Wholly Smoke

1938
6.6| 0h7m| NR| en
Details

A neighborhood bully convinces Porky to take a puff from his cigar, causing Porky to hallucinate a smoke-man named Nick O. Teen, along with a musical number done by cigars, cigarettes and pipes in the likeness of the 3 Stooges, etc.

Director

Producted By

Warner Bros. Pictures

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Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Acensbart Excellent but underrated film
Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
tavm Just watched this Looney Tune Porky Pig cartoon on YouTube as linked from the Saturday Morning Blog. It has the child-pig going to church but on the way he encounters a bully his size who challenges him on his toughness by smoking on his cigar. Needless to say, some nightmares result..."Supervised" by Frank Tashlin, Wholly Smoke is quite entertaining when it goes on a delirium as Porky dreams of various smoking products singing and dancing about the dangers of smoke. Quite a bit of caricatures of famous celebrities like The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly), Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, and Cab Calloway abound and while some might be offended by the blackface matches, you might not notice right away since no stereotypical dialect comes out of them. Almost like a Max Fleischer cartoon yet with the Warner Bros. attitude that was just emerging from these Termite Terrace products. So on that note, Wholly Smoke is well worth seeing.
Lee Eisenberg Frank Tashlin's "Wholly Smoke" appears to be a cartoon version of "Reefer Madness". The plot has Porky Pig on his way to Sunday school when a thug gets him to take a puff from a cigar. From there, Porky experiences a sort of acid trip in which a character named Nick O. Teen shows him cigarette and cigar caricatures of celebrities of the era (The Three Stooges, Bing Crosby, etc.) warning Porky not to smoke.Like I said, it's a "Reefer Madness" kind of idea: a wholesome youth takes one puff and gets hooked. Of course, this cartoon basically got everything right while "RM" got everything wrong (it claimed that marijuana is a narcotic; in reality, marijuana is a weed). And besides, marijuana doesn't kill people, while countless people have died from cigarettes. And you don't even want to know what they put in the cigarettes. The people behind this cartoon may have not known how accurate a cartoon they made.So, it is a pretty neat cartoon. Not all that preachy, just a little bit hokey what with the Sunday school part. Mind you, there is a black-face scene.
ccthemovieman-1 Wow, who would have thought it? They made an anti-smoking cartoon in 1938! Pretty amazing....and wild, too. This Porky Pig cartoon has our favorite porker learning a lesson about smoking, especially at a young age. Too bad the message was just about kids smoking, instead all of us.Without going into the story, I was fascinated by a number of the sight gags in here like the smoke ring blowing contest; Porky's German mother, Mr. "Nick O'Teen" (who lives at 1313 Tobacco Road); the harmonizing matches; the cameo appearances of The Three Stooges, Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, Hispanic dancers from Havana....and more.A great lesson, and a great cartoon!
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre 'Wholly Smoke' is a first-rate Looney Toon from the Warner studio's peak period. 'Wholly Smoke' has a good story, is cleverly animated, delivers a socially constructive message without lecturing, and (oh, yeah) it's extremely funny. This cartoon stands as a tribute to the sadly underrated Frank Tashlin ... and should be required viewing for all those misguided people who think that Chuck Jones was the be-all and end-all of Warners animation.In this cartoon, Porky is cast as a boy-pig rather than an adult. His mother sends him off to Sunday school with a nickel for the collection plate. On the way, Porky encounters a standard Warner Bros bully: a bowler-hatted Dead End Kid pig-boy. This kid is smoking a cigar, and there's some funny animation (with good music cues) as the cigar smoke takes various shapes. When the punk learns that Porky has a nickel, he bullies Porky into giving it up. Porky feels some peer pressure: to prove he can be tough too, Porky takes a drag on the cigar ... and collapses into a sickening jag in which he is confronted by a smoke-man named Nick O'Teen.Now comes the brilliant setpiece of this cartoon. To the tune of 'Old Man Mose' (a standby of the Warners music department), Nick O'Teen drags Porky into a nightmare reverie of anti-smoking images. Cigars resembling the Three Stooges poke Porky in the eyes. A squadron of cigarettes start marching in Busby Berkeley manoeuvres, spelling out the words 'NO SMOKING'. There's an extremely well-animated montage sequence, as the nightmare picks up speed. Eventually Porky reclaims his nickel, besting the bully and getting to Sunday school, vowing never again to smoke.'Wholly Smoke' (made during the Schlesinger unit's black-and-white period) is a visual delight, as well as funny. Even the opening credits are better-looking than usual. There is only one unpleasant (vaguely racist) gag, when Nick O'Teen's face becomes temporarily covered with soot, making him look like a blackface minstrel and prompting him to do an imitation of Cab Calloway. I heartily recommend 'Wholly Smoke' for kids and adults, and I rate it 10 out of 10. All fans of Warners animation should pay more attention to Frank Tashlin and Robert McKimson, and MUCH less attention to the monstrously overrated Schmuck Jones.