Into the late 1940s, with yet another spring festival of eggs on the plate. It's high time all the chickens and bunnies of Hollywood got some tips on the subject from the biggest "wabbit" of them all.
Easter yeggs(Warner, Bugs Bunny 6/28/47 - Robert McKimson, directed) - If Walter Lantz could turn his staring rabbit into an Easter bunny, it was inevitable that Bugs would sooner or later have to follow suit. (In fact, Bugs performed Easter services twice and also appeared as the Easter Bunny (but without the eggs) in the number "Freddie, Get Ready," starring Doris Day and Jack Carsonmy dream is yours(1949).) But in the 1947 edition, Bugs is attacked while minding his own business and catching up on his reading (a volume entitled "How to Multiply" — which he read like a teenager with a Vimtage edition of the playboy guarded). from a pathetic old coot, from an Easter bunny (a character who had earned Mel Blanc a resume in another medium, as the established voice of the "lucky" postman on the radio show of George Burns and Gracie Allen - a grumpy fellow who was there fact far from happy). The stooped geezer complains that he has all those balls to deliver - but his feet are killing him. Bugs, doing nothing, volunteers to deliver the "Technicolor Chicken Fruit". The Easter Bunny, using the happy postman's line, gives Bugs one final piece of advice, his voice trembling: "And remember, keep smiling" — then he adds aside to the audience, "Every year I get some dumb bunny to do my job."
Bug's first stop is down a cul-de-sac, at the home of the "Dead End Kid" (a reference to a long-loved series of B-movies about juvenile delinquents). As Bugs improvises a song, "Here's the Easter Rabbit, hooray!" To the tune of his old opening theme "Woo Woo" from 1939's "Hare-Un Scare-Um," he comments that it's a good thing he doesn't do this for a living must do. And how right he is. He delivers his first egg to the young brat inside and gets it back - right in his eye. (The Easter Bunny really didn't do his job this year - none of his eggs were even boiled!) Then, while still insisting "I want an Easter egg!", the kid gets into a wrestling match with Bugs. The moment Bugs tries to get revenge, the boy picks off a line from Red Skelton's "mean widdle kid" and pretends, "Oooh, he bwoke my widdle arm." The boy's giant relatives appear out of nowhere, armed with shotguns. Bugs walks off in a hail of bullets, the last few riddles the door with bullet holes that say "And stay out". Bugs attempts to return his load to the Easter Bunny, who insists that if he stops, he will give the Easter Bunny a bad name. "I already have a bad reputation for the Easter Bunny," says Bugs -- but he'll try again.
The next house is decorated with signs and banners welcoming the Easter Bunny. But inside, Elmer Fudd, disguised as a child, waits for his prey to come to him - then "Easter Wabbit Stew." However, Bugs decides to get the drop on this one and crushes the delivered Easter egg between Elmer's hands before Elmer can make his first move. A typical (and largely uninspired) car chase ensues over the next few minutes. A surprise gag has Elmer dig a pit for Bugs to fall into and then insert a hose to try and drown him - only Bugs emerges floating on a rubber dinghy. Bugs tries to hide in several houses and somehow always finds Elmer a step ahead of him. In a house is someone else - the mean, crazy kid again. "Oh no!" yells Bugs and slams the door. At the last house, Elner reappears and runs towards the door from the inside. Bugs slams the door with perfect timing to catch Elmer's head in a crash through the door. Then he pulls out a brush, paints Elmer's bald head to look like an Easter egg, and whistles for the kid next door. The kid repeats "I wanna easter egg" and attacks the "egg" with a hammer. Howling in pain, Elmer disappears down the street with the child clinging to him.
Without thinking of continuity (since we've never seen Bugs set up a booby trap), the Easter Bunny comes along to see how Bugs is progressing and finds a large egg lying on the road. "Ohhh, here's an egg that crazy rabbit forgot to deliver. Things like this just make me go to pieces.” As he picks up the egg himself, he doesn't notice that a long fuse is sticking out – which Bugs lights. After a pause ("It's the suspense that gets me," Bugs says), the egg pops out and the disheveled Easter Bunny hangs over a tall branch. "Remember, Doc, keep smiling!" exclaims Bugs after one last horse laugh and Iris.
