Release Date:

May 1, 1948

Main Character(s):

Porky Pig

Summary:

During the Gold Rush, Porky Pig heads west to California and must evade scalping attempts from a polite midget Indian.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1041 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

As of this writing, this is the only Davis cartoon to not be restored. Interestingly, it WAS originally going to appear on the Looney Tunes Super Stars Porky and Friends Hilarious Ham DVD set in 2012, as evidenced by a screenshot from this one appearing on the back cover, but was reconsidered and replaced with Freleng’s “Curtain Razor” (1949).

The title is a pun for the phrase “nothing but the truth”. This is also a rare instance where the title has nothing to do with the cartoon until the final gag. This would also occur in “The Astroduck” (1966), the seventh pairing of Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales.

The cartoon no longer airs on television due to Native American stereotyping. Despite this, this is still a very funny cartoon and one I would love to see restored by Warner Archive for a future set.

This is one of three Davis cartoons to have animation by John Carey, with the other two being “The Rattled Rooster” and “The Pest That Came to Dinner” (both released later in 1948 and with the latter also being a Porky cartoon and the middle cartoon being a one-shot).

The old man’s voice at the start of the cartoon sounds similar to Mickey Mouse.

The cartoon also shows that Porky can’t even wolf-whistle without stuttering.

While he didn’t write this cartoon, Warren Foster’s name is seen on a billboard as an in-joke.

What I Like About This One:

The rendition of “Kingdom Coming” over the opening credits.

In California in the year 1848 7/8, a dog prospector is seen sleeping and when he gets up and yawns, his gold tooth is discovered by an old man panning for gold who exclaims “Gold!” and stakes a claim in the dog’s mouth (animated by Don Williams).

The citizens of “Big Gulp” gather in a large crowd at the “Daily Blurp” where the newspaper announcing the news of gold being found in California is posted. Since he’s shorter than the rest, Porky has to crawl through the crowd but is just as elated: “G-g-gold d-d-discovered in California? Eurek-eurek-eurek-Yippee!” (animated by John Carey)

At the “Last Chance” gas station, Porky’s wagon pulled by his horse is “filled up”- where the attendant blows air into it where it becomes a covered wagon with the main car saying, “California” and the small trailer car, “Or Bust” (animated by Basil Davidovich).

Porky and his horse come across a sign, “Danger. You Are Now Entering Indian Territory. Proceed At Your Own Risk!”, along with two others, “PS Keep Your Hat On” and “Or Do You Want to Wear a Wig?” Porky’s horse tiptoes across but Porky’s wagon is immediately attacked by arrows which blow it up. The small trailer wagon is also blown up by a single arrow. With his horse clinging to him and shaking in fear, Porky sees what’s approaching them: “Indians! M-mill-m-mill-zillions of them!” (animated by Davidovich)

Porky tries to get his horse in the proper position to keep him covered for the upcoming fight: “St-st-stay down, old pal! I’ll use you as a shield!” But the horse insists on using Porky as HIS shield. Porky remarks, “I-I bet G-G-Gene Autry’s horse doesn’t do that!” to which the horse throws Porky in front of him again and retorts, “Listen, bub! Autry’s horse makes more money!” (animated by Bill Melendez)

Porky and the horse, however, are confronted by only the midget Indian who politely asks Porky, “Pardon me, but would you mind removing your hat for a minute?” Porky questions, “M-m-m-my hat?” The Indian replies, “Well, I can’t scalp you as long as you have your hat on?” Due to the Indian being way too polite and being way too short, Porky can’t take him seriously, and pushes him away telling him to “n-n-now you just run along to your t-t-tee-pee, pee-wee” (animated by Williams)

Porky rides off again, assuming that the Indian has been reading too many Wild West magazines. When they stop at a traffic signal, the Indian removes Porky’s hat, but Porky and the horse proceed before the Indian can make his move. The Indian pops out of the signal and remarks, “Sunday driver” before he is hit by the signal changing to “Go” (animated by Carey).

