Tex's Other Red

There’s a knock at the closet door. “Who’s there?” yells the detective.

The door opens. A skeleton steps out. “A skeleton,” it answers.



Another skeleton steps out.



The pun is so obvious here (except for people who have never heard of comedian Red Skelton), I don't need to mention it.

In the MGM cartoon Who Killed Who? (1942), Tex Avery and uncredited writer Rich Hogan have come up with a fine send-up of murder mysteries, making fun of a pile of movie clichés, with Scott Bradley adding a solo organ score like you might hear on a radio detective story.

There are no credited animators.

If It Worked At Warner Bros....

Fans of Tex Avery’s cartoons at MGM likely know he took ideas he used at Warner Bros. and incorporated them into shorts at his new locale.

An example is the silhouettes of audience members moving in front of the action on the screen, like the camera is at the back of a theatre shooting the action, including the film that’s being projected. You can see it in Avery’s Little Red Walking Hood, Daffy Duck and Egghead and Thugs With Dirty Mugs.

Here’s a version in Who Killed Who?, a 1943 MGM cartoon with Billy Bletcher as the voice of a detective who bursts into a room in a creepy mansion after its occupant (Kent Rogers doing his Richard Haydn voice) is killed.

“Everybody stay where you are! Don’t nobody move!” he shouts as we see a silhouette of an audience member get up and move “across the row.”



The detective takes care of things.



“That goes for you, too, bud!” he yells at the figure writhing in head pain.



And the cartoon carried on.

No animators are credited. Just Avery.

The Time's Not Right For Murder

The victim has read the book “Who Killed Who?” (from the cartoon of the same name). He tells the audience watching “if this picture is anything like the book, I get bumped off.”

A message on a dagger zooms past him.



11:30 is an inconvenient time for death. Another message flies past.



A newspaper squib from the MGM publicity department pointed out:

For the first time in cartoon history an organ and Novachord will be used as background music for the animated murder mystery, “Who Killed Who?” directed by Tex Avery under Fred Quimby’s production supervision. Musical director Scott Bradley wrote the score which was played by Bernard Katz. Full orchestra recorded the main and end titles.”

Katz was related to Mel Blanc. Blanc isn’t on this cartoon, but Kent Rogers supplies the Richard Haydn voice of the victim.

The Correct Time for Murder

The victim (played by Kent Rogers) is warned in Tex Avery’s Who Killed Who? (1943). He will be killed at midnight.

The clock strikes 12. The hands waver every time it hits the top of the hour. You’ll notice the clock reads “BooooLova Watch Time.” For years on radio, time signals would be sponsored by Bulova, which informed the listener it was “Bulova Watch Time.”



Since this is a horror picture, the cuckoo bird is a skeleton, who announces the time “at the sou-und of the gun.” The cuckoo (played by Sara Berner) then listens for the gun.



The bird is not disappointed. Cut to the gun going off three times, sounding like the NBC chimes heard for over four decades on radio and TV.



No animators are credited in this cartoon, but I suspect there are people who might be able to pick out some of Preston Blair’s scenes.

Scaredy Ghost

There’s a ghost hiding in a closet in Who Killed Who?, the great Tex Avery Detective Story. When the bulldog detective realises it’s a ghost, he shrinks and runs away.



The ghost thinks being scared is really funny, until (s)he sees a mouse. (The ghost starts out with a man’s voice but switches to a woman’s for the purpose of the next gag).



Hey, ghost! A theatre audience is watching you and can see you’ve pulled up your skirt.



Yeah, that’s right. See for yourself.



The ghost suddenly turns modest.



The cartoon has no animators credited. Ray Abrams, Ed Love and Preston Blair, I suspect.

A Logical Question

Tex Avery’s Who Killed Who? (1943) is filled gags involving something hidden behind curtains or doors or, in this case, a portrait. Well, except nothing is really hidden in this case, other than a typical Avery sign.



Avery is the only one who received a credit on the cartoon, but my guess is Ed Love, Preston Blair and Ray Abrams are the animators, with Johnny Johnsen painting the backgrounds.

Ah, Yes!

Pausing in the middle of a cartoon for some commentary by a character or a sign is a favourite Tex Avery routine. We find it in Who Killed Who? (released 1943), Avery’s great spoof of radio/film detective mysteries.

Cadavers fall toward the camera, initially in a 16-drawing cycle, speeding up to eight. We see 13 of them drop before a 14th stops in mid-fall and removes the gag around his mouth. “Ah, yes!” he says to the audience. “Quite a bunch of us, isn’t it?” Then the gag snaps back over his mouth and he resumes his fall (as do nine other identical bodies afterward).



Avery’s name is the only one on the credits.

The Eyes Don't Have It

Chuck Jones’ cartoons were known for characters with facial expressions but Tex Avery turned a pair of eyes into a character.

Mysterious eyes watch the detective trying to solve the murder in “Who Killed Who?” The detective realises something is up. The eyes try to hide to avoid detection but it doesn’t quite work. I like how the eyes stretch in realisation they are trapped then bang on the door.



The gag takes all of 11 seconds before Avery segues into the next one involving a ghost behind the door. Avery and writer Rich Hogan have picked up the pace from their work at Warners.