BOOTLEG FILES 837: “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” (1960 animated short starring The Three Dogeteers).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Long forgotten short film that fell through the proverbial cracks.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Yes, it is coming out on DVD, incredibly.
Researching obscure films can be a challenge, but there is always the reward that comes when hitherto unknown facts are unearthed about a cinematic curiosity. This week, however, we have a film that could qualify as being among the most mysterious productions of all time, as there is nothing that is easily accessible to determine its origins.
The film in question is the 1960 “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” and it is a seven-minute animated short designed to introduce a line-up of characters called The Three Dogeteers. (These are not to be confused with the 2014 feature “The 3 Dogateers.”) Whether this was intended as a pilot for a TV program or a test film for the start of a theatrical short subject series is unclear. According to animation historian Steve Stanchfield, who was the first to give any attention to “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” via the Cartoon Research website, the film was shot in 16mm Kodachrome.
The film is framed as a “Happyland Cartoon in Color” and a “B.F. Zeidman Production.” Zeidman is the only name credited in the print – he was a B-movie producer whose career stretched from the silent era into the mid-1940s when he helmed “Air Raid Wardens” (1943) and “Nothing But Trouble” (1945), a pair of MGM films starring Laurel and Hardy. However, there is nothing in the available biographical material on Zeidman that placed him in television (let alone kiddie animation).
The short opens with a pre-title sequence. There is mariachi music on the soundtrack and a shot of a small barrel with a spigot. There is knocking on the spigot and the device comes loose. A stream of multicolored liquid pours out and develops into a bipedal chihuahua named Chico who is wearing a sombrero. More multicolored liquid pours out and it turns into Pet Charm, a female hound with a Dixie drawl and a green hat. More liquid pours out and it becomes Clancy, a bulldog wearing a conical birthday cap and a polka-dot bowtie.
After a title card identifying the film, the plot (if you can call it that) kicks in. Clancy brings Pet Charm a box of roses and she kisses him. Chico, who has a sprig in his mouth and a tamale at his feet, watches Clancy with Pet Charm and becomes sad. Pet Charm is sad that Chico is sad and she begins to cry – so much that Clancy, who is now laying at her feet with his mouth open, winds up swallowing all of her tears and abruptly becomes water-logged bloated. Chico jumps on Clancy to force the water out of him.
The Chico-Clancy rivalry extends to a hula-hoop demonstration. Chico is too small to use a hula-hoop, but burly Clancy can swing it around his midsection that he sweats profusely and turns the ground to mud. Chico throws a bucket of ice water on him and Pet Charm awards him a First Prize medal. Relations between Chico and Clancy get more violent – Chico throws tomatoes at his rival, who winds up chasing the chihuahua but falls off a cliff into a stream, forcing Chico to fish him out. Clancy winds up with an angry fish in his mouth.
Chico and Clancy then wind up with a common enemy in a wild boar. Chico somehow manages to pulverize the pig and Pet Charm rewards both of her suitors with a bowl a food that they share.
Animation doesn’t get more cheapjack than “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” – the production is crudely designed and executed and the voice performances barely match their characters. The plot makes no sense, of course, but even as an exercise in surrealism the film is so slovenly that its seven-minute running time seems like 70 minutes.
There is no record of this film being screened or broadcast, so most likely the YouTube posting on Steve Stanchfield’s page in May was the first time the public has seen it. Jeff Messinne, who uncovered the film, said the film’s identification on its negative and printed into its leaders was “Rivals in Love” – why that compact title became the ornery “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” is unknown.
The film’s title has a 1960 copyright, but today it is a public domain title. Stanchfield stated “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” will be part of a DVD set called “Missing Links” from his Thunderbean Animation label later this month.
As a public domain title, there is a good chance that “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” will be copied and shared by other animation fiends. But until that occurs, here is the film that Stanchfield rescued from obscurity:
IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.
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