Bacall to Arms

"Bacall to Arms" is a 1946 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It was directed by Bob Clampett. No voice characterizations are credited. Mel Blanc's voice is recognizable as a fat theater patron. According to IMDB, an actor named Dave Barry portrays the voice of Humphrey Bogart. The title is a play on the war cry "call to arms" and on the actress Lauren Bacall.

ummary

The cartoon is set in a movie theater. Various random gags occur before the film, such as one patron moving to another seat another patron taking the vacated seat, and so on, accelerating into a free-for-all. While the theater is in color, the films-within-the film are black-and-white. A short "newsreel" is narrated by Robert C. Bruce

The main feature is a film called "To Have- To Have- To Have- ...", a parody on "To Have and Have Not". It includes reasonably realistic, possibly rotoscoped images of Bogie and Bacall, who are credited as "Bogey Gocart and Laurie Becool". In addition to recreating a few well-known scenes from that film (the kissing scene; the "put your lips together and blow" scene), the players sometimes lapse into slapstick (Bacall lighting her cigarette with a blowtorch, a la Harpo Marx; or letting loose with a loud, shrill whistle after her famous sultry comment) and interact with the theater audience.

Although the theater was initially full, it is eventually seen to be empty except for one patron: a lone wolf in a zoot suit who goes ga-ga over Bacall. The final gag has the wolf grabbing a cigarette that was dropped in the film and jumps off the screen. He hands it to Bogie and it explodes, covering him with "blackface". Bogie suddenly adopts a "Rochester" voice, and says, "My, oh my! I can work for Mr. Benny now!"

Censorship

*The entire ending where the Tex Avery-esque wolf happily puffs on Laurie Be-Cool's cigarette, only to get shot by Bogey Go-Cart, who retrieves the cigarette and smokes it (only to get blown up and turn blackfaced, replying, "My, oh, my! I can work for Mr. Benny now!") was cut when shown on TNT. Surprisingly, Cartoon Network aired this cartoon uncut when this was shown on "The Bob Clampett Show".
*According to Jerry Beck's DVD commentary on the fifth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set, this cartoon's cartoon's choppy, imcomplete feel was a result of Bob Clampett never completing the cartoon due to his departure from Warner Brothers Studios and most of the missing scenes are said to be lost to time.

ee also

*Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography