Release Date:

August 14, 1948

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

A scheming parrot named Louie lives with his housemate, a big and very dumb cat named Heathcliff. Louie finds out in their unseen master’s will that Heathcliff is intended to receive one million dollars, but Louie will receive the money if Heathcliff disappears or dies. Due to Heathcliff being too stupid to realize what’s going on, most of Louie’s schemes to bump him off backfire.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1088 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was produced in Cinecolor, resulting in it being finished early. It also uses the 1949 orange rings with the blue background. However, all circulating prints of the cartoon inexplicably use the late 1957-1959 blue rings with the red background (including its restoration on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 DVD set).

In production order, William Scott had been fired (the last Warner cartoon he wrote was Davis’ sole Bugs Bunny cartoon, “Bowery Bugs”), so this is the first of only three cartoons that Lloyd Turner wrote solo, with the other two being “Odor of the Day” (released less than two months later and will actually be Friday’s cartoon) and “Holiday for Drumsticks” (1949).

Notably, the cat in this cartoon’s name is Heathcliff, which would of course be the name of a certain other cat. Interestingly, Mel Blanc (who voices both Heathcliff and Louie here) provided voices for the 1984 Heathcliff TV series (5 years before his passing in 1989).

The title is a pun for “do-re-mi”, with the “dough” in this case referring to the term sometimes used for money and with “me-ow” referring to the onomatopoeia of a cat. As I had first seen this cartoon in 2014 (2013 and 2014 were the years where my lifelong fascination of these cartoons first began while 2015 was the year where I first became aware of all of them), I hadn’t watched “The Sound of Music” prior. So after the singing of “doe- a deer, a female deer; ray- a golden sun, me- a name I call myself”, I had imagined to myself “ow- a word I say when I’m hurt”.

The cartoon is in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book.

Heathcliff makes a cameo appearance near the end of the movie “Looney Tunes Back in Action” (2003).

The cartoon’s plot would be reworked by Tex Avery in his 1949 MGM cartoon, “Wags to Riches”, where the bulldog Spike (not the one from the Tom and Jerry cartoons) attempts to bump off Droopy to get the entire estate of their millionaire master, with that cartoon also making use of the “character doesn’t know thing is a painting and makes it look like it’s real” gag (interestingly, it was released almost a whole year after this one on August 13, 1949).

Anthony Kotorac, of the entertaining YouTube channel, “Anthony’s Animation Talk” names this cartoon as his very favorite Looney Tunes cartoon (I will reveal what mine is when we get to it in about a month). This one is definitely a great choice as I actually consider this to be a quintessential Looney Tunes cartoon, as it epitomizes what makes them the greatest pieces of film to ever exist (in my opinion) and why Davis’ output was consistently excellent (other perfect examples that prove the latter case include “Two Gophers from Texas”, “A Hick A Slick and a Chick”, and of course, “What Makes Daffy Duck”).

Heathcliff’s voice is similar to Sylvester’s portrayal in “Catch As Cats Can”.

What I Like About This One:

First smiling at the audience upon looking up from reading “Rooster’s Millions”, Louie hears pained cries coming from Heathcliff, who has caught his finger in a mousetrap (animated by Basil Davidovich). “Take it off, Louie! Take it off! It hurts, Louie! Make it let go!” After Louie removes it, Heathcliff hugs him for it, saying it feels much better. Struggling to let go, Louie chides him: “Now go away and stay out of trouble!” (animated by Emery Hawkins).

Heathcliff is so stupid that he forgets to breathe and turns purple in the face choking. Irritated, Louie slaps him, “Breathe, stupid! Breathe! You forgot to breathe again!” After Heathcliff does so, he comments on how much better it is. Louie tells him to go into the next room and play (animated by Hawkins up to here), but Heathcliff crashes offscreen and comes back with a lump on his head: “Duh, I fell down Louie” to which Louie looks at him with an angry eye (animated by Don Williams).

Heathcliff randomly finds the master’s will and asks Louie to “read to me what’s on this pretty paper”. Louie starts to read it out before he sputters at seeing the next part: “I leave one million dollars to my pet cat, Heathcliff. In the event of his disappearance, the money goes to my pet bird, Louie”. Louie imagines Heathcliff next to a large pile of money with an equals sign between them. Louie then imagines himself in Heathcliff’s place, dressed as a millionaire (animated by Williams).

