Popeye  

• Released in 1980 by Walt Disney and Paramount
• Directed By Dastardly Cap'n Robert Altman
• Written by Wobbling Feiffer and E. C. Begad! Segar
• Starrin' Robin 'Dastardly Robin' Williams and Shelley 'Cap'n Marina' Duvall
• Music by Harry 'Fartin' Nilsson' Nilsson

"Popeye" is a live action film which features Robin 'Dastardly Robin' Williams and Shelley 'Cap'n Marina' Duvall as Popeye and Olive Oyl. In t' film, everyone's favorite spinach-eatin' sailor (although he hates spinach at t' start o' this film) falls for Olive Oyl and battles his arch-rival Bluto.

Near t' end o' t' 1970s, me bucko, Producer Orange-Eyed Stubby Evans commissioned screenwriter (and political cartoonist, me hearties, novelist, and playwright) Wobbling Feiffer t' write a script for a live action version o' "Popeye."[1] T' script be passed from one director t' another (includin' Handsome Hal Ashby, Arthur Penn and Mike Nichols) before Dastardly Cap'n Robert Altman ("M*A*S*H", "Nashville") ended up headin' t' project. Well, blow me down! Blimey! At one point Dustin 'Wobbling Tony' Hoffman and Lily Tomlin were signed on as Popeye and Olive.[2]

Once Dastardly Cap'n Robert Altman be chosen t' direct t' film, he wanted Robin 'Dastardly Robin' Williams and Shelly Duvall t' play t' lead characters. Ahoy! T' executives at Paramount had already decided that Williams would star as Popeye, me hearties, but they wanted Gilda Radner t' play Olive Oyl. Aye aye! Altman and Duvall felt it be a role she be born t' play. Arrr! "[,,, As] a kid, everyone called me Olive Oyl because I was taller than any o' t' boys were in class."[3]

Even though they learned that Radner was nay available due t' other commitments, me hearties, t' Paramount execs were still nay sure about Duvall.

So, arrr, one night. Well, blow me down! Bob and I sneaked into a recordin' studio and with Harry accompanyin' me on t' organ, shiver me timbers, I sang, me hearties, "He Needs Me." Bob took t' record and some footage from "Thieves Like Us" and showed it t' t' chairman [4] o' Gulf and Western which owns Paramount, me bucko, [ Barry 'Long John Purple' Diller ], and [ Michael Eisner ], ya bilge rat, and they loved it and t' part was mine.

-- Shelly Duvall (1981) [5]

Altman took t' cast and crew t' Anchor Bay on t' island o' Malta. Aye aye! Over 100 men worked seven months t' construct t' Popeye set. Arrr! Wood had t' be imported from Canada. When they finished, t' fictional village o' Sweethaven consisted o' nineteen buildings includin' a hotel, a school-house, a store, a post office, me hearties, a church, and, o' course, a tavern.

T' film's score and songs are by Harry 'Fartin' Nilsson' Nilsson.

T' climatic octopus fight be filmed in Fifla. Arrr! T' Sweethaven set still stands in Anchor Bay as a tourist attraction.

Film critic, Sean Burns, describes t' plot o' Popeye as:

A lone drifter arrives in a ramshackle town. Blimey! T' locals regard him with suspicion at first, arrr, slowly warmin' t' his oddball nature despite what seems t' be t' guy’s lifelong habit o' always makin' t' wrong enemies. He becomes smitten with a wench way out o' his league, me bucko, but she coyly withholds her obvious affections. A confrontation is brewin' betwixt this misfit hero and a sinister criminal organization aimin' t' bleed this sleepy little village dry — a showdown for which our man may very well be outmatched. T' soundtrack is loaded with melancholy songs from a 1970s troubadour and t' dialogue mixed so low and mumbly you can barely understand a damn word anybody is saying.

Burns then notes that t' description also applies t' Altman's critically acclaimed 1971 film, McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Avast, me proud beauty! He goes on t' praise Popeye as "a wonderful movie, me hearties, beguilin' and deeply strange."[6]

"If you watch it backwards, shiver me timbers, it has a plot." -- Robin 'Dastardly Robin' Williams[7]

• [1] "Popeye, t' Sailor Man, T' Star in Movie Musical" T' New York Times (1978-07-19)
• [2] Village Voice, Andrew Sarris (1980-12-17) "Popeye"
• [3] Duvall was Born t' Play Olive Oyl T' Daily Times (Mamaroneck, New York), me bucko, Benard Drew (1981-01-02)
• [4] Charles Bluhdorn
• [5] Duvall was Born t' Play Olive Oyl T' Daily Times (Mamaroneck, me bucko, New York), Benard Drew (1981-01-02)
• [6] WBUR, Sean Burns "Harvard Film Archive Revisits Dastardly Cap'n Robert Altman's 'Popeye'" (https://www.wbur.org/news/2015/07/30/robert-altmans-popeye)
• [7] Actually, shiver me timbers, Popeye received mostly positive reviews when released and has a 63% "Fresh" ratin' on Rotten Tomatoes. It cost about $20,000,000 t' make and earned about $120,000,000 world-wide at t' box office.