The Super Snooper (1952)

Purely Joyful Movie!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

. . . Warner Bros. anticipates the day when Americans can pay for services through their phones, as most of us do daily now. An anonymous caller makes two phone payments to private eye Duck Drake (portrayed by Daffy Duck)--the first for his time, the second for his expenses. The rest of this piece raises the issue of whether Daffy will become a pioneering cartoon gigolo. I did not view SUPER SNOOPERS with the benefit of an alternate commentary soundtrack, so I do not know for sure whether the wedding music concluding this Sadie Hawkins fowl affair was Warner Bros.' idea, or a finale dictated by America's Pre-Release Film Censorship Board. Frequent Looney Tunes viewers familiar with Warner's penchant for staging gay marriages among its stable of animated male stars might be surprised that Daffy is running off with (or running from) a less anachronistic female here. But if you look closely at this alleged duck chick, she may sport the head of a bird, but she's certainly drawn with the legs of a woman. Waddle your heart out, Daffy.

I very much enjoyed this Daffy Duck episode, for the following reasons: 1. The idea was very good, Daffy Duck can pull off a detective role very well (as you may already know even if you have not watched this particular episode). 2. The woman character was excellent, she CERTAINLY liked Daffy! 3. The way Daffy narrated the story at the beginning and then re-did the mystery in the middle and towards the end were very well done and clever. 4. The funny-walk scene is hilarious and well-animated. 5. There were many amusing points in the episode, if a tad slapsticky at times.In this episode, Daffy stars as Duck Drake, a detective, who one day receives a call which does not interest him, until the caller posts a huge wad of cash through the phone. Daffy decides, now he has such a good fare, he will go out and investigate the mystery. He turns up at a very large merchant house, where a suspicious butler welcomes him in, with a funny walk, which Daffy imitates (and this was nearly twenty years before the Ministry of Silly Walks began!). He then meets a very over-dramatic, seductive woman duck and Daffy guesses what happened and why she is the murderer. Will he find out if she really committed the crime..? The only thing that I did not find top notch in this episode was the animation, it was not the best for Looney Tunes. Also, there is a little too much slapstick for me.Very well worth watching, I recommend this to people who like Daffy Duck, to people who like his detective roles or who want to see them and to people who like it when Daffy is paired with a woman duck. Enjoy "The Super Snooper"! :-)

As the Termite Terrace crowd loved to spoof everything in popular culture, it should as no surprise that they took a swipe at 1940s detective movies. Robert McKimson's "The Super Snooper" casts Daffy Duck as Duck Drake, a Sam Spade-style private eye, nose, ears and mouth. One day, this hard-boiled gumshoe gets a call telling him that there's been a murder in a local mansion. So, he goes there and finds the sexiest female duck of all, whom he immediately suspects of the murder. So, he tries to recreate the crime, always making the hot babe cooperate...but it results to his detriment! While Chuck Jones famously cast Daffy in the kinds of roles deliberately not suited to him ("The Scarlet Pumpernickel", "Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century", "Robin Hood Daffy"), Robert McKimson clearly also had an eye for this. We see here Daffy in exaggerated form: he's so convinced of his own rectitude that he goes to any length to prove it, no matter what happens...and then we get a big surprise at the end! And besides, THAT IS ONE HOT BABE!!!!!!! A cross between Veronica Lake, Grace Kelly and Barbara Eden, if you will.Anyway, I gotta disagree with a reviewer who in another review said that Warner Bros. should have closed Robert McKimson's animation unit and left Arthur Davis's unit open. McKimson really directed some impressive work (though Davis also directed some good ones). This is certainly a funny one.

Daffy Duck starring in a film-noir cartoon? I love it!Daffy is "Duck Drake: private eye, ear, nose and throat" who narrates this crime tale, a la film noirs of the period. His takeoff on a Sam Spade or Mike Hammer-type investigator is hilarious and a good spoof of those type of crime stories."Drake" encounters the "inevitable amorous babe who's just crazy about us hard-boiled gumshoes" and thinks she's the killer in this murder at a rich mansion. He tries out several theories on how she killed her husband, demonstrating each and with the predictable (and humorous) results.As with any spoof, some of the jokes on dead-on and very good, others are so bad or so corny you wince but either way this provides good entertainment and is pure 100 percent Daffy Duck. The excellent graphics don't hurt, either. Kudos to writer Tedd Pierce and director Robert McKimsom for another solid effort.