The Warner Bros. Studio has had a long association with “gangster pictures.” WB produced the first one, Little Caesar, in 1930. They made 50 of them the following year. Even the animation department followed the trend. Two cartoon shorts, one made in 1946 and the other in 1954, captured the gangster influence on the Warner output.
The shorts were directed by the same man, Friz Freleng, using slightly different animation teams. The plots, structures, and gags show considerable similarities, yet each brings a distinct flavor to the Warner gangster cartoons. Of course, the most sinister mobsters had no chance against Bugs Bunny.
1946 saw one of the finest examples, Racketeer Rabbit. Bugs decides to spend the night in a seemingly abandoned house, but mobsters Rocky and Hugo are speeding his way, shooting it up with cops (they pass a sign advertising the Hotel Friz). Once inside, Rocky and Hugo (caricatures of Edward G. Robinson and Peter Lorre, respectively) continue to blast away. Bugs, nonplussed, gets a drink of water while ducking under Hugo’s stream of machine gun fire (Low bridge!)
The mobsters start dividing their haul, but Bugs keeps rapidly popping up as different gang members (with various hats and voices) and collects nearly all the money! This gag is written by Michael Maltese, with smear animation likely by Manny Perez. Rocky gets wise but can’t get the rabbit to talk, so he orders Hugo to take the rabbit “for a ride.” Bugs, now in a motoring outfit, leaves with Hugo, but only Bugs returns.
Bugs asks a sleeping Rocky if he’s forgotten anything, and Rocky says his bedtime prayers, a gun still strapped to his nightgown. Bugs taunts Rocky, who spits out a stream of threats while Bugs dresses him! This scene is one of many highlights featuring Dick Nelson’s voice work; he portrayed the Robinson character in another Looney Tune that same year, Chuck Jones’ Hush My Mouse. Mel Blanc voiced Bugs and Hugo. The Robinson caricature, featuring triple forehead lines, is outstanding; Virgil Ross had done many cartoon celebrities for Warner. Rocky demands the dough, and Bugs makes a cake mixture in ten seconds and tosses it in Rocky’s face. Bug’s quick take before he does that is typical of Ross and reflects Freleng’s great timing.
Bugs runs through a door and emerges dressed as a coin-flipping parody of George Raft portraying Bugsy Siegel, terrifying Rocky by telling him, “It’s curtains for you, Rocky.” He then slams a set of curtains over Rocky’s head. As soon as Rocky adores them, Bugs is at the door again, claiming to be the cops. Rocky begs Bugs, who is somehow on the other side of him, to “Hide me!” This line kicks off the old routine common to both this cartoon and Bugs and Thugs.
Bugs eventually tosses Rocky into a wooden trunk and then pretends to be a modern-day sheriff arguing with himself. The big gag is that Bugs changes in and out of costume, even though there’s no reason for it; Rocky can’t see him anyway! Bugs produces a sword and declares, “Would I do this if my dear old pal Rocky was in there?”, plunging the blade through the chest.
A second sword also goes through the trunk, followed by Bugs/Cop Bugs dragging the trunk violently up and down a staircase. Bugs finally stages a violent fight with himself, at one point really punching himself (appears to be Ken Champin’s animation) before handing Rocky his “watch”, a clock bomb. After it explodes, Rocky flees, begging the cops to take him away. As Bugs Bunny scoffs at him, Bugs’ face morphs into Edward G. Robinson’s. A superb score by Carl Stalling tops things off.
Pencil layout for the promotional lobby card for “Bugs And Thugs”.
From the Academy of Motion Pictures Archive.
Special thanks for this image to Jorge Finkielman
Bugs and Thugs appeared in 1954, with essentially the same director and unit, except that Warren Foster was now the writer, Art Davis was now on the animation crew, and Milt Franklyn composed the music. Rocky and a new lackey, Mugsy, replaced the Robinson and Lorre caricatures. Mugsy may be the work of Gerry Chiniquy, whose simplified design was similar to work he would later do for DePatie-Freleng.
Freleng had long been casting about for more powerful foils for Bugs Bunny, since Elmer Fudd was not particularly threatening. Rocky was a virtual midget, with black hair, a double-breasted suit, a perpetual cigarette, and an oversized fedora that was larger than he was; its brim completely covered his eyes. Mel Blanc provided the voices for both.
The cartoon’s opening credits feature police spotlights. Cut to Bugs, heedlessly strolling with a newspaper as he goes to the bank to withdraw carrots (what else?). He stumbles into Rocky and Mugsy’s getaway car. “How much do ya know?” Rocky demands. Bugs rolls off answers like “Carson City is the capital of Nevada”. Rocky tells Mugsy to take Bugs “for a ride”. Bugs is immediately wearing a motoring outfit and starts to chatter. Told to shut up, Bugs continues until told to “Shut up shuttin’ up.”
