Betty Boop first appeared this same year, and she was less human and more dog in this, one of her very earliest cartoons. (Her best-known voice actor, Mae Questal, hadn't taken over the role yet.) In this cartoon, despite her high quota of screen time, Betty is nonetheless a second banana to the nominal star of this cartoon, Bimbo.
Betty is still not as grown-up sexy as she'd come to be shortly -- the joke about her shirt being literally scared off her is played entirely for laughs, and it doesn't feel particularly scandalous or titillating, which we always think coexists with the laughter in Betty's work.
So Betty's in bed late at night, and the wind is blowing, trees are rattling, animals are making spooky noises outside her window, and she's scared! It's so spooky that her hair goes white for a few seconds. Then, she meets a shadowy shape shifter, and he brings his bug and bat friends to serenade her with a strange, unearthly song.
This is more a weird romance cartoon (I'm trying not to think too hard of the creepy, Twilight-y implications of the girl falling in love with the guy who breaks into her house at night) than a straight-up scary picture. There are quite a few spookier Betty Boop cartoons, but the reason for my sharing this one will become clear later today, when I post my final Halloween thing.
Hard to believe, but I couldn't find a buy link for today's cartoon, so please just watch it on YouTube again...
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