Release Date:

March 31, 1956

Main Character(s):

Pepe Le Pew, Penelope

Summary:

In order to get fish being unloaded from a cargo ship at the French Riviera and to get past the dogs constantly barking loudly at her, Penelope rubs her back up against a freshly-painted flagpole to resemble a skunk. This scares the dogs away, and allows her to make off with a fish, but also causes Pepe Le Pew to mistake her for a female skunk and chase her all over the countryside.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1379 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

Jones wrote this one himself.

This is the only Pepe cartoon to have layouts by Ernie Nordli.

The cartoon’s plot slightly reworks the premise of Pepe’s first cartoon, “Odor-Able Kitty” from eleven years prior, only he’s pursuing an actual female, and doesn’t feature the twist ending of him already being married and having children and that his accent was fake (every Pepe cartoon released after that has him single and with his accent being genuine).

An exclusive “Pepe Le Pew in” title card is used for this cartoon.

The building seen to the left of Penelope’s residence is “Jean Valjean Candlestiques et Bread”. In the novel, “Les Miserables”, the character of Jean Valjean was incarcerated for stealing bread.

The title is a play on words for “heaven sent” (a phrase used by the Beatles in their 1968 single, “Lady Madonna”).

The back cover art of the Looney Tunes Super Stars Pepe Le Pew Zee Best of Zee Best DVD set features Pepe doing a recreated pose from this cartoon (specifically the scene when he holds his hand up to his ear to listen to his echo).

The building behind Penelope when she gets ambushed by the first dog is “M. Edourd Selzer Bottles”, with this of course being a reference to Eddie Selzer.

This is the second of only two times where Penelope intentionally makes herself look like a skunk, with the other being in “Scent-imental Romeo”.

Favorite Scene:

Pepe finds Penelope on the cliff edge of “Le Echo Pointe” and upon skidding to a stop, he hears the echo of the rocks clattering, so he shouts, “I-I-I love-love-love you-you-you!”, to which his echo comes back as “I love you!” three times.

What Happens in This One:

Over the opening credits, a fisherman is sailing on his boat toward the Riviera and singing, “Au clair de la lune”. Once there and still singing, he begins scooping bucket after bucket full of fish and dumping them into baskets. Up where she resides, Penelope gets a whiff of the fish and is delighted with the thought of a fish meal. She walks out and begins making her way over daintily on all four’s only to be confronted by a dog, whose sudden appearance and barking cause her to jump up to a flower pot hanging off the top story of another house. Another dog appears from there and scares Penelope into jumping onto the ledge of another building. Two dogs appear from there and scare her into jumping onto the shutters of another top story window. This time, six dogs show up barking loudly (animated by Ken Harris).

Penelope finds herself hanging onto a flagpole by her feet upside down and then notices a sign warning, “No Touchet Le Flagge Pole! Le Painte Es Wette”, with the latter word underlined. Getting an idea, Penelope gives an evil smirk down towards the dogs’ direction before moving under the flagpole, which rubs her back against the paint and gives her the white stripe (animated by Harris). She then walks down from her residence on all four’s as the dogs come toward her again. Penelope turns around to show them she’s apparently a skunk, which causes the dogs to skid to a stop in fear. One of the dogs takes refuge on a hanging sign, “Le Yellow Dogge Inne”, a second dog in a street lamp, a third dog in a bird house, much to the anger of the bird who lives there, and a fourth dog under a stork on its nest. Satisfied at scaring the dogs away, Penelope walks down to the Riviera on all four’s and encounters the fisherman having finished unloading all of the fish and about to take the baskets away. She greets him with “Le mew”. The fisherman becomes horrified, “Un skunk cat de pole pew!”, and dashes away, leaving his shoes behind. He hides in a room in the boat with the sign, “Do Not Disturbe Vous!” Penelope then leaves while carrying a fish in her mouth (animated by Abe Levitow).

