The Ducksters
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| The Ducksters | |
|---|---|
| File:The Ducksters Title.jpg The title card of The Ducksters. | |
| Directed by | Charles M. Jones |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer (uncredited) |
| Animation by | Lloyd Vaughan Ken Harris Phil Monroe Ben Washam |
| Layouts by | Robert Gribbroek |
| Backgrounds by | Peter Alvarado |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Running time | 7 minutes |
The Ducksters is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short animated in 1949 and released in 1950. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The title is a pun on The Hucksters, a 1947 film.
Synopsis
Porky Pig is on a radio quiz show called Truth or AAAAHHH!!, a parody of the popular quiz show Truth or Consequences (but with far worse consequences than a loss of points) hosted by Daffy Duck, sponsored by "Eagle Hand Laundry" ("If your eagle's hands are dirty, we'll wash them clean!"), and broadcast by the Ajax Broadcasting Company, in which the object is to answer near-impossible questions, such as "Who, mind you WHO, was the referee for the New Zealand heavyweight championship fight in 1726?" (here, Porky actually knew it was "Arbuckle Dreen," and even knew that Dreen's Second Grade teacher was "Abigail Twitch"). Failing to answer the other questions correctly or in time required him to "pay the penalty" (for instance, when Daffy asks who was the father of his country, Porky's stuttering prevents him from answering "George Washington" in time). These penalties include Porky being threatened by a buzz saw, pounded with a mallet, blown up with dynamite, crushed by a safe, crushed by the Rock of Gibraltar, rained upon by Niagara Falls, and other forms of abuse, to Daffy's amusement. Porky tries several times to back out, but each time Daffy manages to reel him back in, even shooting an audience member dead when he shouts "You'll be sorry!".
Eventually, after a particularly snide line from Daffy ("listen, Mac; You got 32 teeth, would you like to try for 16?," a play on the then-popular game Take it or Leave It), Porky threatens to retaliate, forcing Daffy to offer his final challenge for a huge jackpot. Porky must guess who Miss Shush is with his only clue being a recording of her brushing her teeth on Wednesdays. Porky fails to answer correctly (obviously) and Daffy invites him into Miss Shush's dressing room to meet her, but it's revealed by Daffy to be his final torture; Miss Shush is really Mamie, a 600 pound gorilla who appears in Obnoxious Pictures' "Jungle Jitters", and who proceeds to viciously and loudly maul Porky. Porky eventually emerges and advances on Daffy menacingly, and Daffy finally gives in: awarding Porky the jackpot of 26 million dollars and three cents. Porky immediately contacts the president of the Ajax Broadcasting Company and, upon learning that they will sell for the exact amount of the jackpot, buys it out.
Now Daffy's boss, Porky takes over the quiz show and then asks a very nervous Daffy: "in what latitude and longitude did the Wreck of the Hesperus occur?" Daffy fails to answer correctly in time, and Porky turns the tables, submitting Daffy to the same "penalties and prize" that he had received earlier. Daffy is then tied to a long plank being cut by the same buzz saw Porky was on to begin the cartoon, quickly irising out after Daffy screams at the studio audience: "Have you got a doctor in the balcony, lady?!" (this line was a takeoff of another radio quiz show, Doctor IQ, where the announcer would note "I have a lady in the balcony, doctor" to introduce a new contestant).
Production details
The cartoon's title is a play on The Hucksters, a satirical novel about the advertising business that was made into a 1947 live-action film starring Clark Gable.
There are several references to well-known people in this cartoon, such as Eli Whitney, George Washington, and even Lauren Bacall.
A reference to one of the "Censored Eleven" shorts, 1938's Jungle Jitters, pops up, but the context makes it clear that Daffy is referring to a different (presumably fictitious) film by the same name, since the original cartoon did not feature any character fitting the description of "Miss Shush, the 600-pound gorilla", who Daffy claims starred in Jungle Jitters.
The identification of the Ajax Broadcasting Company was an unusual name for Warner Bros.; Ajax was a name more commonly used by rival studio Disney, whereas Warner Bros. would more commonly use Acme Corporation in its later productions.
This is one of several post-1948 Warner Bros. cartoons whose original title cards have been cut and replaced in the Blue Ribbon reissue version.[1] In such films, the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies title fades to a replaced title card, which then cuts to the credits from the original version. In all other post-1948 films reissues, the Blue Ribbon title cuts right to the original title card. It remains unknown why such edits were made (most probably to fit in the 1.85:1 (Panavision) or 2:1 (SuperScope) ratios, noting that those cartoons were reissued during the late 1950s, when widescreen was the new standard), as no one has been able to recover any original prints of most such cartoons.