. . . at the pretentious Fat Cats of the Oxfordian Camp, who cannot believe that a blue collar card-carrying UAW (United Avon Writers) Union member like Bill Shakespeare could scribble out the World's Most Famous Plays. Where ANONYMOUS is out for blood, having "The Virgin Queen's" son Oxford watch as their incestuous spawn (son\grandson Oxford, Junior) is beheaded for High Treason, the Warner Bros. animated short A HAM FOR A ROLE simply features a canine named "Dog" getting pied-in-the-face for the 98th and 99th times one afternoon. As this flea-ridden HAMLET wannabe also rehearses JULIUS CAESAR, ROMEO AND JULIET, plus RICHARD III (which is the play that gets heads rolling in ANONYMOUS), two "goofy" gophers try to turn phrases to which Bill Shakespeare would never resort, such as "Let's shall" and "I Shalst." Though HAM preceded ANONYMOUS by about 60 years, it is not only more succinct in Puncturing the Pompous Pontificators who refer to Bill as "The Bard," but it is also more spot-on in making sycophantic quill sniffers such as the Oxfordians (or the dupes who believe that a humorless, senile Tory Traitor named Clement Moore--America's most infamous plagiarist glory grabber--was connected to 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHR!STMAS, penned by working class Revolutionary War hero Capt. Henry Livingston!) appear as ludicrous jokes, rather than the tragic figures of ANONYMOUS.

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.

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.

Topnotch Goofy Gophers cartoon, doing what they do best: pricking the vanity of the inept, in this case, a dog who wishes to give up doing slapstick cartoons for Warner Brothers and do Shakespearian roles instead.Although this cartoon is credited to McKimson, it shows the hand of Art Davis, the most under-rated of the directors at Termite Terrace -- the hambone hound likes to wear a bow tie. Davis had his own unit, but it was folded into McKimson's in the late 1940s. A pity, as he was a much better director than McKimson. Take a look at this one and see.