Twilight on the Trail

Twilight on the Trail (1937)

** (out of 4)

The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. Louise Massey and The Westeners are the musical guests and the cowboy also opens up this short talking about his cowboy ways. We then see the animated version of some of his stories including his working with a lasso as well as another story dealing with him fighting a bear. From here we get to the title song and the bouncing ball. It seems 1937 brought a new format to the Screen Songs series but it's rather a miss. The idea of someone talking about their adventures as we see the animation was okay but there really wasn't much to the stories and even the animation wasn't as good as you'd come to expect from the series. The song was your typical cowboy song and it wasn't too special either.

A nonchalant little trifle which begins with the hero supposedly scribbling pictures of himself on a drawing board (displaying improbable facility with a pen if the drawings really were his) which come comically to life. Then comes the song, staged among a patch of trees with Louise Massey flanked by the Westerners wearing an expensive looking cowgirl outfit that rather undercuts the song's stress on the simplicity of the outdoor life and unimportance of money. At just 8 minutes the whole caboodle doesn't have time to outstay its welcome.