Dime to Retire
| Dime to Retire | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert McKimson |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer (uncredited) |
| Animation by | Robert McKimson Co-animation: Keith Darling Effects animation: Harry Love |
| Layouts by | Robert Givens |
| Backgrounds by | Richard H. Thomas |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Dime to Retire is a Looney Tunes cartoon that stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. It was released on September 3, 1955, directed and animated by Robert McKimson and voices by Mel Blanc.[1] It runs 7 minutes.[2]
Plot
Daffy works as an unscrupulous hotel-keeper and requires only a dime from Porky to stay at his motel initially. He then proceeds to send various animals up to disturb Porky's sleep (in room #16) and makes Porky pay a certain amount of money to get rid of them, and he slowly tries to increase the fees as each new animal causes problems.
It initially starts with a mouse eating celery and disrupting Porky's sleep, the extermination by cat of which is $5. The cat, which refuses to leave the bed, is then eliminated by a boxer dog by fee of $10, which repeatedly box-punches Porky after Daffy sounds a boxing bell. The dog is then evicted by a $26 lion, which tries to eat Porky; the lion is eradicated by an elephant for a $72 fee; the elephant engulfs the whole room and is exterminated (driven off) by the celery-eating mouse for $666, thus wrecking Porky's room and causing the whole loop to repeat.
Eventually, Porky gets fed up and decides to leave without paying Daffy the initial room fee. In response to Porky's "deadbeat" behavior, Daffy holds Porky's baggage which has blasting powder in it, which Porky deliberately sets off shortly after he starts his car (the exhaust pipe lighting the powder leaking from the briefcase) and Daffy walks inside the motel. Just as Porky departs, the lit fuse follows Daffy into his motel office; the motel explodes and has to be closed for renovation. The short ends with Daffy asking the composer to play “a little traveling music please” (a reference to The Jackie Gleason Show) before running out of the now-ruined motel and running away shouting in pain as his tail feathers are on fire.
Availability
Dime to Retire is available, uncensored and uncut, on the Looney Tunes Superstars-Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl DVD. However, it was cropped to widescreen. It was also released on the VHS, Daffy Duck: Madcap Mania.
References
- ^ Webb, Graham (2000). The animated film encyclopedia: a complete guide to American shorts, features and sequences 1900-1979. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-0728-6.
- ^ Pierce, David (1998). Motion picture copyrights & renewals, 1950-1959. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-927347-02-0.