Cut to a shot of the Northern soldiers.
Movie fans in 1940 wouldn’t have noticed, but Warners staff would recognise three of these soldiers. On the left is writer Tubby Millar. Next to him is Leon Schlesinger’s office manager Henry Binder. On the right is animator, and future Lantz director, Paul J. Smith.
It was inevitable that some cartoon studio would parody Gone With the Wind. Friz and his writing staff (Bugs Hardaway gets the story credit on this) decided to stick Elmer Fudd, previously seen in Elmer’s Pet Rabbit (also 1940) in the part of the Rhett Butler send-up. Because the two have an awful lot in common.
The Exhibitor, in its April 17, 1940 issue, rated the cartoon “excellent,” adding it was “by far the slap-happiest and most laugh-provoking reel of color cartooning ever put out by Leon Schlesinger (and that takes in a lot of territory)” and that it “had a projection room audience doubled up with laughter.”
This was the third Warners cartoon where Bryan gave a character his Waymond Wadcwiffe voice from radio. The first was in Dangerous Dan McFoo (1939), which didn’t feature a Fudd role.
Warner Bros.’ pressbook for Tear Gas Squad suggests pairing the feature with Confederate Honey, calling the cartoon “a mirthful mélange of satire and good-natured fun.” Well, I guess in 1940, lazy Stepin Fetchit types were yuck-fests.
According to Thad K in the comments of this Cartoon Brew post, the cartoon apparently started production as an Egghead one by Hardaway and Dalton until Freleng returned from MGM, in which they were kept on as credited writer and animator respectively.
ReplyDeleteActually, audiences were previously introduced to Elmer in Elmer's Candid Camera; E'SPR would be released the following year.
Love the little inside jokes they would stick in these cartoons.In Wackiki Wabbit ", if I recall , that was Ted Pierce and Michael Maltese as the castaways. I could be wrong, but it was someone on staff.
ReplyDeleteIn Clampett's "Russian Rhapsody," the gremlins from the Kremlin are various staff, and at one point Chuck is swinging a mallet toward Friz's head.
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