Racketeer Rabbit

Plot synopsis:
Bugs Bunny, looking for a place to pass the night, happens on an abandoned farm house, which, unbeknownst to Bugs, is the hideout of two gangsters, Rocky and Hugo. After claiming "Huh! Sounds like Inner Sanctum" while opening the squeaky front door, he drills a hole in the ground, dons a nightcap, descends in a manner as if walking down spiral stairs and goes to sleep. Shortly thereafter, Rocky and Hugo return pursued by rival gangsters (turning a corner where a billboard advertises Hotel Friz, an in-joke referring to director Friz Freleng). The running gunfight continues as they take cover inside the farmhouse; Bugs comically gets up in the middle of the gunfight (now also wearing a nightshirt) to use the bathroom and get a glass of water before returning to bed just as the shooting ends.
Later while Rocky is doling out his and Hugo's shares of the money from the heist they just pulled, Bugs slyly cuts in after noticing Rocky isn't paying attention. He poses as several gang members until he gets all of the money. Rocky then wises up, and demands the money back. Bugs refuses, even suntanning under the light Hugo uses in an attempt via the third degree to find out where the money is hidden. When Rocky points a gun at Bugs to extract information from him, Bugs spouts out something incomprehensible at top speed. Rocky then has Hugo take Bugs for a ride, which he gladly accepts, claiming "I could use a breath of fresh air!" Bugs returns to the house without Hugo (who is absent from the rest of the cartoon, his fate unrevealed), and Rocky at first doesn't notice. When he does, he threatens Bugs continuously (all the while demanding that he helps him get dressed). He demands to know where the "dough" is, and after promising not to look (since Bugs doesn't want him to know where he hid it) gets a bowl of pie-dough in the face.
Bugs then poses as Mugsy, another gangster (flipping a coin like George Raft), who threatens that "It's curtains for you, Rocky" as if he is going to execute Rocky, and then pulls an actual set of curtains from inside his jacket and hangs them over Rocky's head (to which Rocky admits "Aw, they're adorable."). Bugs then pretends to be the police, and has Rocky hide inside a chest while he "deals with" the police. In faux pas, Bugs acts out the police breaking in, demanding to know Rocky's whereabouts, a fight ensuing over the chest which he is in (Bugs sticks two swords in the chest, plus drags the chest up and down stairs afterwards), and Bugs play-acting a fight in which he eventually throws the cop out the window. During the phony fight Bugs opens the chest and hands Rocky a time bomb (asking "hold me watch"), and after Bugs declares he has taken care of the cops the bomb promptly detonates, leaving Rocky's clothes tattered and in shreds.
Rocky asks which direction the cops went, and after Bugs points the way, Rocky flees the house by jumping through the window while desirably screaming to be arrested and not wanting to be left "with that crazy rabbit". Bugs sighs, "Some guys just can't take it, see? Nah, nah, nah, nah!" (impersonating Rocky).

Tags: psychedelic, comic

Review:
"Its curtains for ya Rocky...
curtains, see!".
Bugs stars with Robinson and Lorre in one of the finest gangster cartoons ever!As our story begins we find Bugs making himself at home in a large, deserted house.
No sooner does he get to sleep than he is awaken by two mobsters returning from robbing the bank, Rocky and Hugo, who have claimed the old house as their hideout.After they ward off the police through the use of a revolver and machine gun (Hugo appears to be having a little trouble), they count out the money.
When Bugs seems to get the biggest cut of the doe, Rocky gets mad and grills him to make sure he hasn't witnessed anything that may get them into hot water.
He soon decides that Bugs knows too much and asks Hugo to "take him for a ride", in other words, to do away with him.
But surprise, surprise- Bugs returns from the outing instead of Hugo!After some hilarious antics between the two (including an amusing scene where tough-guy "Bugsy" threatens to give an intimidated Rocky "the curtains") Bugs fools the mug into thinking that the cops have tracked him down and are coming to take him away.
But after begging Bugs to hide him and going through several painful trips up and down the stairs while locked in an old trunk, Rocky realizes that he's better off with the coppers and runs into town, yelling for them to take him away from "that crazy rabbit!"