Solid ivory(Lantz/Universal, Woody Woodpecker 8/25/47 - Dick Lundy, directed) - Lundy was an aspiring director at Disney around the time of production of Donald Duck's "Golden Eggs." While there is no definitive confirmation that Lundy worked on this film, he was most certainly aware and must have fondly remembered parts of it. As much as in the parallel case of reworking his own earlier Donald project The Flying Jalopy (1943) into the basis for Woody WoodpeckersWet Blanket Policy(1948), when it reached Lantz Studios, he also brought the story concept of "Golden Eggs" to that title for a re-imagining by Woody Woodpecker. The motivation point has been changed, but is still geared towards bringing our hero into conflict with poultry. Here Woody is a pool player practicing on a table in his house next to a barnyard. A wild shot ricochets the pool cue off the table, out the door, and to the base of a hen's nest, where a mother hen provides a free plug into a universal feature by reading a copy of The Egg and I. Woody comes in, retrieves his cue ball and is about to leave. The mother hen hasn't counted her eggs very well and assumes the worst - that Woody just made off with one. She blocks his exit - but Woody won't let an old woman push him around. He tries to push his way through her quickly - but she slams the henhouse door in his face, letting his beak go through, then returns the cue ball to its nest. Woody tries various means to trick or overpower her. A frontal attack with an ax only results in Woody giving a butch haircut. Corn bait on a fishing line is countered by the hen, who sticks the corn on the cob into a socket and frys Woody until the tip of his beak looks like a burnt match. Even seducing the hen with tailor-made three-toe nylons is useless. Finally — you guessed it — Woody dons the identical red glove and feather duster that Donald uses and masquerades as a sexy rooster (and adds a hint of Charles Boyer vocal impersonation). The inevitable tango dance follows, with Woody adding Apache moves to toss the hen for a loop. He makes off with the whole nest but stumbles like Donald. The eggs shatter on his head, spawning chicks like Little Lulu's. Eventually, the cue ball lands, knocking Woody close to unconsciousness. The proud mother and her brood walk away by walking across Woody's face while the last chick proudly holds the feather duster tail and gives Woody a case of his own trademark laugh.
crowing pains(Warner, Henery Hawk/Foghorn Leghorn, 7/12/47 - Robert McKimson, directed), is the only Foghorn cartoon from the golden era to have a surprise appearance from Sylvester the Cat. Since we have a guest character, Foghorn directs his tactics against Sylvester rather than Barnyard Dawg, although Dawg is also present in the episode. As usual, Henery can't figure out what a chicken is. Foghorn misdirects him to Sylvester and gives him a way to get right under the "chicken" - by wearing a Trick Egg disguise. Sylvester initially accepts his new motherhood, until he remembers that cats don't lay eggs. However, the stubborn egg sticks to him like glue — except for a brief moment when, distracted, he grabs the dog instead. The dog responds, "I take a step and hey, I'll lay an egg." A reworked mother duck nearby takes the verbatim line from Daffy and Porky's "The Henpecked Duck" - "And for 15 years I've do it the hard way.” Sylvester finally grabs a hammer and prepares to smash the egg into oblivion. At the crucial moment, Henery jumps out and yells, "STOP!!!" The shock sends Suyvester into a visually hilarious moment of momentary insanity, in which he stretches his features as if they were rubber, then repeatedly pulls on his own cock, letting go of his Jumping head in and out of his torso! (I wonder if Rod Scribner animated this scene.) The dilemma of who to take home for dinner is finally resolved by Henery by waiting until dawn to see which "rooster" crows . When the sun comes up, all the cackling comes out of Sylvester's mouth involuntarily - thanks to Foghorn's brief introduction to the art of ventriloquism.
