Thugs with Dirty Mugs
Encyclopedia
Thugs with Dirty Mugs is a 1939
Warner Bros.
cartoon in the Merrie Melodies
series.
, Humphrey Bogart
, George Raft
, and Edward G. Robinson
. The lead character here is in fact a caricature of the last named, and the title derives from the studio's own 1938
acclaimed feature film, Angels with Dirty Faces
, which starred the first two. It is directed by Tex Avery
, and, similar to his later MGM
crime/detective-oriented cartoon, Who Killed Who?
, the ostensible plot—in this case, gangster Killer Diller (Tex Avery) goes on a bank-robbing spree and the police attempt to apprehend him—is secondary to a fast and furious series of gags.the short starts with Killer and his gang robbing every single bank (except the 13th National Bank) in the fictional New York town of Everyville with various newspapers with headlines depending on the bank.Meanwhile,Ned Flanigan (John Deering) is trying to catch Killer.Later Killer is finally convicted with a long sentence.
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
cartoon in the 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,...
series.
Synopsis
Its subject matter (movie gangsters) is a parody of Warner's famous cycle of crime films starring such actors as James CagneyJames Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
, Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
, George Raft
George Raft
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
, and Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
. The lead character here is in fact a caricature of the last named, and the title derives from the studio's own 1938
1938 in film
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
acclaimed feature film, Angels with Dirty Faces
Angels with Dirty Faces
Angels with Dirty Faces is a 1938 American gangster film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, the Dead End Kids and Humphrey Bogart, along with Ann Sheridan and George Bancroft...
, which starred the first two. It is directed by Tex Avery
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
, and, similar to his later MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was the in-house division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture studio in Hollywood, California during the Golden Age of American animation, responsible for producing animated short subjects to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters...
crime/detective-oriented cartoon, Who Killed Who?
Who Killed Who?
Who Killed Who? is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short directed by Tex Avery for MGM. The cartoon is a parody of whodunit stories and employs many clichés of the genre for humor.-Plot:...
, the ostensible plot—in this case, gangster Killer Diller (Tex Avery) goes on a bank-robbing spree and the police attempt to apprehend him—is secondary to a fast and furious series of gags.the short starts with Killer and his gang robbing every single bank (except the 13th National Bank) in the fictional New York town of Everyville with various newspapers with headlines depending on the bank.Meanwhile,Ned Flanigan (John Deering) is trying to catch Killer.Later Killer is finally convicted with a long sentence.
Trivia and Production Notes
- This short was re-released as a "Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies" short, deleting the specific production credits. However, on EbayEBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
in 2007 there were about 40 Tex Avery title cards for sale, many long believed lost due to these reissues, and one of them was from Thugs with Dirty Mugs, so it does survive. This came too little too late, as the short had already been refurbished for DVD release in 2005.
Censorship and Bans
- The WBThe WB Television NetworkThe WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
airing of this cartoon cut the part where one of the robbers hits a bank teller (who taunts them with "I'm going to tell-ell!") during one of their heists. Also cut was the police chief yelling "Take that, you rat!" and then feeding cheese to an actual rodent. http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/t/ - According to Canadian animation historian Gene Walz, this short was banned from being released in Winnipeg, Manitoba back in the 1930s for glorifying criminal behavior and showing Killer Diller being punished like a schoolkid (by being shown in prison writing "I've been a naughty boy" several times on a blackboard with a prison-striped dunce cap on his head) rather than an adult, which the censors thought wasn't "sincere." http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/t/
DVD release
- Thugs with Dirty Mugs is presented uncut on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 is a DVD box set from Warner Home Video that was released on October 25, 2005. It contains 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical short subject cartoons, 9 documentaries, 32 commentary tracks from animators and historians, 11 "vintage treasures from...
.