Next, Porky finds the Indian up the road, who politely introduces him to his wife (animated by Carey). Porky reaches his hand out for a handshake, but the Indian reminds him, “Haven’t you forgotten something? What are you supposed to do when you meet a lady?” Realizing it’s about his hat, Porky removes it, but quickly dons a metal helmet at the last second before the Indian can scalp him, causing the latter to vibrate (animated by Davidovich).

Porky is then given a Pony Express package. Assuming it’s the Indian attempting to ambush him, once he sees a feather pop out, Porky points his gun at it, but sees that it’s instead an Indian headdress. Putting it on, Porky looks at himself in the mirror: “M-m-maybe the little fella is sorry and w-w-wants to be friendly. M-m-maybe he’s made me a-an honorary chief”. He then sees the Indian rising from the headdress and attempting to scalp him from there. Porky zooms off so quickly that the Indian flies into a billboard with his tomahawk getting stuck there. The billboard reads, “Do You Have the Jitters? Try Squatters Little Quiver Pills” (animated by Williams).

Riding off once more, Porky does the stuttering wolf-whistle upon seeing an Indian princess. Smitten, Porky starts romancing “her” to the tune of “If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight”: “Haven’t I seen you s-s-somewhere before, P-P-Pocahontas? You know, you and I could m-m-make beautiful m-m-m-music together. Why-why you’re pretty enough to be in m-m-movies. N-now I could do a-a lot for you. I-I could get you in c-c-cartoons. C-c-come on. G-give Daddy a l-little kiss”. As he’s doing this, a hand removes his raccoon skin cap, and draws a dotted line on his head. Once Porky kisses the Indian princess’s face, he finds that this is a mask and that the Indian was planning to ambush him in disguise. Unamused at the deception, Porky takes the Indian’s tomahawk and beats it against a rock, causing it to vibrate, before giving it back to the Indian who also vibrates upon having his tomahawk given back to him (animated by Melendez).

The Indian is seen doing a very unenthusiastic-sounding Indian call while doing an equally unenthusiastic war dance around a small fire. He then takes a bow and arrow out of a case marked, “In Case of War Break Glass” before smashing the glass. The Indian fires himself from the bow instead and flies toward Porky, attempting to swipe at him with his tomahawk while on horseback. Reaching a cliff, the horse flings both Porky and the Indian off his back where the Indian ends up carving a tree into a totem pole while chasing Porky downward (animated by Carey).

Porky runs through a hollow log and chops out a middle part of it out so that the Indian will fall out (animated by Carey). The Indian enters the log, but defies gravity as he continues across in mid-air. He pokes his head out of the other end of the log and boasts, “Thought I was going to fall, didn’t you?” Unfortunately, for him, he finds that Porky chopped out another part of the log and falls through that. Porky watches him fall and walks away satisfied, “Well, th-that’s really the last of th-that Mohican” only to find the Indian in front of him on a crutch and bandaged. The Indian chases Porky back though the log, but again falls through the opening he previously fell through. “Th-th-the poor little squirt. H-he forgot I had c-cut that out”, Porky boasts, before HE falls through the original part of the log he chopped out. Although a long whistling sound effect is heard, the camera pans back to reveal Porky only fell a few inches (animated by Davidovich).

The Indian and Porky are seen rowing in the same canoe during a chase before it goes over the waterfall (animated by Carey) and they are seen imitating fish below. Porky swims up to a branch sticking out of the waterfall but the Indian is caught along with several fish in a large net. He makes a grimacing face at Porky, who is revealed to be hanging on to the branch and gives him an expression that reads, “Serves you right”. The Indian and the fish are brought into the “Big Shnook Canning Co.” where the Indian is canned with his feather sticking out of a can (animated by Melendez).

Finally making it to California (with the horse wearing glasses with windshield wipers; animated by Melendez), Porky heads into the mine (animated by Carey) and finds a small piece of gold. Carrying it out, he finds it’s actually the Indian’s gold tooth! The Indian asks, “You’re expecting maybe Humphrey Bogart?” before Porky chases him into the distance with his pickax (animated by Williams).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