The shell-shocked egg(Warner 7/10/48 - Robert McKimson, director), "Booby Hatched" is almost revisited except that turtle eggs are used (a la Chuck Jones'The good egg) instead of chickens. A mother turtle buries her eggs on a sandy beach to hatch (and shoos away an explanatory sign informing the audience of this species' trait - "Oh my god, these people know that, for heaven's sake"). While mum brings a sun lamp to increase the warmth of the sand, a half-hatched egg comes out just as the sun disappears behind a cloud. As usual, the walking eggshell seeks a warm place to complete hatching. In a funny scene, he climbs onto the back of a sleeping cow. Without even opening her eyes, the cow's tail lashes out at the egg, then morphs into opposable digits, "slams open" the egg like a golf ball, and morphs back into a beater form to smack it into the barnyard . There the egg crawls briefly under a dog, who repeats the line from "Booby Hatched": "So I laid an egg." But this dog sees opportunity in such coincidences - fame, fortune and liver three times a day. He chases the egg, which runs into a chicken coop. The usual follows - the dog steals an egg from the hen's nest, and a rooster endlessly pursues the dog. In the meantime, three identical siblings have hatched on the beach and are following their mother – until Mama uses a calculator to find out that one is missing. She desperately digs in the sand with a shovel while the siblings also dig with toy beach shovels and buckets, adding musical vocal accompaniment to the quest with doggerel lyrics to familiar tunes like "Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "Billy Boy". The action alternates between digging party and chicken dog chase - with the beach excavation reaching deeper and deeper levels with the help of a steam excavator. The chase eventually reaches the beach, and Mama Turtle scoops the rooster, dog, and egg into the steam shovel's bucket, then hits the rooster and dog on the head. The egg is laid under the sun lamp and eventually hatches. The little one sticks his head in the daylight for the first time - but is disappointed at the prospects for his new life as he looks down. "Wouldn't you know? I'm still in a shell accused by the father!"
The hard boiled egg(Terrytoons/Fox 10/1/48 - Connie Rasinski, directed) - One almost wonders if the order of production isn't the same as the order of publication of this title. The film marks the screen debut of Dingbat - a goofy yellow bird generally animated by Jim Tyer, who is obviously a derivative of Disney's Aracuan bird characterThe Three Caballerosand later offThe samba is to blame for thisAndClown of the Jungle— a kind of chirping Daffy Duck in his screwball days, brought to levels of surreal weirdness more suited to Screwy Squirrel. What's odd, though, is that the character -- complete with name -- gets a proper start the next year in Gandy and Soutpus's "Dingbat Land" (1949), in a jungle setting that runs directly parallel to the build ofClown of the Jungle- so you don't miss the resemblance between the Terry and Disney characters. However, by releaseHard-boiled eggFirst, Dingbat's appearance and behavior seem out of left field and a bit unexplained, since no one has pinned the character's disposition with any portrayal. He is also not identified by name. Plans may not have gone the way the writers anticipated, therefore, and let's just say that if you watch, you'll be much better prepared to accept this character's insanityDingbat-LandFirst.
The film does have some funny moments and some typically wild Tyer animations - but it's really a collection of crazy kitchen gags without much of a storyline, and it's terribly lacking in a closing punch line. Dingbat spots a fox (Sylvester the Fox I presume) off to round up some eggs for some morning breakfast but has no luck as the birds fight back. A clever gag has a mother bird in a nest on a pole fold the nest into a traveling trunk in order to fly away just in time, leaving the fox a mousetrap in the place of the nest for it to catch its fingers. The fox falls, knocking off enough tree limbs on the way down to build a nest when it lands! Dingbat is in the mood to be annoying and conveniently has two halves of a cracked eggshell to hide in a la Dinky Duck to trick the fox into taking him home. Once there, he engages in various ways to violently injure the fox while simultaneously eating him away from home and home. (This fox just has to like the taste of eggs because he obviously wasn't starving as he had a fairly full pantry for Dingbat to devour.) Leave it to Terry to hoist some gags from other studios. A golf gag by Tom and Jerry'sTee for two, with the fox using a driver to smack the egg it believes Dingbat is out of bounds - only to have Dingbat appear at the driver's wooden end, who peers over his shoulder to watch the shot. Also, a bomb painted like an apple, straight from Screwy SquirrelHappy Go Nutty, which eats Dingbat to the core - leaving just enough to explode in the fox's face for a blackface gag. And Dingbat is holding a flag with a screw and ball design - straight out of Bugs Bunny'sBunny Remover.
