It's Murder She Says (1945)
A haggard, complaining mosquito breaks the fourth wall to gripe about how hard Army life has gotten now that soldiers drain swamps, sleep under nets, and douse themselves in repellent, all to keep him from spreading malaria.
It’s Murder She Says is a Private Snafu short from the US Army Signal Corps’ wartime training series, using the same blunt, adults-only humor found throughout the series — here flipping the usual “Snafu screws up” formula to let the enemy mosquito narrate the malaria-prevention lesson himself.
Background
Directed by Chuck Jones and written by Phil Eastman and Dr. Seuss for the US Army Signal Corps’ Private Snafu training series, It’s Murder She Says flips the series’ usual formula: rather than following the hapless soldier Private Snafu as he fouls up a task, the short is narrated by the villain. Marjorie Rambeau voices “Anopheles Annie,” a haggard, complaining mosquito who gripes about how difficult Army life has become now that soldiers drain swamps, sleep under nets, and douse themselves in repellent — all genuine malaria-prevention measures the real Army wanted its troops to take seriously, with Mel Blanc still voicing Snafu in a smaller role.
What to watch for
The mosquito’s complaints are themselves the entire lesson plan, an efficient piece of propaganda structure that turns a list of tedious preventive measures into a villain’s grievances, inviting the audience to want Annie to keep losing. Made for Army and Navy Screen Magazine distribution rather than public release, it carries the Private Snafu series’ characteristic adults-only, barracks-room humor, aimed at servicemen facing real malaria risk in the Pacific theater rather than at general audiences back home.
