From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : Yesterday I reviewed Baggage Buster, and wrote about how Goofy was a character that worked best when confronted with a myriad of obstacles. In comparing him to Donald, I implied that Donald was best suited to a singular antagonist. Well, in A Good Time For A Dime, Disney seemed to look to prove me wrong.

This Donald Duck short is very similar to Modern Inventions, in that Donald travels around an exhibition hall and gets wrapped up in some crazy gadgets. Only this time, instead of futuristic items, it’s the best in the Penny Arcade. On a tangent, I truly miss the Penny Arcade at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I used to love to try those out as a kid. Now, there’s only a few isolated machines here and there. Oh, well.

Here, Donald is headed to the Penny Arcade, and first stumbles across the “video” viewers, where he ends up finding something labeled “The Dance of the Seven Veils.” For those unfamiliar, this was a very famous clip of the time, where the stereoscope viewer would show a woman removing seven pieces of veil-like clothing in succession. It did not show anything racy by today’s standards, but was standard for the era.

Here, we see Daisy Duck cast as the temptress, which brings her back into the fold after a long absence. I believe the last time we saw Daisy was in Mr. Duck Steps Out, when Donald came to court her. This is a different role, to say the least. It’s fun, though, because true to form, Donald’s machine malfunctions, and he sees it recover just in time to miss the last veil.

The second trial for Donald in this situation was his experience with the prize machine, or “The Claw” as the Little Green Men from Toy Story would call it. Donald tries repeatedly to get a prize, but to no avail, until he notices a magnet. Working diligently, Donald shakes the machine to the point where the claw has to get the magnet, and the magnet sucks up everything else. However, something goes wrong, and perfume gets sprayed on him, causing a sneeze that sends all the prizes away up the chute again.

You would think Donald might quit after that luck, but no! In fact, it’s part of what makes him so good as a character – that he does not quit. Donald takes the punishment and keeps coming back, even after he’s defeated.

His final fun machine is a very, very primitive flight simulator. It’s interesting to see this attempted in the short, because it’s different than the other two machines. I don’t know if machines like this really existed back in the 1940s, but certainly one that does what this one ends up doing did not. The plane flies on its own, chases Donald and ultimately shakes him until he’s green.

A Good Time For A Dime would not make my top ten of Donald Duck shorts, but mainly because I feel like I saw it before in Modern Inventions, and it was funnier then. That’s not to say it’s not good, but it lacks some of the punch of other, more original Donald Duck cartoons.

From Ryan : When I first saw this short, I loved it and I still do today. I especially liked the part where Donald keeps trying to get the camera from the crane. He gets ripped off of course and gets some balls that cover the objects inside it. Typical crane characteristic. I know how he feels that happens to me quite a bit when I'm at the carnival. I try to get something that I want, but always end up getting something that I don't. Another part I liked was where Donald was looking into the nickelodeons and sees the "Dance of the Seven Veils," which features a harem girl who looks like Daisy. It was funny seeing Donald's face sprout devil horns on it. This is definitely a cartoon that every Disney fan should have in his/her collection.

From Brad Bethel : I really liked this Donald Duck cartoon. His day at a carnival's penny arcade reminded me very well of my own personal interest in video arcade games. Apparently, Donald was the only one attending the arcade at the time; he must've been the last to find out about their dirty business. He missed the end of the 'seven veils' viewfinder, an uncooperative crane machine deprived him of a camera he wanted, and has trouble using a time-limited airplane. Those incidents somehow reflect what happens when you lose your patience with arcade games. Also, this is yet another short in where Donald Duck has trouble using (or getting) a camera; maybe he's a photographer unknown. Anyway, this is one of Donald's strongest performances of the early 1940's.

From Dino : I really liked this Donald Duck cartoon. Donald visits a penny arcade and sees the Dance of the Seven Veils. When Donald puts a penny in the slot, he sees Daisy Duck doing the dance. It also funny seeing Donald Duck with Devil Horns on it. He missed a little bit of the dance. Also Donald saw a claw machine and tries to get the camera out of the machine. But he missed it and got some red balls out of the machine. He tried again. He got the ink and claw machine took the cork off and the ink went in his hat. He tried one more time. He got the magnet and the claw machine got it and the magnet got all of the prizes out of the machine. Then he forget one more prize, a perfume thing or something. The claw machine just got the the perfume thing and sprayed perfume out of it. The perfume made Donald sneeze. Then all of a sudden he sneezed hard and all of the prizes goes back into the claw machine. He gets bright red. Also last in this cartoon, Donald sees a airplane ride. He has trouble riding it. He goes way up to the ceiling. When he looks down he's afraid of heights. Then he comes down he gets shaky. Then he leaves the penny arcade. This is really my favorite Donald Duck cartoon.

From Gabe Bennett : While watching this short recently, I began to wonder if the Disney animators managed to slip something by the censors at the end of Daisy's "Dance of the Seven Veils". It took several tries, but I finally managed to pause the film on veil seven, which is shown only for a split second before the "The End. Thank You!" title card. The only thing on the card is a backside pose of Daisy and just like the other cards, she's not naked by any means (thankfully.)

From Baruch Weiss : "A good time for a dime" huh? Well, it wasn't really a good time for poor Donald!

Poster

A Good Time for a Dime

A Donald Duck Cartoon

Synopsis

Characters

Credits

Director

Animation

Video

United States

Germany

France

Italy

CED

United States

Laserdiscs

Japan

DVD

United States

Germany

Italy

Sweden

United Kingdom

Television

Technical Specification

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Comments

Submit Your Comments

(Note: you must be logged in to submit comments)

Referenced Comments