The playful pelican(Lantz/UA, Andy Panda 10/8/48 - Dick Lundy, directed) delivers another shell-bound orphan. In one of Lantz's most Disney-like productions (and why not, featuring an ex-Disney director as well as the rumored added support of Disney veteran Fred Moore). Captain Andy Panda struggles to toss a blind pelican from his ship (by planting an anchor in her beak to make her six deep), then discovers that the pulley she had been sitting on was being used as a makeshift nest for the egg served that she had laid. Andy has to play sitter and hatch the baby. The newborn sticks out its head, feet, and tail, and then "dances" away the rest of the shell. Instantly hungry, he pantomimes Andy that he needs a fish. But while Andy wraps up a meal, a passing frog on deck looks like a handy on-the-go snack. The baby swallows it whole - but the frog jumps further into it, hopping the baby up the rigging to the highest mast - where the bird realizes it hasn't learned to fly yet. Andy spots the baby's precarious perch and follows the bird onto the spars. But the baby's live lunch continues to jump at inconvenient times, causing Andy and the baby to run out of spar and cause them to fall. Andy grabs a rope, resulting in a flaming rope burn. When he comes to a halt by a knotted end, he and the baby find themselves dangling in the water just a few feet above a shark. And the heat from Andy's hands has set the rope above them on fire. Desperately, Andy calls for "Mrs. Pelican!" Mom, who has been struggling underwater for five minutes, finally gets the anchor out of her mouth and dives into the water for a quick rescue. The final shot shows Mrs. Pelican with her beak open and Andy inside the baby is in. (I'm surprised they didn't manage to get the frog out somehow unscathed.)
Lucky Ducky(MGM 10/9/48, directed by Tex Avery) - No doubt conceived as a George and Junior short, but ultimately populated by two mime dogs acting in place of the bears, this barrage of hunting gags ranges from racist stereotypes to the insanely surreal . (Some examples - a "school crossing" - literally walking across the street - and a boundary line in the middle of the forest with a self-explanatory sign: "Here Ends Technicolor.") with her whole nest strapped to her by a belt. A well-placed shot cuts the harness and sends the nest falling, its eggs sprout wings on the way down and land gently on the dogs' rowboat. A baby duckling sticks its head and feet out, then performs one of the most "adult" hatches in animation history, gracefully removing its shell like a stripper's garments!
The Cuckoo(Gaumont-British Animation, 1948 (release date unknown) - David Hand, director) - My personal favorite of the Animaland shorts produced by David Hand's short-lived venture to revive a native animation industry in England after he found Disney had left . It was seen as a lucrative business as import restrictions made American cartoons more expensive for British dealers - and it worked for a while, until restrictions were relaxed and American products became more readily available - drying up the market for the new generation of local animators. While at least one other American animator (George Moreno Jr.) attempted the same idea with his on a comparatively tiny budgetbubble and squeakCartoons, David Hand's unit has at least given Americans some bang for their buck by infusing his artwork with exceptionally high standards - of a caliber suitable to rival almost everything he's done at Disney, including his work on feature filmsBambi. What it lacked, however, were sometimes wandering storylines in other episodes and in some weak animation voice choices that didn't have the distinctiveness of American cartoon icons. However, this is the jewel of the group.
