Bowery Bugs (1949)
Directed by Arthur Davis
Written by Lloyd Turner
Animation by Emery Hawkins
Music by Peter Burness
Steve Brody is one of the more forgettable of Bugs Bunny’s foils as he feels a lot like a carry over from Tex Avery and his MGM stint. In fact, the majority of “Bowery Bugs” feels a lot like it brings the formula over, relying on a short that is so much less about the chase, and more about various skits involving Steve Brody in search of good luck. He’s constantly set off his path by the prankster Bugs, who makes it his mission to drive him crazy. The set up is pretty bizarre, as Bugs seeks to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to a potential buyer, and tells the story of Steve Brody and why he jumped off the bridge in 1886.
Flashback to Steve Brody a man who is blessed with a lot of luck involving gambling who one day runs out of it. There are a lot of weird cuts to stills of Steve looking for his good luck which feel like big attempts at goofy cutaways but never quite land, sadly. The whole choice to feature stills rather than full motion gags I guess is good for time, but sadly loses the intended comedic effect of Steve Brody literally looking for his good luck in the oddest places. He thinks of getting a rabbits foot to increase his luck and finds Bugs Bunny who convinces him instead to seek his fortune elsewhere. He ends up meeting Swami Rabbitima, who will help him and should he fail, he could come back for Bugs’ foot.
Of course this leads to insanity as Bugs leads Brody down a lot of wrong paths for luck, including reading his palms which involves a funny gag involving red paint (Getting his palm Read—get it?), reading the bumps on his head, and then directs him in to another dead end involving a man who will be his “mascot” for good luck. The biggest quality that “Bowery Bugs” has going for it is the sound direction which really helps punctuate an otherwise hit or miss comedy short. The gags land well when they do, and then kind of fall by the wayside when they flop and that’s a shame.
I just didn’t care enough about Brody to really care about his whole mission or confrontation with Bugs. And his motivation for wanting good luck just makes him feel a lot more tragic than an actual bad guy. Despite his rough exterior he’s only really going by superstition which Bugs seems to punish him thoroughly for. Of course there is the old reliable as after Brody fails at every turn, Bugs encourages him to find a woman to date. Bugs then appears in drag berating poor Steve Brody. This all comes full circle in the finale, but never actually presents a good enough reason for the prologue. We all know that Brody jumped off the bridge, but the writers never fully give a reasonable justification for the big set up involving the bridge.
Despite the somewhat hackneyed framing device, and lackluster foil, “Bowery Bugs” is fine enough, even if it’s not big on laughs or creative gags.
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