Robert Reynolds
This short was made at the Walter Lantz studio during Tex Avery's brief stint as a director there and though he wasn't involved, his influence is seen throughout. As I want to discuss some of the details, this is a spoiler warning: This is a story told in flashback (for the most part) and is about two dogs, John and Mary, who start out at the bottom of the list in vaudeville (I suspect the idea of making them dogs was a deliberate joke, as the dog act on the vaudeville circuit was normally placed at the end of the show, to clear the theater out for the next performance) and gradually rise to the top and play the Palace, doing the same act throughout. John is then foolish enough to walk out on Mary for another woman, who's just using him until he's out of money. John then tries to go back to Mary, only to find she's a successful solo act. He tries a solo and bombs, tries again to contact Mary repeatedly, with no luck and decides to jump off a bridge, which is where we find him at the start of the short.Near the beginning, on the stage backdrop in a vaudeville house John and Mary perform in, one of the ads touts "Avery's Liver Tonic", which is appropriate, because Tex Avery's stylistic fingerprints are all through this short. The gags recall several shorts Avery made while he was at MGM, most specifically his Symphony In Slang. The narration even sounds the same! Now that I think of it, the principal female character in Symphony In Slang is named Mary, though I don't recall if the narrator is named John. It's a very funny cartoon.The ending of this short is mixed, for my tastes. I would have ended the short about ten or fifteen seconds sooner! I won't spoil the gag here.This short was released on one of the Columbia House Woody Woodpecker and Friends DVDs and is well worth watching. Most recommended.