One of my all-time Bugs Bunny favorites and highly-recommended viewing for all!.
Bugs and Rocky make a great duo!.
Utterly hilarious and absorbing from start to finish, Racketeer Rabbit is a must see for any Looney Tunes fan.
Bugs is on top form, as is Rocky, and the two make an unmistakeably great duo, making the most of some truly juicy dialogue, hilarious sight gags and an interesting story.
Also superb is the animation, the backgrounds are very nice and both Bugs and Rocky are drawn really well.
The music is also great, rousing, jaunty, tongue-in-cheek yet beautiful as well.
The pacing is just right, and Mel Blanc's vocal characterisations are nigh-on perfect, is there anything this immortal voice actor cannot do, he never fails to impress me.
Overall, hilarious and a must-see!
10/10 Bethany Cox. Eh, ya wacky loony cahtoon.
I'll put one in ya for every second I ain't laughin', see?.
One of the things that I like most about the Looney Tunes cartoons - aside from their full-scale irreverence - is how they play off of the popular culture of their eras.
"Racketeer Rabbit" features gangsters Rocky and Hugo (resembling Edward G.
Robinson and Peter Lorre, respectively) hiding out in a house where Bugs Bunny is staying.
As soon as the rascally rabbit meets the thugs, he makes their lives a living hell.
I think that my favorite scene is when they make Bugs talk; if only we all had the courage to do that!
And then of course, there's the handing over of the dough.Anyway, it's totally hilarious.
You just might laugh yourself sick.
A veritable classic.
Of course, I didn't get the cultural references when I was really young.And don't worry about not laughing: you'll probably spend the whole time in laughter..
I watched the remake of this first....
My favourite Bugs Bunny episode ever is "Bugs and Thugs" and having watched this before this, some of the jokes in "Racketeer Rabbit" were not too much of a surprise for me, so it was not as humorous as it could have been.
I did like this episode quite a deal because of the animation, some of the jokes (which I was not expecting) and the character of Bugs Bunny in this episode.
The reasons this was not quite up to my standards is because some of the jokes are quite "scary" (like the one where one of the robbers is constantly shooting a gun) and that I was expecting quite a few of the jokes (as I have said before as I am very boring and repetitive).Anyhow, in this Bugs Bunny cartoon, it starts with the famous grey rabbit spending the night inside a big house.
He is disturbed by robbers coming into the house, which is their home and he decides to make sure that they do him no harm...I recommend this episode to people who like Bugs Bunny, to people who have not yet watched "Bugs and Thugs" and to people who like WB in general.
Enjoy "Racketeer Rabbit"!
Where's Your Messiah Now??.
Of course, I'm referring to Billy Crystal's Edward G.
Robinson routine which refers to "10 Commandments".
Yep, you get to see "Little Ceasar" here with Peter Lorre as a sidekick.
And bugs outsmarts 'em, of course.
Look for a "Bugsy" cameo.
Pure fun, ya see!.
"Rocky's Mad Now!","Take This Guy for a Ride" "He's Funny, He Makes Me Laugh, Ah-hah!" "Open Up Rocky, It's The Cops!",".....and Me, Boss!" &#.
Busby Berkely Musicals, Big Screen Biographies, Gangster Movies and Cartoons from 'Termite Terrace' all get together and spell out WARNER BROTHERS!
If you combine the last 2 you've got our next victim, RACKETEER RABBIT(1946).The Story: Starts out with 2 rival gangsters' cars driving a slick, wet highway with one being in obvious pursuit of the other, with the guns afirin' anda shootin' at each other.The guys in the first car ( an Edward G.
Robinson and a Peter Lorre caricature) pull in to what looks like an abandoned farm house, and their enemy pursuers leave.The abandoned house is being occupied by Bugs, who sort of accidentally bumps into the lawless pair.
