Thugs with Dirty Mugs Review

Thugs with Dirty Mugs is a 1939 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a pretty solid gangster flick.

I am usually not a big fan of these Warner Bros. gangster parodies, but this one is different as it actually works rather well and can be quite amusing. Again the film is slow, uninvolving and with a particularly forgettable, very disappointing conclusion. I also wanted stronger characterization from it.

But the animation is truly excellent and it has that interesting, palpable noir-like atmosphere to it. The score is also solid. The film surprisingly has a couple of very interesting gags and the overall story is very funny where the thieves rob banks by succession and yet nobody manages to stop them until an audience member sees a movie with that plot in the theater and helps the police. The highlight was them omitting the number thirteen bank because of superstition and the various terrible securities of the banks.

Thugs with Dirty Mugs ends somewhat weakly and the characterization is not great, but the plot is amusing and some gags are quite clever.