The Desolation of Bluto

Our next Popeye short is called Stealin' Ain't Honest.  Again, another haughty, generic, semi-biblical title, but the plot's a bit more conventional.  Think Dizzy Divers, except, as you can divine from the pic to the left, it's a land-based treasure hunt.  Popeye's learned his lesson from Dizzy Divers and he doesn't let Bluto see the map beforehand.  However, Bluto's ready this time, for he's got a camera... and a portable bath of photo-developing chemicals!  Lol.  As it turns out, however... no photo pun intended... he kinda didn't need to go to all that trouble.  For one, there's an arrow floating in the ocean pointing to the treasure.  Bluto's ahead of Popeye in the race to get there and, maybe out of a sense of sportsmanship, he doesn't take it with him.  Also, the island with the gold mine's got a huge sign on it.  Hmm!  There's a shallow economics lesson in all of this somewhere.  Olive's got the raw materials, but no big burly men to harvest them.  Frankly, the whole enterprise is a bit half baked, but that's the setup for Act One.
Act Two: let the digging for the treasure begin.  Alas, this is a cartoon, so none of the realism of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre here.  No, it's all about digging in the right place.  At one point, Olive sticks her hand in a hole in the wall, and when she pulls it back out... BOOM!  Her hand's covered in rings!  Bluto does the same thing, but when his fist comes out... BOOM!!!  It's got a 14 karat boxing glove upon it!  You'll never guess what he does with it.
And so, in the third Act of our story, Popeye goes flying through the air, but before he lands (he knows not where) ... oh, it's so spinach time.  All the usual stuff: Bluto gets the crap beat out of him, yada yada yada.  You know, come to think of it... since when do cartoon characters need money, let alone go on crazy mining expeditions?  Well, they're only human, I guess.  But there's room for one last gag.  Olive and Popeye's boat is full of the proverbial sacks with dollar signs on them.  Popeye throws on one last gold nugget and... yup, the boat sinks with a mighty ker-plunk, if you will, into the ocean.  How are they gonna make it back to civilization?  Simple.  In the end, we see Popeye on the ocean floor, walking along, carrying the whole boat with him.  He gives two pipe toots while underwater... OH MY GOD!  He's the Highlander!!!!


Good double bill with: Cactus Makes Perfect.
***1/2
-so sayeth The Movie Hooligan