Louie finishes, “Eh, you don’t want me to read to ya now, Heathcliff”. Heathcliff asks, “Eh, I don’t?” (animated by Williams) Louie asks him if he would like to take a nice long vacation (animated by Davidovich), to which Heathcliff is very enthusiastic about and chants while jumping up and down: “Oh, boy! A vacation! No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks!” After Louie sends Heathcliff out the door, Heathcliff returns instantly: “Duh, I got homesick, Louie” (animated by Williams).

Louie pays a bulldog to beat up Heathcliff, luring him out by making it look like the bulldog is about to beat up Louie. Instead, Heathcliff effortlessly beats up the bulldog by whacking him on the ground and holding his legs. “Ah, you shouldn’t have ought to done that. Louie is my friend, yes sir, my best little pal”, even though Louie is clearly peeved at this (animated by Davidovich).

Heathcliff is next seen using a nutcracker against his head trying to crack open a nut. Louie suddenly puts an apple atop his head to which Heathcliff asks him what it’s for. Louie tells him they’re going to play “William Tell” as he substitutes the apple with a cherry. Heathcliff’s response is, “Oh, boy! William Tell! William Tell! Eh, duh, who’s he?” Louie shoots about a dozen arrows at Heathcliff, but to his shock, they all pin to the cherry instead (animated by Bill Melendez).

As Heathcliff is now using a mallet on his head to crack open another nut, Louie walks past with two wires (from a lamp), explaining that he’s going to play “radio”. Louie instructs Heathcliff on how to play “radio” by telling him to stick the wires in his ears and to plug it in the wall. Heathcliff then acts as an actual radio, pressing his nose to change stations before finding one he likes, which is a jingle of Mel Blanc vocal effects. Flabbergasted, Louie realizes, “It works! Hey, give me back my radio!”, but upon sticking them into his own ears, gets an electric shock and sputters like a car, and repeatedly lights up “Eat at Joe’s” on his chest (animated by Melendez).

Now playing “train” by wearing a can on his head, Heathcliff imitates one with Louie’s intention being for Heathcliff to be run over by a real train. While a train wreck does occur, Heathcliff is shown be unharmed, but very ashamed. “I done a bad thing”, he says before shedding a tear (animated by Melendez).

As Heathcliff is now using some sort of flattening machine against his head to crack open another nut, Louie tells him he has a surprise for him. It’s a birthday cake to which Heathcliff first starts saying “Happy birthday to me” (animated by Davidovich) before realizing, “Hey, today ain’t my birthday, Louie” as Louie gets out three candles as well as a dynamite stick. Louie insists that it is, and tells Heathcliff to light them. Heathcliff does, but notices “Duh, hey, there’s four candles here and I’m only three” (animated by Melendez). He gives Louie the dynamite stick, “We won’t need this one”. Louie puts it back in the cake, “Oh, yes we will. You’re four”. Heathcliff gives it back to him: “Oh, no, I’m three” before running off. After being chased into another room, they are heard arguing again: “You’re four.” “I am NOT. I’m three” (animated by Davidovich).

The chase continues through the drainpipe (animated by Davidovich). Louie comes out first and tells the emerging Heathcliff, “Eh, now look Heathcliff, let’s not get excited. You’re four” as he puts the dynamite stick back and sends him back down the drainpipe. Heathcliff comes back up and whispers, “No, I’m not, Louie. I’m only three years old”, giving him back the dynamite stick (animated by Williams).

Back in the house, Louie yells, “You’re four” during the chase before Heathcliff retreats into another room and shuts the door. Louie frantically bangs on it before attempting to blow out the dynamite stick. He attempts to put out the fuse by dunking it in a bucket of water, but that proves to be very futile. After attempting to cut it off (animated by Davidovich up to here), Louie bangs on the door again, only for Heathcliff to finally open it: “You was right, Louie. I’m four. I found my birth certificate and it says I’m four”. Said birth certificate has the exact words, “You’re four” on it. “So give me back my candle”, he demands while grabbing it back (animated by Hawkins).

After the inevitable explosion, Heathcliff’s nine lives start to ascend as he bids goodbye: “I’m goin’, Louie. Goodbye, Louie. Duh, I'm goin’”. The ninth life listens as Louie laughs, “Well, it’s too bad you’re going, Heathcliff, because if you WEREN’T going, you would inherit one million bucks. And you can’t take it with you, ya know!” With this, the ninth life whistles for the previous eight to come back as they all re-enter Heathcliff’s body. Heathcliff decides, “Duh, well, if I can’t take ‘em with me, I’m not goin’!” (animated by Hawkins)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