Perfectly adorable

Crappy film

An absolute waste of money

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

. . . he may have realized that his text would require a few footnotes after five or six centuries, school funding cutbacks being what they were and all. But that really doesn't excuse the Warner Brothers for producing so many "Merrie Melodies" and "Loonie Tunes" that are virtually incomprehensible without explanatory pop-up bubbles five or six DECADES later. The Merrie Melodie entitled THUGS WITH DIRTY MUGS is a case in point. The "Killer Diller" character bogs down the flow of this crime story to do an impersonation of someone named "Fred Allen." No matter how funny this may have been when there were people alive for whom Mr. Allen was a living memory, how did the Brothers not realize that this would not stand up to the test of time, UNLESS folks of the future were as diligent as Shakespeare's groupies in constantly updating the increasingly arcane topical references embedded for little reason into otherwise simple animated shorts? Just goes to show what happens when you try to create "art" to shill your sheet music library!

Directed by Tex Avery, "Thugs with Dirty Mugs" is an excellent cartoon parody of film noir. Plenty of sight gags and laughter abound as the vicious gangster "Killer Diller" (a bulldog caricature of Edward G. Robinson) and his mob become involved in a bank crime wave. Only the meekest little character can assist police dog "Flat-Foot Flanigan with a Floy Floy" (the name being a takeoff of a popular song) in cracking the case.Here are my favorite sequences from "Thugs with Dirty Mugs" (don't read on if you haven't yet seen this cartoon). Characteristic of director Tex Avery, Killer Diller and his gang angrily acknowledge a meek little man (wonderfully voiced by Mel Blanc) in the "theatre" audience, and Flanigan literally breaks through the split line separating himself and a secret agent while they converse by telephone. I also love how Killer sticks up a telephone and utilizes the Worst National Bank as a pinball machine. Not to mention the hilarious "Take that, you rat!" scene, as well as the scoring of the popular song "Jeepers Creepers" in a minor key while the gang robs the Worst National Bank and then rubs out the numerical figure on the bank assets sign."Thugs with Dirty Mugs" is a terrific cartoon that can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3 Disc 2, with an insightful commentary by contemporary animation director Greg Ford.

If you've seen any of Tex Avery's cartoons, then you should know what sorts of things to expect in the gangster spoof "Thugs with Dirty Mugs". Specifically, canine criminal Ed G. Robemsome - who admits to resembling Eddie Robinson, and then impersonates Fred Allen - and his men rob the First National Bank...then the Second National Bank, then the 3rd, 4th, etc., all the way up to 112th (but they skip the 13th, as Ed is one superstitious gangster). All the while, the police chief is wondering how to capture these bandits, knowing full well that he has to pin it on 'em (and you know to whom I refer). But then comes the big scene: even after the police chief couldn't make the best use of a split screen, a silhouette from the audience tells all (which a teller in an earlier scene couldn't do).So basically, it's what a 1930s gangster flick would be if it starred Leslie Nielsen. I almost never stopped laughing. It just goes to show that there will never be a cartoon genre like this one, and that Tex Avery was truly one of a kind. And above all, if you work in the Worst National Bank, just be careful.

This old-school Warner Brothers cartoon spoofs gangster films. Yes there are some Edward G. Robinson jokes, police gags, and movie theatre jokes. Television was not there at that time. As Charleton Heston says in THE OMEGA MAN, "They don't make pictures the way they used to". Someday when I graduate from college, I'm going to make a not for kids cartoon about gangstas and a hellzapoppin of spoofs that is kind of like, LITTLE CEASER meets SOUTH PARK, meets THE FAMILY GUY, meets SCOOBY-DOO,but more updated and mature.