User Reviews

Directed by Jack King, with Chuck Jones as one of the animators (soon to be a director himself), "Hollywood Capers" is a very good Warner Bros. cartoon that is full of fun and mischief. Bringing back a majority of the characters introduced in the cartoon "I Haven't Got a Hat" (1935), this picture stars Beans, a playful & mischievous black cat who is excited about breaking into the motion picture business. The atmosphere on the set of one particular picture being filmed is quite joyful (including a bouncy crank-camera, singing waiters, animated bartenders, and a piano-playing turtle with a very deep singing voice), until Beans invades the premises.

My favorite moments from "Hollywood Capers" include the following. In the very first shot of the cartoon (after the opening credits) outside the "Warmer" Bros. Studios, one particular pedestrian runs away when he spots an automobile rapidly approaching him from behind. Some nice caricatures of W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, and Oliver Hardy (actually Beans in a balloon & overcoat disguise) briefly dominate the screen. When Beans invades the studio, director Oliver Owl sends him flying in the air, crashing through two stage lights and a wooden door! When Beans accidentally "awakens" a caricature of Frankenstein's monster, there is an amusing shot of the monster walking toward the crank-camera, opening his mechanical mouth with a roar, and devouring the camera. Later, the monster grabs Beans and flings him in the air, allowing Beans to slam into a series of doors as he flies. And to close this cartoon, Beans finally destroys the monster with a powerful wind machine, after which he steps out on the end title and says, "That's all, folks!"

"Hollywood Capers" can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3 (DVD box set), where quite a number of other restored black-and-white cartoons can be found as well. For myself, it's always a treat to see these early black-and-white cartoons, usually with great swingin' musical accompaniment (in this case, from Norman Spencer). It's just a shame that Beans, as delightful a character as he is, is not given any congratulatory remarks for his heroism at the end of the cartoon.

. . . is the subject matter of H0LLYWOOD CAPERS. "This," of course, was that robot that resembled Hollywood's early renditions of Frankenstein's monster. Exactly how Beans Cat activates This is not entirely clear. But after watching This walk through solid walls, chew up movie cameras, punch himself out (SUPERMAN style), and repair himself the RAMBO way, this thing This seems pretty unstoppable. If Beans could resort to SWISS ARMY MAN's Fart Power, This may well be frozen in its tracks. But because this would be an anachronism, This stalks Beans undeterred by the odoriferous stench of the Boston Variety. When Beans senses that This is moving in for the final kill, Beans plays his Trump Card: the studio's industrial fan. He takes this opportunity to rearrange This's quartet of letters, from "S" to "T." After hitting the fan, the Robot-formerly-known-as-This is left kicking himself in the head over the fact that if he'd actually EATEN Beans, his name wouldn't be mud--or worse--now.