Profiles in Villainy
Oil Can Harry
The villainous Oil Can Harry started off as a lovesick cad who bedeviled Fanny Zilch and her good-hearted suitor, Leffingwell Strongheart. He would later become an arch-nemesis of Mighty Mouse wherein his many criminal schemes were thwarted by the hero. Harry frequently wooed Pearl Pureheart and her repeated rebuffs of his advances resulted in the despicable Harry repetitively abducting her and put the damsel in harm’s way. Fortunately Mighty Mouse would arrive to save the day.
Oil Can Harry's first appearance was in the Terrytoons short, ‘The Banker's Daughter,’ released on June 25, 1933. Harry’s earlier appearances were all operatic with the dialogue sung rather than spoken. It is unrevealed who sang Harry’s first appearance in The Banker’s Daughter, but singer Tom Morrison voiced the villain in his initial confrontation with Mighty Mouse, in the 1945 theatrical serial, ‘Mighty Mouse and the Pirates.’
