Corn on the Cop (1965)

Simply A Masterpiece

Absolutely the worst movie.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

. . . out of Precinct 72, gets shot in the face by a fleeing grocery store robber, in this not-so-funny Warner Bros. animated short from the mid-1960s. (It's an extremely jarring transition from the lush, full classic animation of the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s to the lazy, abstract backgrounds-dominated cheaply repetitive productions of the following decade.) With about eight speaking parts, including the cigar-chomping MRS. DOUBTFIRE-like transvestite cop-shooter, CORN ON THE COP is somewhat cluttered (as well as dated in its "topical" allusion to BYE BYE BIRDIE, a boring Broadway show and film of that benighted era). In the 1950s Warner may have enlivened this "Merrie Melody" with an apt snippet of music from GUYS AND DOLLS, but instead we get a Halloween farce in which Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and that great jazz score all are sadly missed. The image of a cop shot execution-style at close range is jarring even 50 years after this cartoon's initial release, especially since Wikipedia suggests that "Kill the Pigs!" was a popular campus catch-phrase during the 1960s.

A dismal Daffy & Porky short (their last together in the classic era) that takes place on Halloween. The pair are bumbling cops trying to nab a criminal who robbed a store dressed like Granny. So Daffy & Porky think Granny is the crook and Granny thinks they are trick-or-treaters up to no good. This is just the pits. It's easy to see why this is the only Looney Tunes directorial effort from Irv Spector. The short doesn't have one successful gag. The animation, while colorful, features unimpressive flat backgrounds and characters that are drawn off-model. It also has some of that awful Bill Lava music that will have you reaching for the remote to hit the mute button. As I said, this is the last short from the classic era where Daffy & Porky appear together and the last short for Porky, aside from archive footage used in Muchos Locos a year later. It's a disappointing end for what was once one of Looney Tunes' best comedy duos.

I am a big Looney Tunes fan, and I love Daffy to death. But Corn on the Cop was a disappointment. It is not completely terrible though, I liked the concept, there is the occasional amusing moment such as "hand over the bag" "you got it"(bang!) and while his characterisations are a little deeper in pitch Mel Blanc is still good and enthusiastic. On the other hand, nothing very much is funny and the cartoon takes a little too long to get started. The writing feels a little tired and the sight gags are few compared to other Looney Tunes cartoons I've seen and are rather lacklustre. The story structure feels rushed and muddled, while the animation looks flat and cheap particularly in the backgrounds and Daffy(who has his moments while not feeling like he's himself) and Porky(who is very bland here) are not that well drawn and Bill Lava's canned music is tacky and annoying, sometimes I don't mind it but when it is repetitive and doesn't do much in keeping with the tone it doesn't do much for me. All in all, quite poor and disappointing. 4/10 Bethany Cox

It's Halloween night, and a criminal dresses up as a little old lady in order to commit robberies. However when officers Duck and Pig are dispatched to arrest the `little old lady' they mistake a real little old lady they go after her - something that isn't helped by the little old lady believing they are only kids dressed as policemen.The bland, flat animation in both characters and the backgrounds betray this as one of the later Warner Brother cartoons, where the effort appears to have been allowed to slide. The plot also suffers from this as it comes across as very muddled, as if the central idea had been conceived and then they had to work out how to get to it. The problem with the plot is, as daft as it sounds, that it requires too much work to set up some pretty basic gags. It is still reasonably amusing but too much of it exists to set out other bits and the body of it is basic.The characters look basic and aren't really themselves. Daffy is my favourite character but he is just not himself here at all. Likewise Porky is really lacking anything that would make him stand out from any other nondescript cartoon creation. The rest of the cast are pretty weak too - they fill out a cartoon that really has nothing in the way of character; a shock considering the presence of two big WB stars.Overall, this is slightly amusing but it is done very much on the cheap with little love put in. The plot is not as light as it should be and it's lack of slickness takes away from the humour and `fun' that the cartoon should have. Basically - not a very good cartoon despite the odd amusing part.