Nurse-Mates (1940)
7/10
A Slapstick Babysitting Contest
24 July 2008
Here's a familiar scene: Popeye and Bluto arriving at Olive Oyl's front door at the exact same time. As Popeye said many times: "Whoa!!!" The cartoon turns out to be a baby-sitting contest, of sorts. After both of the guys ask her out to the movies, her only answer is "I have to go to the beauty parlor. You'll have to look after Swee' Pea until I come back. Here's the list of what to do."

So Popeye and Bluto attempt to give the baby a bath and then dress him. Bluto takes charge, as always and his skit showing how to wash a baby is pretty funny. It probably wouldn't make a cartoon today, deemed child abuse, but Swee' Pea didn't seem to mind! Other gags ensue after Swee' Pea slips out of the small tub and gets ink all over himself. Popeye's solution of "spot remover" works a little too well.

Anyway, slapstick rules this cartoon as one misadventure after another happens with the little guy and the two big lugs trying to help but getting in each other's way. There may not be many laugh-out-loud jokes but it's entertaining to enough to rate a "7."

One note: there is no spinach in this one, which is unusual.
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