"The Black Duck"

[frizfrelengfan]

I saw this cartoon on Youtube recently. Is anyone familiar with it? It speaks to racism. There is violence and drinking in the cartoon, even though it was probably made during Prohibition.

I believe it was made by Paul Terry at the Van Beuren studio before he started Terrytoons. Estimated date according to BCDB is 1929. If that is true, it must be one of the first sound cartoons ever! While it has sound, a lot of animated techniques from the silent era (such as dotted lines when a character looks at something) are included.

[Sogturtle]

FrizFrelengFan~

Yep the cartoon was made by ol' Paul Terry in 1928 as an 'Aesop's Film Fable' and supposedly it was released on March 1, 1929. And indeed this was before Terry left to form his partnership with Frank Moser. Our friend Steve Stanchfield included it on his "Felix The Cat And Rarities From The 1920's" DVD, and he believes the soundtrack was added in the 1950's for television.:)

[cpdavison]

It's too bad more post-synch wasn't done this way.

Imagine if Bob and Ray had been given the job of ad-libbing dialog for cartoons like this! It'd have been better than the novelty whistles (Mutt & Jeff) or MOWWRRRWWR gibberish (Felix) that were used by some of the cheap-jack post-synch operators of days gone by.

At least in my uninformed opinion.

Craig D.

[Tom Stathes]

A friend of mine thinks the version we've been seeing could be a 40s theatrical reissue, though we could be wrong. Does anyone have info on the repackager?
In any case, I'm greatful for my 16mm print :)
-Tom