Tuesday 27 February 2018

Wasting Wages

The temptations of a devilish hoofed creature sway Snafu into spending all his army pay instead of saving it for the post-war boom in Pay Day, released by the Army Screen Magazine in September 1944.

The horned thing plays his clarinet and smoke comes out, forming a woman, a cocktail shaker and a hand with a pair of dice. Snafu wastes his money on trinkets, booze, a hooker and a crap game. He has no savings and, one by one, the pieces of his potential happy life after the war disappear.



The Friz Freleng unit did a great job on this cartoon. There are some layouts at street level (with overlays), some good walk cycles and appealing backgrounds. All the artists are uncredited.

2 comments:

  1. I absolutely agree with you re this being a great job. I would have this as a very serious contender for among the best of *any* of Freleng's cartoons for WB. The message comes across clearly, but that's secondary to some great humour. Also a rare use of "Begin the Beguine," which I don't think was a WB-owned song. Which brings up the point that this could also be one of Stalling's masterpieces, since he has to carry a lot of the cartoon. And he does, brilliantly in my view.

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    1. Though it lat did becomea WB owned song..through Harms Inc.(being a Cole Porter tune..)

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