Who Killed Who?

Here's one of Tex Avery's masterpieces for MGM. He starts out by burlesquing Metro's CRIME DOES NOT PAY series openers, then continues with every Old Dark House cliche, complete with organ music and his habit of breaking through the screen, both to comment on the goings on, and to make sure no one leaves the scene of the crime, even an audience member headed to other places.

With both Heck Allen and Rich Hogan providing gags, how could it not be a classic? Although the risque jokes are rarer here, Avery makes it clear that these are not cartoons meant for the well-behaved children that bedeviled the early years of the Production Code. I sometimes wonder how he got away with them, but probably the Hays Office didn't think cartoons were worth keeping an eye on.