I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Nurse-Mates (1940) *** (out of 4)Bluto and Popeye show up at Olive's house to take her out on a date but she's got a baby there. The men agree to watch him but things don't go as planned.NURSE-MATES is another very good entry in the early Popeye series and once again it benefits from plenty of fast action as well as the high quality animation that people had come to expect from it. There are many fast-paced action scenes here but the highlight is when the boys are battling each over about the proper way to wash a baby. There's plenty of laughs dealing with the kid being in danger but it's all done in such a way that you can't take it too serious.

Here is a favorite Popeye short from 1940, I am quite terribly particular about a favorite cartoon short from which year. This short has lots of "dialogue-humour", which I like in this short. And this short, it is Disney regular Pinto Colvig as Bluto's voice; I thought he's funny as the "big-lug."In this short, Popeye and Bluto (simultaneously) ask Olive out to the movies. But first Olive has a hairdresser's appointment, so the guys will have to watch over Swee'Pea while she's out. The two compete against each other to follow Olive's schedule of taking care of Swee'Pea: bathing, dressing him and putiing him down for his nap. But it was one argument after another.You know, there is a 1937 short of Popeye and Bluto fighting over Swee'Pea (on the count of Olive) I love called "I Likes Babies and Infinks." Of course the two were trying to make Swee'Pea laugh. That is all I have to say about this short. I don't have any particular scene I like, because I love this cartoon from beginning to end. I give a 10 for animation and dialogue-humour.

Here's a familiar scene: Popeye and Bluto arriving at Olive Oyl's front door at the exact same time. As Popeye said many times: "Whoa!!!" The cartoon turns out to be a baby-sitting contest, of sorts. After both of the guys ask her out to the movies, her only answer is "I have to go to the beauty parlor. You'll have to look after Swee' Pea until I come back. Here's the list of what to do." So Popeye and Bluto attempt to give the baby a bath and then dress him. Bluto takes charge, as always and his skit showing how to wash a baby is pretty funny. It probably wouldn't make a cartoon today, deemed child abuse, but Swee' Pea didn't seem to mind! Other gags ensue after Swee' Pea slips out of the small tub and gets ink all over himself. Popeye's solution of "spot remover" works a little too well.Anyway, slapstick rules this cartoon as one misadventure after another happens with the little guy and the two big lugs trying to help but getting in each other's way. There may not be many laugh-out-loud jokes but it's entertaining to enough to rate a "7." One note: there is no spinach in this one, which is unusual.

There's nothing awful about this one, just nothing really remarkable, save for Pinto Colvig (the voice of Goofy) as Bluto. I've seen it all in other (better) Popeye shorts. Fleischer almost always did visually fantastic cartoons and this one isn't bad. But I see signs of burnout here. They seem to have lost a bit of steam with this one. Oh, well, they can't all be great. Jack Mercer is fine as usual. Recommended for completeists.