Book Revue
Encyclopedia
Book Revue is a 1945 Looney Tunes
cartoon short featuring Daffy Duck
, released in 1946, with a plotline essentially similar to 1938's Have You Got Any Castles?
. It is directed by Bob Clampett
, written by Warren Foster
and scored by Carl Stalling
. An uncredited Mel Blanc
and Sara Berner provided the voices. As originally released, the title is a pun, as a Revue
is a variety show, while a Review
is an evaluation of a work (this pun is not retained in the reissue).
The plot is a send-up of Warner Brothers' own "books come to life" cartoons of the type that frequently appeared under the Merrie Melodies
banner (such as 1938's Have You Got Any Castles
). The cartoon is loaded with puns and pop culture references, even by Warner standards. After this lampoon, Warner never issued another of that genre.
The cartoon starts out in the same, pastoral "after midnight at a closed bookstore" fashion of previous versions, to the strains of Moonlight Sonata
. The storefront is realistic, suggesting that it was rotoscope
d. Initially the cartoon has a serious feel to it. Then, an inebriated "cuckoo bird" pops out of a cuckoo clock
to announce the arrival of midnight (and signaling the "cuckoo" activities to follow), the cartoon's first lampoon and pun appears, a book cover called "COMPLETE WORKS of Shakespeare". Shakespeare is shown in silhouette while his literally-rendered "works" are clockwork mechanisms, along with old-fashioned "stop" and "go" traffic signals, set to the "ninety years without slumbering, tick-tock, tick-tock" portion of "My Grandfather's Clock
".
Cut to a book titled Young Man with a Horn; a caricature of Harry James
breaks loose with a jazz trumpet obbligato similar to James' "You Made Me Love You", in which he segues into the standard, "It Had to Be You
". A striptease is about to begin on the cover of Cherokee
Strip. Book covers for The Whistler and The Sea Wolf show their characters shouting and whistling at the off-screen action. (The Sea Wolf's howl segués into a sentence, sometimes rendered as "Howwwww old is she?" but that phrasing is unclear, perhaps purposely.) The now-panting Shakespeare silhouette's inner workings explode in a shower of gears and clocksprings.
The catcalls continue with Henry VIII
(depicted as played by Charles Laughton
in The Private Life of Henry VIII
) also howling like a wolf and then barking like a seal. Referencing a catchphrase of the popular radio program The Aldrich Family
, the king's "mother" calls out, "Hen-REEEE! Henry the Eighth!" "Coming, mother!" is the king's cracking-voice reply, and he runs to the book cover where Mother waits. As she begins to spank her "naughty boy", a new singing voice and caricature appear, namely that of Frank Sinatra
. The gray, blanketed, emaciated character, overemphasizing Sinatra's real-life physique, enters the cartoon on the cover of The Voice in the Wilderness. A large, male orderly pushes the Sinatra character across the screen in a wheelchair. Sinatra begins to croon the lyrics of "It Had to be You" into a ribbon microphone.
Now the women take their turn at hysteria
. Henry's mother, bobby-soxed versions of Little Women
, Whistler's Mother
(Famous Paintings) and Mother Goose
(and her hatchling) begin to whistle and catcall (just as the men did for Cherokee Strip), and swoon and faint at the sound of Sinatra's voice, each of them uttering the catchphrase "Fraaankie!" before passing out.
A full-blown jam session begins, with a lively swing version of "It Had To Be You". Joining Harry James are the Indian on the cover of Drums Along the Mohawk, who morphs into a realistic-looking Gene Krupa
(his drumset is labeled "GK"); Benny Goodman
(as The Pie-Eyed Piper; some mice cheer, "Yeah, Benny!"); and a green Tommy Dorsey
(Arkansas Traveler). The character on the cover of the book BRASS rubs his Trombone
under the besotted nose of W.C. Fields.
Annoyed by the revelry, Daffy Duck
steps out of the cover of a Looney Tunes
comic book (in the background is a book by "Ann Anonymous" titled The Invisible Man: A Biography of Robert Clampett), proceeds to go and starts rifiling through a trunk (Saratoga Trunk) for clothes. He dons a zoot suit
and a curly, blonde wig, as well as what appears to be a set of fake teeth (which explains why his trademark lisp is nowhere to be heard in this film). Just as Gene Krupa plays some notes on the buttons lining the corpulent stomach
of Hudson's Bay, Daffy shouts for the celebration to "STOP!" and the jam session screeches to a halt. Daffy stands in front of the cover of Danny Boy, and effects Danny Kaye
's Russian-accented characterization heard in Kaye's debut 78 album. Daffy says "POOEY!" to swing music and jazz, and reminisces about his "native willage
", "why-o-leens
", and "the happy peoples sitting on their balalaika
s, playing their samovar
s" (misusing both Russian terms).
