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Oh, What a Lucky Knight (1928)
By Trevor Valescu | February 26, 2017
The early silent Walt Disney cartoon Oh, What a Lucky Knight (1928) shows Oswald the Lucky Rabbit riding along on a donkey playing an accordion, a very lively scene with musical notations flying out of his instrument which was the silent era’s method of indicating sound.
At a silent film house, any organist worth his salt would’ve provided actual music, with the organ set to sound like an accordion or concertina. A version posted at youtube by some witty fellow going by Hya Powa has added an actual tune, a speeded up version of “Ain’t Gonna Rain No More,” which is surprisingly effective, & has given the entire film a soundtrack better than the ones Walter Lantz added to some reissued silent Oswalds.
The gleeful donkey dances to the tune, miraculously not shaking Oswald off his back. But eventually the donkey stumbles & falls down a hillside upside-down, Oswald riding on his belly as upon a sled.
They land in an swamp, wherein an alligator manages to eat the donkey’s tail, then laughs at the donkey who is distraught to have his tail docked. Fortunately he’s able to pull on his own stub & stretch it out to its original length.
Oswald meanwhile comes to a castle surrounded by a moat. These early cartoons really didn’t care about continuity or if one scene failed to lead rationally into the next. You have to give it rather too much thought to realize the alligator swamp was actually a castle moat.
Musical notations issue from his mouth as he whistles up to the balcony for his girlfriend, a cat. She blows him a kiss in quite an amusing manner & his pants fall down. Oswald tries to serenade her but his accordion is full of water. The donkey arrives, laughing at Oswald’s failed attempts at music, but then helps him climb to the balcony where Oswald stretches out the kitty’s arm kissing along the absurd length.
The bear-like villain Pete turns out to have the kitty trapped in the castle tower. When Oswald gets inside the tower, he finds his girlfriend chained to an iron ball. Pete is after him in full armor, armed with pike. Oswald has no armor or weapon, but he finds a sword leaning up against the wall.
A duel ensues, with Oswald’s shadow sharp against the wall. Eventually Oswald gives the sword to his shadow, which remains behind to continue the duel as Oswald goes to greet his kitty girlfriend, who seems very happy though still chained up.
More duelling antics procede, Oswald rushing to the kitty to get kisses between moments of action. Eventually he gets the iron ball off the kitty’s leg. Pete is joined by some robotic toy soldiers but Oswald uses the iron ball to knock them down like bowling pins. He then spits a big black wad of spit at Pete which kills him.
As Oswald & Kitty try to leave by the door, they discover a lion guards the other side, & so they leap out the balconied window toward the moat.
Oh, What a Lucky Knight is rather primitive & by the time Walt set out on his own & created Steamboat Willie (1928), he was so steeped in Oswald for Universal that “Willy” (afterward Mickey Mouse) is pretty obviously Oswald with round ears. Oswald himself as designed by Walt & Ub Uwerks was really only Felix the Cat with lengthened ears.
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