Despite the title, there are no clocks in this cartoon - we're dealing with the actual bird in the wild. Beginning with a plot drawn from nature, leading to a sort of revisit of the “ugly duckling's” territory, a narrator notes that the mother cuckoo never builds her own nest, but instead insidiously destroys someone else's egg and throws her own in his Place. The "Fowl" act is committed in the nest of some English sparrows. While the remaining real egg hatches into a small and cute baby, the cheating second egg hatches into a gigantic mammoth Lummox, ten times larger, with an insatiable appetite. Mom and Dad are desperate for food, throwing what they find into the nest as they disappear to get more. Meanwhile, Cuckoo, whose arms and neck reach further than Baby Sparrow, swallows every morsel, leaving Baby Sparrow with no meal at all. At night, cuckoo takes up all the space in the nest and kicks Junior while he sleeps. In the short's most creative sequence (not short at all, at a full 9 minutes!) we are treated to Junior's Nightmare - a surreal dream sequence set against a black background that is directly reminiscent ofDumbos"Pink Elephants On Parade" featuring a trio of matching cuckoos who find unique and clever ways to devour a dream world full of ice cream, candy and other goodies, keeping Junior one step ahead - all accompanied by a catchy ditty with excellent lyrics sung by the male choir " The Cuckoo's Not So Cuckoo After All". Eventually dawn breaks and the cuckoo's kick causes Junior to fall out of the tree. He is immediately noticed by a slippery and uniquely flexible weasel, who finds him alone and hungry and invites the sparrow home for dinner. (In a neat directing, the weasel hides the loose bones of his last victim's carcass and kicks them out of sight of the cave entrance so Junior doesn't find out too soon.) The weasel announces dinner for the evening, there's a pot of Inside Soup ' - a special dish that needs to be stirred from the inside of the pot. When Junior follows with a ladle, the weasel clamps a lid on the pot with Junior "in it" and congratulates itself with "That's a good one."
However, the smell of fresh cooking has attracted another unexpected guest – the cuckoo. Past the weasel, the giant wolverine has no heroic impulses whatsoever - instead, just for being in the way, he lifts Junior out of the soup and begins to devour the contents of the pot. The weasel violently attacks the cuckoo, who is crying out for help. Junior heroically attacks the weasel's tail, drawing his attention to it. But saved from a beating, the cuckoo is no nobler than before and returns to the pot - even kicking Junior away when he tries to signal for help. In a nod to Mowgli in The Jungle Book, the sparrow finally frees her from the weasel by using a hot coal to set the weasel's tail on fire, causing it to float out of the cave entrance like a comet. The sparrow gets a chance to judge the cuckoo and leaves him. For a split second, the cuckoo almost shows remorse and half-apologetically tries to follow Junior. But then there's still this pot. So Cuckoo turns to slurp the rest of its contents - and then swallows the pot too. Most of the prints on the web are from a 35mm film with the last shot missing, but the lost scene has surfaced separately from a Super 8mm print with a pinion noise. Eventually, after swallowing the pot, the cuckoo turns to follow Junior - but is now too big to exit the cave entrance and gets stuck. The camera follows behind him and finally the letters "The End" appear on the back of his pants.
Hatch your problems(MGM, Tom & Jerry, 5/14/49 - William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, director), owes much to Sniffles' "Lost and Foundling" for setting up its plot. A mother woodpecker will leave the nest, also leaving a sign that says 'gone to lunch'. The egg in the nest begins to come to life and falls out of the tree. Take the "egg that doesn't break" trope.The Lost Chick, we get Hanna and Barbera's version of the same elaborate random events that safely transport the egg from the nest to the mouse's houseLost and Foundling– here the egg lands in a much shorter form in a spider web, slowly breaks through, lands softly in the petals of a flower, rolls on a leaf, across the yard and into Jerry's mouse hole where, like Sniffles, it rolls under the sleeping Jerry who staring at the audience with almost the same perplexed expression as Sniffles, wondering if mice lay eggs. The egg hatches a baby woodpecker who immediately assumes Jerry is "Mom!" Jerry pats the little one's head affectionately - until the chick's instincts kick in - and it begins to gobble up Jerry's walls and furniture faster than a termite. Realizing the child has to go, Jerry discovers the nest up in the tree.