Daffy starts talking about a girl named "Cucaracha", parodying Lucky Strike
cigarette ads: "so round, so firm, so fully packed, so easy on the draw..." Daffy does a wild, short version of "La Cucaracha
" in his normal character mode, including his "hoo-hoo" bit. This short segment has a plain background, suggesting it was cartooned separately and inserted tentatively, to be dropped seamlessly in case the censors
objected to the somewhat suggestive comments about "Cucaracha".
The background changes to a strange one with legible newsprint superimposed on silhouettes of urban buildings; Daffy continues in his fake Russian accent as he sings, Carolina In The Morning
("nothing could be feener than to be in Caroleena in the mornink...") inadvertently teasing the Big Bad Wolf
, who at this point is still in the window of "Gran'Ma's House"; Daffy beats a hasty retreat to stage left. Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood
, based on Margaret O'Brien
, skips past Daffy and toward Gran'Ma's House.
Noticing Red, Daffy zooms back and stations himself between her and the house, launching into a wild scat
- a reference to Danny Kaye's song "Melody in 4F" in his 1944 film debut Up in Arms - to warn her of the wolf, complete with mock chewing on her leg for emphasis. The wolf appears, and Red screams and runs away. The wolf begins to sprinkle salt and pepper on Daffy's leg. Daffy halfway notices, turns back to "bite" the now-gone Red, then turns toward the wolf with a startled and outrageous double-take, turning into a giant eyeball (complete with lashes and blood vessels) for a couple of seconds.
The wolf chases Daffy through Hopalong Cassidy
, Uncle Tom's Cabin
, and is stymied trying to cut down Daffy who is hiding in the Petrified Forest. Meanwhile, the police have been alerted ("Calling all cars!") and the wolf is apprehended by The Long Arm of the Law. The Judge sentences the wolf to Life
(Judge: You are guilty and the sentence is Life! Wolf: No! Judge: Yes! Wolf: No! Judge: Yes! Wolf: No! Judge: Yes!), as the wolf sings part of the sextette from Donizetti
's Lucia di Lammermoor
- "You can't do dis to me! / I'm a citizen, see?!" The wolf is suddenly bonked over the head with a nightstick, and then makes his Escape and runs through the volumes.
Jimmy Durante
, incongruously illustrating the cover of So Big, turns toward the wolf, and his huge nose trips the wolf, who goes sliding down Skid Row
, nearly falling into Dante's Inferno
. The wolf scrambles to the top, but the Sinatra caricature reappears, held in the orderly's hands as if he were a doll. The Wolf, being in the grandma archetype, swoons at the sound of "Frankie!", just as the female characters did, and skids head first into the inferno.
The other book cover characters loudly cheer and dance to a jazz/swing version of "Carolina In The Morning", the Wolf makes one final appearance to shout, "Stop that dancing up there! ... ya sillies!" This last bit is the actual title of a 1944 song by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
, along with a lisping delivery of "sillies" caricaturing Joe Besser
. Clampett's famous "bee-woop!" vocalization ends the cartoon on a sort of "shaggy dog" note.
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
cartoon short featuring Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
, released in 1946, with a plotline essentially similar to 1938's Have You Got Any Castles?
Have You Got Any Castles?
Have You Got Any Castles? is a seven minute animated short film that premiered in theaters on June 25, 1938. It was a part of the Merrie Melodies series produced by Leon Schlesinger, and distributed by Vitaphone...
. It is directed by Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
, written by Warren Foster
Warren Foster
Warren Foster , was a writer, cartoonist and composer for the animation division of Warner Brothers and later with Hanna-Barbera....
and scored by Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
. An uncredited Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
and Sara Berner provided the voices. As originally released, the title is a pun, as a Revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
is a variety show, while a Review
Review
A review is an evaluation of a publication, a product or a service, such as a movie , video game, musical composition , book ; a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer; or an event or performance, such as a live music concert, a play, musical theater show or dance show...
is an evaluation of a work (this pun is not retained in the reissue).
Plot
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
banner (such as 1938's Have You Got Any Castles
Have You Got Any Castles?
