Gran Concurso de Aficionados

While Tex Avery was working for Warner Bros., he directed a series of cartoons centering on spot gags. "Hamateur Night" was a typical example, although the content matter reminded me more of what Friz Freleng's cartoons portrayed. The cartoon depicts a gaggle of second-rate amateur acts in a movie theater, and the audience gets to decide who's the best. As it so happens, Elmer Fudd's prototype Egghead is in the house. Hmmm...

So yes, it's the average silly cartoon from 1930s Warner Bros. - complete with some politically incorrect material - but I was laughing the whole way through. There's never a dull moment in any Tex Avery cartoon. I sure hope that Leon Schlesinger appreciated how much Avery made audiences laugh. Really funny.

There are far too many standout moments for me to just pick my personal favorite moment from this whole cartoon. Not only does this cartoon showcase Tex Avery's strength in putting together so many one-off characters for the sake of a gag, but most of the gags are paced just fine enough to let the punchline sink in without rushing anything.

Phil Kramer is delightfully dry as the show's host and the running gag of Egghead leads to one of the funniest payoffs in Avery's filmography. Also, hearing Tex's laugh as the hippo audience member never gets old.

As much as I want to continue singing this cartoon's praises, I'd rather y'all go check it out for yourselves. It's all worth it for a good laugh, something we all need right now.

Hamateur Night (1939)

** (out of 4)

The Warner Bros. hit FOUR DAUGHTERS is playing at the local theater and the manager has decided to have an amateur night where local talent can come and show off their talents. The only problem is that the people who have shown up have very little talent.

There are a few funny gags to be had in this animated short but for the most part this one complete misses the mark. The animation itself is quite good and I thought the hippo in the crowd laughing and causing trouble was mildly funny. Everything else was rather dull and didn't contain enough laughs to keep this short entertaining throughout the running time. The film isn't horrible but with so many better films out there there's not a point in watching this one.

This is not the Tex Avery you know and love from his wild cartoons, but it is still nice. A simple device, Amateur night at a theater, with several interesting acts including the snake charmer "Swami Rivers." If you like this, try and see I Love To Singa. If you like Egghead, watch Johnny Smith and Poker-huntas. If you want to see other rare Tex at Warner Brothers, watch Don't Look Now and A Sunbonnet Blue.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best cartoons ever made by anybody. Having said that, not everything he has done has turned immediately into gold but even his not-so-classic and lesser efforts are still worth seeing and better than most at their worst. This is the case with 'Hamateur Night'. Egghead is not a very compelling or particularly funny character here, not crazy about his design either and a better job could have been done with giving more variety to his role in the cartoon which was more repetitive one-joke than anything else.

Humour-wise, 'Hamateur Night' is amusing, with some entertainingly bad (in an intentional way) acts, and there aren't many misfires, excepting Egghead, but not much is hilarious either. Some parts are better than others, nothing wrong with the acts but it was the audience reaction (especially the hippo) that fares most delightfully.

Egghead's design aside, the animation is vibrant, rich in detail and mostly nicely drawn if lacking at times the fluidity and refinement of Avery's very finest (most of which are from his MGM period). A big star is Carl Stalling's music score and the clever insertions and arrangements of pre-existing music, a Stalling trademark and one of his biggest strengths as a composer. The music here is lush and characterful, with clever orchestration and a mastery of not just adding to the action but enhancing it as well (Stalling was a near-unequalled master at this, though Scott Bradley gave him a run for his money).

Voice acting is very good, if not a tour-De-force like these immensely talented voice actors frequently showed they were more than capable of.

In summary, pretty good but one can't help feeling disappointed. 7/10 Bethany Cox