He carries the young, takes it back to the nest, tucks it in and assumes it's done with him. But the young woodpecker follows on the underside of the branch Jerry is walking on. When Jerry gets home, Junior is right there with him, resulting in a Tex-Avery-style "take" eye and "ah-ooga" sound effect. Jerry puts the bird outside - but it pecks an entrance in Jerry's door in the form of its own silhouette. Jerry takes him back outside and in a pantomime he makes it clear that the bird should go and never come back. The despondent bird wanders aimlessly around the yard, randomly pecking at some wood - which turns out to be a support leg for Tom's folding chair in the backyard. An enraged Tom pours his drink on the bird, and the bird retaliates by pecking all the way through the chair leg, causing the chair to collapse on Tom and forcing his drinking glass halfway down his throat. The inevitable car chase begins, with Jerry and the Woodpecker taking turns rescuing each other from Tom's clutches. In one gag, Tom throws a long pole like a spear at Jerry - but the woodpecker pecks so fast that he catches the pole and dismembers it before it can touch Jerry. (This gag was reworked a few times at Lantz studios for later Woody Woodpecker cartoons - and in fact Lantz's redhead had already done something similar with baseball bats in the early 1940s title,The spinner). Ultimately, Tom urges Jerry to a tree stump where he hopes to finish off the mouse with an axe. The woodpecker, discovering a telephone pole, pulls out a pencil and paper and (though no one ever got him an elementary school education) comes up with an intricate set of math calculations to plot Tom's downfall. Draw an X in the calculated spot on the pole, the bird will buzz through the base of the pole.
It topples over like a tall tree, hitting Tom squarely in the head, and then bounces repeatedly on his head, driving him into the ground like a ram. At this moment mom comes back from lunch. One look of recognition and the baby gets the idea who the real mother is. He jumps into her arms and Mom flies off, leaving Jerry alone and seemingly overlooked. He lets out a sad sigh. But Junior returns, remembering his gratitude and planting a big kiss on Jetty before leaving, while Jerry returns the gesture with an affectionate wave goodbye. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and was also selected as one of the first titles to be "remade" for Cinemascope (simply by tracing and photographing the original pencil drawings in a new widescreen format, set to the same original soundtrack).The Egg and Jerry(23.3.56).
quarrel with father(Warner, Beaky Buzzard, 4/1/50 - Robert McKimson, directed) is essentially McKimson's re-imagining of The Ugly Duckling - with a baby who is destined never to be pretty. Beaky Buzzard is the abandoned egg on the doorstep of Mr. and Mrs. English Sparrow (parody of Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Colman). While mom is convinced Beaky will transform like the Hans Christian Andersen character, the little ugly bird grows into a big ugly bird. Mom convinces dad that Beaky should be taught how to forage for himself. The very mention of Beaky's name makes Papa repudiate - "Not while I'm eating!" But Papa tries to teach Beaky how to raid chicken coops (odd that a sparrow should have any knowledge of such a field - the blind lead the blind?). Of course, Beaky regularly flattens Papa and gets him in trouble with the local rooster. Papa finally resorts to heavy artillery and tries to attack the chicken coop with a hand grenade. The chickens throw it out again and it rolls over to Beaky. Beaky thinks it's an egg and decides to surprise Dad with it. The situation becomes a repeat of Porky Pig vs. Mad Bomber in 1936's The Blow Out, with Beaky surprising Papa with the ticking grenade at every turn. As dad keeps fleeing in horror, Beaky finally realizes dad doesn't want it - and decides to give it to mom. However, Mom has experience in the British Blitz, and when she sees the explosive device, she immediately throws it outside so that "no one gets hurt". BOOM! A neglected papa appears at the door, who, as a mad curtain, utters Ronald Colman's famous quote from the film: "If I were king..."
A scrambled egg(Warner, Porky Pig 5/27/50 - Robert McKimson, directed) - Porky is raising chickens again, his farm is home to the famous Hammond Eggs. He checks his laying hens' nests in the morning and is happy with most of the results, except for Miriam (who boasts of laying a painted Easter egg) and Prissy (Mckimson's blue crested damsel, in her first role), whose nest is empty is . "Prissy, why don't you ever lay an egg?" Porky demands. She whispers confidentially in his ear. "Embarrassing???" Porky responds. "Yyeeeessssss," Prissy says when she first uses her catchphrase. Porky threatens to produce better or it's her throat. Trying to get down to business, Prissy pulls down a curtain and reads "Hen at Work" and reads a hardcover of "The Egg and I." The other chickens gossip that she'll never make it - to O-L-D. Then an idea comes to you. You take an egg from the hen Agnes' nest, write the name "Prissy" on the shell, and then slide it into Prissy's nest. Excited by what she considers her accomplishments, Prissy stuffs cigars into the other chickens' mouths like a new parent. "Okay, so you laid an egg," says Porky, hearing the commotion - and then prompts her to hand it over. For one of the few times in her career, Prissy says, "No!" Porky doesn't take that for an answer, grabs the egg and hands it to the grocery truck that's just leaving with the day's delivery. Prissy frantically chases after the truck, which disappears out of sight, and continues down the country road.
