Sunday, July 15, 2007

"A Hick, A Slick And A Chick"


Art Davis directed a handful of great shorts from 1946 to 1949 after taking the director's spot vacated when Bob Clampett left Warners. He had a great unit, with Emery Hawkins and Bill Melendez animating for him. I also love Art's animation too, particularly in Frank Tashlin's cartoons. Here's "A Hick, a slick and a chick" from 1948 and a model sheet of Elmo. It would be nice to see an Art Davis only disc on one of the Golden Collections sets. Enjoy! (especially you, Severin)


at

15 comments:

  1. Michael J. Ruocco7/15/2007 11:19 PM

    I never saw this cartoon before. Pretty funny!

    I have to admit, Art Davis is a pretty underrated WB director. It's a shame he never got the kind of credit the other directors got.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kevin Langley7/15/2007 11:30 PM

    Yeah I guess since most of the other directors held their positions a lot longer than he did he kind of gets forgotten. I think only 2 of his shorts have shown up on the DVD sets. That's a shame.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kasey7/16/2007 12:50 AM

    Thanks a Bunch! As usual, its a great one. Now I just gotta keep searching for Mouse Menace. By the way, the quality of that vid is great! Its Golden Collection quality!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Duck Dodgers7/16/2007 3:56 AM

    Hi Kevin,
    I don't think it would be good to have an entire disc dvoted to Davis because he directed a limited number of cartoons compared to Jones', Freleng's and the other ones'.
    Putting 15 Davis in one disc would mean few, few ones left for future collection.....
    I suspect that they could maybe do a Davis/McKimson disc. They did something of the kind for the GAOLT sets.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kevin Langley7/16/2007 9:37 AM

    You're welcome Severin.

    Dodgers- Yeah you're right, that would basically leave nothing for any other sets. I'd be perfectly happy with Davis/McKimson disc. Though he has been for the most part ignored so far.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7/16/2007 4:31 PM

    Is that Sylvester in that cartoon? That cat looks alot like him to me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Paul F. Etcheverry7/17/2007 2:38 AM

    I think my favorite of all the cartoons Davis directed is MEXICAN JOY RIDE, a brilliantly funny one with Daffy Duck.

    If you get a chance, check out the Columbia Color Rhapsody cartoon THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, just one of many completely unknown gems Davis worked on. The animation of the ostrich is amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous7/17/2007 1:14 PM

    Artie deserves way more study and respect than he gets.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kasey7/17/2007 11:15 PM

    Don't mean to sound spoiled, but do you have a copy of Doggone Cats? The copy I have has been stubborn lately.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Kevin Langley7/17/2007 11:24 PM

    Thanks for the heads up Paul, I'll be sure and check it out.

    You're absolutely right Jorge, both as an animator and director.

    do you have a copy of Doggone Cats?
    I've got that one. I'll post it too if you like.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kasey7/17/2007 11:54 PM

    That would be great! The copy I have has'nt worked in weeks

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous8/01/2007 4:38 PM

    Had trouble posting it,but this is bar none one of my alltime favorite WB shorts, along with Freleng's "From Hare to Heir" (one of the waning years few good shorts.) Stan Freberg and Mel Blanc did the Hick , Mel Blanc the Slick, Bea Benadaret the Chick, (Bea and Stan worked with Jones on the Three Bears at this time and a few others like Friz's "Snow Business,Blanc and Freberg or Harry E.Lang,as that cat. (Blanc did the "drunken" and a few other lines for "Elmo" and Freberg, or Lang, as the Durante character voice.,)

    This was one of the last pre-1948 Warner shorts, but only the style of the staff credits (very similair to Friz's "Hare Do", which, in Technicolor, came out much later despite being made at about the same time, while "Hick,Slick,CHick" is Cinecolor, Art's own "Riff Raffy Daffy", etc.in the credit fonts.*)

    *"Hare Do" is PROD #1068, "Hick,.."PROD #1073.:))

    Steve Carras@gcarras@aol.com
    (I am posting "Anonymous" because there seeems to be no other way that I can get this through!:angry:)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous8/01/2007 4:39 PM

    Well, glad to see it was published! :)
    Steve Carras:)(happy,happy,joy joy)
    gcarras@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous8/03/2007 1:49 AM

    And that recurrant music theme is the old Hoosier Hot shots number "Rural Rhythm".:)

    Steve Carras
    gcarras@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. Unknown10/26/2008 9:27 PM

    I think only 2 of his shorts have shown up on the DVD sets. That's a shame.

    Actually, I think 4 Davis shorts have been released. They are...

    Bye Bye Bluebeard
    Dough, Ray, Me-ow
    Bowery Bugs
    Porky Chops

    It is a shame that these are the only ones so far. Maybe there'll be one or two more on the next DVD set.

    ReplyDelete