Bugs asks Mugsy to pull over at a nice, clean gas station. He runs to a phone booth and calls the police, but Hugo yanks him out, including the cop on the other end of the line! Bugs then leads Rocky’s car into the path of an oncoming train. Bugs is forced to repair the vehicle and also serve as one of its tires.
Back at the hideout, a silhouetted Rocky gives Mugsy instructions to take Bugs into the other room and “let him have it.” Of course, Bugs ends up with the gun and blasts Mugsy. Rocky, taking things into his own hands, but behind a closed door, Bugs imitates a police car and an Irish cop, Clancy. The “hide me” routine follows, with Bugs stuffing both Rocky and Mugsy into an oven (“I must be dreaming. It couldn’t be this easy!”). Bugs then plays himself and Clancy. Although there are no costume changes, Art Davis does some outstanding smear animation that Rod Scribner might have envied.
What comes next?
Bugs: Would I turn on this gas if my friend Rocky was in there?
As Clancy: Ye might, rabbit, ye might.
Bugs: Well, would I throw a lighted match in there if my friend was in there?
BOOM!!!
As Clancy: Well, alright, rabbit, you’ve convinced me. I’ll look for Rocky in the city.
Just as the cooked crooks crawl out of the oven, the REAL police arrive and begin replicating the scene Bugs just played, with the same dialogue right up until the line about the lighted match, at which the crooks beg the cop to arrest them. Warren Foster masterfully built up the gag, and the pacing at which Freleng directed the scene raises it to absolute hilarity.
The short ends with Bugs, now a private eye wearing a Sherlock Holmes-style deerstalker hat, taking calls to advertise his crimefighting skills.
Many fans prefer this cartoon to Racketeer Rabbit, but they are two variations on the same theme, each great in their own way. Which one is your favorite?
Martin Goodman is a veteran writer specializing in stories about animation. He has written for AWN and Animation Scoop – and lives in Anderson, Indiana.
They’re both terrific cartoons that still make me laugh out loud no matter how many times I’ve seen them before. I’m also partial to Freleng’s “Bugsy and Mugsy” (1957), where, as in “Racketeer Rabbit”, Bugs takes shelter in an abandoned house that the crooks are using as a hideout. Cartoon budgets were much lower by this time, but Friz made the most of it; much of the mayhem happens offscreen, and is all the funnier for it. The final scene with the magnet and the roller skates is a classic, so much so that Freleng later reused it in a Sylvester cartoon.
Beginning in the 1980s, the “let him have it” scene in “Bugs and Thugs” was cut from television broadcasts in the United States as part of a concerted campaign to eliminate gun violence, not from real life, but from animated cartoons. We’d see an establishing shot of the crooks’ hideout, and next thing you know Bugs would be imitating a police siren while Rocky and Mugsy were in another room of the house for some unknown reason. The butchery of these classic cartoons infuriated me like you wouldn’t believe. It’s worth remembering that Bugs Bunny cartoons were made in the first place to be shown before Warner Bros. feature films, including many intensely violent and decidedly adult-oriented gangster pictures like “White Heat”. Kid stuff? Not on your life!
“Bugs and Thugs” was NEVER part of the Saturday morning ABC BUGS BUNNY & TWEETY show. The short was in the post-’48 syndication package that went to local stations and was recalled in 1990 and then “Bugs and Thugs” was part of the MERRIE MELODIES: STARRING BUGS BUNNY AND FRIENDS show that was syndicated from 1990-1992. After another shuffling of cartoons between ABC, NICKELODEON and the now-on-FOX MERRIE MELODIES show in 1992, “Bug and Thugs” ended up on Nickelodeon from 1992-2000.
I do agree with you that both cartoons have their merits. The caricatures in both are pretty good. However, Bugs Bunny is wilder and whackier in “racketeer rabbit“. His quick costume changes are worth the whole time it takes to watch the cartoon. As always, I also like the use of sound effects in “racketeer rabbit“, especially when the steamer trunk in which the poor gangster hides falls apart after the explosion. I don’t know where they get these ideas or what it would sound like for pieces of a steamer trunk to hit the floor, but these sounds make it wonderful! And you’ve gotta really enjoy the point of view shots; both inside the trunk when the gangster is nearly pierced by the swords, plunged into it, and as bugs drags the steamer trunk from floor to floor both up and down the staircase. Rocky also refers to Bugs Bunny by name as he feels in allegiance with the rabbit as bugs acts out of fight between him and the cop. And I wonder why someone is actually imitating the screech of a car around the corner when Warner Brothers had so many screeching car soundtracks to choose from. And I like the way Bugs Bunny imitates one of the gangsters at the very end. So you really wonder who won out!