In the big city, she follows the truck to the grocery store. She slips inside and begins searching the egg rack, dropping half of the grocer's supply in her frantic search. The grocer's forehead explodes like a volcano and Prissy runs for her life. Hours later, she has traced the egg to a housewife's home, where the woman ponders the strange inscription on the shell. The woman drops the egg into a pot of boiling water - but Prissy sneaks behind the stove and turns off the gas nozzle. The woman turns it back on with a bang, and as soon as she turns around, it's turned off again with a puff. The woman tries to deceive by verbally repeating the "pop" of the gas jet. Prissy extends her hand and reveals herself. The woman chases Prissy with a broomstick, but she retrieves the egg and runs deeper into town, into the dark side of town (1313 13th Street). She hears police sirens. "Heaven to Betsy. I'm on the run!” Prissy states and disappears into a run-down apartment building. The police might care less about her, of course (as Porky finds out at the police station, reporting a missing hen), but they're actually on the trail of Pretty Boy Bagle, a hitman - who just so happens to be hiding in the apartment building. Prissy finds himself in the middle of a police shootout, with the seemingly unarmed criminal throwing rocks out the window at the cops.
"This nice man. I'm fighting to protect my egg," Prissy notes. As Porky looks on helplessly outside, the police throw in a tear gas bomb. Pretty Boy is reserved - and so is Prissy, who apart from Porky, who takes her home, nobody notices. Back at the farm, Prissy still isn't ready to give up the egg until the other chickens spot the joke. "Take it from her. Agnes laid it.” A sad Prissy drops the egg and walks away – but a miniature version of herself emerges from the shell. "Well, you really were Prissy's egg," Porky asks the chick. “Yeeessssss!” the cub replies.
Here's a little clip:
Goldene Yeggs(Warner, Daffy Duck, 8/5/50- I. (Friz) Freleng, dir.), was previously detailed in my Countdown to 2020 series. It's another tale of the goose that laid the golden egg - except this goose is smart enough to keep its mouth shut and not take credit for the deed in order to save its own skin. Instead, she points the finger at Daffy Duck, who, despite being the wrong species and a man at that, is basking in unexpected fame. Until gangster Rocky kidnaps the fowl as "better than the number bat". After trying by any means necessary to stop or escape, Daffy eventually lays a golden egg - at gunpoint. "You don't know what you can do until you have a gun to your head." But one egg won't satisfy Rocky, who has a closet full of egg crates. "Fill them up," Rocky commands. "Oh, my sore back!" moans Daffy, passing out on the iris.
Here are the first two and a half minutes:
Chicken in the Rough(Disney/RKO, Chip 'n' Dale 01/19/51 - Jack Hannah, directed) - In their first solo short film, the two mischievous chipmunks collect nuts next to a farm. Several introductory shots are saved by excising a sizeable chunk of footage from the 1938 Silly Symphony, Farmyard Symphony, allowing us to establish a rooster in the usual commanding position. Several other ideas are also raised. Dale discovers a nest of eggs and thinks they are walnuts (adapted from Harman-Ising's The Lost Chick). Chip corrects him by miming a chicken. A frustrated Dale sits on one of the eggs and accidentally hatches it. He shows Chip his creation, only to be ordered by Chip to quickly take it back. Dale attempts to reassemble the shell around the chick (reminiscent of Sniffle's "Little Brother Rat"), but the chick brushes away the shell fragments like Dale is crazy. Dale tries to teach by example by building the egg around himself again. Instead of staying here, the chick leaves this crazy character behind and is never seen again. Dale looks out of the pan just long enough to see the mother hen return - and seals herself back inside the pan. He sweats under the warmth of his mother (borrowed from the studio's Contrary Condor) and finally breaks out. Mom calls to the rooster to announce hatching.
