Dangerous Dan McFoo (1939)

Memorable, crazy movie

Absolutely Fantastic

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

. . . but if I were fishing around for fodder for an animated "Merrie Melodies" poem, I might sooner draw on "The Raven" or "Annabelle Lee." After all, there's not much in the historical record to contradict any poetic license taken against those two ditties. On the other hand, the immortal Robert W. Service lived the Yukon Gold Rush of 1898, and newsreel footage of that historic event still was fresh in many minds when DANGEROUS DAN McFOO hit theaters in 1939. Like all Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies," McFOO was at least partially aimed at children. No matter how you sanitize the pursuits of those "clean mad for the muck called gold," you're presenting material that may scare the Heck out of some kids (a case in point is MGM's remake of L. Frank Baum's anti-Gold Standard classic, THE WIZARD OF OZ, which came out the same year as McFOO). Many kids fled the theaters playing OZ in horror, and no doubt there were lots of tykes terrorized here when the tall character proclaims, "One of you is a Hound of Hell . . . and that one is Dan McFoo."

Even though I've seen many of Tex Avery's Warner Bros. cartoons and know what sorts of things to expect in them, "Dangerous Dan McFoo" was still a hoot. Set in a bar in the arctic, this one portrays a dog with Elmer Fudd's voice taking on an opponent who hones in on the dog's Katherine Hepburn-imitating hubby. Of course, the whole thing is an excuse for a series of gags, the same way that a Leslie Nielsen movie is.However, there is one scene in this cartoon that I am surprised got past the censors: at one point when the opponent punches Dan, Dan puts his hand over his face, and it looks as though Dan is shooting his opponent the bird! I know that the people behind these cartoons liked the push the limits, but that one just blew my mind! Anyway, a really funny one. It appears on the website Daily Motion...and has French subtitles! The things that we see in life.Note: this was one of the many WB cartoons released before 1948 that got stripped of its opening credits in the Blue Ribbon reissue.

I watched this – it was included among the extras on Warners' DVD of DODGE CITY (1939) – as part of a 5-cartoon marathon to commemorate the 100th Anniversary from the birth of one of the most important figures in animation history: Tex Avery. It was actually remade – and considerably improved upon – by THE SHOOTING OF DAN McGOO (1945), a Droopy 'vehicle'; while remarkably similar in many respects to the later classic, one of my favorite Averys, it is a minor (if still highly enjoyable) effort – for one thing, because of an anonymous i.e. less sympathetic protagonist, but also its more primitive quality (Avery's Fred Quimby-produced MGM efforts being generally superior to his stuff at Warners).

We first see "Dangerous Dan" and it's not who except to see, but a meek little guy who sounds like Elmer Fudd. In fact, as Mr. Reynolds states in another review here, it IS the voice of Mr. Fudd (Arthur Q. Ryan). The barmaid at the "Malibu Bar" where the action takes place, also is a weird. She looks like Betty Boop, talks like Katharine Hepburn, but is supposed to be Bette Davis. What the.....? Whoever she is, she Dan's girl...but the wolf who just entered the bar doesn't care. He's the obvious villain.The rest of the cartoon is a boxing match between the two foes, complete with a referee and a very strange way to announce each new round. It was fairly interesting but the very end was lame. The cartoon was a feature in the DVD of the Errol Flynn film, "Dodge City."