The Dumb Patrol (1964)
Directed by Gerry Chiniquy
Story by John Dunn
Animation by Virgil Ross, Bob Matz, Lee Halpern, Art Leonardi
Music by Bill Lava
This cartoon takes place in France of 1917. World War I is still raging and Captain Smedley (Porky Pig) is chosen to confront the German pilot Baron Sam Von Shpamm (Yosemite Sam). But ahead of his mission, the captain in knocked out by his colleague Bugs Bunny, who tells the viewer he can’t allow Smedley to take the assignment because “he has a wife and six piglets.” Bugs takes to the air in his biplane and engages the baron in multiple dogfights that end with the German’s aircraft being destroyed. Ultimately, the baron’s luck finally expires and he dies in combat. As the baron ascends to Heaven wearing a devil’s costume while playing a harp, an astonished Bugs tells the viewer, “I’ve heard of Hell’s angels, but I never thought I’d see one.”
The less said about “The Dumb Patrol,” the better. A misfire at all levels, the cartoon is poorly conceived and weakly executed, with dismal animation and woefully unfunny sight gags. When watching this, one gets the feeling this cartoon was quickly slapped together just to fill a quota – no creative thought is evident.
From a cartoon trivia standpoint, “The Dumb Patrol” has a few notable points. It is the first short directed by Gerry Chiniquy, a longtime Warner Bros. animator who was elevated to the direction level after Friz Freleng left the studio. This is also the last appearance in a Golden Age cartoon by Yosemite Sam and the only time Porky and Yosemite Sam appeared in the same short, although they were not in the same scenes. This is also the final Golden Age cartoon where Porky and Bugs were on screen together – the last time the two shared screen time was in “A Corny Concerto,” released in September 1943.