Conrad the Sailor

Conrad the Sailor
title card
Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Animation by	Ben Washam
Layouts by	John McGrew
Backgrounds by	Gene Fleury
Color process	Technicolor
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Running time	7 min, 08 sec

Conrad the Sailor is a 1942 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Chuck Jones. The title character, a.k.a. Conrad the Cat, is voiced by Pinto Colvig. The other featured player is Daffy Duck, voiced as usual by Mel Blanc.

Plot synopsis

The story takes place aboard a battleship staffed by anthropomorphic cats (barely recognizable as such), most of whom are singing "The Song of the Marines (Shovin' Right Off Again)" as a chorale group. Cut to Conrad, who talks and sings exactly like Colvig's characterization of the Walt Disney character "Goofy".

As Conrad swabs the deck, he is interrupted by Daffy and his pranks. The two spend the cartoon chasing and tormenting each other. A running gag in the picture is that all action screeches to a halt whenever the ship's diminutive captain walks by, as both sailor and duck snap to attention and salute. The final gag involves Conrad and Daffy being chased by a shell from one of the ship's big guns. All three, including the shell, snap to attention as the captain walks by.

Innovation

Animator John McGrew borrowed much of the staging for the cartoon from Sergei Eisenstein's film The Battleship Potemkin. It also saw his first use of match cuts where different objects in separate scenes would have the same basic shape, with McGrew giving the example of a gun and a cloud.

Availability

Conrad the Sailor is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 Disc 4.

See also

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)