After a Magical Bugs Bunny moment, The Edward G.
type, 'Rocky'and 'Hugo'(the Peter Lorre type)decide to "take him for a ride!" Upon hearing that, a jubilant Bugs leaves frame, only to return immediately saying,"Oh good, I just love going for a Ride!", only now he's wearing an "Old Fashioned"driving gear, Hat and Coverall.
This all being accompanied with a brief musical quotation of "IN YOUR ROCKET OLDSMOBILE" playing in the score.This is Warner Brothers Cartoon Unit at its very best!
The Colors, the backgrounds, the music, the non-sequitor situations all add up to a Cartoon that everyone should have in their own collections.And speaking of Music, Warners/LOONEY TUNES/MERRIE MELODIES cartoons benefited from having Carl Stalling as Musical Director.
Every one of his soundtracks are a mini work of Art in themselves.
Warner's Animation Department also made use of the Music Publishing Company that Warner Brothers owned.
Hence, a short 'quotation' of "LOOK OUT FOR JIMMY VALENTINE" in the score, at the opening credits.
(An Old Song about an Old Time Bad Dude!) Please, let us not forget Director I."Fritz" Freleng, Writer Michael Maltese and the whole darn great Animation Crew from "Termite Terrace" for turning in yet another Great, Classic Cartoon.And just one more name to Credit, and it's Mel Blanc.
'Nuff said!
It is an additional treat in using the caricatures of Mr. Peter Lorre and Edward G.
Robinson, both of whom did a lot of their best work at Warner Brothers.For a "Symulated Motion, Illustrative Representational Surrealistic Mood Conveyance and Emotion Propagator",* this one is really Tops!!!
NOTE: * It's a 6 Bit Name for a Cartoon!
C'mon, Schultz, get with it!.
Bugs Bunny channels Scarface, Peter Lorre, Tom Powers, George Raft, and all the rest of the miscreants .
. from America's sordid, crime-infested past to flesh out Warner Bros.
urgent Extreme Early Warning to We Americans of (The Then) Far Future about the threat posed to us by the Rump\Kushner Crime Cartel.
In one sequence early on, Bugs dons a plethora of disguises to collect multiple unearned shares of "Rocky's" ill-gotten loot, by which device Warner's Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, The Looney Tuners) aptly demonstrate how the many "shell corporations" of the Rump\Kushner Money-Laundering Vice Syndicate skimmed billions of dollars from the Russian Oligarchs, led of course by Crime Lord Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "Mad Dog" Putin.
This, of course, helped Mad Dog turn the screws on Rump, famously recruited as a Future Fifth Columnist Quisling Mole-to-be as a Reform School Malcontent by Putin's KGB predecessors, in terms of eliminating Puerto Rican Disaster Relief, Planned Parenthood, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, ObamaCare, America's National Parks and Monuments, and the Veterans' Administration all the better to loot the U.S. Treasury and send shiploads of Gold Bullion from Fort Knox directly to the Kremlin in clear violation of the Jones Act. Don't complain that Warner Bros.
did not try to warn you of all this through RACKETEER RABBIT!.
Now on DVD!.
The bad news?
This classic send-up of gangster movies and long-time Warner Brothers stars Edward G.
Robinson (who the Motion Picture Academy never saw fit to award an Oscar)and Peter Lorre is NOT available among the SIX volumes of the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection".How "Racketeer Rabbit" missed that cut is mind-boggling, especially after viewing some of the very late 1950s "declining years" cartoons that WERE deemed worthy of inclusion on volume 6.
Even worse, it's been announced that Volume 6 is the last of the Golden Collection Series.
What's up with that, Doc?
The GOOD news is that RACKETEER RABBIT IS available on DVD as a bonus feature with the documentary PUBLIC ENEMIES: THE GOLDEN AGE OF GANGSTER FILMS which also includes the 1953 reworking of the Bugs/Gangsters subject, BUGS AND THUGS.PUBLIC ENEMIES...
is included as part of the boxed set WARNERS GANGSTER COLLECTION, VOLUME 4 but I picked it by itself on eBay. The DVD is worth the 9.95 I paid for just to have the 2 cartoons discussed.Rocky: "What a minute, coppers, come back!
Don't leave me here with that crazy rabbit!"