User Reviews

Just because some couples argue all the time doesn't mean they don't love each other. That seems to be the message here as this cartoon begins and ends with Popeye and Olive Oyl going at it tooth-and-nail.

"Women! Bah! I'm through with them for life!"

That's Popeye, racing to the airline terminal after he and Olive Oyl had the first spat. Popeye orders a one-way ticket to Algiers. (Yikes, I can think of friendlier places.) Popeye lands and heads to the Foreign Legion building where he wants to sign up.

That's where the humor starts. They discover Popeye has never "bumped anyone off" so this American "must be here because of a woman." The recruiter tells Popeye, "Go in the corner and have a good cry."

"I've never cried in me life,"" boasts Popeye. Seconds later, tears are flowing from his eyes. His first assignment was peeling onions!

At any rate, the Sultan sees Olive Oyl's picture and decides he wants her for his 75th wife. To make a long story short, he kidnaps here via magic carpet and Popeye, of course, has to save her in the end. In the middle, he has to fight the Sultan's top wrestler.

Overall, this is somewhat along the lines of many of these 1960 Popeye cartoons that are made for young kids. They are all short - in the five-minute range - and, except for the puns and sometimes-funny dialog, the stories are very juvenile.

, , , on which this Popeye episode appears at the Royal Library in Jordan, Syria or Saudi Arabia, but I may as well have done so. I checked out my copy from the most Islamic town library in America, aka Little Beirut. At first thought, someone may wonder why THIS particular picture would grace the shelves of such an institution. True, the globe-trotting director of INSULTING THE SULTAN has often been called America's First Ambassador of Film, denoting his success at diplomatic trouble-shooting, hiring off-shore help, boosting local economies and nearly cracking the Iron Curtain. Furthermore, when you carefully examine this Popeye entry, who could not give it the highest mark for its cultural sensitivity? The flying carpet appears virtually spotless, as if Stanley has recently steamed it.