Clean Pastures
A Merrie Melodies short parodying The Green Pastures.
via Wikipedia: Clean Pastures · see source
Clean Pastures is a 1937 American animated comedy short film directed by Isadore Freleng, released as the 74th entry in the Merrie Melodies series. Its title parodies the 1936 film The Green Pastures. The short is among the "Censored Eleven" cartoons withheld from circulation due to its racial stereotypes of black people.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Isadore Freleng
- Animator
- Paul Smith; Phil Monroe
- Starring
- Ben Carter
- Lillian Randolph
- William Days
- Leroy Hunt
- Paul Taylor's Sportsmen
- Basin Street Boys
- Mel Blanc
- Music
- Carl W. Stalling
- Producer
- Leon Schlesinger
- Studio
- Leon Schlesinger Productions
- Released
- 22 May 1937
- Runtime
- 7 min
Facts from the source article.
Plot
In Harlem, a nightclub is filled with stereotyped Black residents enjoying themselves. Up in a heaven called Pair-O-Dice, a Black God notices his shares are dropping while Hell’s rise. He dispatches an angel resembling Stepin Fetchit to promote Pair-O-Dice, but fails. Angels who look like Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, the Mills Brothers, and Jimmie Lunceford ask to go to Harlem, believing swing music can win over the clubgoers. Their performance succeeds, guiding the people—and even the Devil—to heaven for conversion.
Critical reception
Black critics in the 1930s wrote about the play and film The Green Pastures, but they were silent on its animated parody. Weisenfeld speculates that this is because animated cartoons were not seen as significant at the time. Modern critics of Clean Pastures fault the film for its stereotypical depictions of black culture. Cultural studies scholar William Anthony Nericcio sees the film as representative of a pattern in the works of Friz Freleng, who also produced such stereotype-ridden films as Jungle Jitters, Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears, and the Speedy Gonzales cartoons. Lindvall and Fraser are more forgiving and call the cartoon "playful", "light", and "mischievous". Daniel Goldmark alleges that the film is a burlesque of black religion and culture in its portrayal of Pair-O-Dice as "heavenly Harlem shops and singing choirs". In his interpretation, the film's use of rhythm is a metaphor for faith. This demonstrates white Americans' placement of jazz alongside religion and "the unfettered expressions of emotion associated with it" as aspects of African American culture. The cartoon implies that jazz cannot be replaced in the black psyche, as the musicians in the film must appropriate jazz, not compete with it, to draw Harlemites to Pair-O-Dice. The mortal characters are given no information about why Pair-O-Dice is better than Harlem, but the upbeat music is enough to lure them there. Even the Devil himself takes the bait. In the end, the film reaffirms the vision of Paradise from The Green Pastures, with its "perpetual Negro holiday [and] everlasting weekend fish fry."
Frequently Asked Questions
Who stars in Clean Pastures?
Clean Pastures stars Ben Carter, Lillian Randolph, William Days, Leroy Hunt, Paul Taylor's Sportsmen, Basin Street Boys and Mel Blanc.
When was Clean Pastures released?
Clean Pastures was released on 22 May 1937.
Who composed the music for Clean Pastures?
The music for Clean Pastures was composed by Carl W. Stalling.
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