Instant Favorite.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

. . . without wearing any pants in MEET JOHN DOUGHBOY?! This can hardly be considered respectful of any military tradition (since at least the time of Mel Gibson in BRAVEHEART). And since when can coastal artillery shoot "10 million shells a second"? The weight of that many shells in the same spot all at once likely would collapse any ocean overlook into the sea. Further, how accurate could targeting be at that rate of fire? And how would the artillery men know if the first five million shells utterly destroyed the target(s), allowing them to reserve the other half of their per-second ammo supply for later threats, reaction times being what they are? On the other hand, robotizing the Statue of Liberty to spray incoming enemy planes with bug bomb is such an ahead-of-its-time idea, it even may have helped Tom Cruise as #49 save his own bacon in OBLIVION so that #52 would not waltz in and steal his woman. The racist Jack Benny bit with some sort of CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG flivver as a secret weapon is less a question mark than just a wrong-headed and now archaic allusion.

Meet John Doughboy (1941) *** (out of 4) This is a rather interesting Merrie Melodies short and starts off in a theater as Porky Pig introduces the "film" that's about to play. The film is basically showing what all happens in the Army and other services and you have to give it credit that nothing like this would be attempted today. We see countless jokes aimed at a variety of topics including a British "spitfire" plane that actually spits fire. Another joke deals with the draft where a man thinks he's too small to get in the service and then we get the payoff. There's even jokes about "Citizen Sugar Kane" and we are asked what would happen if America ever got invaded. That last joke certainly looks a lot different when viewed today. This B&W short runs just 7-minutes but there's not a slow moment to be found. Not all of the jokes work but when viewed today you can't help but get a surreal feel from it and especially when you consider what was coming up just a few months after this thing would have originally been seen. The animation is the usual high standards.

This comes on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of The Maltese Falcon, as part of its Warner Night at the Movies portion. I'm not sure seeing this before an escapist film(an excellent one, don't get me wrong) was a great thing... I would think being reminded of the situation right right before the opening credits of the picture would keep you from enjoying it. Anyway, this has Looney Tunes' Porky Pig(who looks almost like we know him to) presenting updates and such on the war, apparently not very long before the US entered it. How to deal with something that serious and unpleasant? Turn it into a bunch of gags, most of them visual. I gotta admit, however, that they are very funny. There's a bit of black comedy among it, and not everyone would find this entire thing to be in good taste. This has a spoof of a commercial from back then. Honestly, I was surprised they used a Napoleon quote, I wouldn't think they'd follow anything of his. There is some recognizable music used. The animation is well-done, with effective use of lighting and angles. This is entirely worth the 7 minute investment of time. There is disturbing content and a little racism in this. I recommend this to anyone who can imagine laughing at this. 7/10

As usual for Bob Clampett in this period, another fine comedy newsreel with an armed forces theme -- with the war going on in Europe and a draft in this country, it was a natural theme and the beginning of the flag waving period. The credited writer is Dave Monahan, the best of Termite Terrace's writers for 'fake newsreel' cartoons and the jokes have not aged badly.Clampett was one of the two geniuses directing at Schlesinger's cartoon factory in this period -- Chuck Jones' peak period would start next year and Friz Freleng, although rarely a groundbreaker, just turned out excellent cartoons. But Clampett and Tex Avery were madcaps, Avery slightly better at gag construction but Clampett for his speedy and outrageous animation Don't miss ANY chance to see any of his cartoons.