The Super Snooper

As the Termite Terrace crowd loved to spoof everything in popular culture, it should as no surprise that they took a swipe at 1940s detective movies. Robert McKimson's "The Super Snooper" casts Daffy Duck as Duck Drake, a Sam Spade-style private eye, nose, ears and mouth. One day, this hard-boiled gumshoe gets a call telling him that there's been a murder in a local mansion. So, he goes there and finds the sexiest female duck of all, whom he immediately suspects of the murder. So, he tries to recreate the crime, always making the hot babe cooperate...but it results to his detriment! While Chuck Jones famously cast Daffy in the kinds of roles deliberately not suited to him ("The Scarlet Pumpernickel", "Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century", "Robin Hood Daffy"), Robert McKimson clearly also had an eye for this. We see here Daffy in exaggerated form: he's so convinced of his own rectitude that he goes to any length to prove it, no matter what happens...and then we get a big surprise at the end! And besides, THAT IS ONE HOT BABE!!!!!!! A cross between Veronica Lake, Grace Kelly and Barbara Eden, if you will.

Anyway, I gotta disagree with a reviewer who in another review said that Warner Bros. should have closed Robert McKimson's animation unit and left Arthur Davis's unit open. McKimson really directed some impressive work (though Davis also directed some good ones). This is certainly a funny one.

As a huge lifelong fan of Looney Tunes and of Daffy Duck (one of Looney Tunes' best characters), while not quite one of my favourites The Super Snooper is a very entertaining spoof of film noir.

There is not much to criticise here actually. A couple of jokes are a tad corny (the ending didn't quite work for me) and it does feel a touch heavy on the slapstick occasionally.

Nevertheless it is still very entertaining indeed. Contrary to one reviewer, I for one thought the animation was very good. Sure there has been better animation before, but it is bright, colourful and atmospheric, the backgrounds are suitably detailed and fluid and the characters are very well drawn, as said the atmosphere evoked is highly effective. Carl Stalling can be counted on to provide a good music score, and he certainly does, great even. It is beautifully orchestrated and characterful as well as enhancing the action brilliantly in the way few other composers scoring cartoon shorts did so well.

Dialogue is smart, fresh and witty and the story spoofs the film noir genre in a brilliantly clever and remarkably suspenseful way. The gags a vast majority of the time work really well and the best of them like the piano, bullet-holes-in-Daffy's bill, the train and the goofy walk gags are incredibly funny. The characters work well on their own and complement each other beautifully. Daffy carries the cartoon with brilliant comic timing and great charisma, while the Lady Duck (possible inspiration for Jessica Rabbit?) is a deliciously seductive and potentially deadly counterpart.

Mel Blanc gives as always stellar vocal characterisations, again demonstrating his incredible and unequalled ability to voice multiple characters and give each of them a unique and different personality from one another. Marian Richman's voice acting is also very suited to the Lady Duck.

In conclusion, very entertaining and very good. Just not the best of Looney Tunes, or one of my favourites. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I really like Robert McKimson's version on Daffy Duck (up until the Depatie-Freleng Enterprises version, where he's just an antagonist with no redeemimg qualities) here Daffy Duck is perfectly in character and not a jerk. In this cartoon he is a detective on of his greatest roles as shown in Robert Clampett's 1946 Looney Tune: The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. The animation is great while not Chuck Jones' level of animation it is still great. The music is nice to listen to. While not the greatest cartoon of Warner Bros cartoons' 1950s library (because it isn't as good as something like "What's Opera Doc) but it is good.

Daffy Duck starring in a film-noir cartoon? I love it!

Daffy is "Duck Drake: private eye, ear, nose and throat" who narrates this crime tale, a la film noirs of the period. His takeoff on a Sam Spade or Mike Hammer-type investigator is hilarious and a good spoof of those type of crime stories.

"Drake" encounters the "inevitable amorous babe who's just crazy about us hard-boiled gumshoes" and thinks she's the killer in this murder at a rich mansion. He tries out several theories on how she killed her husband, demonstrating each and with the predictable (and humorous) results.

As with any spoof, some of the jokes on dead-on and very good, others are so bad or so corny you wince but either way this provides good entertainment and is pure 100 percent Daffy Duck. The excellent graphics don't hurt, either. Kudos to writer Tedd Pierce and director Robert McKimsom for another solid effort.

I very much enjoyed this Daffy Duck episode, for the following reasons: 1. The idea was very good, Daffy Duck can pull off a detective role very well (as you may already know even if you have not watched this particular episode). 2. The woman character was excellent, she CERTAINLY liked Daffy! 3. The way Daffy narrated the story at the beginning and then re-did the mystery in the middle and towards the end were very well done and clever. 4. The funny-walk scene is hilarious and well-animated. 5. There were many amusing points in the episode, if a tad slapsticky at times.

In this episode, Daffy stars as Duck Drake, a detective, who one day receives a call which does not interest him, until the caller posts a huge wad of cash through the phone. Daffy decides, now he has such a good fare, he will go out and investigate the mystery. He turns up at a very large merchant house, where a suspicious butler welcomes him in, with a funny walk, which Daffy imitates (and this was nearly twenty years before the Ministry of Silly Walks began!). He then meets a very over-dramatic, seductive woman duck and Daffy guesses what happened and why she is the murderer. Will he find out if she really committed the crime..? The only thing that I did not find top notch in this episode was the animation, it was not the best for Looney Tunes. Also, there is a little too much slapstick for me.

Very well worth watching, I recommend this to people who like Daffy Duck, to people who like his detective roles or who want to see them and to people who like it when Daffy is paired with a woman duck. Enjoy "The Super Snooper"! :-)