Have You Got Any Castles? is a seven minute animated short film that premiered in theaters on June 25, 1938. It was a part of the Merrie Melodies series produced by Leon Schlesinger, and distributed by Vitaphone...
). The cartoon is loaded with puns and pop culture references, even by Warner standards. After this lampoon, Warner never issued another of that genre.
The cartoon starts out in the same, pastoral "after midnight at a closed bookstore" fashion of previous versions, to the strains of Moonlight Sonata
Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)
The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata , was completed in 1801...
. The storefront is realistic, suggesting that it was rotoscope
Rotoscope
Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator...
d. Initially the cartoon has a serious feel to it. Then, an inebriated "cuckoo bird" pops out of a cuckoo clock
Cuckoo clock
A cuckoo clock is a clock, typically pendulum-regulated, that strikes the hours with a sound like a common cuckoo's call and typically has a mechanical cuckoo that emerges with each note...
to announce the arrival of midnight (and signaling the "cuckoo" activities to follow), the cartoon's first lampoon and pun appears, a book cover called "COMPLETE WORKS of Shakespeare". Shakespeare is shown in silhouette while his literally-rendered "works" are clockwork mechanisms, along with old-fashioned "stop" and "go" traffic signals, set to the "ninety years without slumbering, tick-tock, tick-tock" portion of "My Grandfather's Clock
My Grandfather's Clock
"My Grandfather's Clock" is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music.-Origin of the song:...
".
Cut to a book titled Young Man with a Horn; a caricature of Harry James
Harry James
Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...
breaks loose with a jazz trumpet obbligato similar to James' "You Made Me Love You", in which he segues into the standard, "It Had to Be You
It Had to Be You (song)
"It Had to Be You" is a popular song written by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, and was first published in 1924.The song was performed by Priscilla Lane in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties and by Danny Thomas in the 1951 film I'll See You in My Dreams. The latter film was based loosely upon...
". A striptease is about to begin on the cover of Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
Strip. Book covers for The Whistler and The Sea Wolf show their characters shouting and whistling at the off-screen action. (The Sea Wolf's howl segués into a sentence, sometimes rendered as "Howwwww old is she?" but that phrasing is unclear, perhaps purposely.) The now-panting Shakespeare silhouette's inner workings explode in a shower of gears and clocksprings.
The catcalls continue with Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
(depicted as played by Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
in The Private Life of Henry VIII
The Private Life of Henry VIII
The Private Life of Henry VIII is a 1933 film about Henry VIII, King of England. It was written by Lajos Biró and Arthur Wimperis, and directed by Sir Alexander Korda.Charles Laughton won the 1933 Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance as Henry...
) also howling like a wolf and then barking like a seal. Referencing a catchphrase of the popular radio program The Aldrich Family
The Aldrich Family
The Aldrich Family, a popular radio teenage situation comedy , was also presented in films, television and comic books. In the radio series' well-remembered weekly opening exchange, awkward teen Henry's mother called, "Hen-reeeeeeeeeeeee! Hen-ree Al-drich!", and he responded with a breaking...
, the king's "mother" calls out, "Hen-REEEE! Henry the Eighth!" "Coming, mother!" is the king's cracking-voice reply, and he runs to the book cover where Mother waits. As she begins to spank her "naughty boy", a new singing voice and caricature appear, namely that of Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
. The gray, blanketed, emaciated character, overemphasizing Sinatra's real-life physique, enters the cartoon on the cover of The Voice in the Wilderness. A large, male orderly pushes the Sinatra character across the screen in a wheelchair. Sinatra begins to croon the lyrics of "It Had to be You" into a ribbon microphone.
Now the women take their turn at hysteria
Hysteria
Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...
. Henry's mother, bobby-soxed versions of Little Women
Little Women
Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
, Whistler's Mother
Whistler's Mother
Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, famous under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is an 1871 oil-on-canvas painting by American-born painter James McNeill Whistler. The painting is , displayed in a frame of Whistler's own design, and is now owned by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris....
(Famous Paintings) and Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
(and her hatchling) begin to whistle and catcall (just as the men did for Cherokee Strip), and swoon and faint at the sound of Sinatra's voice, each of them uttering the catchphrase "Fraaankie!" before passing out.
A full-blown jam session begins, with a lively swing version of "It Had To Be You". Joining Harry James are the Indian on the cover of Drums Along the Mohawk, who morphs into a realistic-looking Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
(his drumset is labeled "GK"); Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
(as The Pie-Eyed Piper; some mice cheer, "Yeah, Benny!"); and a green Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
(Arkansas Traveler). The character on the cover of the book BRASS rubs his Trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
under the besotted nose of W.C. Fields.
