Why in GOD'S name.....

...don't they make cartoons like this anymore? :::sigh:::

There was a culling of Warner Brothers cartoons put out in the 50's (all Chuck Jones/Mike Maltese joint-efforts, I believe) that were exceptionally funny, witty, biting, and still hold their water fifty years later.

Let me put that into bold caps, y'all: ***FIFTY YEARS LATER***.

I speak of "Robin Hood Daffy," its companion piece "Rabbit Hood"; "Knight Mare Hare"; "What's Opera Doc"; "Rabbit Fire"; "Rabbit Seasoning"; "Water Water Every Hare" (with the heart-shaped red monster, Rudolph/ Gossamer/ whatever); "Rabbit of Seville"; "One Froggy Evening"; "Feed the Kitty"; "Hyde and Hare", "Forward March Hare", "Homeless Hare" ("I'mm feeeelin' mighty looooow...") and more.

But "Duck Amuck" was far and away the creme de la creme of this creative partnership, and frankly, of Warner's entire body of cartoon work. If not animated comedy, period.

My God: who, on a bad day, HASN'T felt like Daffy in this cartoon? Striving with all your might to accomplish this or that, all while having to scream curses and shake your fist at whatever Power just keeps screwing with you---changing the rules on a whim, just for Its own sick amusement?

There's a scene in particular I think of often, where the "black curtain" descends, trying to cut Daffy off in mid-rant. He tries desperately to shove it back up, but it weighs him down like lead. Finally he utters a piercing scream, goes psychotic and tears it to shreds. (It's identical to the sound I hear in my head every day as I face morning traffic. Or deal with needy telephone customers who won't be placated. Or face a toppling Dagwood-sandwich of paperwork sitting in my in-bin.)

It's a cartoon classic that I've been watching since before I could walk; and every scene still makes me hoot with laughter.