Out of the Inkwell (1938 film)
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| Out of the Inkwell | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Dave Fleischer |
| Produced by | Max Fleischer (producer) S. Roy Luby (associate producer) |
| Animation by | Thomas Johnson Otto Feuer |
| Color process | Black-and-white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Running time | 7 mins |
Out of the Inkwell was the title for a 1938 Betty Boop animated short film. The title and concept for the film were a tribute to the Out of the Inkwell series of films that Max Fleischer had produced during the 1920s.
Synopsis
A live-action Black janitor, played by Oscar Polk, who played one of Scarlett O'Hara's slaves in Gone with the Wind, studies hypnotism from a book while cleaning Max Fleischer's desk at the Fleischer studio. He manages to conjure Max's pen into drawing Betty Boop. In a sequence of animation mixed with live-action, he uses his new powers to control the white animated Boop. She in turn is able to control a small dog. After waking from the spell, Betty manages to work a few more spells. Fraught with racial innuendo, one of her tricks includes turning the Black man white for a split-second, after which he begins cleaning in overdrive. Before that, he was sleeping on his broom and sweeping dirt under the carpet. At the end, Betty Boop leaps into a bottle of black ink.