Release Date:

November 26, 1955

Main Character(s):

Sylvester, Elmer Fudd

Summary:

Sylvester has inherited a fortune of three million dollars, and he and his alley cat friends want to have a jolly time spending it. Elmer Fudd, as Sylvester’s financial advisor, shows him why he should consider investing the money instead.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1393 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This is the second of the three cartoons produced for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This one teaches about investment.

This is the first pairing of Sylvester and Elmer since “Kit for Cat” from seven years prior. This is also the only cartoon where Elmer addresses Sylvester by name.

Elmer is depicted as wise here as he attempts to lecture Sylvester on how important investment is and also foils the cats’ attempts to help him get out with the money.

The title is a pun for “air conditioned”. Previously, “Hare Conditioned” from ten years earlier and with a completely different plot used this pun.

The newspaper seen at the beginning has the name “Foster” on it, which is a reference to Warren Foster.

The 1954-1955 red-purple rings with the blue background are used in the “That’s all Folks!” end card.

This is the first cartoon where Daws Butler becomes a prominent voice at Warner Bros. Here, he voices several of the cats.

At the end of the cartoon, Irv Wyner’s name is seen on Van Schmoot’s picture.

Favorite Scene:

Two of the cats attempt to pose as a poor mother and her baby while another cat pours soap chips atop them like snow. When Elmer asks, “Would a few dowwars help?”, the cat posing as the baby immediately blows it when he answers, “Yeah! I think fifty-thousand bucks would tide us over!”, causing Elmer to get wise and slam the door on them. The cat who was posing as the mother walks away from the house while slapping and kicking around the cat who posed as the baby, scolding, “I told ya to keep your big mouth shut!”

What Happens in This One:

In the alley at night, a cat is seen looking through the trash cans while holding a lid as a dinner platter to put his leftovers on there. After picking out a fish skeleton as his first leftover, he stumbles across a discarded newspaper with the headline, “Pet Cat Inherits Fortune”, along with the article, “Mrs. Sarah Van Schmoot Leaves Pet Cat Entire Estate”. Two photos in the newspaper reveal Sylvester- with a dollar sign in place of the S in his name- as the “Rich Cat” and Elmer as the “Financial Advisor to Rich Cat”. Stunned at the news, this cat looks at the fish skeleton he collected in disgust and throws it and the lid down onto the can in front of him before running off to inform the other cats about this (animated by Arthur Davis).

The cat rings a cowbell tied to a nearby house into a drainpipe as a signal to talk to another cat who’s sleeping on the roof. The cat on the roof puts his end of the drainpipe up to his ear to answer like a telephone, “Yeah?”, to which the cat who read the newspaper informs, “Sylvester’s inherited a fortune!” (animated by Davis) The cat on the roof tells one who’s sleeping on the fence, “Hey, Gus! Sylvester’s inherited a million dollars!” Gus informs a red cat who’s caught a bird in its cage, “Hey, Bernie! Hear about Sylvester? Inherited three million dollars!” Bernie peeks his head out of the covered cage and asks to himself, “Sylvester? Three million?”, and takes the bird he caught- revealed to be Tweety in a cameo appearance-, out of his mouth. Tweety adds, “Ooh. Thwee miwwion dowwars?” Bernie puts Tweety back in his cage and jumps out the window to go down into the alley and inform another cat of the news, “Hey, Benny! Benny! Sylvester inherited-”. A light from Bernie’s left turns on with an iron making a direct hit into his face when he turns in that direction, causing him to fall backwards. Dazed, Bernie gets back up to complete his sentence, “-three million dollars” before groaning and falling backward a second time (animated by Gerry Chiniquy).

The next morning, in the house where he resides, Sylvester has taken his fortune out of the ACME Safe and happily throwing it into the air as well as rolling around in it, “I’m rich! I’m rich! Wahoo! Ha-ha! I’m rich! (laughs happily) Rich! Rich! (laughs)” He runs up to a picture of Van Schmoot and says to it in delight, “You doll!”, before resuming his rolling around in the money, “Woo-hoo! (laughs) I’m a rich pussycat! (laughs)” The camera pans over to Elmer looking at him sternly and telling him, “Sylvester. The handwing of money is a gweat wesponsibiwity” (animated by Virgil Ross).

The alley cats all march towards the house and singing, “He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”, with substitute lyrics as “Sylvester’s a Jolly Good Fellow” in unison. They are all immediately kicked out at the same time by Elmer, who yells to them, “Out, you cats! And stay out!” before he shuts the door. In the next shot, the cats are seen all over the house looking through numerous windows. While picking up the dollar bills and putting them all into a handbag, Elmer explains to Sylvester, “You have a wot of idle cash that should be put to work for you” (animated by Davis). From outside, one of the cats decides, “Hmph. You know, uh, that guy isn’t gonna let Sylvester spend his dough, ya know”. The cat next to him agrees, “Yeah. Well, I’ll be a dirty bird!” before he is told, “We gotta, uh, assist Sylvester, ya know”. This cat whispers a plan into the other cat’s ear (animated by Chiniquy).

Having finished putting all of the money into the handbag, Elmer states, “Those awwey cat fwiends of yours would wike to get their paws on it”. Sylvester then stands on an adjacent dollar bill with an innocent expression. One of the cats attempts to saw a hole from the basement on the spot where the handbag is. Elmer notices this and replaces it with a handbag that contains a dynamite stick. After the explosion, the unseen cat from the basement puts the destroyed decoy handbag back up along with the circle he cut out before nailing it back into place (animated by Davis).

