| Bacall to Arms | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Bob Clampett Arthur Davis |
| Story by | Warren Foster Michael Sasanoff |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by | Manny Gould Rod Scribner Don Williams I. Ellis |
| Layouts by | Thomas McKimson |
| Backgrounds by | Philip DeGuard |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 6:11 |
| Language | English |
Bacall to Arms is a 1946Warner Bros.Merrie Melodies series short planned byBob Clampett and finished byArthur Davis, in his second-to-last cartoon at Warner Bros.[1] The short was released on August 3, 1946.[2]
The title is a play on the phrase “a call to arms” that references actressLauren Bacall, whose acclaimed 1944 film debut was inTo Have and Have Not, based onHemingway's 1937 novel.
The cartoon is set in amovie 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. Awolf makes a pass at a sexy movieusherette, gets slapped in the face, then settles down for the show. While the theater is in color, thefilms-within-the film are black-and-white. A short "newsreel" is narrated by Robert C. Bruce.
The main feature is a film calledTo Have- To Have- To Have- ..., a parody ofTo Have and Have Not. It includes images ofHumphrey Bogart andLauren Bacall, who are credited as "Bogey Gocart and Laurie Bee Cool". 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 ablowtorch à laHarpo 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 literal lone wolf in azoot suit who falls head-over-heels for Bee Cool (presumably paying homage toTex Avery's wolf character atMGM). The final gag has the wolf grabbing acigarette that Bee Cool flicks into the theater, resulting in Bogie shooting him. He takes the cigar from the wolf, which explodes, covering his face in ash that resembles him wearing "blackface". Bogie adopts aRochester voice and says, "My, oh my! I can work for Mr.Benny now!"
The film reuses animation from an earlier short,She Was an Acrobat's Daughter (1937) byFriz Freleng. Like its 1930s predecessor, the film depicts a noisy movie audience member which disrupts the screening. In this case the noisy audience is represented by thewolf-whistling andhowling of a wolf in the audience.[3] The film usescaricatures ofHumphrey Bogart andLauren Bacall, who attempt to act out the scene fromTo Have and Have Not (1944) in which they first kiss, and her character's advice on how to whistle. Bogart eventually shoots the disruptive wolf from the movie screen, though thefilm within a film never properly ends.[4] The short is one of two parodies of Bogart from theWarner Bros. Cartoons studio. The other wasSlick Hare (1947), where restaurant customer Bogart demands "fried rabbit" fromElmer Fudd, setting up a plot where he chases afterBugs Bunny.[5]
The film functions as a tribute to Bacall and hersexual attractiveness. It was probably produced to promote the release of an upcoming feature film,The Big Sleep (1946).[6] The filmconflates two scenes fromTo Have and Have Not, the scene where theprotagonist are introduced to each other and the whistle scene.[6] In the original film, Bogart cleans afishing reel. In the parody, he cleans a.45 caliber handgun.[6] In a reference to Bacall's "hotness", when her caricature crosses the floor, she leaves a trail of flames behind her. While the film within a film isblack and white, the flames are red and yellow.[6] When she asks for a light, the Bogart caricature offers her ablow torch. She easily catches it and uses the torch to light hercigarette.[6]
The distinctive voice ofEddie "Rochester" Anderson is used here to accompany ablackface-relatedvisual gag. Christopher Lehman notes that it was typical for blackface gags in animated films to make references to well-knownAfrican American actors. References to both Anderson andStepin Fetchit were frequently used. He notes, however, that the creators ofWarner Bros. Cartoons found comedic use for Anderson's voice andethnicity, but never for the intelligence orwit of his character, Rochester, which he finds rather telling.[7]
Author Don Peri points that in the 1930s,Walt Disney Productions was the industry leader incharacter animation. But as this studio's focus shifted from animated shorts toanimated feature films, other studios started making their own advances in the field, at times depicting emotions that were absent from Disney films. Peri citesBacall to Arms as a memorable depiction oflust in animation.[8] The wolf himself seems similar to "Wolfie" byTex Avery.[9]
World War II ended in September 1945, but several animated shorts released later in that year and into 1946 still contained war-related references. InBacall to Arms there is anewsreel featuring"wartime inventions put to peacetime use". The example depicted is that of a married man who uses aradar to receive early warnings for the unannounced visits of his mother-in-law.[9]
The house in the Newsreel segment was the same house used in thePrivate Snafu shortPayday, a short where Snafu keeps buying unnecessary items rather than investing money on that house when the war was over.
Norman Klein cites the film as an example of animated films referencingfilm noir and figures associated with the genre, such as Bogart. He argues thatscrewball comedy film, the chase-themed animated films, thecrime film, and film noir were genres which shared certain elements. In his view, all were reactions to themelodrama films of the 1930s and all rejected the moralizing tendencies of these melodramas. They reacted by embracing depictions of outrageous behavior andamorality. Common themes among them were the depiction ofpoetic justice asmalum in se, of faked sentiment as a tool ofdeception, andsardonicism as the primary form ofhumor.[10]