WHO KILLED WHO? - Tex Avery (1943)

Some cartoons attempt to have some semblance of a story and others are nothing but a series of gags! "Who Killed Who?" is without a doubt, the latter!

The funniest thing about old cartoons is that they took them very seriously, as least as far as looks were concerned, and the artwork like this title card is generally very stunning!

The uncredited host and narrator is Robert Emmet O'Connor who just might possibly be the most uncredited actor in film history! Looks to me that in over half of the 213 films and shorts he was uncredited usually as a detective, a police sergeant, a judge, a sheriff, a riverboat captain, a prison warden, an immigration officer, a bartender, a secret service man, a cab driver, a magistrate, a game warden, a train conductor, a stage manager, a watchman, a baggage attendant, a motorman, a station attendant, a doorman, and/or a drunk! Look at that mug, movies would be nothing without this kind of super regular guy! Here's Robert's explanation of what "Who Killed Who?" is all about!

A dark and stormy night!

Here's the victim! That's about all you need to know! 

The rest is Gag City!

Some gags don't work unless you're really olde or you are a student of the past!

This is a "BooooLova" cuckoo clock! "Bulova" was a major watchmaker of the day!

This is a very large pistol!

When the Detective shows up to investigate the shooting, he tells everybody "Don't move!"  When a member of the audience gets up to get popcorn or go to the restroom, the Detective smacks him in the head!

For some reason, the hired help are the main suspects!

This is what the Detective gets when he asks them if they have any weapons!

While looking for clues, the Detective sees this picture on the wall, but quickly dismisses it! He then goes back to have another look, but the young lady has disappointingly closed her jacket!

This ghost comes unfurled after seeing a live mouse!

Another olde gag! Introducing Red Skeleton! 

(Red Skelton was a very popular comedian of the time!

Looking for clues in all the wrong places, of course!

They thought this gag was funny enough that they used it on the poster! A "Do Not Open Till Christmas" door reveals a hostile Santa Claus that promptly bops the Detective on the head!

It all wraps up with this diabolical hooded henchman!

He would have shot the Detective, but his gun is on empty!

The Detective goes to great lengths to deceive the henchman!

Finally the moment we've all been waiting for! Who is this evil masked man?

Well, what do you know about that! It was the host Robert Emmet O'Connor all along! No wonder he was uncredited so often! He obviously had some things to hide! Robert died in 1962, so I guess enough time has passed that the truth about his sordid past can now be revealed!

CREATURE / Trans World Entertainment - 1985

Today we go into outer space and find Dungeon Heavyweight Klaus Kinski there! Although, Klaus seems a little misplaced in an ALIEN ripoff. The story is about a crew of scientists that arrive on a moon of Saturn to examine ancient artifacts of unknown origin and discover that some Germans already have a ship there.

Sit on it, Potsie!!.. This dude sits on a cracked pod with a mean old alien monster inside!

I've got a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our alien in a pod, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a sample from... CREATURE!

Here's our crew as they prepare to land on the moon, not realizing the all fun they're in for.

Of course, they have to go down through the ALIEN rabbit hole to find the hidden horrors.

Guess who's been creeping around in the background?!.. Looks like this was a perk for getting Klaus to break character and appear in this spaced out gore fest.

Here, Klaus explains to the unsuspecting crew what they are about to step right in. You can hear him talk about it in the sound clip...

It's nothing less than a house of horrors when the humans start being infected by the CREATURE!

Like in the original THE THING, they try and destroy the monster with this hi-tech electro dealie-bob! It doesn't woik!

We get some good shots of the thing at the end. Believe it or not, this guy survives this gruesome ordeal, because...

His girlfriend comes in and blows the Hell out of the CREATURE!!.. We're back tomorrow with more cool junk from The Dungeon Gang...

VENTRILOQUIST CAT - Tex Avery (1950)

Got a busy week, so it's back to Cartoonland we go, and a visit with our old pal Tex! After all, how cool do you have to be to be named Tex? Musically, it's a no brainer with Tex (Froggy Went A Courtin') Ritter, Tex (Smoke, Smoke, Smoke) Williams, Tex (Glenn Miller) Beneke, but in the real world, the convicted killer Tex (Manson Family) Watson kind of stinks up the whole Tex mystique a bit!

"Ventriloquist Cat" is like a lot of other cartoons, whereas it is basically nothing but a series of gags strung together! Here's a condensed one minute sound sample for you!

Cartoons with these kind of themes are no longer acceptable in modern politically correct society!

And hate speech is not acceptable behaviour!

The dastardly mean cat finds just the right combination of garbage!

And pastes it right onto the dog's mug!

The cat hides in a crate that is full of fireworks and other things like........

.....A  "Be A Ventriloquist" kit!

I swear this was the same ad that used to be on the back cover of comic books!

SO the cat puts it to good use! He throws his voice everywhere, and what does the dog find each and every time?

A giant firecracker, what else?

That was the cool thing about cartoons in the 50's, you could get your whole face blown off and it didn't hurt much and you didn't die! Better times for sure!

This is what Tex Avery thought your face would look like after looking into a drain where there was a giant firecracker getting ready to explode!

The dog has had enough and decides to go another route!

The attached tail really makes the ensemble complete!

The cat falls for it, of course!

But when the truth be known.........

I can't ever get enough of the way they used to illustrate what it looked like to be scared! Those were two great examples!

The Doors of Perception are now closed! "This is The End my friends!"