Sitting at a table with Sylvester and reading a book about investment, Elmer decides, “Now, the first thing we’ll do is invest the money in good companies, which will pay you a good weturn”. Sylvester is shocked at the idea, “Invest it?!”, to which Elmer confirms, “Yes. Invest it”. Sylvester grabs the handbag of money and runs away with it, “No! No! It’s mine!” Elmer chases after him and demands, “Come back here!” before cornering Sylvester against a wall. Sylvester cries, “You can’t have it! It’s mine!” Elmer replies, “Don’t be a fool, you idiot! Give me that!”, as he takes it out of his grasp. The doorbell then rings, so Elmer answers it. Two other cats are disguised as a poor mother and her baby, respectively, with it apparently snowing outside, but actually another cat pouring down soap chips from atop the door frame. The mother-disguised cat states, “Please, sir. Could you help a poor old widow pussycat with an underprivileged child?” Elmer asks, “Would a few dowwars help?” The baby-disguised cat foolishly answers, “Yeah! I think fifty-thousand bucks would tide us over!”, which causes Elmer to get wise and slam the door on them as he rants, “Darned old cats!” The mother-disguised cat walks away from the house slapping and kicking the baby-disguised cat around and scolding, “I told ya to keep your big mouth shut!” (animated by Davis)

Elmer turns around to find (animated by Davis) Sylvester running up the stairs with the money, so he chases after him and demands, “Come back here with that!” Elmer then drags Sylvester down the stairs by the tail as he vows, “I’m gonna make you understand if it takes forever!” At the table, Elmer begins to lecture, “Now, twy to understand”. Sylvester nods with an evil smile, indicating that he’s only pretending to understand as Elmer continues, “Putting this idle cash to work will not onwy benefit you, but evewyone. For example, because people invested in an idea, we have the tewephone today” (animated by Chiniquy).

The doorbell is heard ringing (animated by Chiniquy), with the one ringing it being one cat named Charlie, who’s disguised as a salesman. Figuring this can’t possibly miss, another cat states, “Charlie’s a sharpie! Watch him! (laughs) HE’LL get the dough!” (animated by Ross) Elmer opens the door as Charlie walks in, “How do you do, friend? I represent the Hi-Ho Silver Cleaner Company of Walla Walla, Washington”. He passes Sylvester and whispers to him, “Don’t worry, kid. We’ll get ya out of this”. Charlie puts a bowl on a small table and also takes out a bottle from his suitcase, “This cleaner sells for the small sum of 135 dollars a bottle and for 50,000 dollars, I am authorized to allow you to buy half an interest into the company” before walking up to Elmer and taking his golden watch as he continues, “It performs miracles on precious metal such as gold and silver. I’ll just borrow your watch for a moment, thank you, sir”. Walking past Sylvester again, he whispers, “Be patient, kid” before he continues while demonstrating what the bottle’s liquid does to the watch, “And now observe. I pour a little of this miracle liquid into the bowl. Now, I dip the article to be cleaned in the solution and presto, a brand new-”, only to let out a disgusted groan upon seeing that the liquid actually destroyed the watch. Charlie then packs up everything and leaves, “Well, since I have several more calls to make, I must be moving along, but if you ever want to buy an interest in the Silver Cleaner Company-”. He whispers to Sylvester, “Sorry, kid, better luck next time”, before walking out the door, “-just get in touch with the Hi-Ho Silver Cleaning Company of Walla Walla, Washington, friend!” Elmer locks the door, realizing this was another cat, “Ooh, that wascal!” (animated by Chiniquy)

Setting up a projector, Elmer instructs, “Now, watch, Sylvester. And pay attention”. With Elmer narrating, a scene with a tired woman washing clothes by hand is shown along with several old-fashioned objects, “Fifty years ago, the standard of wiving was wow (low). People worked wong hours for wittle pay”. The equally tired husband comes home and pours at the small amount of coins he earned before sitting down to rest. Sylvester turns around to find all of the cats watching this as Elmer continues, “But because people’s savings were used to back good ideas, an industwy pwowed back earnings, new pwoducts appeared”. The old-fashioned objects are replaced with modern day ones with the background of the house in the film now looking much richer. The man, much more cheerful, comes in and gives his much happier wife the larger amount of money he earned before she offers him a seat in front of the television. “New and more efficient industwies made more jobs and higher wages. And shorter working hours to enjoy the higher standard of wiving”. The couple is then seen enjoying a pleasure ride together. The cats are impressed, “Hey, uh, that figures, ya know”; “Yeah, yeah! Sure does!” Elmer then says, “So, without the use of savings for capital investment, there would be no new industwies, no new jobs, no impwovement in pwoducts, and no pwogwess”. Not having changed his views, Sylvester sneaks off with the money (animated by Chiniquy up to here) and informs the cats, “I got it! I got it! I got the money, fellas! I got it!” He is only told off by one of the cats, “Whatcha trying to do? Upset our whole economic structure?”, before they all scold in unison, “You dope! PUT IT BACK!” (animated by Davis)

Sylvester does so (animated by Davis) just as Elmer finishes, “And that’s why investment is so important! Now what do you say, Sylvester?” Sylvester finally agrees, “Okay. Invest it” before handing the money to Elmer. Having also changed his views on Van Schmoot, Sylvester scowls at the picture of her, “Sakes! You’d have saved me a lot of headaches if you figured out a way to take it with ya! Sakes!” (animated by Ross)

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½