Watch At Your Service Madame For Free

To me, this movie is perfection.

Better Late Then Never

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

By late 1936, most of the key players had arrived at the Schlesinger studio, yet that greatness wouldn't be seen in full glory until the early 1937 releases.The premise of this short could have almost been a lackluster Disney-esque copy with the Hamhock family. It starts off that way, but things get better when we see W.C. Squeals, a caricature of comedian W.C. Fields. He's what makes this short one of the more remarkable releases of 1936. Here he's a con man attempting to woo the mother of the piglets, in order to make off with their inherited fortune. The black sheep Piggy catches on and he devises a plot to foil the scheme.This short is definitely a step in the direction that the studio was headed. The Hamhock family would make one more appearance in the more well known PIGS IS PIGS (1937). W.C. Squeals would make two additional appearances in THE COO COO NUT GROVE (1936) and CRACKED ICE (1938). Bob McKimson did some solid personality animation on Squeals in all three of his appearances. I wonder how Fields felt about being caricatured as a pig.

. . . continue to be confirmed on a near-hourly basis, film archivists have been desperately searching The Canon to find the exit protocol for the 40 Million U.S. traitors responsible for turning America over to Red Commie KGB chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin and his puppets in the Odoriferous Rump\Scents Administration that Warner Bros.' unparalleled prophetic prognosticators have surely predicted at least once (since it's obvious to all that it's not enough to simply ban the Rich People's Party forever, outlaw Corrupt Job-Killing Corporate Capitalism, Repeal and Replace the outdated and Racist 18th Century "Suicide Pact" Constitution at a perfectly legal Constitutional Convention, Declare Martial Law, confiscate all the guns & property & other assets of the Deplorable 40 Million--and THEN let them hunker down in place, plotting their Leninist Revenge). AT YOUR SERVICE MADAME provides this long-sought answer, as it shows the Rump-like con artist W.C. Squeals stealing all the assets of the widow Mrs. Hamhock, in the exact fashion that Putin's Billionaire Party is currently looting the U.S. Treasury. Through a combination of strip-searching, strategically-placed Tasers, and Extreme Vetting, Mrs. Hamhock's countless children--representing We True Blue Normal Union Card-Carrying Patriotic Average Honest American Majority--divest Master Squeals of his ill-gotten gains and send him packing North to Canada for a Seven-Generation Cooling Off Period. Because We the Real Americans number few if any perverts among us, the 40 Millions soon "moving on up" can be allowed to exit in taxpayer-provided orange jumpsuits (or orange diapers, for the young and incontinent oldsters). This will be preceded by full body-cavity searches, X-rays, and total removal of ALL body hair--as shown in the film THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN--since these Deplorables have been known to smuggle gems in diapers and even replace their bones with WOLVERINE-like skeletons of Precious Metals, given their insatiable greed for wealth. Many of the finer points of this process are illustrated by Warner's Looney Tuners during AT YOUR SERVICE MADAME.

Friz Freleng Merrie Melodies short about Mrs. Hamhock, a pig widow with a house full of precocious little piglets. A con man (that looks and talks like W.C. Fields) tries to woo her for money she just inherited. Mrs. Hamhock must have had a loveless marriage as she seems very eager to get with this new guy before her husband is cold in the ground. Anyway her piglets see right through the con artist and do their best to sabotage the courtship. The animation is nice and colorful. Nothing compared to Disney at the time but not too shabby. The music is very quaint and nice. You could just imagine people sitting around their parlor eighty years ago listening to this sort of music. It's a cute cartoon, as was the style of the time. Not particularly funny or noteworthy, just cute. The W.C. Fields character is amusing and the little piglets running around doing their thing is adorable as all get out. Worth a look if you're a fan of the period but don't expect a classic.

Back when the Looney Tunes were still in their relative infancy (Porky Pig was their main star, while Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and the rest had not yet gotten created), they made this low-key cartoon about a widow inheriting a lot of money, thereby attracting the attention of a swindler who looks very much like W.C. Fields. But her children are onto the guy.This is a very early cartoon, so while there are some wacky scenes - namely the whole end sequence - you'll be mightily disappointed if you expect any of the sorts of things that became the staple of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons of the '40s and '50s. But it's still worth seeing, if only once. Available on YouTube.