Gold Diggers of '49 (1935) User Reviews

Tex Avery's First Cartoon as Supervisor

[theowinthrop · 6/10 · 17 March 2007]

A mildly amusing 1935 cartoon that was replayed yesterday on Turner Classic Movies.

Beans was briefly (very briefly) the leading figure in Merrie Melodies, before his lack of any humorous comic personality suggested that he really did not deserve such an exalted position. He is one of the gold miners in Red Gulch, California in 1849 (hence the title - a joke supposedly on the popular Warner "Gold Digger" Musicals). His girlfriend is the daughter of Porky Pig. At this time Porky's size and personality were still up in the air. He is taller and fatter (and quite honestly gluttonous) in this cartoon. Beans brings back gold to the town and a rush starts. The town empties out. One racist joke in the film: a Chinese pair are riding a rickshaw (one is pulling it) when auto fumes (this cartoon has several anachronisms in it) turn them Black, and one starts talking like Amos and one like Andy.

When a villain lassos Porky's tied bag, the latter says Beans can marry his daughter if he gets the bag back. He eventually does, in the course of changing his his old Model T into a streamlined racing car to catch the villain.

As I said mildly amusing. The future touches of genius that Avery brought to his cartoon work in the 1940s are not found here. But he had to start somewhere, I guess.

Porky and Beans, going for gold

[didi-5 · 7/10 · 17 October 2007]

At the time this cartoon was made, Porky Pig (of course to be one of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies biggest stars) and Beans (the Boston cat who sadly didn't catch on), had been introduced to viewers as schoolkids in 'I Haven't Got a Hat'. That was a charming cartoon with strong characterisations.

'Gold Diggers ...' makes both characters into adults, and not only that, Beans wants to marry Porky's daughter (who appears to be another cat, and not a pig ...). To do this he needs to get into Porky's good books by finding and guarding gold.

Some fun gags (Beans driving a car so fast he turns into a blur of lines) and the interest factor of seeing another embryonic version of Porky Pig - still not quite the classic version we know and love - makes this film more important that it perhaps would have been without those associations.

genetic mutations get so weird that a pig fathers a cat

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 19 December 2007]

Porky Pig's second appearance (and Tex Avery's directorial debut) does feature a few racial stereotypes, but overall, "Gold Diggers of '49" made me laugh. Set at the time of the 1849 California gold rush, Porky and Beans are prospectors, and Beans wants to marry Porky's daughter Kitty (the three characters got introduced in "I Haven't Got a Hat" earlier in 1935, and Porky looks as if he needs triple bypass surgery). Part of this involves Beans guarding a little something of Porky's.

If you've seen any of Tex Avery's cartoons, then you should know what sorts of things to expect here. The gags aren't quite as zany as I might have hoped for, but I try to imagine how hilarious they must have looked the first time that moviegoers ever saw them. If absolutely nothing else, this should be of interest to cartoon fans as a look into the Termite Terrace crowd's early days. Worth seeing.

As for the question of how a pig fathered a cat...well, in cartoons things don't have to make sense.

Tex Avery's first...and Porky's second.

[planktonrules · 10 November 2019]

"Gold DIggers of '49"* is a first...as well as a second. First, it is the first cartoon directed by Fred 'Tex' Avery. While it lacks the wonderful weirdness of his later MGM films, it is significantly better than the Harmon-Ising singing cartoons Looney Tunes was known for at the time. Second, it's Porky Pig's second film. And, unlike the first ("I Haven't Got a Hat"), Porky is older and fatter.

The cartoon is one starring a character long forgotten...mostly because he just wasn't that interesting. 'Beans' (I think he's supposed to be a cat) is the hero here and he and Porky and many others are all out looking for gold in 19th century California. There are a few nice laughs here and there...as well as a few nasty 1930s racial stereotypes which were not that unusual for the time.



*Nearly all of the cartoons by Looney Tunes and most other studios (aside from Disney) made black & white cartoons in 1935. This is because Disney bought exclusive cartoon rights to Three-Color Technicolor--the first true color film stock widely used by filmmakers. As a result, other studios either needed to use black & white or a two-color process, such as those made by Technicolor and Cinecolor....and the colors tended to be more orangy-green than color.

