#abe levitow

Martian Through Georgia

Ah, the Looney Tunes franchise: an absolute goldmine of character interaction material. Between Bugs and Daffy, Sylvester and Tweety, or the Roadrunner and Wile .E Coyote, there's pretty much a guaranteed laugh going in. So what happens when the less iconic but still enjoyable duo of Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat decide to spend the night during a trip? Unfortunately for poor Sylvester, the place of choosing is ghost town; the delapidated hotel called the Dry Gulch being hardly an inviting place with it's rundown appearance and creepy decor. But worse of all, for some reason, everything seems to want to kill them.

And of course Porky is oblivious to it all to his feline companion's chagrin.

Directed by Chuck Jones, this classic Merry Melodies short is the second entry in the "horror vacation" trilogy (the others being Scaredy Cat and Jumping Jupiter). And what an enjoyable spoof of the haunted hause archetype this is, with fairly imaginative imagery for the time that I have no doubt inspired some actual horror and horror comedies down the line because of how frightening it may be in a context where it's not played to make a nervous wreck out of poor Sylvester. Seriously, those mice behind the attacks look downright demonic in some shots.

There is some language from Porky that has aged like absolute milk regarding mental conditions, and typical for the shorts of this time some gags are a little too morbid for some modern audiences if thought as a children's cartoon. But man, the balance act between the strangely creepy imagery and Sylvester's failures in trying to convince the VERY foolish Porky about it makes it ideal for the season. Then again, the past short had basically the same premise. So...

Halloween Short film of the Day, part 2: Scaredy Cat (1948)

Yep, let's cover the two of them. I went for Claws for alarm first because it's a vivid memory of mine, but it's hard to not compare the two and even agree with many that find this to be the superior one. So let's get into it.

Sylvester and Porky end up in a creepy locale to spend the night. Though in this case, it's their new home: a creepy old mansion, where strange things start to happen when Sylvester spots what looks to be a cult of murderous mice. And as expected, Porky is none the wiser, treating the poor cat as if he was imagining things. At least until he's the one on the chopping block and it's the feline's turn to save the day.

Like I've mentioned already, it's not remotely hard to see how this is often the favorite among the two. Not only is it the original story of Sylvester being, well, a scaredy cat in a dangerous Halloween context, but less of the short has aged poorly and the comedic aspect is front and center (even if some gags once again venture into a truly morbid level of dark comedy). The production values are also higher, with more detailed backgrounds and complex animation, as the UPA inspired artwork of Claws for Alarm, while driving a more intensely creepy atmosphere, also looks quite flat by comparison. And while one has a rather creepy ending, the other is just a funny slapstick punchilne.

Honestly, it's easy to argue rereleases patching the two shorts together into a longer whole had something going, but both are quite an enjoyable ride if a short one.