Chow Hound (1951)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is a one shot cartoon from Warner Brothers animation studio. There will be spoilers ahead:This is a great cartoon done by a mater at the top of his form who also had a top notch unit also at the top of their game. Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese come up with a short worthy of Alfred Hitchcock at his wickedly funny best.The basic premise is that a dog who exemplifies crudity, vulgarity and greed has forced a cat and later a mouse into helping him try to satisfy his gluttony. The dog goes from house to house with the cat. Various people know the cat by different names (Butch, Harold and Timothy are the ones shown) as well as posing as a Sabre-toothed Alley Cattus in the Lion House at the zoo.As the cat's owners feed him, the dog takes the food and wolfs it down, continually berates him about there being no gravy. For one stop, the dog takes a mouse from a tin can to make "Timothy" look like a mouser. The mouse has some beautiful lines and almost steals the short.The dog finally becomes frustrated at the perceived slowness of it all and gets a brilliant idea. He holds the cat away for a period until ads are placed offering rewards for the return of lost cats. The ads are composed of in-jokes relating to the Jones unit and the studio itself.The dog collects the rewards, grabs the case and with his windfall, he buys the meat market. Gluttonous dog, surrounded by meat and the end result isn't pretty. Cut to the dog and cat hospital and a grossly bloated dog on a table, with doctors amazed at the dog's condition. Doctors leave and a doorknob turns. Cue cat and mouse with the coup de grace and a funny, disturbing and truly evil line. The dog is about to get his just desserts, so to speak. I almost felt sorry for the dog. Almost.This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 6 DVD set and the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Volume 1 Blu-Ray set. If you have Blu-Ray, go that route. I've seen both and while the DVD is good, this looks beautiful in HD on Blu-Ray and I usually don't care all that much about the difference between the two. Most highly recommended.

Directed by Chuck Jones, "Chow Hound" is a great Warner Bros. cartoon about.........a greedy chow hound! He consistently abuses an innocent feline to bring him slabs of meat.............with gravy, no less! My two favorite scenes: First, when the dog grooms the cat and ties a large blue bow tie around the cat's neck, the musical accompaniment is "Baby Face". Second, at the very end of the film, after the dog devours an entire meat market and convalesces in a hospital, the cat returns (along with his mouse companion) and says, "This time we didn't forget the gravy." Oh, how revenge can be sweet! "Chow Hound" is one of a series of one-shot cartoons that appear on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6 Disc 4. It's a really fun cartoon to watch!

Chuck Jones's 'Chow Hound' is a legendary cult classic, renowned for its extremely dark plot (from a beautiful script by Michael Maltese). It would make a great double bill with Jones's equally dark 'Fresh Airedale' since both cartoons feature villainous dogs mercilessly exploiting innocent cats. The main difference is that in 'Chow Hound' the villain actually gets his comeuppance in a gruesomely unforgettable final twist. To say too much more about 'Chow Hound's' plot would be to spoil it but special mention must go to the exceptional characterisation that Jones teases out of even the most minor of players. All three of the cat's unwitting shared owners are brilliantly rendered without the audience ever seeing their faces, a little mouse steals every scene he appears in and the villainous dog is a truly despicable and genuinely threatening presence. 'Chow Hound' is thoroughly deserving of its cult status and will remain in any viewers mind long after the chilling iris out.

As a boy, every kid in the neighborhood was repeating the "No Gravy?" line. This Chuck Jones at his edgiest. The ending is truly (and deservedly) sadistic. Amazing, that this cartoon couldn't be made today. Now lets hope Warner Bros. releases it on DVD. This is one of those one-off gems that don't make there own collection. To a child, the dog represented everyone who tells you what to do, orders you about, and generally makes life hell. Interesting that the dog, cat, and mouse, behave much like an abusive Father, repressed Mother, and abused child, but that's probably reading too much into it. When the dog receives his gravy, which he has "hounded" the cat & mouse about for the entire cartoon, it is divine justice in the 1951 sense.