Release Date:

June 8, 1957

Main Character(s):

Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog

Summary:

The fourth time Ralph Wolf attempts to steal sheep guarded by Sam Sheepdog.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1445 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This cartoon has Ralph and Sam as neighbors who live across from each other.

The title is a play on words for “steel wool”.

This is the first cartoon where Ralph has white eyes rather than yellow, which would be his eye color from this point on (he’s also portrayed as that in “Looney Tunes World of Mayhem”, where he also shares the same body animations with Wile E.).

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

This is one of two times where Ralph lands in Sam’s arms and lifts up the latter’s hair to find Sam’s angry eyes staring at him. He would do this again in their last Golden Age cartoon, “Woolen Under Where” (1963).

Favorite Scene:

The dynamite stick bridge gag.

What Happens in This One:

At 6 am, Sam’s alarm clock goes off, so he gets up, scratches himself for a bit, and also straightens his ears. He then walks slowly over to Ralph’s mailbox and tosses the newspaper intended for Ralph over to his front porch. Ralph comes out of his front door finishing up a doughnut before walking to work with Sam. On the way, they exchange greetings, “Morning, Ralph”; “Morning, Sam”. As they punch in at the time clock, Sam tells him, “Have a good day, Ralph”, to which Ralph replies, “Thanks, Sam” (animated by Abe Levitow).

They both walk off to their respective places with Sam positioning himself on the cliff to watch the sheep and Ralph going down near the meadow and adjusting his face to a sneaky, hungry one by means of pushing his eyebrows down, slightly lifting up his mouth to show his teeth, and bending his ears back. He then takes out his pocket watch and anticipates the 8:00 starting whistle. Sam is also looking at a pocket watch of his own before putting it away upon seeing the whistle about to blow. Once it does (animated by Levitow), Sam gets into a position of keeping a very close look at the sheep. Ralph gets down on all four’s and sneaks across the meadow that way. He goes under a sheep and jacks the sheep up from under him before sneaking away with this sheep. Realizing it’s not moving on its own, the sheep lets out a baa, to which Ralph slaps his hand over the sheep’s mouth and shushes it before continuing on its way. Ralph ends up stopping in front of Sam, who’s staring down at him with his hands on his hips and with a “Caught you red-handed!” expression (animated by Richard Thompson). Ralph nervously stands up and pushes the sheep away with his feet before doing a dainty shuffle in place. His attempt to run away is thwarted by Sam grabbing him by the throat and then pulling him out of frame where he gets punched offscreen. Once Sam leaves, the aftermath is revealed with Ralph’s muzzle being transformed into the shape of an accordion (animated by Ken Harris).

Having dug an underground tunnel, Ralph goes into it with a lasso and periscope, using the latter to look over the meadow. The periscope stops at a random sheep, which Ralph throws his lasso at. Presumably pulling this sheep in inch by inch, it turns out he actually lassoed Sam who already has his left fist aiming downward to punch Ralph. Once Ralph looks up out of the tunnel while rubbing his hands, Sam brings his fist down onto Ralph’s head, who walks out of the tunnel with now his whole body transformed into an accordion shape (animated by Levitow).

Ralph sets up a bridge of dynamite sticks from one cliff to another. He gets Sam’s attention by silently taunting him with Sam walking across the dynamite bridge. With Sam passing by the rock he was hiding behind, Ralph starts to cross the bridge with the sheep he abducted and lights said bridge which goes off as a string of firecrackers so that Sam can’t follow. Once Ralph gets back to the other end, he finds Sam already there waiting for him, holding his arms out for Ralph to give him the sheep. Ralph does so and runs back the other way. Sam lights this end, with Ralph putting out the last dynamite stick from the end he lit himself. However, the dynamite from Sam’s end catches up to him, with the stick Ralph extinguished being the last one to explode. Ralph ends up falling and landing in a small tree with his limbs stuck in said tree’s holes (animated by Levitow).

Ralph puts a plank on the rock behind Sam in order to propel Sam to the other cliff like a teeter board. Ralph jumps off from a tree onto the other end, only for him to go flying instead and land in Sam’s arms. Ralph lifts up the hair over Sam’s eyes and sees Sam’s angry bloodshot eyes glaring at him. Ralph pulls the hair down, sending it rolling back over Sam’s eyes like a curtain shade. Sam puts Ralph (in a silent praying position) down onto the teeter board and pulls the opposite end down before watching Ralph fly backward into the distance (animated by Levitow).

Next, Ralph rolls a cannon up behind Sam and then runs off silently laughing. The cannon rolls back down after him, forcing Ralph to outrun it. He jumps onto the ledge below the cliff and braces himself but the cannon stops on the cliff edge with the force of it stopping causing its barrel to move around and point downward at Ralph. Wondering if he’s safe or not, Ralph looks around in confusion only to see that he’s standing in the cannon barrel, which shortly blasts him (animated by Thompson).

Lastly, Ralph attaches a large elastic bands to two adjacent rocks behind Sam in order to slingshot him to the other cliff, with Sam not even paying attention and only scratching his presumably itchy nose. Ralph starts pulling his makeshift slingshot back, only for the two rocks to uproot out of the ground and begin flying backwards, taking Ralph with them due to him still holding onto the rubber band. Ralph goes flying through the gap between two cliffs and clings onto a tree to stop himself. The rocks then go through the gap and fly towards Ralph, who continues getting shot forward, with the impact cutting off part of the tree’s trunk, and then part of the tree now becomes part of the menagerie of stuff flying backward. Ralph runs away from the tree, rubber band, and rocks but due to being more concerned with getting away from them, doesn’t pay attention to what’s in front of him and runs smack into a cliff side. The rocks and part of the tree trunk then crush him, before Ralph climbs out dazed and with a black eye, only for the other half of the tree to fly into him (animated by Thompson).

After both punch out when the 5:00 quitting time whistle blows, Sam walks home with Ralph, who has his right arm in a sling. Sam advises him, “You’ve been working too hard, Ralph. Why don’t you take tomorrow off? I can handle both jobs”. Staggering up to his own house, Ralph answers, “Gee, th-thanks Sam. You’re a…. pal” (animated by Harris).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½