Who Killed Who?

This was brilliant animated short filled with classic Tex Avery jokes. The story has a detective investigating a murder in an old house. But the detective finds everything from ghosts to Santa Clause in the house. This was pure genius and exactly what I expected from Tex Avery.

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.

This is an animated recreation of a crime. It happened in a dark and stormy night. An old dog gets murdered and the bulldog detective arrives to investigate.

This is a spoof of a whodunnit murder mystery. It does everything with a nudge and a wink. It's a Tex Avery MGM cartoon. When the ghost shows up, I was hoping for a Scooby Doo ending. The only issue with that is I don't know the guy at the reveal. If only they could get Red Skelton, he could reconnect with that other joke. This short is stuffed with one joke after another. Most of them are pretty good. I don't know this detective character. I imagine Droopy would be more perfect in the role.

This is one of two shorts from 1943 that were included as special features on the DVD for "Presenting Lily Mars". Fortunately, many classic MGM films include a few such shorts--and in this case it's an MGM short from Tex Avery--and it doesn't usually get much better than that.

This cartoon is like a cheesy radio murder mystery in cartoon form. Billy Bletcher (with a wonderful gravely voice) and Richard Hyden are the two main voices--but Avery himself provides one of the voices as well (he's unbilled but plays Santa). While the humor isn't among Avery's best, it has a lot of the usual goofy touches--enough to make it worth seeing--even the bad jokes (like the Red Skeleton one).

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. Tex Avery's 'Who Killed Who' may sound like another one of the many murder mystery in a creepy house endeavours in animation or in film in general, but manages to be much more than that. It has all the murder mystery tropes, the creepy setting, the horror feel, the suspense, the mystery, the suspicious-inducing suspects, but explores it in a way that's imaginative and hilarious at the same time.

Not many cartoon cartoons manage to be hilarious, creepy and imaginative, 'Who Killed Who' does and is one of the greatest ever examples. To me, it's one of Avery's greatest too, though he was a master director who was responsible for so many very good to classic cartoons and even his weaker efforts would induce the envy of any animation directors at their worst.

All the characters are entertaining and induce the right amount of suspicion. The voice acting is in true bravura-style particularly from Billy Bletcher. The narration sets up the ominous tone to perfection, and the live action is blended ingeniously, the two being blended several times in film/cartoon history to variable effect. For every 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' there's also the likes of 'Rock a Doodle'.

Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.

On top of the creepy tone and murder mystery story, there are still the classic Avery jokes and sight gags with witty dialogue and the characteristic wildness. Everything is timed immaculately and the ending is a knockout.

It is no surprise either that the animation is superb, being rich in colour and detail. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Altogether, an animated who-dunnit that is an example to all. 10/10 Bethany Cox