Tex Avery's first cartoon, and it's a decent one

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 18 July 2016]

Tex Avery has gone on to far better cartoons since, but 'Gold Diggers of 49' is not a bad first cartoon at all, while not great it's decent.

Wasn't crazy about Porky here, really like him as a character but his taller and slobbery look is nowhere near as appealing as the design that we're more familiar with, pretty crude from personal opinion actually. Nor with Joe Dougherty's voice work, Mel Blanc's Porky stutter is much more natural while Dougherty's sounds annoying and overdone. One gag misfires too, and that's the racially stereotypical gag with the Chinese dogs.

However, while Avery's animation style became more refined later on there are some really imaginative and beautiful visuals here, especially in the chase sequence with lots of fluidity, crispness and meticulous detail. The music is no Carl Stalling, but it's lively, charmingly orchestrated, rousing and dynamic enough. There are some good gags, though Avery's succeeding cartoons were more consistent in humour and were sharper and wittier, especially the barber shop gag and the chase sequence, the latter being the highlight of the cartoon. There are some cute moments too, and the whole stuff with the gold makes for good fun.

Beans is not one of the funniest ever characters and there are more interesting ones too, but he is compelling and amusing enough and he's likable. Kitty is adorable, and the villain is suitably dastardly. The chemistry between the characters is also enjoyable, and apart from Dougherty the voice acting from Bernice Hansen and Billy Bletcher is very good but the lack of Mel Blanc is much lamented.

All in all, a decent first cartoon for Avery but he went on to do better. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Pretty Typical Offering

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 2 January 2019]

Beans (the character that resembles all kinds of others) is a prospector. He finds gold and announces it to all the people in town. They head out. Soon he is fighting off the bad guys (with an early version of Porky Pig). There are a few funny little bits as they dig for the yellow stuff, but it isn't all that remarkable. Special effects fall short.

Like "Billy Pilgrim" of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 12 November 2016]

. . . Warner Bros.' Looney Tuners always have been "unstuck in time." GOLD DIGGERS OF '49 probably gave FIVE author Kurt Vonnegut himself fits when he first viewed this as a youngster. (Of course, the World appreciates that the adult Mr. Vonnegut was able to harvest the seeds sown in his Imagination by '49 in order to chronicle Billy's amazing travels.) The opening sequence of '49 implies that it might be based upon some small incident of the California Gold Rush (which U.S. schools USED to teach began at Sutter's Mill in 1849; now that Politically Correct Trivia has replaced a Common Core of Facts for America's kiddies, no one under Age 50 knows WHY San Francisco's NFL team is called the 49'Ers). However, Porky Pig is soon seen tooling around in a 60-years-premature Model T, and later Beans pilots a Bonneville Salt Flats speedster post-dating this cartoon by decades. Furthermore, '49 champions Interspecies Marriage with the Union of Beans and Porky's daughter, and it shows that racial identity is as fluid as all of Today's genetic testing TV ads would seem to suggest, as this animated short transforms two Asian Men into a pair of Black Males.

Nothing special

[TheOtherFool · 5/10 · 11 June 2004]

'Beans' is a golddigger in '49 and to many surprise he actually finds something, just as the sleepy town he's living in had no high hopes anymore (as we see in the introduction).

Beans instead of keeping the gold (that comes in coins, very handy indeed) for himself is telling everybody in town, including Porky Pig whose daughter he wants to marry. I love it when they find a book called 'how to find gold', it says 'Start to Dig!'.

Then enter a villain who steals what appears to be a sack of gold (but really was only Porky's lunch) but Beans gets it back in his supercar.

Not a lot going on in this cartoon, a bit racist at times but nothing to get too excited about on all accounts. 5/10.

Beans Bags The Gold, er, Baloney

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 27 March 2007]

This is not another of those Warner Brothers cartoons kind of promoting their "Gold Digger" musicals of the 1930s, but a story about the real gold diggers of 1849. It stars "Beans," and takes place in "Goldville." Beans, trying to woo Porky Pig's daughter (who is not a pig), is out on the mountain when he strikes gold (via pulling a slot-machine-like arm!). He goes back into town and tells everyone.

From that point, we mainly see Beans and Porky out digging for gold. A bad guys is nearby and he snags a bag full of gold. Porky tells Beans that if gets the bag back, he can marry his daughter. Beans hops into his jalopy and races up the hill, firing with a shotgun! Beans isn't really a funny guy but the cartoon has some good moments and the car is a real hoot. In the end, the bag of gold is only Porky's lunch, but that's gold to him!

