A gimmick that Warner Brothers animators used quite often was the idea that characters/images come to life after business hours off of magazine covers, books or even grocery store labels and boxes. Quite often, they used caricatures of celebrities who would have been well-known to audiences in those days and they did so here, though not every character in this one is a caricature. I can't swear to it, but I suspect that all of the magazine titles featured in this one actually existed. I recognized most of them as having been magazines available on newsstands and elsewhere. The rest of my comments may contain spoilers, so you have been warned: The plot is pretty basic and predictable. What makes this cartoon interesting is the juxtaposition of titles to make up gags, like a crook coming out of "The Gang" and passing "Popular Mechanics" to grab a torch and having "Wall Street" close by, with a safe on the cover to crack. Charlie Chan captures him, he's tried by the "Judge" and sentenced to "Life", but manages to sneak over to "Liberty" in order to make his escape. Things like that come together frequently.
A lot of the standard caricatures are here (including Ned Sparks-it must have been a requirement to have Ned Sparks appear somewhere in one of these, as he's in most of the ones I've seen) and you'll be treated to the likes of Leopold Stowkowski, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Hugh Herbert and others. William Powell is here as Nick Charles from "The Thin Man", along with his dog Asta. Everyone from the Boy Scouts to Santa Claus joins in on the chase when the villain escapes. How he is caught is hilarious and I won't spoil that gag. There's a cute ending involving Hugh Herbert as well.
This short is on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 3 and is well worth getting. The Collections themselves are extremely well done and worth every penny. Recommended.
A lot of the standard caricatures are here (including Ned Sparks-it must have been a requirement to have Ned Sparks appear somewhere in one of these, as he's in most of the ones I've seen) and you'll be treated to the likes of Leopold Stowkowski, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Hugh Herbert and others. William Powell is here as Nick Charles from "The Thin Man", along with his dog Asta. Everyone from the Boy Scouts to Santa Claus joins in on the chase when the villain escapes. How he is caught is hilarious and I won't spoil that gag. There's a cute ending involving Hugh Herbert as well.
This short is on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 3 and is well worth getting. The Collections themselves are extremely well done and worth every penny. Recommended.