Who Killed Who?

This is a hilarious little cartoon. A rich man finds out he is going to be murdered. When the event takes place (pretty much with his permission) a detective comes in to investigate. It turns out that every cliche in the world is tromped on and things are more about process than result. Tex Avery was a master of this kind of stuff. Well worth the time.

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

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.

What can you say about a cartoon featuring the vocal talents of Billy Bletcher (best known as Pegleg Pete in Disney shorts) and Richard Haydn (character actor) and spoofing everything from detective stories to Red Skelton (twice)? This kitchen-sink cartoon is just great, with the most disturbing household staff this side of Lurch and Thing. Also the best Santa Claus gag I've ever seen in a cartoon. One of the few (perhaps the only) time Tex used full animation in conjunction with live action footage, although he did do two of the "Speaking of Animals" shorts for Twentieth Century-Fox. Well worth seeing. Most highly recommended.