Release Date:

November 27, 1948

Main Character(s):

Daffy Duck, Porky Pig

Summary:

Policeman Porky Pig ousts vagrant Daffy Duck for sleeping in various places in the City Park on the “coldest night in 64 years” and pursues him in a department store when Daffy takes up residence in the store’s home setting.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1079 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was produced in Cinecolor, resulting in it being finished early. It also uses the 1949 orange rings with the blue background.

This one has a very interesting history regarding restoration as this is the only Warner cartoon where the original negatives are missing, so every print of this cartoon that has been seen are in Cinecolor (the Cinecolor cartoons were still being timed for Technicolor, as evidenced by the restorations of all the other Cinecolor releases). The cartoon was originally restored for the Looney Tunes Super Stars Porky and Friends Hilarious Ham DVD set in 2012, but due to the negatives being missing and the cartoon using its regular Cinecolor print, this one looked far darker than the rest. Prior to 2024, I didn't mind this, considering this cartoon takes place entirely at night. However, Warner Archive used a then-newly discovered “SuperCinecolor” print of the cartoon to restore it again for the Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice Volume 3 Blu-ray set in 2024. SuperCinecolor has a lot more vibrancy than regular Cinecolor, so there’s no denying that this new re-restoration looks significantly better (indeed, it’s the only instance of a Warner cartoon that actually needed a restoration redo. You can view here for a comparison. Left is the 2012 restoration while right is the 2024 restoration).

This is the first cartoon to use the newly designed Porky and Daffy headshots in the opening titles after the original designs were retired in 1944. These redisgns would also be seen in the original opening rings for “Daffy Duck Hunt” (1949), “Boobs in the Woods”, “The Ducksters” (both released in 1950), and “The Prize Pest” (1951).

This is Davis’ only Daffy and Porky cartoon.

The title is a play on words for “riff raff”.

What I Like About This One:

Porky is first seen looking over the park while whistling “While Strolling Through the Park One Day”, before he notices Daffy sleeping on a park bench. He dismisses him as sleeping on park benches is prohibited. Loud snoring then comes from a trash can, so Porky bangs on it loudly with his billy club, waking Daffy, who was sleeping inside, up. Daffy asks, “Something the matter?” to which Porky answers, “P-p-plenty! N-No sleepin’ in trash cans, bud! N-Now move along!” He then spots Daffy sleeping in a tree and hits his club against it causing several icicles to fall off the tree with Daffy landing beak-first (animated by Basil Davidovich).

Finally, Porky sees a sobbing gopher and all of his furniture outside of his hole. He grabs Daffy out of the gopher hole and warns, “Th-this is positively the last time I’m gonna w-w-warn you! If I see you around here w-w-once more, I’m gonna r-r-run you in!” before throwing him out. Daffy comments, “What a revolting development this is!” before lamenting, “Coldest night in 64 years. No place to sleep. All I need now is for it to start snowing”. A snowfall immediately occurs as Daffy’s beak pops out of the snow, “I HAD to open my big beak!” (animated by Davidovich)

Upon seeing the living room setting for Lacy’s Department Store, Daffy gets up, “Hmm, a cozy nook, that. There’s the answer to my $64 question” (animated by Davidovich).

In the next scene, Daffy is seen having made himself at home in the living room setting, relaxing in an armchair. Porky passes by the window before coming back upon realizing Daffy was there. In tune to a lovely rendition of “Every Little Movement”, Porky yells to Daffy to come out but they can’t hear what each other is saying on either side. Daffy uses a glass cutter to open the window and come out, where they start arguing very rapidly. Daffy goes back in and pulls down a curtain shade that reads in large letters, “SCRAM!” (animated by Bill Melendez)

Porky enters and when Daffy asks, “How did YOU get in, gangbuster?”, Porky reveals his skeleton-shaped key. Daffy asks him where he dug that up and slaps him to the ground. He then sits Porky in the armchair, gives him a cigar, and offers him a soda- actually a seltzer that he squirts him with: “Say when!” (animated by Don Williams)

Daffy starts sleeping in one of the beds on display and lets out a hilarious “Eek!” when Porky grabs him. Wearing the covers around him like some sort of cape, Daffy tricks Porky into walking backward until he falls down the elevator shaft: “You are aware of course that you are violating the sanctity of the American home! If you haven’t got a warrant sir, get out! Before I call a cop! Now go!” (animated by Williams)

After Porky falls down the elevator shaft and crashes offscreen, Daffy comments to himself, “Aw, Daffy. You have a good head on your feathery shoulders”, only for an uninjured Porky to run back up and club Daffy on the head, giving him a large lump and with stars replacing his pupils. Daffy asks Porky, “Officer, do you have an aspirin? My head is SPLITTING!”, only to collapse when Porky answers that he thinks so (animated by Williams). Feeling guilty, Porky pleads for Daffy to speak to him and to say anything. Daffy immediately revives, shouts, “I LOVE YOU, HORTENSE!”, gives Porky a wacky kiss and runs off (animated by Melendez).

Daffy runs into Porky armed with a bow and arrow and pleads, “No. Don’t do anything rash. Stop staring at me with those little piggy eyes. Let’s be civilized about this”. As he says this, he secretly paints glue on Porky’s hand to make him stuck to the bow and arrow. This results in Porky firing himself into the cuckoo clock and getting shoved out by the annoyed cuckoo. The cuckoo clears his throat and cuckoos two times (animated by Davidovich).

Porky finds Daffy sleeping in a display hammock and carries Daffy and the hammock with him. Daffy grabs a rocket and lights it before getting out (animated by Emery Hawkins). Imitating a railroad conductor, Daffy gets Porky to “face the front of the car, please” and announces, “Going up” before the rocket zooms into the air with Porky and Porky is sent zooming back down (animated by Williams).

Sleeping in another chair, Daffy suddenly wakes up when Porky attempts to chop at him with an ax. “Just a minute! You’re gonna hurt somebody that way! Probably me”. Daffy next sleeps in a sleeping bag which Porky unzips and tries to hit Daffy with the ax, but Daffy hits Porky with a mallet in his sleep before zipping the sleeping bag back up (animated by Hawkins).

Porky attempts to use a duck call only to find Daffy behind him asking, “Did you call?” After Porky runs smack into a glass counter, Daffy advises, “Perhaps I could interest you in a bit of sporting regalia. This shotgun is a little gem. You’ll never miss with this”. Porky says no several times, but decides to buy it when Daffy mentions it’s excellent for duck hunting. After Porky shoots, the bullets chase Daffy (animated by Hawkins) into the closet where noises are heard but Daffy comes out unharmed. “Ya missed me”. He is then confronted by Porky with a cannon. “Eh, w-well, th-th-THIS won’t miss you!” (animated by Davidovich)

Daffy surrenders, “Okay, officer. You win. I’ll go quietly. But I was only trying to make a home for my little ones” (animated by Davidovich) and sadly brings out his wind-up toy duck children, “Alphonse” and “Rodrigo”. “We’re being thrown out again. To FREEZE”. Ashamed, Porky tells Daffy he didn’t realize he had little ones and that they can stay at the store for as long as they want (animated by Hawkins). Daffy turns back with them, “Thanks, officer. We’ll never forget you for this” and looks at the camera fluttering his eyebrows (animated by Davidovich).

Later, Porky passes the department store with Daffy waving to him. Seeing Daffy’s wind-up toy ducks, Porky laments, “Gee, those p-p-poor little fellas. I kn-kn-know how it is when you’re a father”. The camera pans back to reveal that he has a group of wind-up toy pigs for children! (animated by Melendez)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