bluto's exact voice, mannerisms and build.
Plot[]
As the cartoon begins, Popeye and Olive are shown making their way onto a crowded beach, and Olive wistfully remarks, "Oh, Popeye, the beach just sands me!" Popeye stumbles clumsily, and the beach chairs, umbrella, and picnic basket fall to Earth as he shields his head.
In the next scene, the view pans across a series of signposts, in Burma Shave-like sequence, and then up a tower, where we get our first look at the muscular blond Lifeguard. From afar he hears Olive Oyl's voice; looks down from his post; and growls "Hubba, hubba!" as his eyeballs leave his face and draw an hourglass figure next to the actual Ms. Oyl, who is powdering her face. The Lifeguard races to her side, burying Popeye in the sand in the process. Over suggestive background music the Lifeguard introduces himself with "Hiya, dollface!" and flexes his arms with the line, "If you're ever drowning, dese muscles'll save ya!" As a demonstration, his bowling-ball bicep mows down the pins on his opposite arm, making a perfect strike. Olive gushes, "Ooh, what a unique physique!" The scene switches to Popeye popping out of the sand, and then back to the Lifeguard, who is already seated next to a delighted Olive with his arm around her, helping himself to a sandwich.
An angry Popeye challenges the interloper with "Hey--That's me lunch, and that's me goil!!" The Lifeguard clenches his fists, expands his chest, and a tattoo of a battleship emerges, which comes to life as its guns blow Popeye clear to the other end of the beach. Popeye storms back only to find the Lifeguard's arm around Olive's midsection, ready to plant a kiss on his very receptive conquest.
Popeye orders the Lifeguard to "Get up and fights like a man!" Olive intercedes just as the two are about to come to blows, and proposes that they play games instead. The Lifeguard gets his medicine ball and uses it to propel Popeye into a trash receptacle while he resumes putting the moves on Olive.
Once again Popeye rushes in to snatch Olive back from her new infatuation. He offers her a ride on an inflated rubber seahorse, and regains her attention. But the Lifeguard swims underwater, pops the plug on the float device, and rescues her when she is thrown into the ocean to drown. A grateful Olive rides back to shore atop the Lifeguard's chest, purring, "You saved my life, you great big hunk of a hero!
Things take a more ominous tone as the Lifeguard demonstrates his athletic ability on a diving board. Not to be outdone by the big man's "jacknife" dive, Popeye climbs up the ladder to show Olive his "dying swan." The Lifeguard, however, raises the height of the diving platform and lets the water out of the pool so that the name of Popeye's dive becomes prophetic.
With Popeye out of the way seemingly for good, the Lifeguard becomes aggressive. He throws Olive into his speedboat and takes off, demanding a kiss. When Olive refuses ('Not on your life, guard!'), he orders her to "get out your water wings--you're walkin'." Olive waterskis through an obstacle course of navigation hazards that the lifeguard utilizes to get her to change her mind and submit to him as she screams for Popeye. Finally roused from his stupor, Popeye eats his spinach, transforms himself into a torpedo, and takes aim at the speeding Lifeguard. The boat explodes and hurls the blond strongman through the air until he collides with his own lifeguard tower. Once again we see his battleship tattoo through his ripped-open swimsuit, which sinks under the waves with a great splash.
In the last scene, Olive lies on the beach as Popeye utilizes her leg as a pump to expel the water she has ingested through her mouth and ears. "Artificial perspiration is my specialky," he quips.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Beach Peach at the Internet Movie Database