The Herring Murder Mystery (1944) User Reviews

The End of the Hook

[boblipton · 6/10 · 23 April 2017]

A man who marinates and cans herrings for a living dreams he is on trial for his crime in this amusing Columbia cartoon.

The modern viewer may have some problems with many of the gags offered, as well as the voice choices; that is because the trial sequence takes place in a fishy version of the popular radio quiz show, INFORMATION PLEASE: it would send cash and encyclopedias to people who sent in questions that its panel of experts could not answer; and columnist F.P. Adams was fond of dragging in baseball trivia at any excuse or none. Both bits are referenced.

The is the sole theatrical director credit for Dun Roman. He was mostly a writer and would work on Jay Ward's Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons.

The Herring Murder Mystery is a rare Columbia cartoon that's nearly excellent

[tavm · 9/10 · 17 January 2008]

This Columbia Screen Gems cartoon begins with a fish screaming as she gets marinated and put in a sardine box. The man who does it feels guilty and as he starts to walk out he hears footsteps that he repeats a few times. Then smoke appears and when it fades a talking fish that's taller than the man shows his card that says "Sherlock Shad", a detective investigating a "murdered herring". He and a fellow fish put the man in a barrel and toss him underwater where he ends up in trial with other fish and a shark lawyer. The rest of the short is filled with bad puns (like "boiled lobster" or, oh, I can't remember) and a fish jury constantly singing, "There's something at the end of a hook...but it's shad roe/shad roe/shad roe to me/!" (shad roe basically meaning baloney) This is one cartoon from Columbia that has the kind of nuttiness that you expect from Tex Avery or Bob Clampett from Warner Bros. or MGM. In fact, there's an Avery-type gag of no sound coming out of the man's mouth with the judge and lawyer asking why and the soundtrack line basically saying there's nothing wrong and telling the man to just speak clearly! What a hilarious surprise that was! Found this on Daily Motion as linked from a blog by someone named Thad. Highly recommended.