Annoyed by the revelry, Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
steps out of the cover of a Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
comic book (in the background is a book by "Ann Anonymous" titled The Invisible Man: A Biography of Robert Clampett), proceeds to go and starts rifiling through a trunk (Saratoga Trunk) for clothes. He dons a zoot suit
Zoot suit
A zoot suit is a suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing was popularized by African Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Italian Americans during the late 1930s and the 1940s...
and a curly, blonde wig, as well as what appears to be a set of fake teeth (which explains why his trademark lisp is nowhere to be heard in this film). Just as Gene Krupa plays some notes on the buttons lining the corpulent stomach
Stomach
The stomach is a muscular, hollow, dilated part of the alimentary canal which functions as an important organ of the digestive tract in some animals, including vertebrates, echinoderms, insects , and molluscs. It is involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication .The stomach is...
of Hudson's Bay, Daffy shouts for the celebration to "STOP!" and the jam session screeches to a halt. Daffy stands in front of the cover of Danny Boy, and effects Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...
's Russian-accented characterization heard in Kaye's debut 78 album. Daffy says "POOEY!" to swing music and jazz, and reminisces about his "native willage
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
", "why-o-leens
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
", and "the happy peoples sitting on their balalaika
Balalaika
The balalaika is a stringed musical instrument popular in Russia, with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest, the prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass...
s, playing their samovar
Samovar
A samovar is a heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water in and around Russia, as well as in other Central, South-Eastern, Eastern European countries,Kashmir and in the Middle-East...
s" (misusing both Russian terms).
Daffy starts talking about a girl named "Cucaracha", parodying Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
cigarette ads: "so round, so firm, so fully packed, so easy on the draw..." Daffy does a wild, short version of "La Cucaracha
La Cucaracha
"La Cucaracha" is a traditional Spanish folk corrido that became popular in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. It has additionally become a verse played on car horns.-Origins:...
" in his normal character mode, including his "hoo-hoo" bit. This short segment has a plain background, suggesting it was cartooned separately and inserted tentatively, to be dropped seamlessly in case the censors
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
objected to the somewhat suggestive comments about "Cucaracha".
The background changes to a strange one with legible newsprint superimposed on silhouettes of urban buildings; Daffy continues in his fake Russian accent as he sings, Carolina In The Morning
Carolina in the Morning
"Carolina in the Morning" is a popular song with words by Gus Kahn and music by Walter Donaldson, first published in 1922 by Jerome H. Remick & Co....
("nothing could be feener than to be in Caroleena in the mornink...") inadvertently teasing the Big Bad Wolf
Big Bad Wolf
The Big Bad Wolf is a term used to describe a fictional wolf who appears in several precautionary folkloric stories, including some of Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales.-Interpretations:...
, who at this point is still in the window of "Gran'Ma's House"; Daffy beats a hasty retreat to stage left. Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
, based on Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history...
, skips past Daffy and toward Gran'Ma's House.
Noticing Red, Daffy zooms back and stations himself between her and the house, launching into a wild scat
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
- a reference to Danny Kaye's song "Melody in 4F" in his 1944 film debut Up in Arms - to warn her of the wolf, complete with mock chewing on her leg for emphasis. The wolf appears, and Red screams and runs away. The wolf begins to sprinkle salt and pepper on Daffy's leg. Daffy halfway notices, turns back to "bite" the now-gone Red, then turns toward the wolf with a startled and outrageous double-take, turning into a giant eyeball (complete with lashes and blood vessels) for a couple of seconds.
The wolf chases Daffy through Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character....
, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
, and is stymied trying to cut down Daffy who is hiding in the Petrified Forest. Meanwhile, the police have been alerted ("Calling all cars!") and the wolf is apprehended by The Long Arm of the Law. The Judge sentences the wolf to Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
(Judge: You are guilty and the sentence is Life! Wolf: No! Judge: Yes! Wolf: No! Judge: Yes! Wolf: No! Judge: Yes!), as the wolf sings part of the sextette from Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
- "You can't do dis to me! / I'm a citizen, see?!" The wolf is suddenly bonked over the head with a nightstick, and then makes his Escape and runs through the volumes.
Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
, incongruously illustrating the cover of So Big, turns toward the wolf, and his huge nose trips the wolf, who goes sliding down Skid Row
Skid row
A skid row or skid road is a run-down or dilapidated urban area with a large, impoverished population. The term originally referred literally to a path along which working men skidded logs. Its current sense appears to have originated in the Pacific Northwest...
, nearly falling into Dante's Inferno
Inferno (Dante)
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...
. The wolf scrambles to the top, but the Sinatra caricature reappears, held in the orderly's hands as if he were a doll. The Wolf, being in the grandma archetype, swoons at the sound of "Frankie!", just as the female characters did, and skids head first into the inferno.
The other book cover characters loudly cheer and dance to a jazz/swing version of "Carolina In The Morning", the Wolf makes one final appearance to shout, "Stop that dancing up there! ... ya sillies!" This last bit is the actual title of a 1944 song by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
Harry Gibson
Harry "The Hipster" Gibson was a jazz pianist, singer and songwriter.Gibson played New York style Stride piano and boogie woogie while singing in a wild, unrestrained style. His music career began in the late 1920s, when as the young Harry Raab, his birth name, he played stride piano in Dixieland...
, along with a lisping delivery of "sillies" caricaturing Joe Besser
Joe Besser
Joe Besser was an American comedian, known for his impish humor and wimpy characters, and is now best remembered for his brief stint as a member of the Three Stooges in movie short subjects of 1957-59...
. Clampett's famous "bee-woop!" vocalization ends the cartoon on a sort of "shaggy dog" note.
Influence
- Later releases of the short had the title card replaced with Warner Brothers' "Blue Ribbon" title card on which the title was misspelled (see above). The original title card has since been located and the fully restored short can be seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Vol. 2Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 is a DVD box set that was released by Warner Home Video on November 2, 2004. It contains 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements.-Related releases:...
four-DVD box set and the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Vol 2 two-DVD set. - In 1994 it was voted #45 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.
- In one episode of AnimaniacsAnimaniacsSteven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
, Yakko Wakko and Dot held a Video Review after being released in a videostore. Just like the books, they run in and out of films and mingle with movie characters. - In one segment of the Tiny Toon AdventuresTiny Toon AdventuresSteven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
episode "Inside Plucky DuckPlucky DuckPlucky Allen Duck is a cartoon character from the Warner Bros. animated television series Tiny Toon Adventures. He is also the titular character in Gary A. Lewis's Plucky Duck in the Summer Job. He is arguably the third main character on the show after Buster and Babs. Plucky is voiced by Joe...
", Plucky performs Daffy's giant eye double-take (dubbed "a Clampett Corneal Catastrophe"), only to be stuck in eye form, unable to "de-take" until the segment's end. - Most of the ostensible "book" titles in this cartoon are actually the titles of contemporary magazines or movies while some of the more surreal backgrounds, particularly those in the scat-singing scene, apparently used actual newsprint. Even Dante's InfernoInferno (Dante)Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...
was the title of a film released a few years earlier by 20th Century-Fox. - One of the magazines featured, Life, would eventually be co-owned with Warner Bros. under the Time WarnerTime WarnerTime Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
umbrella.
Censorship
- On Cartoon Network, the part where Daffy is being chased by the Wolf through "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is cut (except for "The Bob Clampett ShowThe Bob Clampett ShowThe Bob Clampett Show was an animation anthology television program which ran from 2000 to 2001. Produced by the Cartoon Network, it featured animated theatrical shorts from the Warner Bros. library that were animated or directed by Bob Clampett, as well as a selection of shorts from the Beany and...
" which aired cartoons uncut) due to Daffy leaving the cabin dressed as a black "mammy archetypeMammy archetypeThe mammy archetype is perhaps one of the best-known archetypes of African American women. She is often portrayed within a narrative framework or other imagery as a domestic servant of African descent, generally good-natured, often overweight, very dark skinned, middle aged, and loud...
" holding her "pickaninnyPickaninnyPickaninny is a term in English which refers to children of black descent or a racial caricature thereof. It is a pidgin word form, which may be derived from the Portuguese pequenino . In the Creole English of Surinam the word for a child is pikin ningre...
" infant. http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsb.html Like in other such cases, it is aired uncut on Cartoon NetworkCartoon NetworkCartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
outside the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. - When aired on The WB, Daffy's line about La Cucharacha, "So round, so firm, so fully packed, so easy on the draw" was cut (possibly because of its sexual innuendo, though this line is actually one of the taglines for Lucky StrikeLucky StrikeLucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
cigarettes). http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsb.html