A Ham in a Role (1949)

Absolutely brilliant

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Funny Goofy Gophers short where the duo are upstaged by a dog who also happens to be a Shakespearean actor. The dog is the star of Warner Bros. cartoons where he has to do "low comedy" like taking a pie in the face. Feeling this is beneath his talents, he quits and retreats to his country home to study his Shakespeare. When he arrives at his house, he finds Mac and Tosh there and promptly throws them out. They react to this in the manner you might expect. An enjoyable cartoon for sure but mostly for the hilarious dog. Mac and Tosh are fun but less talky than usual. Since most of their appeal comes from their comically polite dialogue, it's not a great thing to have them speak less. Still, the dog is funny and I get the feeling Robert McKimson (directing the Gophers for the first time) was more interested in him than in the pair.

I have always loved Mac and Tosh, the Gopher Twins. They are cute and very wicked little characters from Looney Tunes that never fail to make me laugh--though they don't appear in this film until it is almost half complete.The cartoon begins with a very snooty, Frasier Crane sort of dog who is tired of slapstick and low humor, so he leaves the Looney Tunes studio for good. His intent is to become a Shakespearian actor but unfortunately, he comes into contact with the gophers--and they make his life miserable. And, being that this dog is so full of himself and sophisticated, it's fun to watch him being taken down a few pegs by the little rodents. Well worth seeing like all the Mac and Tosh films.

If you love The Goofy Gophers, you'll like A Ham in a Role just as much. A Ham in a Role is not quite as good in my view, but it's still thoroughly enjoyable. The animation is beautifully drawn and lusciously coloured, giving the cartoon a cosy and elegant old-fashioned charm. The music has so much character and verve, and I shall always admire how the Looney Tunes cartoons are orchestrated and how the instrumentation blends. The writing is irreverent, done in a way that makes Shakespeare still sound so fresh, and the gags are similarly clever, I can't decide which is my favourite of the horseshoe magnet or Limburger gags. The characters are great fun to watch, the dog's delivery of the Shakespearean lines are priceless while the overly-polite gophers(characters that don't get anywhere near enough credit) are both endearing and funny. Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg provide sterling vocals as expected. Overall, not quite as good as The Goofy Gophers but every bit as entertaining. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Topnotch Goofy Gophers cartoon, doing what they do best: pricking the vanity of the inept, in this case, a dog who wishes to give up doing slapstick cartoons for Warner Brothers and do Shakespearian roles instead.Although this cartoon is credited to McKimson, it shows the hand of Art Davis, the most under-rated of the directors at Termite Terrace -- the hambone hound likes to wear a bow tie. Davis had his own unit, but it was folded into McKimson's in the late 1940s. A pity, as he was a much better director than McKimson. Take a look at this one and see.