It certainly looks dated, but that's the case with most 1930s black-and-white cartoons, and sometimes that's just fine with me. This was a fast-paced, inventive cartoon.

Starring Warner's original leading man, Beans.

[Chip_douglas · 18 March 2004]

It's 1849 and prospectors are searching for gold in Red Gulch. Our hero Beans finds it by way of a slot machine and inspires a small town to join the gold rush. There are lots of captions to move the story along, although they never explain what kind of animal Beans is. I suppose he look a bit like Felix the cat, but then most of the characters in the thirties did. Still the Warner brothers must have had high hopes for Beans, as he gets the honour of saying "That's all folks" at the end. Lots of silly animals appear, including an unnecessary barbershop quartet and a big fat pig who seems to be in charge of things. Could this slob really be Porky? He has the stutter, but that is the only recognizable feature.

Enter the villain employing an impressive lasso gun to steal Porky's most prized possession. If beans gets it back Porky tells him he can literally have his daughter. Luckily for Beans the girl does not look like her father but seems to be of the same unidentified black and white species as our hero. The chase scene features some early examples of the kind of lunacy that would make Supervisor Fred (Tex) Avery famous in later years, but the pace is much slower. The art of animation was so new at this time, that just seeing funny animals riding mules and horses, driving cars and playing racial stereotypes was good enough for a laugh.

4 out of 10

An interesting little cartoon.

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 11 August 2008]

This is a Warner Brothers cartoon, made with Porky Pig, less than a year old.

In this cartoon, in the 1800's, a cat called Beans has found gold. After kissing his love (the cat who is Porky's "daughter") goodbye, he head off and with Porky and townfolk, he mines for gold. He seems to be doing very well. Then, along comes a robber, who has his eye on one bag of gold - but he did not count on Beans coming along...

This is a very interesting cartoon in a historical and plot-wise point of view. It is historical because of the way it is made, which is old and the humour, which is old. The plot is interesting, partly because it was unlike the plots of many of the Warner Brothers cartoons in the future. I like the cartoon because of this and I also like it because of Beans the cat (who for some reason reminds me of Mickey mouse), Porky (who looks a lot different) and Beans' sweetheart. Some parts of the cartoon are very cute.

Well worth a watch - especially for people who like historical cartoons and exciting old cartoons! Enjoy "Gold Diggers of '49". :-)

Fun Short

[Michael_Elliott · 20 September 2017]

Gold Diggers of '49 (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Beans is out digging for gold and hits the big one. He rushes into town and soon everyone is out there digging. Porky Pig is helping Beans when their bag of gold is stolen so Beans must go after it.

GOLD DIGGERS OF '49 is a fairly entertaining short from Tex Avery and it features that wonderful animation that he is known for. There are a lot of good gags scattered throughout the running time but for me the highlight is simply the animation. This is especially true during a sequence where Beans feeds his car some extra fast gas. Just look at the detail as they go zipping by various things including picking up Porky. Speaking of Porky, this here was his second short and he's bigger than he's ever been, weight wise, and makes for an interesting father.

Calm down, Porky!

[slymusic · 27 May 2009]

"Gold Diggers of '49" is just an average black-and-white Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Tex Avery. The time is July, 1849. Beans the cat and Porky Pig (not really the Porky we know today) go prospecting, and Beans hopes to marry Porky's daughter Kitty (!). Of course, there's a bad guy in the mix.

My favorite scenes from "Gold Diggers of '49": I love how Porky gobbles up a gigantic sandwich and then shouts "YeeeeoWHOOPEE!" I also love hearing cartoon characters sing, even if it's only for a few seconds; a barbershop quartet harmonizes the final bars of "Sweet Adeline" before departing for the big gold strike. AND I like how Porky's long arm reaches in his own back pocket and keeps retrieving the same gold coin he found.

"Gold Diggers of '49" is okay, but Porky Pig fans will most likely be disappointed with it because Porky simply doesn't have the voice, the looks, or the personality that we are all familiar with. It would take a little while longer for the character to develop, and thank God that directors Tex Avery and Bob Clampett admired Porky so much that they had the desire to work with him.