Dîner de monstres

"Peter Lorre" playing an "evil scientist" (that's what it says in neon lights on his hilltop castle!) who has invented a mechanical "rabbit lure" sets out the diabolical hare on Bugs Bunny. The mechanical lure - a beautiful female - quickly lures Bugs to the castle. Bugs grabs her, kisses her madly on the hand and arm, and the machine literally starts spinning and falls apart.

"That's the trouble with some dames," says Bugs. "Kiss them and they fly apart."

Bugs attempts to leave but the scientist won't let him and wants to introduce him to his other "friend." Bugs tries to escape but can't, and then this big furry monster comes out and chases our hero all over the castle. They stop here and there as Bugs pretends to be a lampshade, pretends to be a manicurist (and does the monster's nails with a hilarious impression of a manicurist), pretends to be a painting on the wall and assorted other bizarre things....all making it a very entertaining cartoon.

The ending of this was really clever with Bugs talking to the audience in the movie theater!

Chuck Jones's 'Hair-Raising Hare' pits Bugs Bunny against a genuinely disturbing Peter Lorre scientist caricature and his huge orange monster. The monster (later named Gossamer and also featured in Jones' luscious sequel to this short, 'Water, Water Every Hare' under the name Rudolph) is an extremely memorable villain who, despite his size, never poses much real threat to Bugs once he turns on his heckling. Although it is not as visually luscious as 'Water, Water Every Hare', Tedd Pierce has turned in a great script which includes some viciously amusing eye-poking, a priceless scene involving a suit of armour and the best "What's up, Doc" joke you'll ever hear. Bugs' wisecracks are top drawer ("Don't go up there, it's dark") and the high energy level is kept up throughout. It's also the only cartoon in which you'll get to hear Gossamer speak. All in all, then, 'Hair-Raising Hare' is a blast and makes a cracking double bill with its less gag-driven sequel.

Bugs Bunny thinks he's being watched. Is the bunny getting paranoid in his old age? Nope, because as we see, someone IS watching him, an Evil Scientist. The scientist uses a robotic female rabbit to lure Bugs into his castle. Once there the robot self-destructs as Bugs kisses it. Then the evil scientist lets Gossamer, the hair monster to catch the wasscily rabbit. That's when the fun starts. For some reason this short didn't tickle my fancy as much as others that I've seen with Gossamer in them. Not to say this one isn't worth seeing, as it most definitely is.This cartoon is on Disk 3 of the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1" It also has an optional commentary

My Grade: B

No need to tell you the plot, others have done that wonderfully, but I should mention that this was made at the beginning of the Cold War, and Bugs was (and is) the perfect realization of every American- saucy, inventive, alone, and a little bit selfish- so watching him deal with the Peter Lorre character is great fun. Animated with such pizazz and humor that you'll be astonished, Chuck Jones is indeed a treasure and a joy. One of the best Bugs Bunny's ever made!.

The most astonishing and visually audacious of the early Bugs Bunnies, a Chuck Jones masterpiece, that uses the cheap target of the Universal horror movie, long since wallowing in parody, to create some extraordinary effects. The tale is the usual - Bugs being chased by a relentless predator; but is given added piquancy by the horror setting. Bugs is often at the root of his own troubles, whether by arrogant egocentricity, disarming androgyny or slippery playfulness goading the less gifted into violence; but in this case it is Bugs' lust that does him in, as he is led to a castle, with 'Evil Scientist' blaring in neon over its portals, by a beautiful mechanical doll, unsurprisingly, considering our hero's narcissism, very similar to himself (what do you mean all rabbits look the same?!). This mixture of the erotic and the machine prefigures Ballard and Cronenburg, of course, but also reaches back to modern horror's roots, the perverse tales of E.T.A. Hoffman.

The evil scientist, supposedly a take on Peter Lorre, lures Bugs as pet-food for his fearsome monster, who turns out to be a rather cute carpet beast, a dim-witted giant Bugs makes rather heavy weather of. The variations on the chase are vertiginously invigorating, Jones' art is at the zenith of its inventiveness, mocking the horror genre, yet managing to evoke its resonances and themes. In possibly the greatest sequence in Warners animation, the Monster chases Bugs and sees the long hall he occupies reflected the mirror. He also sees himself - his reflection is horrified by him, and runs away out the reflected hall door. This sequence is, er, mirrored, by a later scene, when Bugs, about to be eaten, reveals the watching audience to the Monster, who, exposed, flees through the never-ending castle walls in shame and terror.

This theme of the doppelganger, the shameful double that usually represents all the dark side of our natures we have repressed, is also brilliantly represented in the short's treatment of surveillance. Our first image is of Bugs emerging from his hole, so powerful that the entire forest is his bedroom. and yet he is afraid that he is being watched. Suddenly, he is framed by a screen, which startles the audience (well, me anyway) into a guilty realisation of what it is doing; when the screen belongs to the evil scientist, and the audience is linked to his madman who seeks to murder Bugs, the act of looking, spying, is linked to death - Bugs is in danger as long as he is trapped in the frame, as long as he is being watched. Freedom only is possible when he leaves, and the short is over; but this is a kind of death anyway, as Bugs is a cartoon character who only exists in a cartoon. (Do I need to mention McCarthy?)

The dark colours are beautiful; the playing with perspectives ingenious; and the excuse for a 'What's Up Doc?' is as ingenious as Hitchcock's cameo in 'Lifeboat'.