Bosko Kills Planes Dead!

The Harman-Ising team grabbed some familiar gags and situations to throw into Dumb Patrol (1931). An example: they reached back to The Great Train Robbery (1903) to have the bad guy fire his gun at the camera. To no great surprise, there’s a scene with Bosko playing a piano.

They borrowed a gag from Oswald’s Ocean Hop (1927) and Mickey Mouse’s Plane Crazy (1928) for the climax. Bosko creates a make-shift plane from a broom and a dachshund, twisting the wiener dog’s head to get the “plane” aloft (it was the body in the other shorts; there’s a switch on the gag in Bosko’s Hold Anything involving a goat, and a flower in Ain't Nature Grand, both 1930).

The bad guy gorilla shoots a cannon at Bosko’s plane (in reused animation), and the cannon ball is swallowed by the open-mouthed dog (for some reason, the plane now stays in the air without the dog’s head twirling like a propeller).

Bosko develops long spaghetti arms and fires back.



The explosion turns the enemy aircraft into dozens of mini-planes buzzing around (the gorilla conveniently disappears from the picture).



Bosko flies into the scene with an insect spray can.



Harman ends the cartoon the same way he did Crosby, Columbo and Vallee (1932)—instead of a flame, the last plane is killed by spit.



Friz Freleng and Max Maxwell receive the animation credit; Bosko and kinky-haired Honey look a little cruder in this one. The opening is imaginative with explosions behind the opening title card, reversing the black and white colours.