Who Killed Who?

Who Killed Who? is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short directed by Tex Avery for MGM. The cartoon is a parody of whodunit stories and employs many clichés of the genre for humor.

Plot

A live-action host (Robert Emmett O'Connor) opens with a disclaimer about the nature of the cartoon, namely, that the short is meant to demonstrate that "beyond the shadow of a doubt, crime does not pay."

The story begins as the victim (voiced by Richard Haydn), assumedly the master of a very large mansion, is reading a book based on the very cartoon he's in. He frightenedly muses that, according to the book, he is about to be "bumped off." True to form, a mysterious killer in a heavy black cloak soon shoots (with a rather large pistol) him dead (though how dead he is is a matter of question), and a police officer (voiced by Billy Bletcher, modeled on characters portrayed in film by Fred Kelsey) immediately begins to investigate. After investigating the premises and the staff, the officer gives a lengthy chase to the real killer. Though the mansion is filled with many surreal pitfalls and booby traps that slow and obstruct the officer, he eventually traps the killer and unmasks him, revealing him to be the opening-sequence host, who confesses, "I dood it" before bursting into tears.

Oddities

When a pistol is shot from hiding, an individual note is heard for each discharge. After 3 shots, the notes make up the NBC chimes. Coincidentally, NBC was just starting to get into television at the time.

The voice of Santa Claus was provided by Avery himself.

The speaking individual among the bodies falling out of the closet was vocally based on comedian Jerry Colonna, whose popularity was rising at the time while working as Bob Hope's sidekick.

There are several jokes about (or originating from) Red Skelton, whose highly popular radio program aired from October 1941 until March 1944. These include a crimson-colored human skeleton announcing himself as "Red Skeleton," and the concluding line, "I dood it," which was taken directly from Skelton's "mean widdle kid" radio routine.

External links

• Who Killed Who? at IMDb