A Ham in a Role
A Ham in a Role
| 13 December 1949 (USA)
A Ham in a Role Trailers

A dog decides to quit the slapstick comedy of cartoons and go to his country home to concentrate on Shakespeare, but two troublesome yet polite gophers foil his grand plans.

Reviews
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
utgard14 Funny Goofy Gophers short where the duo are upstaged by a dog who also happens to be a Shakespearean actor. The dog is the star of Warner Bros. cartoons where he has to do "low comedy" like taking a pie in the face. Feeling this is beneath his talents, he quits and retreats to his country home to study his Shakespeare. When he arrives at his house, he finds Mac and Tosh there and promptly throws them out. They react to this in the manner you might expect. An enjoyable cartoon for sure but mostly for the hilarious dog. Mac and Tosh are fun but less talky than usual. Since most of their appeal comes from their comically polite dialogue, it's not a great thing to have them speak less. Still, the dog is funny and I get the feeling Robert McKimson (directing the Gophers for the first time) was more interested in him than in the pair.
MartinHafer I have always loved Mac and Tosh, the Gopher Twins. They are cute and very wicked little characters from Looney Tunes that never fail to make me laugh--though they don't appear in this film until it is almost half complete.The cartoon begins with a very snooty, Frasier Crane sort of dog who is tired of slapstick and low humor, so he leaves the Looney Tunes studio for good. His intent is to become a Shakespearian actor but unfortunately, he comes into contact with the gophers--and they make his life miserable. And, being that this dog is so full of himself and sophisticated, it's fun to watch him being taken down a few pegs by the little rodents. Well worth seeing like all the Mac and Tosh films.
TheLittleSongbird If you love The Goofy Gophers, you'll like A Ham in a Role just as much. A Ham in a Role is not quite as good in my view, but it's still thoroughly enjoyable. The animation is beautifully drawn and lusciously coloured, giving the cartoon a cosy and elegant old-fashioned charm. The music has so much character and verve, and I shall always admire how the Looney Tunes cartoons are orchestrated and how the instrumentation blends. The writing is irreverent, done in a way that makes Shakespeare still sound so fresh, and the gags are similarly clever, I can't decide which is my favourite of the horseshoe magnet or Limburger gags. The characters are great fun to watch, the dog's delivery of the Shakespearean lines are priceless while the overly-polite gophers(characters that don't get anywhere near enough credit) are both endearing and funny. Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg provide sterling vocals as expected. Overall, not quite as good as The Goofy Gophers but every bit as entertaining. 9/10 Bethany Cox
slymusic "A Ham in a Role" is a very clever Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. A dog grows weary of lowbrow comedy and vows to brush up his Shakespeare, all the while the overly polite Goofy Gophers pull a series of pranks on him that relate to his recitations.Highlights: In the beginning, after the dog gets "creamed" with a pie, a stagehand pulling a billboard of chorus ladies' torsos makes an ever bigger ass out of the dog, thanks to some expert timing. When the canine dons a suit of medieval armor, the Gophers have fun with some horseshoe magnets. The Gophers drop a glop of Limburger onto the dog's face during his "rose by any other name" speech."A Ham in a Role" is indeed very funny, but after awhile, I begin to feel for the dog. After all, he is diligently trying to study something quite worthwhile, but the Goofy Gophers apparently tell him to stick with what he already knows.