Hal Roach Studios
Starring: Joe Cobb, Mary Ann Jackson, Richard Cummings
Directed by: Robert F. McGowan

Synopsis: The Gang defend a retired police chief and his aged horse whose taxi service is threatened when a newer and more modern taxi starts to take over the route.

Purr Blur (with slight Kitty Carnage Warning):  Early in the short the girls of the Gang offer to cook breakfast for the Chief (Richard Cummings).  Mary Ann (Jackson) makes pancakes but doesn’t notice a package of popcorn kernels falling into the batter.  As a result every time the Chief tries to cut into a pancake popcorn flies out (achieved with animated popcorn over the film footage).  Later the Chief is in his taxi and showing the pancakes to Joe and Farina before throwing them out of the cab.  They are still popping and first Pete the pup approaches one.  The second pancake the Chief throws out lands by a cat sitting at the curb.  The animated popcorn pops and the pancake is pulled around by a string as a puff of smoke happens in the actual film footage.  The cat is startled but then is jerked back out of the frame, apparently attached to a string or wire so it will look like he jumps away.  You can see the shadow of the stick the string is tied to moving on the sidewalk behind.  The cat is seen briefly trying to run away afterwards.

Final Mewsings: Cats don’t like to be jerked around.

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