Hare-Less Wolf (1958)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn
One of the most inspired one-shot characters in the Bugs Bunny series is Charles M. Wolf, a genial lupine slob who is yanked out a relaxing afternoon watching a baseball game on television by his harridan wife who orders him to hunt a rabbit for dinner. As he exits his cave residence with a rifle, Charles looks to the viewer and angrily whispers, “I hate her” – a declaration that is punctuated by his off-screen wife throwing a pot directly at his head.
Unfortunately for Charles, he is extremely forgetful and slow-witted – disadvantages exploited mercilessly by his would-be prey Bugs. This results in several hilarious catastrophes, including Charles slowly carefully reading the instructions on a hand grenade (it blows up on him because he takes so long in studying how to use it) and later when he follows an absurdly long fuse lit by Bugs that leads him through twists and turns to a giant keg of TNT (another explosion leaving him charred and humiliated).
Bugs is more obnoxious than usual in “Hare-Less Wolf” – throughout the film, he is aggressively goading Charles to chase after him, always knowing that he’ll get the best of this new foe. But Charles is such a good-natured character that it easy to feel bad that he is treated so shabbily – especially at the end when he forgets his original mission and is seen sitting on a rock by moonlight trying to recall what he was supposed to be chasing, laughing at himself when he comes up with preposterous responses like “hippopotamus.” Perhaps it might have been funnier if his wife came out to finish the job with the rifle and give Bugs a run for his money.
It’s too bad that Mr. and Mrs. Wolf never turned up again on screen, because they certainly had the potential for more shenanigans.