Mysterious Mose is a 1930 Fleischer Studios animated short released through Paramount Pictures as part of the Talkartoons series.
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 an
automaton (full of cogs and springs) the whole time.
Popular song
"Mysterious Mose" was a song from early 1930, written by Walter Doyle and first recorded by
Ted Weems's Orchestra. In addition to its appearance in the short, there have been numerous recordings of the song, including
Harry Reser's Radio All Star Novelty Orchestra, Cliff Perrine's Orchestra,
Bernie Cummins's Orchestra,
Rube Bloom's Bayou Boys and R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders.
In popular culture
Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose is a short film made in 1998 by film makers Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero of
Screen Novelties. The film utilizes
puppetry,
stop motion, and silhouette animation 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's Radio All Star Novelty Orchestra.
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