Dale plays cuckoo with the rooster, trying not to be spotted until the rooster sweeps away the shell fragments. Dale keeps up the masquerade, peeping and pecking like a chick. Pop Hahn is still not convinced. He grabs a caterpillar crawling nearby and places it in front of Dale - then taps his toes impatiently as if to say, "All right. Eat it!" In what might be the film's funniest shot, Dale and the caterpillar simultaneously stare helplessly at the camera and swallow hard - you almost expect one or the other to say, "We've got ourselves into another mess here." The two of them come up with the same idea and move on, Dale pecks at the caterpillar until they both disappear around a corner. Behind a box, they stage a mock fight with screaming and hammering, but Dad looks over the edge of the box and catches them in the act . Dale appears and smacks his lips like he's just eaten - but the rooster is not fooled. Dale rebuilds the eggshell one last time and hides again while the rooster tries to stomp the egg. But Mom Hen comes, scolds the rooster for his behavior and brings Dale in, where her other chicks are now out of the shell too.Dale is sat on again - but there is no escape as the rooster paces impatiently in front of the hen house. From the beams of the barn, Chip laughs out loud at Dale's plight as Dale is forced to continue living the life of a chick while his brothers and sisters scratch and pull at his ears.
Golden Egg Daisy(Terrytoons/Fox 8/1/51 - Eddie Donnelly, directed) is a good active episode with modern timing. The title character looks like a sister, friend, or at least second cousin of Gandy Goose — with about as much brains, who spends her whole day hopping around with a yo-yo and playing mindless. Two wolves, a small, clever one and a large, stupid one, watch them hungrily from the bushes. In a clever sight gag, they picture her fried on a platter in their mind's eye - but with her grand piano still playing with the yo-yo! They give chase, but the goose runs into a barn and crashes into the opposite wall, knocking itself temporarily unconscious. Above her, a can of gold paint has been knocked over on a wall shelf (odd choice of color - when was the last farmhouse you saw painted gold?). The whole can pours straight into the open beak of the goose. When she wakes up, she's dazedly smiling at the camera, revealing two gleaming golden buck teeth (a reference to the closing gag of Paramount's "Cilly Goose"). She swallows and realizes with a soft crack that she has laid a shiny golden egg. Any more hiccups - and the room is full of them. The wolves are catching up and their eyes burst with dollar signs, confident they've found the fabled goose that lays the golden eggs. Chase gags will soon abound. The Wolves (voiced by Dayton Allen essentially with his Heckle and Dimwit voices) prove about as effective and contradictory as Tex Avery's George and Junior - right down to a scene where the little wolf takes a misstep from the big one Wolf's punishment is similar to George's typical "bend over" admonition.
A clever diversion to get the goose to stop is to have the big wolf disguise himself as Keystome Kop and direct traffic to stop, while the little wolf frolic in kid's clothes as a pedestrian crossing the street. Finally the goose is caught. But when the little wolf instructs the big one to round up the eggs too, the voice of greed awakens in the form of a shoulder devil, reminding him why should he share? Isn't he the brains of the outfit? So the little wolf makes a cigar loaded with TNT and gives it to the big wolf for his good work. The little wolf is waiting outside for the explosion - but nothing. Here comes the big wolf with the goose and the eggs, takes one last drag on the cigar, which has now become a mere stub, and throws the stub on the floor. The little wolf picks up the useless butt and shrugs – then the ka-boom! The friendship ends as the little wolf gives chase on a motorbike equipped with cannons. The big wolf only dodges the explosion by crashing into a tree and falling into the lake with the goose. The goose escapes cleanly and swims away, but the big wolf still has the egg basket. He's still willing to share with the now calmed little wolf - but the river water is washing the color off the eggs. "Fake!" cries little wolf (same line as the two-headed giant inbean jack). The final scene shows the wolves dividing up the eggs - "One for you and one for me" - except they don't hoard or eat them - each egg is tossed by the other onto its mate, so both learn a lesson that won't be forgotten.
Next time: Only one cub holds the record over the cuckoo for sheer bulk and clumsiness. We meet him - twice - next week.