Later napping in the flowers in a field, Penelope is seen very content and purring after having eaten the fish she stole. Meanwhile, Pepe is walking along the nearby tall flowers and singing “While Strolling Through the Park One Day” in fractured French- sung nicely by Mel Blanc. He eventually spots Penelope and says one of the lyrics to describe this, “I was taken by surprise!” before confiding, “By a pair of roguish eyes”, and then running towards her love-struck and singing very rapidly, “In a moment my poor heart was stole away!” Holding Penelope in an embrace and smooching in between verses, Pepe continues the song, “A smile was all you gave to me!; (smooches in rhythm) And we will be as happy as can be! (smooches in rhythm)” Penelope then spins around wildly to get away from Pepe’s grasp before running off. After he’s finished spinning around from this, Pepe notes, “She is surprisingly strong!” He then hops after her on all four’s as he calls out, “Hey, baby! Wait for me! I am strong too!” (animated by Richard Thompson)

Penelope hides in one of numerous baskets of grapes waiting to be turned into wine but then immediately runs out in horror. It turns out Pepe was already in there as he emerges from the grapes, confused. “She looks everywhere for me. She find me. Then she run away. Why?” Penelope then runs into a hollow tree (animated by Thompson). With only her eyes seen in the dark, Penelope pants for breath, only for Pepe- with only his eyes also visible- to suddenly appear next to her and say, “Marry me”. She runs out of the tree before Pepe comes out in full view and asks, “Too sudden?” He then decides, “Very well. I shall play ‘not quite so easy to get’”, and hums to “The Band Played On”, before noting, “Strong-willed, am I not?” (animated by Ben Washam)

Still running off, Penelope is confronted by Pepe running in front of her and trying to talk, “Darling, you must give me time to think. Oh, I like you and all that, but…but…. marriage, I-I just don’t know”. In the midst of him saying this, Penelope skids to a stop and runs in a different direction over a fence. Pepe informs us, “I will take the river road and cut her off at the pass”. He takes the shortcut, doing his hop on all four’s the whole way (animated by Thompson).

Waiting by the mountainside for Penelope to approach, Pepe sings “The Band Played On” before checking his pocket watch. Remarking, “It won’t be long now”, he holds his arms out in an embrace, causing Penelope to run straight into his arms. Pepe then starts flirting in French and ends with, “What’s the matter, baby?” before smooching hard. Penelope spins around wildly again and flees once more. After spinning around upside down and then getting back up, Pepe looks at the audience for a brief second and then chuckles, “She is shy”. Continuing to hop after her on all four’s, Pepe calls out, “Come back, darling! Golden violet! I will un-shy you! (chuckles) You are just insecure!” (animated by Harris)

As Penelope climbs up the mountainside, Pepe continues hopping after her, “All you need is a little occupational therapy! Like making love!” Reaching the top, Penelope stops at the edge of “Le Echo Pointe”. Pepe skids to a stop and upon noticing what the sign reads, shouts a message for it to echo, “I-I-I love-love-love you-you-you!” He then puts his hand up to his ear to listen out for it, which comes back as “I love you!” being said three times. Pepe asks Penelope, “Pretty good, eh?” before grabbing her in another embrace, “For a growing boy, that is. Because, darling, I am a boy and I am growing fonder of you every day”. Penelope runs off again, launching Pepe into the air and ending up with him hanging on the cliff upside down by the toes on his right foot. Pepe notes, “Did you know that when you are in love, it is almost impossible to get insurance?” Looking in the direction Penelope ran, Pepe decides, “But then, eh, security isn’t everything!” (animated by Washam)

Penelope runs across a bridge with Pepe hopping after her on all four’s. She runs under a sign in front of a tunnel and continues down said tunnel. Pepe stops to look at it, with the sign reading, “No Entre. Le Tunnel Es Blocked”. Pepe tells us, “As a distinguished colleague of mine once noted, ‘There is very little difference between men and women’, but…. Vive Le Difference!” Pepe continues hopping on all four’s down into the tunnel to eventually catch up to Penelope at the unseen blockage as the cartoon irises out (animated by Thompson).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½