A Ham in a Role (1949)

Absolutely the worst movie.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Funny Goofy Gophers short where the duo are upstaged by a dog who also happens to be a Shakespearean actor. The dog is the star of Warner Bros. cartoons where he has to do "low comedy" like taking a pie in the face. Feeling this is beneath his talents, he quits and retreats to his country home to study his Shakespeare. When he arrives at his house, he finds Mac and Tosh there and promptly throws them out. They react to this in the manner you might expect. An enjoyable cartoon for sure but mostly for the hilarious dog. Mac and Tosh are fun but less talky than usual. Since most of their appeal comes from their comically polite dialogue, it's not a great thing to have them speak less. Still, the dog is funny and I get the feeling Robert McKimson (directing the Gophers for the first time) was more interested in him than in the pair.

"A Ham in a Role" is a very clever Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. A dog grows weary of lowbrow comedy and vows to brush up his Shakespeare, all the while the overly polite Goofy Gophers pull a series of pranks on him that relate to his recitations.Highlights: In the beginning, after the dog gets "creamed" with a pie, a stagehand pulling a billboard of chorus ladies' torsos makes an ever bigger ass out of the dog, thanks to some expert timing. When the canine dons a suit of medieval armor, the Gophers have fun with some horseshoe magnets. The Gophers drop a glop of Limburger onto the dog's face during his "rose by any other name" speech."A Ham in a Role" is indeed very funny, but after awhile, I begin to feel for the dog. After all, he is diligently trying to study something quite worthwhile, but the Goofy Gophers apparently tell him to stick with what he already knows.

When I saw "Lumber Jerks" a few months ago and then read about the Goofy Gophers in the book "That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation", I was surprised that those guys had their own series of cartoons and yet I'd never heard of them before. So, I've finally seen another one of their cartoons, and I liked it better than the previous one. "A Ham in a Role" has those most effeminate members of the genus Citellus tormenting a snobbish Shakespearean actor dog who left Warner Bros. (they never miss a chance to advertise themselves, do they?) to stick with serious roles. Specifically, they terrorize him based on his lines from the Bard's plays ("A rose by any other name..." becomes an excuse for Limburger cheese).Yeah, it's just nice, silly entertainment. But I saw it as a special feature on the "My Dream Is Yours" DVD, and this cartoon is easily the best part (it's practically a guarantee that any Doris Day movie totally sucks). So check it out; and if you watch "MDIY", skip to the Bugs Bunny scene, and the movie won't totally suck.

Topnotch Goofy Gophers cartoon, doing what they do best: pricking the vanity of the inept, in this case, a dog who wishes to give up doing slapstick cartoons for Warner Brothers and do Shakespearian roles instead.Although this cartoon is credited to McKimson, it shows the hand of Art Davis, the most under-rated of the directors at Termite Terrace -- the hambone hound likes to wear a bow tie. Davis had his own unit, but it was folded into McKimson's in the late 1940s. A pity, as he was a much better director than McKimson. Take a look at this one and see.