Eyes of a Dog

With the sound of Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse” in the background, Wellington the cat stamps dog paw prints all over the room, as he tries to have Roscoe the hound tossed out by the mistress of the house (played by Bea Benaderet).



Observe, Roscoe.



Roscoe tries to scrub away the prints before the mistress gets downstairs. The two things I noticed about this scene: one is Wellington rushes back and forth across the room, but leaves trails of multiple eyes behind him. Don Williams used to do this but I don’t know if Williams had a short stop at Warners in 1943 when this cartoon was made (he went from MGM to Columbia that year).



The other thing is an interesting directorial choice by Friz Freleng: the camera pans back and forth across the room, but can’t keep up with Roscoe.



Since this cartoon, Hiss and Make Up became a Blue Ribbon re-issue in 1950 and had all its credits removed, we can only guess that Manny Perez, Gerry Chiniquy, Dick Bickenbach and Jack Bradbury were among the animators.

And is it my imagination, or did another Warners cartoon feature a cat stamping paw prints to the strains of “Powerhouse”?