Rushing Roulette is a 1965 Merrie Melodies

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,...

 cartoon starring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner

Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese...

. It was directed by Robert McKimson

Robert McKimson

Robert "Bob" Porter McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros., and later DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...

, and was the second Road Runner cartoon directed by someone other than Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones

Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...

, who had exclusively used the characters since their debut in 1949 (the first was The Wild Chase

The Wild Chase

The Wild Chase is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises featuring Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester, with Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner along for the race. It was directed by Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt, and was released February 27, 1965. This cartoon was the...

, directed by Friz Freleng

Friz Freleng

Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....

). McKimson directed one other Road Runner cartoon the following year (Sugar and Spies

Sugar and Spies

Sugar and Spies is a 1966 Road Runner cartoon. It is the second of two Road Runner shorts directed by Robert McKimson and the only one to feature music by Walter Greene. It is also the final appearance of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in the original theatrical Looney Tunes...

). Unlike the ten Rudy Larriva

Rudy Larriva

Rudolph "Rudy" Larriva was an American animator and director from the 1940s to the 1980s.Born in El Paso, Texas, Larriva worked at a number of animation studios, including Format Films, Filmation, Walt Disney Productions, but is best known for his work at Warner Bros...

-directed Road Runner shorts after Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner

Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner

Run, Run Sweet Roadrunner is an animated cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series released by Warner Bros.. It features Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner and was directed and written by Rudy Larriva for release in 1965....

(which featured a series of pre-recorded music cues that didn't follow the action on-screen as closely), Rushing Roulette featured an entirely original score by Bill Lava.

The title of this cartoon is a play on Russian roulette

Russian roulette

Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a single round in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against their head and pull the trigger...

.

Summary

As with all Road Runner cartoons, Wile E. Coyote tries various methods to nab the speedy bird:

• Wile grabs Road Runner with a lasso but is merely dragged into a cactus.
• Wile sets up a fake photo booth which has a cannon behind it. When the Road Runner actually gets a real picture taken at the booth, Wile, puzzled, looks into the barrel of his own cannon and is shot (in the smoke, we see a picture of the charred coyote floating past).
• Wile puts on spring boots but is startled by the Road Runner's trademark "Beep beep!" and bounces off a nearby cliff. However, he bounces back up due to his boots and hits a rock. Both Wile and the rock fall to the ground, where the rock flattens Wile.
• Wile puts Ajax glue on the pavement to stick Road Runner. His plan backfires when he accidentally steps on the sticky pavement and Road Runner startles Wile so much with his "Beep beep!" that he actually lifts the pavement off the ground (with Wile still attached) and lands face down.
• Wile tries to catch Road Runner with a handcar
  Handcar
  A handcar is a railroad car powered by its passengers, or by people pushing the car from behind. It is mostly used as a maintenance of way or mining car, but it was also used for passenger service in some cases...
  
  . This backfires when Road Runner gets his own handcar and chases Wile off a cliff with another "beep beep!".
• Wile uses a sunbeam to roast Road Runner, but the bird uses a mirror to bounce the sunbeam back and burn the platform on which Wile is standing.
• A repeat of the classic "exploding piano" gag, also used in Ballot Box Bunny
  Ballot Box Bunny
  Ballot Box Bunny is a 1950 animated Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short released in 1951, directed by Friz Freleng and written by Warren Foster.-Plot:...
  
   and Show Biz Bugs
  Show Biz Bugs
  Show Biz Bugs is a Warner Bros. animated short originally released to theaters on November 2, 1957. It is billed as a Looney Tunes cartoon and stars Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as its main characters...
  
  .
• Wile pushes a boulder off a narrow ledge to hit Road Runner on the pavement below, but the boulder misses and keeps eating away at his platform until he's at pavement level. He manages to duck into a manhole
  Manhole
  A manhole is an opening used to gain access to sewers or other underground structures, usually for maintenance.Manhole may also refer to:* Manhole , a metal band from Los Angeles* The Manhole, a computer game...
  
   right before getting hit by an oncoming truck, but the boulder lands on top of the manhole, preventing his escape.
• Finally, Wile uses a personal helicopter
  Helicopter
  A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
  
  but accidentally runs into the top of a tunnel. He's also flattened by an anvil he was prepared to drop on Road Runner, and is also hit by a bus, driven by Road Runner.