At Your Service Madame (1936) User Reviews

The conning of pigs

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 20 May 2018]

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.

'At Your Service Madame' is not one of Friz Freleng's best cartoons by any stretch, in an uneven "still evolving" period of his long career, and he was yet to be in his full prime and not yet found his style properly. For a relatively early effort, 'At Your Service Madame' is solid and above average but not a Freleng classic, he would do much better later. It is never what one would call hilarious (but is never unfunny), Freleng's later efforts show more evenness and confidence in directing and the story is flimsy and fairly tame up to the end.

It starts off slightly bland and with not the same amount of energy there would be later.

However, the characters are fun, especially WC Squeals, as said a caricature of WC Fields. The mother and piglets are appealing if not as juicy. The conflict carries 'At Your Service Madame' and does so extremely well.

The cartoon is amusing more often than not, goes at a lively pace and the end is deliciously wild.

Animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading, vibrant in colour and very meticulous in detail. Norman Spencer's music lovely on the ears, lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action if not quite enhancing it.

Voice acting from Tedd Pierce is terrific.

Overall, good cartoon if not a Freleng classic. 7/10 Bethany Cox

An Evening With W.C. Squeals

[Vimacone · 7/10 · 16 March 2018]

By late 1936, most of the key players had arrived at the Schlesinger studio, yet that greatness wouldn't be seen in full glory until the early 1937 releases.

The premise of this short could have almost been a lackluster Disney-esque copy with the Hamhock family. It starts off that way, but things get better when we see W.C. Squeals, a caricature of comedian W.C. Fields. He's what makes this short one of the more remarkable releases of 1936. Here he's a con man attempting to woo the mother of the piglets, in order to make off with their inherited fortune. The black sheep Piggy catches on and he devises a plot to foil the scheme.

This short is definitely a step in the direction that the studio was headed. The Hamhock family would make one more appearance in the more well known PIGS IS PIGS (1937). W.C. Squeals would make two additional appearances in THE COO COO NUT GROVE (1936) and CRACKED ICE (1938). Bob McKimson did some solid personality animation on Squeals in all three of his appearances. I wonder how Fields felt about being caricatured as a pig.

never give a pig an even break

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 24 July 2007]

Back when the Looney Tunes were still in their relative infancy (Porky Pig was their main star, while Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and the rest had not yet gotten created), they made this low-key cartoon about a widow inheriting a lot of money, thereby attracting the attention of a swindler who looks very much like W.C. Fields. But her children are onto the guy.

This is a very early cartoon, so while there are some wacky scenes - namely the whole end sequence - you'll be mightily disappointed if you expect any of the sorts of things that became the staple of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons of the '40s and '50s. But it's still worth seeing, if only once. Available on YouTube.

"Good morning, my little chickadee."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 4 August 2016]

Friz Freleng Merrie Melodies short about Mrs. Hamhock, a pig widow with a house full of precocious little piglets. A con man (that looks and talks like W.C. Fields) tries to woo her for money she just inherited. Mrs. Hamhock must have had a loveless marriage as she seems very eager to get with this new guy before her husband is cold in the ground. Anyway her piglets see right through the con artist and do their best to sabotage the courtship. The animation is nice and colorful. Nothing compared to Disney at the time but not too shabby. The music is very quaint and nice. You could just imagine people sitting around their parlor eighty years ago listening to this sort of music. It's a cute cartoon, as was the style of the time. Not particularly funny or noteworthy, just cute. The W.C. Fields character is amusing and the little piglets running around doing their thing is adorable as all get out. Worth a look if you're a fan of the period but don't expect a classic.

As the Looney Tuners' predictions for the future of 2017 America . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 4 March 2017]

. . . continue to be confirmed on a near-hourly basis, film archivists have been desperately searching The Canon to find the exit protocol for the 40 Million U.S. traitors responsible for turning America over to Red Commie KGB chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin and his puppets in the Odoriferous Rump\Scents Administration that Warner Bros.' unparalleled prophetic prognosticators have surely predicted at least once (since it's obvious to all that it's not enough to simply ban the Rich People's Party forever, outlaw Corrupt Job-Killing Corporate Capitalism, Repeal and Replace the outdated and Racist 18th Century "Suicide Pact" Constitution at a perfectly legal Constitutional Convention, Declare Martial Law, confiscate all the guns & property & other assets of the Deplorable 40 Million--and THEN let them hunker down in place, plotting their Leninist Revenge). AT YOUR SERVICE MADAME provides this long-sought answer, as it shows the Rump-like con artist W.C. Squeals stealing all the assets of the widow Mrs. Hamhock, in the exact fashion that Putin's Billionaire Party is currently looting the U.S. Treasury. Through a combination of strip-searching, strategically-placed Tasers, and Extreme Vetting, Mrs. Hamhock's countless children--representing We True Blue Normal Union Card-Carrying Patriotic Average Honest American Majority--divest Master Squeals of his ill-gotten gains and send him packing North to Canada for a Seven-Generation Cooling Off Period. Because We the Real Americans number few if any perverts among us, the 40 Millions soon "moving on up" can be allowed to exit in taxpayer-provided orange jumpsuits (or orange diapers, for the young and incontinent oldsters). This will be preceded by full body-cavity searches, X-rays, and total removal of ALL body hair--as shown in the film THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN--since these Deplorables have been known to smuggle gems in diapers and even replace their bones with WOLVERINE-like skeletons of Precious Metals, given their insatiable greed for wealth. Many of the finer points of this process are illustrated by Warner's Looney Tuners during AT YOUR SERVICE MADAME.