Art Davis was the forgotten man at Termite Terrace. He got his own unit in 1946, and turned out several excellent cartoons for Warner Brothers, but in 1949, they cut back to three units and he, having the least seniority, went back to animation and writing until the studio began to collapse, and he returned to the director's chair.
However, just because Davis was low man on the totem poll at Merrie Melodies didn't mean everything. He had directed some good cartoons before, going back to 1930's THE MUSEUM and the classic Columbia cartoon version of THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL. Here, months before he moved to Schlesinger's outfit, he directed this pretty good cartoon in which army and navy recruiting officers compete for an enlistee. The pacing is excellent, the jokes are well-timed and the feel is a good deal like Bob Clampett's -- it was Clampett's unit he would join and later take over for a while. It's hardly surprising, as scripter Rick Hogan is credited as writer, along with Clampett on the screen credits.
However, just because Davis was low man on the totem poll at Merrie Melodies didn't mean everything. He had directed some good cartoons before, going back to 1930's THE MUSEUM and the classic Columbia cartoon version of THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL. Here, months before he moved to Schlesinger's outfit, he directed this pretty good cartoon in which army and navy recruiting officers compete for an enlistee. The pacing is excellent, the jokes are well-timed and the feel is a good deal like Bob Clampett's -- it was Clampett's unit he would join and later take over for a while. It's hardly surprising, as scripter Rick Hogan is credited as writer, along with Clampett on the screen credits.
