Bugs Bunny Rides Again

Bugs Bunny Rides Again is a 1947 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short, released in 1948, directed by Friz Freleng, and written by both Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese. Voice characterizations are performed by Mel Blanc. The cartoon features Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. This is a sequel, of sorts, to the pair's first encounter in 1945's Hare Trigger. The title is a typical Western reference, as in "The Lone Ranger rides again", and also suggests a reference to the 1940 Jack Benny comedy, Buck Benny Rides Again.

In release date order, this cartoon is the next-to-last Bugs Bunny outing in the a.a.p. package, with the last such cartoon being Haredevil Hare - also the overall latest-released WB cartoon in the a.a.p. package.

Synopsis
After opening credits underscored by the William Tell Overture (as with The Lone Ranger), the music segués into a lively instrumental of "Cheyenne" as the action begins. The opening scene features a typical Old West frontier town with the self-contradictory name of Rising Gorge. Bullets are firing from every window across the street into every other window across the street. A hail of bullets flies down one street until a stop signal turns red and the bullets hover in mid-air while a second hail of bullets shoot by on the perpendicular street. The light changes back and just as the first hail of bullets is about to start, a lone bullet "runs the red light" at even higher speed, holding up the first stream. After it passes, the first hail continues.

The scene then cuts to the Gunshot Saloon with the slogan of 'Come in a get a slug'. Inside, two men are standing at a bar. One man is about to drink a shot of whiskey; the second man takes out his gun and shoots the first man. The first man throws his glass into the air and the second man catches it. A scream is heard and Yosemite Sam enters the bar. All of the patrons are afraid of Sam, yelling his name in terror while the underscore plays stereotypical "villain music". Sam says, "Yeah, Yosemite Sam. The roughest, toughest, he-man stuffest hombre whose ever crossed the Rio Grande... And I don't mean Mahatma Gandhi! (See "Censorship" below for more information about this line.) Now all of you skunks clear out of here!" After firing his guns, all the patrons run out, followed by a real skunk who retorts, "My, weren't there a lot of skunks in here?" Sam turns around to see a man trying to sneak out. Sam fires his guns at the man, who then turns into a firing range walking dummy, making a "ding" every time he is hit, with a score board above keeping tally. After that, Sam asks, "Be there any livin' varmint who aims to try to tame me?" Spying Bugs Bunny, he asks again, "Well, be there?"

No one dares to challenge Yosemite Sam except Bugs, sporting a cowboy hat and rolling a cigarette. After a brief silence, Bugs replies ... "I aims ta ..." Sam declares "this town ain't big enough for the both of us!" Bugs tries to rectify that by running off-screen and, to sound effects of hammers and saws, quickly constructs a background of modern skyscrapers in the town, but "it's still not big enough!" They square off in a variety of disciplines, such as dancing. In the time-honored western cliché, Sam orders Bugs to "Dance!" while firing at his feet. Bugs grabs a cane and straw hat from off-screen, and goes into the same vaudeville soft shoe routine he first exhibited in Stage Door Cartoon (in which a prototype of Sam appeared), then says "Take it, Sam!" The diminutive villain, although startled initially, quickly breaks (rather expertly) into the same dance, and is tricked into dancing into an open mine shaft (nearly getting hurt in the process).

When Sam returns to the surface, Bugs dares him to cross a line drawn with his foot. "OK, I'm a-steppin'!" Bugs continues this schtick all the way out of town to the edge of a cliff, where the unobservant Sam steps over the line and plummets toward the ground far below. (This gag would be recycled in High Diving Hare.) Suddenly stricken with guilt, the speedy hare dashes down a roadway, beats Sam to the ground and lays down a mattress, telling the audience, "Ya know, sometimes me conscience kind-a bodders me ... but not this time!" as he pulls away the mattress. Sam smashes into the ground (off-screen) and the already pint-sized bandit has been vertically flattened to a hat with legs, but he still comes up firing.

A horseback chase scene ensues, to the tune of the William Tell Overture, as the two ride on horses that are proportional to their own sizes (or lack thereof). Bugs leads Sam into a tunnel, and again showing extraordinary construction talents, has time to don a painter's cap and build a brick wall at the other end, which Sam smacks into. After more chasing, Bugs stops the chase and points out that they are getting nowhere and are right back where they began ("Hey, wait a minute, Sam! We ain't gettin' nowheres! We're right back where we started!"), and Sam agrees.

The two decide to settle their differences by playing cards, with the loser being forced to leave town ("Gin rummy's mah game, Sam"). Sam tells Bugs to "cut the cards", which he does using a meat cleaver, a joke previously seen in a Harpo Marx gag in the 1932 film Horse Feathers, a Curly Howard gag in 1936's Ants in the Pantry - and probably a lot older than that. With a new deck, Bugs tricks Sam into playing a card that gives Bugs the win {"GIN! You lose!!"}. Bugs tries to get Sam to take the train out of town, but when the passenger car is revealed to be full of swimsuit-clad women headed on the Miami Special, Bugs fights with Sam to board the train.

Bugs prevails as usual. In the final shot, he leans out the train window, his face covered with lipstick from kisses, and hollers a line similar to one from Hare Trigger: "So long, Sammy, see ya in Miami!"

Availability

 * Bugs Bunny Rides Again is available (uncut, but with the "namby pamby" line) on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc 1.