Mysterious Mose is a 1930 Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...

 Talkartoon animated short released through Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. It was released in late December the same year. This film contains an early version of Betty Boop

Betty Boop

Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...

 and the studio's star, Bimbo.

Mysterious Mose was a song from early 1930, first performed by Walter Doyle and his Orchestra. There are numerous recordings of the song, including Cliff Perrine and his Orchestra. It was written by Walter Doyle and recorded for Columbia in April 1930 by Rube Bloom

Rube Bloom

Reuben Bloom was a Jewish American multi-faceted entertainer, and in addition to being a songwriter, pianist, arranger, band leader, recording artist, vocalist, and writer .During his career, he worked with many well-known performers, including Bix Beiderbecke, Joe Venuti, Ruth Etting,...

 and His Bayou Boys.

Synopsis

Betty is startled awake in her bed on a stormy night. She searches for the cause of the shock while she sings the song. Then, unexplainable phenomena start happening in the house. Mysterious Mose (Bimbo) appears, and sings part of the song. Bizarre cartoon creatures appear and, at first, sing and enhance Mose's "mysterious" image. Quickly, however, the antics become frightful even to Mose. The film escalates into chaos, which ends when Mose bursts, revealing him having been a construction (full of cogs and springs) the whole time.

Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose is a short film made in 1998 by film makers Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero of Screen Novelties

Screen Novelties

Screen Novelties is a collective of film directors, specializing in stop motion animation. It was formed in 2003 by Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh, and Chris Finnegan....

. The film utilizes puppetry

Puppetry

Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...

, stop motion

Stop motion

Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...

 and silhouette animation

Silhouette animation

Silhouette animation is animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes. This is usually accomplished by backlighting articulated cardboard cut-outs, though other methods exist...

 to tell the story of an otherworldly creature preparing a celebration in a cemetery. Walsh and Caballero used the song Mysterious Mose recorded in 1930 by Harry Reser

Harry Reser

Harry F. Reser was an American banjo player and bandleader. Born in Piqua, Ohio, Reser was best known as the leader of The Clicquot Club Eskimos.- Career :...

and his Radio All-star Novelty Orchestra. The film has gained world wide attention in film festivals and has retained a small cult audience.

External links

• Mysterious Mose - Bimbo and Betty Boop
• Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose
• Mysterious Mose at IMDB