Hush My Mouse

Knowing that Sniffles was usually just plain "cute", it's neat to see him have one turn as a sadist. In this case, a tavern's "speshul" is mouse "nuckles", but they ain't got none, and Eddie G. Robincat is getting hungry, see? So, brainless waiter Filligan goes in search of mice and finds Sniffles, who turns out to have a cruel streak. Even I couldn't have predicted what was going to happen! OK, so most people in the 21st century won't have a clue what "Hush My Mouse" spoofs (I sure didn't until I read IMDb's description), and there's no guarantee that people will recognize the Edward G. Robinson reference. But if we just take the cartoon at face value and luxuriate in everything that befalls the two cats running the tavern, it's very easy to enjoy the cartoon. Available on YouTube.

I suspect that had they waited five to ten years to make "Hush My Mouse", they would have portrayed Sylvester going after Speedy or Claude going after Hubie and Bertie. You can probably guess what would have happened.

Strictly a parody of Ed Gardner's long-running radio program "Duffy's Tavern." ("Tuffy's Tavern" in the cartoon.) Duffy's Tavern was a low-rent dive in Brooklyn with lousy food and horrible service but good booze. It was owned by Duffy, who never set foot in the place but did call Archie, the manager (called Artie in the cartoon,) on the telephone every few hours to check on how bad business was...and it was usually real bad. These calls were also all one-way conversations with Archie supplying all the dialogue so Duffy was also never heard on the show. Shirley Booth(the wife of Ed Gardener when the program began) played Duffy's man-chasing daughter, Miss Duffy as she was called by Archie. Other regulars included Clifton Finnegan (played by vaudevillian Charlie Canton), a highly-stupid customer who began every remark with...."Duh." (Finnegan and Cantor are long dead but the world is over-run with reincarnations of the character.) The replacement character in the cartoon was "Fillegan the Waiter" who went to the kitchen in "soich' of mouse-knuckles. Eddie Green (who later played "Stonewall the Lawyer" on "Amos and Andy" played Eddie Green the waiter on the radio program. If the IMDb ever covers radio than---actor-shares-first (and last)-name -with-character...would be a keyword. And Alan Reed played "Clancy the Cop" who dropped in to visit Archie, who was never too busy---since he also served as the bartender and business was bad---to visit with anybody. Aside from having one the best known introductions in radio----telephone ringing-and-answered with "Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin', Duffy ain't here ---oh, hello, Duffy", Ed Gardner's Archie had his own grasp of the Kings' English (Brooklyn version), which included saying "...wit good management, dis place could show a nice overhead" and getting "...da mucous of an idea"...and possessing plenty of "poi-sonal maggotism." The radio program ran from 1940 through mid-1951. Warner's reissued this cartoon in 1952.

At a tavern for cats, Archie gets a call from his boss Tuffy to say that he hasn't got any mouse knuckles for the menu. When a tough gangster cat comes in asking for mouse knuckles, the staff have no choice but to try and catch their own mouse. They pick on a little cute mouse living behind the restaurant.

This cartoon has no real characters and no real structure to it. The plot relies on one or two clever gags to move it forward and generally these don't do the business. The one clever joke is a spoof character of Edward G. Robinson who is spot on but will surely not be understood by the vast majority of young or modern viewers. The rest of the short is reasonably poorly formed without a real structure to it. The result of this is that the gags are lost somewhat and the film stumbles quite badly at times.

The Robinson spoof is very good and the two alley cat types have a bit of attitude that make it pretty enjoyable but the mouse character is weak. He is far too cute; before even a few moments had passed I was wishing that they would catch him and eating.

Overall this has a few good moments but it lacks a real structure and is poor as a result. There are too few laughs and too many bits that are just unfunny. The lack of good characters is also a problem, but the lack of good material is what hurts it most.

Chuck Jones is widely considered one of animation's finest directors/animators and for very good reason. When he was at his best, his cartoons were masterpieces of animation, comic timing, characterisation and wit.

The Sniffles cartoon series were very early efforts for Jones, and, while they are interesting from a historical perspective, it is safe to say that from personal opinion they really don't see him at his best. There is somewhat of a still finding his feet feel here, with the humour once he became a regular director for the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons becoming much funnier, more constant and wittier and the characterisation far more interesting.

Notable for being Sniffles' swansong cartoon and the only one of his twelve cartoons to be an entry in the Looney Tunes series, 'Hush My Mouse' is one of his best. There is not much wrong with it, except that Sniffles' incessant chatterbox blabber-mouthing is overdone and gets on the nerves and although Sniffles has evolved in personality his cuteness jars a little with the rest of 'Hush My Mouse's' content, which is one of his least cutesy cartoons by quite some way.

'Hush My Mouse' is a clever and very amusing cartoon, the parodying of 'Duffy's Tavern' is done in a fun and witty way and the Edward G. Robinson spoof is spot on. There is the admission though that it would help if one is familiar with the subject and content to completely get the humour. The supporting characters, particularly Robincat, make more of an impression than Sniffles. The voice acting from particularly Mel Blanc and Dave Barry is very good.

As to be anticipated, it is Jones after all, the animation is excellent. It is lush and vibrant in colour and meticulous and beautifully drawn in detail. The character designs are fluid, well drawn and distinctive Jones, if not the creative ones of his very best cartoons. Carl Stalling's music 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).

In conclusion, very nicely done but one's enjoyment is dependent on familiarity with the content and whether you like Sniffles or not. With me, the content was familiar to me, having gotten myself acquainted with it before watching the cartoon, and Sniffles when his personality became more interesting is tolerable. 8/10 Bethany Cox