Release Date:

March 4, 1950

Main Character(s):

Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester

Summary:

Tired of always doing comedy skits, Daffy Duck presents to offscreen studio head “JL” (Jack Warner) of a swashbuckling epic written by himself, starring Daffy as the hero, the “Scarlet Pumpernickel”, a female duck named Melissa as the “Fair Lady”, Porky Pig as the “Lord High Chamberlain”, and Sylvester as the villain, the “Grand Duke”.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1109 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. A 16mm print with the original opening rings does exist, however. This also reveals that only Daffy’s head is seen in the opening rings since Porky doesn’t have as major a part in the cartoon.

While the title is a pun for “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, which IS a swashbuckling film, Daffy’s portrayal is more closer to Robin Hood, since he references Errol Flynn a few times. In addition, Daffy’s Scarlet Pumpernickel disguise doesn’t resemble what the actual Scarlet Pimpernel wore. He would parody Robin Hood properly (albeit a more inept version of him) in Jones’ “Robin Hood Daffy” (1958).

Other characters make guest appearances in the cartoon: Ma Bear of the Three Bears cartoons makes a silent appearance as a harp player seen with Melissa, Henery Hawk also makes a silent appearance as a messenger, and Elmer Fudd appears as the innkeeper. Since Elmer only has one line of dialogue (“Oh, Mr. Nobleman. You honor my humble wodgings”), Mel Blanc does the line instead of Arthur Q. Bryan. In a very rare move, Blanc doesn’t do the voice as well as Bryan (when Bryan passed away in 1959, Blanc voiced Elmer in the Bugs Bunny Show). Blanc also did not like imitating a voice someone else created as he believed it to be stealing.

The cartoon was ranked number 31 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons and is also in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book.

This is the only time that Sylvester appears in a Jones cartoon where he is not Porky’s mute cowardly pet.

This is also the only cartoon where Porky and Sylvester are fully on good terms with each other.

Daffy’s middle name is revealed to be Dumas in this cartoon, although it’s claimed to be Sheldon in The Looney Tunes Show (2011-2013). This would also be parodied in Daffy’s section in “The Looney Tunes Treasury” (where that book contains mini-biographies of the characters as if they were written by the characters themselves) where he says “Versatility is my middle name” but then in parentheses says, “Actually it’s ‘Dumas’, which keen-eyed viewers learned in my masterpiece, ‘The Scarlet Pumpernickel’, but why quibble?”

Daffy’s script is revealed to be over 1500 pages long near the end. Usually, back then movie scripts that would exceed 100 pages would be rejected for being too long (considering how long the Marvel films tend to be, fans would very likely be glad they didn’t attempt to make them back then).

It’s rather interesting that Daffy’s portrayed as a romantic hero in this one, as in his next cartoon, “His Bitter Half” (which will be the cartoon a week after tomorrow), he gets himself into an unhappy marriage.

The cartoon’s premise would be reworked for the 1981 TV special, “Daffy Duck’s Thanks-for-giving Special”.

“In an 18th Century Drawing Room” plays during the scene where Daffy in his gentleman disguise, talks with Porky about the wedding up to the point where Porky and Sylvester laugh over the idea of the gentleman they’re talking to being the Scarlet Pumpernickel.

What I Like About This One:

The cartoon begins at the Warner Bros. studio in Hollywood where Daffy is heard screaming, “You’re killing me! I’m being murdered! I can’t stand this torture anymore! I’m dyin’! You’re killing me!” It turns out Daffy is actually talking about something else, “I’m tellin’ ya, JL. You’re typecasting me to death. Comedy. All this comedy. Ha ha. Hoo hoo. Hoo hoo. Yak-yak. Honest, JL. You just gotta give me a dramatic part” (animated by Phil Monroe).

JL starts to answer, “Well, I….”, but Daffy doesn’t let him get a word in edgewise as he walks over to a large stack of papers, “I knew you’d see it my way, JL! And it just so happens that I have with me the very script that we’ve been looking for”. After clearing his throat, Daffy reads out the title of his story, “The Scarlet Pumpernickel by Daffy Dumas Duck”. He begins with the typical “Once upon a time” and asides to JL, “Great opening, huh?” before continuing (animated by Monroe).

Daffy’s story is centered in Merry Old England and about a “daring young highway man known as the Scarlet Pumpernickel”, who is Daffy himself. “The Lord High Chamberlain’s men could never catch this handsome young desperado, for he was as slippery as an eel and as smart as a fox”. Daffy and his horse hide upside down under a cliff ledge while Daffy’s pursuers and horses fall off the cliff. “The Lord High Chamberlain was simply furious”. Porky, as the Chamberlain, reiterates Daffy’s narration: “I’m s-s-simply furious”. “But Milady Melissa was simply delighted”. She too reiterates Daffy’s words, “I’m simply delighted”. Porky demands her to “keep away from that masked band-d-d-that despara-d-d- hat masked stinker!” (animated by Lloyd Vaughan)

As Porky is seen having his wig and mustache in a salon-like dryer, “But one day, the Lord High Chamberlain got an idea. He would marry Melissa to the Grand Duke. That would bring the Scarlet Pumpernickel to town and- (makes throat cutting noise)”. Getting out of his wig and mustache, Porky calls for the messenger (Henery Hawk in a silent cameo) to take a letter to the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke is revealed to be Sylvester: “First, I am happy for I am to marry the Fair Melissa. Then, I am FURIOUS because I DESPISE the Scarlet P-P-Pumpernickel!” As Melissa awaits her forced marriage high in a tower room, she sobs into “Ye Giant Size Wipex” (animated by Vaughan).

