Acme Hour - 11/9/01

[Jon Cooke]

"Early to Bet"
"Punch Trunk"
"It's Hummertime"
"Fagin's Freshman"
"Fresh Fish"
"The Foxy Duckling"


-Jon

[DR. BELCH]

Two shorts featuring the McKimson Cat...and Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse". I was trying to figure out what the name of that tune was--the one that is heard while the dog sets the cat up for his devious Rube Goldberg-ish torures--and it came to me today while I was out walking. Several other posters have asked about it previously, in fact, and it seemed to be a Stalling favorite. Stone liked it too; it shows up in Animaniacs in a couple of the Warners' silent "early thirties" shorts.

"Punch Truck" is fairly amusing, but it feels unfinished somehow...it's just a string of people seeing a tiny elephant and thinking they've cracked up (my favorite being the drunk: "You're late!"). But there's no real ending or explantion to why an adult elephant is only five inches high. Very odd, but I guess that was Jones' intent...subtlety and surrealism....