The Shooting of Dan McGoo

Tex Avery and Heck Allen transform Robert W. Service's "The Shooting of Dan McGee" into one of Avery's high-speed, gag-filled cartoons.

It's the second time Avery had tackled the poem. He had directed DANGEROUS DAN MCFOO for Schlesinger in 1939. Now, at the height of his powers, with a much larger budget, and the clout of his success with his unit at MGM, he could direct this one pretty much as he wished, with much more risque gags.

Yet, despite this cartoon's brilliance, I pause to wonder why he remade it. This was the year he remade DUMB HOUNDED as NORTHWEST HOUNDED POLICE. Was he running his creative well a bit low, and so redid the movie he had been thinking about for half a dozen years? Never mind. It's a great cartoon.