143 Fagin's Freshman

Title: Fagin's Freshman
Studio: Warner Bros.
Date: 11/18/39
Credits: - (but Hardaway/Dalton)
Series: Merrie Melodies (on Blue Ribbon reissue)
Running time (of viewed version): 7:50

Synopsis: Cat hates crappy song, punished with bed, dreams of a wonderful school for criminals, wakes up and pusses out.
























Comments: These cats are similar to the She Married a Cop cats. "All you think of is guns and shooting"; must be the influence of all the gun based cartoons... Background portraiture: known people? Super wrinkle face lead. Even criminals need schooling. Thugs standing under a sign that says "Drugs"probably didn't have the exact same resonance then as now, but I'm not sure that resonance was not intended. "Reasonable facsimile"; this has more verbal humor than you might expect in the era; maybe it's just a slightly better version. Probably a lift. Pound of butter gag is quite likable. Several lower eyelids; more evidence for She Married a Cop ID (as a Hardaway/Dalton made segment). I think the voice actress on the mother may have been Dennis Day's mother's voice on Jack Benny. She has at least one shot of just legs, like H/B would use for Mammy Two Shoes. One of a series of "kids hang out with ruffians and get into trouble" cartoons. I suppose Pinocchio would be the pinnacle in this movie season (it being only a few months away; Mel Blanc did the voice of Gideon, one of the bad cats, supposedly, and he shows up here at least as the piano playing cat). There are non-black characters playing dice. I don't know why the class of 1920 all have pardons but are still in prison garb in front of bars.