With the wedding day approaching, Porky’s men wait all over town for Daffy to show up so they can kill him. At the same time, Daffy, disguised as an elegant nobleman, shows up at “Ye King’s Nostril Inn”, run by Elmer as the innkeeper. Daffy asks in an elegant voice, “How’s your cuisine and your good wife, my foul churl of a pheasant.. uh, peasant?” Elmer answers, “Oh, Mr. Nobleman. You honor my humble wodgings”. “Yes, they are humble, aren’t they?”, Daffy replies before sniffing some snuff so deeply that it causes him to jump around all over the place sneezing. After his sneezing fit, Daffy tells Elmer, “My room, bumpkin. I’m pooped” (animated by Ken Harris).

At page 192, “That night, Milord Chamberlain receives a noble visitor”. Still in his gentleman disguise and still using the elegant voice, Daffy asks Porky, “Milady the fair Melissa is indisposed, milord?” Porky replies, “Eh, eh, no, your Grace. But she wishes to see no one until after the wedding”. “Vanity, thy name is woman, to coin a phrase”, Daffy remarks. Sylvester comes in warning Porky, “The wedding must take place tonight, milord. The Scarlet Pumpernickel is about masquerading as a gentleman”. Unaware that this is the very gentleman he was talking about, Sylvester questions Daffy, “And who might YOU be, sirrah?” Daffy answers, “May hap perchance- foppish that I am- I might be the Scarlet Pumpernickel?” “YOU, the Scarlet Pumpernickel!?”, Sylvester asks in bewilderment before he and Porky laugh over the idea. Upon seeing Porky and Sylvester walk out and the former saying, “I shall have Melissa m-m-make ready, milord (animated by Harris up to here). Eh, eh, the wedding will take place m-m-right away”, Daffy decides in his normal voice, “This is a job for The Scarlet Pumpernickel!” (animated by Monroe)

After dressing as the Scarlet Pumpernickel, Daffy attempts to jump onto his horse but misses. Upon getting up, he remarks, “That’s funny. That never happens to Errol Flynn”. After crashing into the wall of the castle where the wedding is going on, Daffy literally crashes the wedding by means of pricking himself in the behind with a pin labeled “Ye Little Olympic High Jumper”, which permits him to fly into the very high window. After landing on the ground, Daffy decides, “I’d better check with Errol”. Upon seeing Daffy, Melissa runs out of the church, pleading for Daffy to save her, and instead carries HIM off rather than the other way around. “So what’s to save?”, Daffy says (animated by Ben Washam).

At page 1,666, Daffy has taken Melissa back to the inn and after kissing her hand, promises, “Parting is such sweet stuff. But you will be safe here, my beloved”. Daffy jumps out the window and this time descends with a parachute, pleased with himself for thinking this up: “HERE’S a wrinkle Errol never thought of!” (animated by Washam)

Meanwhile, Sylvester arrives at the inn, annoyed at the disruption of the wedding: “I must refresh myself before continuing with the chase”. After finding Elmer not present (yelling “Innkeeper? INNKEEPER!?”), Sylvester spots Melissa in the second story of the inn and heads upstairs to confront her: “So, Melissa. Trifle with ME will ya, milady?” Hearing Melissa’s screams for help, Daffy swings into the wall before Sylvester can get his hands on her. Engaging in a swordfight where Sylvester and Daffy say things like, “En garde!”, “Reposte!”, “Cafe au lait!”, and “Champs-Elysees!” (with the latter being mispronounced), Daffy gloats, “Ha ha! You ain’t got a chance. I’m the hero of this picture, and you know what happens to the villain”. Sylvester only answers in a calm, smug tone, “So what’s to know?” before they continue the swordfight (animated by Washam).

By the time an exhausted Daffy is nearly buried in his script pages, JL is expecting more action so Daffy makes the climax even more dramatic with having a few other things occur such as the storm breaking in all its fury, the dam breaking and a flood breaking out, “the cavalry rode to the rescue, but they were a little too late” as only their hands, flags, and swords are sticking out of the flood, a volcano erupting, “and slopped lava over everything in sight”, and the price of foods skyrocketing where kreplachs are shown to cost $1000 each. “Is THAT all?”, JL asks in an annoyed tone. “Is that ALL!?”, Daffy asks climbing out of his papers, out of breath. “There was nothing for the Scarlet Pumpernickel to do but blow his brains out. Which he did”. Daffy imitates this, and collapses. Upon getting up, it’s revealed that the bullet only went through the hat he was wearing in the studio as he sulks, “It’s getting so ya have to KILL yourself to sell a story around here!” (animated by Monroe)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