Edward G. Robinson and Peter Lorre were certainly prime material for parody, as witnessed in “Racketeer Rabbit” above. I think of the two cartoons mentioned here, the former is my favorite, although let’s face it, why not have both? Even as late as “Carrotblanca,” Peter Lorre was still being parodied, this time by Tweety Bird.
I can think of two 1939 cartoons with similar gangster themes: “Thugs with Dirty Mugs,” (a reference to “Angels with Dirty Faces”), and “Bars and Stripes Forever” (a takeoff on prison dramas)
Certainly Warner Brothers found a creative niche with their gritty gangster pictures–although they very ably covered westerns, musicals, and romantic comedies as well. And the folks in Termite Terrace weren’t far behind in mining comedy gold out of these iconic films with their iconic stars and supporting players. I’ll bet there are many kids whose first introduction to Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Peter Lorre, or Humphrey Bogart was through the memorable tribute portrayals in the animated world of the Looney Tunes and the Merrie Melodies.
Typo or something in the third paragraph where Peter Lorre comes out as “Victor” Lorre.
Thanks, Paul. It’s been corrected!
I refuse to believe that these two Rocky’s are the same character. It’s very clear that they aren’t.
Though both are funny, I much prefer Racketeer Rabbit.
Friz Freleng did a great job with those Bugs Bunny gangster cartoons.
Looney tunes collectors choice, collectors vault, platinum, golden collection… but no Racketeer Rabbit on any of these dvds. That’s a shame because it’s a great toon.
It was in the “Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection” Blu-Ray set.
It’s on the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection BluRay.
And for Joan Crawford fans, the same hi-def transfer is a bonus on the Warner Archive Blu-ray of “Humoresque” (which it may have played with in 1946).
Unusual, isn’t it? Both cartoons are so similar in content, yet they are both classics in their own right! I particularly like Bugs asking Rocky, “Haven’t you forgotten something?” and the Edward G. Robinson thug kneels and says his bedtime prayers! Would soomebody do that in cartoon today? Great stuff!
Was Bugsy Siegel the inspiration for George Raft’s coin-tossng gangster in SCARFACE (1932)? I’m not sure about that. People remembered the routine though. in SOME LIKE IT HOT (1950), Another gangster did a parodoy of that character flipping a coin as “Spats Columbo” (Raft’s character) says: “Where’d ya learn that cheap trick?”
Paul is right, these cartoons got censored a lot on TV when we were growing up and I pointed that out to one of my teachers in high school that the films were made for adults as well as kids in the audience. Unfortunately, he was more of a “do-gooder” type, thinking that even this mildly humorous “violent behavior” wasn’t good for kids to see in cartoons on TV!
George Raft’s character in “Scarface” was based on Al Capone’s henchman Frank Rio. Raft knew Bugsy Siegel personally but never portrayed him on film. The coin-tossing mannerism was not inspired by any actual underworld figure. As I recall the story, Raft, like many inexperienced actors, had trouble figuring out what to do with his hands. So director Howard Hawks handed him the first thing he found in his pocket — a nickel — hoping that Raft would just hold on to it and stop fidgeting. Instead, Raft started tossing it into the air repeatedly, Hawks liked it, and the rest is history.
Bugs and Thugs is quite simply one of the funniest cartoons ever made. The later shorts with those two hoods lacked the same snap. I found them disappointing.
I like both, but I thought “Racketeer Rabbit” was better just for the Edward G. caricature.
It takes a stronger man than I to make through daily living without needing to toss in the occasional “Ye might, Rabbit. Ye might.”
Rocky and His Friend didn’t just work with Bugs. They tried to bully Daffy Duck into laying a golden egg, and after kidnapping Tweety Pie they mostly foiled Sylvester’s attempts to “rescue” Tweety. Think their last short was an Untouchables parody, with Bugs as “Elegant Mess”.
Racketeer by a mile for me. Always loved that cartoon, the Bones ones did little for me,, though as always, I loved Bugs’ professional acting skills. 🙂
“Racketeer Rabbit” is MUCH funnier than the remake, “Bugs And Thugs.” It’s the great Robinson and Lorre caricatures that put this cartoon on my short list of true Termite Terrace immortals.
Replacing them with two generic cartoon gangsters is no improvement, and the effort seems kind of half-hearted. A full five stars to the original, though! It’s always a treat to watch, and it never gets old. Friz at his very best,
A great moment in “Racketeer Rabbit” is when Mel Blanc comes up with six distinct and different ways to say “And me, boss?”
One real mystery, though, is what happens to Hugo when he’s supposed to take Bugs “for a ride.” Just what did Bugs do to him, anyway?