Dumb Patrol

Dumb Patrol is a 1964 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon short directed by Gerry Chiniquy.[1] The short was released on January 18, 1964, and stars Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam.[2] Director Gerry Chiniquy was a longtime animator in Friz Freleng's unit. The cartoon is set during World War I opening 'somewhere in France' in 1917.

For the 1931 short, see Dumb Patrol (1931 film).
Dumb Patrol
Title card
Directed byGerry Chiniquy
Produced byDavid H. DePatie (uncredited)
Story byJohn Dunn
StarringMel Blanc
Music byBill Lava
Animation byVirgil Ross
Bob Matz
Lee Halpern
Art Leonardi
Layouts byBob Givens
Backgrounds byTom O'Loughlin
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Vitagraph Company of America
Release date
  • January 18, 1964 (1964-01-18)
Running time
6 minutes
LanguageEnglish

The title is an allusion to The Dawn Patrol, a 1930 movie by Howard Hawks that also deals with World War I pilots. The same title was also used for an unrelated, early Looney Tunes short starring Bosko, released in 1931.

Dumb Patrol does not fall into the normal pattern found in most other Bugs Bunny cartoon shorts. Bugs is not disturbed from a serene state as in most of his other shorts. Also, he is the attacker, reversing his normal role of the victim. Yosemite Sam had previously been killed off in his previous short, Devil's Feud Cake (though because this film is set in the past it does not create an explicit continuity error).

This marks the final pairing of Bugs and Yosemite Sam, as well as the final appearance of the latter, one of the only 3 cartoons to feature both Bugs and Porky together, and the final time Porky appears without Daffy Duck.

Plot

In 1917, somewhere in France during World War I, the men of the French Air Force assemble to determine who must rid the skies of the enemy pilot, Baron Sam Von Schpamm. A drawing straws game begins resulting in Porky Pig (addressed as Captain Smedley in this cartoon) selected for the mission. Next day, at dawn, while Porky is suiting up for the flight (whistling Mademoiselle from Armentières), Bugs Bunny knocks him out with a brick and takes his place, because Porky has a family (a wife and 6 piglets).

Meanwhile, somewhere in Germany, Sam (Yosemite Sam) is awarded an Iron Cross for his service. Sam, however, is sick of getting those things and wants a well-deserved long furlough. Bugs drops him a bunch of flowers and a poem. Sam reads the note and feels insulted – Bugs has written "Baron" with a small "B" and claims the Big "B" is in the flowers. When Sam looks at the flowers, a bee flies out and stings his nose. Sam has trouble getting a plane started, but having solved that and taken flight, Sam catches up to Bugs. Bugs pulls up into the clouds and Sam crashes into a mountain.

Sam runs back to the airfield and grabs another plane. While he looks for Bugs, Bugs comes up behind him and buzz-saws right through Sam's plane. In another plane, Sam starts shooting at Bugs with a machine gun, but Bugs dodges every time. Sam's shooting only ends up shearing his own plane to bits, leaving only the undercarriage which becomes a unicycle when he lands. Sam then takes to the skies in a bomber. Having sighted and targeted Bugs, he releases the bombs, but he falls out of his plane and gets caught in the explosion of his bombs on the ground.

Sam takes to the skies in a dinky little plane, which at the push of a lever transforms into a fierce fighting machine quad-plane loaded with machine guns. Sam pulls the switch to full power, but this rips the plane into three parts, making Sam fall and get killed in the ammunition dump. Bugs then comments he has heard of Hell's Angels, but he never thought he would actually see one. The final scene then shows Sam in a devil's suit, playing a harp and floating skyward.

See also

References
  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 346. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60-62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
Preceded by
Transylvania 6-5000		 Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1964		 Succeeded by
Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare
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