Shadows and Silhouettes

Creating a spooky or scary mood in a cartoon can be done through voice or music. But since we are talking about an animated cartoon, another way to accomplish it is through the artwork.

In Claws For Alarm, layout artist Maurice Noble and background painter Phil De Guard employ shadows and silhouettes to create a discomfiting atmosphere. Some examples:



Writer Mike Maltese and director Chuck Jones elect to let the audience know who will be trying to kill Porky—sadistic mice.



A keyhold-shaped shadow. Very imaginative.



Sylvester bashes Porky with the butt of a rifle to knock him into woozy-land, then shoves the pig in their car and zooms away to escape the would-be killers.

Or did they? Cut to the final shot of the car’s speedometer.



A perfect science-fiction-style ending by Maltese.

This is the second cartoon in the Jones Porky/Sylvester horror trilogy. The first was Scaredy Cat (1948) and the third was the outer-space-themed Jumpin’ Jupiter (1955).

Jones has a full contingent of animators on this one—Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan and Dick Thompson. Though the film was released in May 22, 1954, it was formally copyrighted on June 6, 1955, despite a 1953 date on the opening titles.