Cartoons
Hollywood Canine Canteen
A group of celebrity dogs, led by an ‘Edward G. Robinson’ look-alike and including ‘Jimmy Durante’, decide that celebrity dogs need a nightclub of their own. What follows is very similar to Hollywood Steps Out (1941), except that all the celebrities are drawn as dogs. Notable gags: Dogwood & Blondie making a sandwich of bones; Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy washing dishes, with Stan putting the washed dishes back into the sink; Bud Abbott and ‘Lou Costello’ as dogs; a sheepdog with hair in his eyes who suddenly has perfect vision when a pretty girl walks by. In an extended scene, Leopold Bowowsky conducts an orchestra; after a series of spot gags, a tuba player misses his cue because he was getting a cup of water, then blows the wrong note because of a fly on his score. Bing Crosby, who was earlier greeting patrons, loses a girl to Frank Sinatra, who was hiding behind a pencil-thin tree. Kaynine Kyser leads his band; we see quick solos from several jazz players, like “Hairy” James and “Boney” Goodman. Finally, the payoff of a running gag: a soldier who had been waiting to call home to Massachusetts gets to use a megaphone with that state’s name on it.