You Ain’t No Good Luck Charm

Art Davis directed Bugs Bunny only once. Whether that was through desire or the other directors at the studio sopped up the quota of Bugs cartoons, I don’t know. But “Bowery Bugs” is a pretty good cartoon, with a different feel than those of the other three directors of Warners at the time.

There’s a neat little scene where Steve Brodie takes Bugs into a gambling den as a good luck charm—and Bugs proceeds to help Brodie lose all his money. Bugs grabs a coin from Brodie’s pocket and deposits in a slot machine. Whoever’s animating the scene has Bugs’ fingers moving around.



Brodie anticipates a jackpot. But the slot comes up three lemons. We don’t see that. We just see the lemons roll out.



Bugs does a little slide step to get out of the way of Brodie’s punch.



The bouncer that chucks Brodie out of the place isn’t just nicknamed “Gorilla.” He is one. With fangs, even.



I’ve always liked how Brodie is tossed to the curve, then the lemons follow him. After just enough time, the gag is capped. A little sympathetic dog trots into the scene, licks Brodie, gives a take, then spits.



The animation credits go to Don Williams, Emery Hawkins, Basil Davidovich and Bill Melendez. Bill Scott and Lloyd Turner came up with the story.