{"id":87313,"date":"2024-10-09T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T07:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=87313"},"modified":"2024-10-09T07:28:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T14:28:01","slug":"cartoons-about-cartoons-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/cartoons-about-cartoons-part-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartoons About Cartoons (Part 6)"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"\n

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Traversing 1939 to early 1941, we encounter more interactive screen madness from Tex Avery, a classic behind-the-scenes mix of live-action and animation from Friz Freleng, a star-studded Disney Hollywood romp, and efforts to keep up with the Warners from Terrytoons and Screen Gems. Animation was getting sophisticated, and audiences were beginning to expect that cartoon characters might talk back and think outside the box – leading to the most creative of directors attempting to outdo themselves with more outlandish character interplay in each successive film.<\/p>\n

\"\"Thugs With Dirty Mugs<\/strong> (Warner, Merrie Melodies<\/em>, 5\/6\/39 – Fred (Tex) Avery, dir.) – Avery is at it again, playing with the conventions of theater-going in small houses, and breaking the fourth wall to not only have characters interact with audience, but audience interact with characters, here providing a key plot point toward the resolution of the story. The cartoon is a splendidly-on target send-up of Warner\u2019s favorite live-action genre – the gangster picture, which had virtually put Warner dramas on the map with such mega-hits as \u201cLittle Caesar\u201d and \u201cThe Public Enemy\u201d, and spawned superstars of the medium including Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, and a then-budding Humphrey Bogart. The style of Warner feature credits is mimicked to introduce our cast of characters and the \u201cactors\u201d portraying them. A police chief is portrayed by F. H.A. (Sherlock) Homes (reference to a popular home financing program), portraying Flat-Foot Flanigan (with a floy floy) (reference to a current Slim Gaillard scat-singing song hit, \u201cFlat Foot Floogee (with a floy floy)\u201d). The gangster is portrayed by Ed. G. Robemsome, as Killer Diller. The scene abruptly cuts to newspaper Extra editions filling the screen, shouting headlines of the Killer robbing the First through 19th National Banks – with one exception, explained by another headline: \u201c13th National Bank Skipped – Killer Superstitious\u201d. The crooks have robbery down to a science, including drive-thru service, where they zoom their black limousine through the front door, and come out hauling the entire vault on wheels – which miraculously converts into the shape of a trailer. They pull up in front or bank, then reverse direction with such speed, they tirn the panels of their limousine inside-out. Another headline announces, \u201c87 Banks Robbed Today.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We meet the Killer personally at the hideout, as he and the gang survey the day\u2019s loot (although Killer cautions one of his boys to lay off breaking into then penny gum machines – there ain\u2019t no money in \u2018em.) Killer addresses the audience directly for the first time, observing that he sounds just like Eddie Robinson – then brags that he can also do an impression of Fred Allen too! He breaks into a monologue a la Allen on \u201cTown Hall Tonight\u201d, until one of Killer\u2019s gang gets him back in focus, by asking him to \u201cQuit showing off.\u201d The Killer\u2019s jobs continue, reaching the 112th National Bank, and the Worst National Bank (at which Killer erases the painted numbering of the bank\u2019s assets on the window, reducing it to nothing). Just to vary things up, the Killer even holds up a pay telephone at gunpoint, forcing the operator to signal a jackpot payoff of coins from the coin slot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The police remain baffled, while the gang plots their next heist. A scene inside the hideout reveals to the audience the gang\u2019s plotting to break into the home of Mrs. Lottajewels to crack the safe. In the midst of the planning, the shadow of a theater patron rises into the frame from the middle right of the screen, dons his hat, and begins crossing the theater as if squeezing his way up the row with intent to exit the show. The Killer spots him, and pulls out a pistol, aiming it squarely at the shadow. \u201cWhere do ya think you\u2019re going?\u201d, Killer inquires. The meek-mannered shadow-man replies, \u201cWell, Mr. Killer, this is where I came in\u201d (in a day when theaters ran films continuously without clearing the theater, and it was possible to stay in your seat to see the same picture a second, and maybe even a third time if one desired). \u201cWell, you sit right back down until this thing\u2019s over, see!\u201d, demands Killer. The timid patron quickly shimmies his way back across the theater, and disappears from our view into his seat. Killer whispers to one of his gang (though still remaining fully audible) that this guy might be trying to sneak out of the theater to squeal to the cops. The scene onscreen dissolves to the police chief nervously pacing the floor of his office, claiming he could trap the Killer, if he could only get a tipoff as to his next job. The shadow of the theater patron rises once again, calling out that he\u2019s sat through this picture twice, and the Killer will be at Mrs. Lottajewels tonight. \u201cThanks\u201d, responds the chief, racing for the door, but returning to address the patron face to face, as \u201cYou little tattletale.\u201d (This strange tipoff raises the obvious question never answered by the film – without the tip, how did the police ever catch the Killer during the previous two screenings of the cartoon?) The gang infiltrates the Lottajewels mansion that night, leaving their looming shadows behind in the darkness to watch the door, and proceed to the safe, whose combination dial turns out merely to be a radio tuner, tuning in on a broadcast of The Lone Ranger. The police are already waiting in the darkness, surrounding the crooks as the lights are thrown on. Killer is arrested, and a final newspaper headline announces that the Killer has received a long sentence. We see a prison schoolroom, where the Killer, wearing a dunce cap to go with his prison stripes, is forced to stay after school, writing a hundred times on the blackboards the sentence \u201cI\u2019ve been a naughty boy.\u201d The Killer turns to stick his tongue out at us like a school-age brat, as the scene irises out. <\/p>\n