Judge for a Day (1935)

Judge for a Day Review

Judge for a Day is a 1935 animated short film from the Betty Boop series. It is a very strong entry in the series.

Betty Boop, annoyed by “public pests” like backslappers, gum parkers, and mud splashers, imagines what she’d do to them if she were a judge. This series was at its best when being surreal and sexual in the Pre-Code era while afterward it was at its very best when focusing on social issues, this short firmly belonging in the latter category. It’s such a timeless story about people being annoying in public places and not caring for others that it’s universally relatable to anyone who, well, isn’t a pest themselves.

As somebody who always strives to not get in anybody’s way and is annoyed that many people don’t behave as such themselves, I related to this movie a lot. So yes, the plot is terrific, but Betty herself is wonderful as well and this is by far one of her greatest roles as she’s both charming and very funny. Some of her lines of dialogue cracked me up and how she imagines solving problems is wonderfully childlike. The section on the bus was the best one while the courtroom sequence was less memorable. I wished that they stuck with either that scene being imaginary or real with the ending itself landing oddly in the middle, but it was still fun and funny throughout.

Judge for a Day is a relatable cartoon about public pests that is wonderfully animated, well written and quite memorable in its dialogue.

My Rating – 4.3