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The Scarlet Pumpernickel is an animated Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1950, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The title is a play on The Scarlet Pimpernel.
The Scarlet Pumpernickel | |
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Looney Tunes (Daffy Duck/Porky Pig/Sylvester the Cat/Melissa Duck) series | |
The title card of The Scarlet Pumpernickel. | |
Directed by | Charles M. Jones |
Produced by | Edward Selzer (uncredited) |
Story by | Michael Maltese |
Voices by | Mel Blanc Bea Benaderet (uncredited) |
Music by | Carl Stalling |
Animation by | Phil Monroe Ben Washam Lloyd Vaughan Ken Harris |
Layouts by | Robert Gribbroek |
Backgrounds by | Peter Alvarado |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Release date(s) | March 4, 1950 (US) |
Color process | Technicolor |
Running time | 7 minutes, 2 seconds |
Language | English |
In 1994 it was voted #31 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.
Screenplay
The cartoon is a story within a story. Daffy Duck is fed up with comedy and wants to try a dramatic act instead. He offers a script to Warner Bros.' chief Jack L. Warner - whom he addresses, as most people did, as "J.L." - called The Scarlet Pumpernickel, which he wrote himself (under the name "Daffy Dumas Duck.")
As Daffy reads the script to J.L., the cartoon cuts away to various scenes and then back to J.L.'s office. Each time, Daffy announces a page number. By the cartoon's end, the script has exceeded 2,000 pages (movie scripts much in excess of 100 pages were usually rejected as too long back in those days).
In this script, the clumsy Scarlet Pumpernickel (Daffy) constantly outsmarts the Lord High Chamberlain's (Porky Pig) men, to the Chamberlain's fury and the delight of the Fair Lady Melissa. Melissa loves Scarlet, but her happy mood is extinguished in a heartbeat when the Chamberlain orders her to "Keep away from that masked band-d-d-d-d-desperad-d-d-d-d-that masked stinker!" The Chamberlain gets a brilliant plan and decides to marry Melissa to the Grand Duke (Sylvester) in an attempt to lure the Scarlet Pumpernickel to town and then kill him.
As planned, the Scarlet Pumpernickel is drawn to town to interrupt the wedding. He arrives disguised as a noble to research and develop his plan for rescuing Melissa. Storming the wedding ceremony through the use of a "Ye Little Olympic Highjumper" (a pin and a jab in the posterior) as she is walking up the aisle, he is instantly successful as Melissa tears herself from the Chamberlain's arms and runs from the chapel, dragging Scarlet with her and shouting, "Help, Scarlet! Save me!" Scarlet responds, as an aside, "So what's to save?" Scarlet takes her back to the inn where he is staying, and leaves briefly. The Grand Duke, in pursuit of Scarlet, stops for respite at the inn and spots Melissa on the staircase. As he corners her, Scarlet swings in. Notably in this segment of the plot there is a running gag in which Daffy compares his own daring stunts with those of Errol Flynn.
The Grand Duke and the Scarlet Pumpernickel engage in an intense duel, but no conclusive ending is given as to who ultimately wins the battle and what happens at the end. Daffy, as the scriptwriter, either having only thought of the beginning and middle of the story or lost the rest of his script underneath a huge pile of pages, and being pressured by the enthusiastic J.L., overdoes the ending as an unlikely series of random and accelerating natural disasters; a thunderstorm breaking a dam, a cavalry charge through the resulting flood, an erupting volcano, and skyrocketing food prices (notably kreplach), to which J.L. asks, "Is that all?" At his wit's end, Daffy shoots through his hat in exhaustion, as if representing the Scarlet Pumpernickel committing suicide, commenting, "It's getting so you have to kill yourself to sell a story around here".
- Mel Blanc as Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd, and J.L.
- Bea Benaderet as Melissa Duck (uncredited)
This is notable among Looney Tunes shorts for its unusually large cast of "star" characters (which, in addition to Daffy, Porky, and Sylvester, includes Elmer Fudd, Henery Hawk and Mama Bear from Jones' Three Bears series). The only well-known characters to not star in this cartoon (among those that had been in cartoons already) were Bugs Bunny, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety Bird and Yosemite Sam (Foghorn was exclusive to Robert McKimson, while the latter two were used mainly by Friz Freleng). It was also the only cartoon directed by Chuck Jones in which he used Sylvester in a speaking role.
Mel Blanc voices Elmer Fudd, who plays the role of an innkeeper here. Elmer was originally voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan, but since the character had only one line of dialogue, Mel Blanc was told to go ahead and imitate Bryan's voice for the character. Blanc did not like imitating, however, believing it to be stealing from another actor.
Although the title (invoking a type of bread instead of a flower) is a pun on The Scarlet Pimpernel, the Pumpernickel is given a portrayal closer to that of Robin Hood: in one scene, after Daffy fails to perform a stunt, he mutters, "That's funny - that never happens to Errol Flynn," and his costumed appearance is more like Zorro, with cape, mask and sword, none of which the Pimpernel used. His alter ego, the "Nobleman disguise," is, however, more in line with wealthy English fop Sir Percy Blakeney of the Pimpernel fame. Michael Barrier's commentary on the DVD pointed out that Errol Flynn had nothing to do with The Scarlet Pimpernel; rather, the star was actually Leslie Howard. But, since Flynn was better-known, his name was referenced in the gags.
The Scarlet Pumpernickel is available, uncensored, digitally restored and uncut on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc 2. It is also available on The Essential Daffy Duck DVD, the Carrotblanca VHS and the Looney Tunes Collectors Edition: Running Amuck VHS from Columbia House.