Release Date:

November 1, 1952

Main Character(s):

Daffy Duck

Summary:

Daffy Duck, as Detective “Duck Drake”, attempts to solve a mystery of a murder at the “J. Cleaver Ax-Handle Estate”, with the suspect being a voluptuous female duck known as “The Body”, who is immediately smitten with Daffy, and is more interested in romance than she is in crime.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1216 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This is the first of several McKimson cartoons to spoof television (almost all of which were written by Tedd Pierce). This one parodies detective film-noirs from the 1930’s to early 1950’s, murder crimes with females in particular. The other times McKimson spoofed television include “Stupor Duck” (1956), “Wideo Wabbit” (1956), the Honey-Mousers trilogy (1956’s “The Honey-Mousers”, 1957’s “Cheese It, the Cat”, and 1960’s “Mice Follies”), “Boston Quackie” (1957), “China Jones” (1959), “The Mouse That Jack Built” (1959), “People are Bunny” (1959), “Wild Wild World” (1960), and “The Million Hare” (1963).

Daffy’s detective name in this cartoon, “Duck Drake”. “Drake” is a term for a male duck (see also Disney’s Ludwig von Drake introduced in the 1960’s after Disney stopped doing theatrical cartoons in the mid to late 1950’s. As a kid, until I found out they were separate characters, I had thought that von Drake and Scrooge McDuck were the same character).

This is the last cartoon to use the Daffy headshot, and the last cartoon to use a headshot of a character other than Bugs.

An office with the name “R. Givens” is seen near the start of the cartoon. This is a reference to Robert Givens.

The piano key teeth gag is reused from “Canned Feud”.

The animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

Grace Lenard, who voiced Queen Isabella in “Hare We Go”, voices “The Body” in this cartoon.

Favorite Scene:

The butler tells Daffy to “walk this way, sir”, to which Daffy imitates the way the butler walks while following him to the library where “The Body” is.

What Happens in This One:

Daffy seemingly narrates through inner monologue, “I was in my office in the Subway Terminal Building, Room 711”. His office is marked as “Duck Drake. Private Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat”. He continues, “I was disposing of my last case”, where he is depositing a box of alcoholic drinks, “Old Hicup”, out the window. He is also shown to actually be saying the narration in the cartoon, “I needed a new case. Bad. Then the phone rang. I answered it. I said hello” (animated by Phil DeLara).

After this, the narration ends as Daffy speaks into the phone, “Hello? Duck Drake, Private Eye speaking. What’s on your mind besides your hat?” He is informed about some strange goings-on at the “J. Cleaver Ax-Handle Estate” and asks, “Like what, for instance?” The voice from the phone answers, “Like, listen” as several loud, wild noises are heard from the phone, complete with the screen shaking. “Like that, eh? Not interested”, Daffy says, but his mood suddenly changes upon hearing about the reward money, “For 10 G’s!?”, but then asks suspiciously, “How do I know you got that kind of dough?” A wad of money comes out through the phone onto Daffy’s desk, leaving him convinced: “He’s got it. Huh. I should’ve answered a car fare”, to which a dime also comes out of the phone. The narration resumes, “I decided I’d better hop out there” as Daffy literally hops when going out his door (animated by Herman Cohen).

“The Ax-Handle place was one of those plush, 50-room mansions in Beverage Hills”. Daffy rings the doorbell, whose chimes sound like Chopin’s “Funeral March” (animated by Charles McKimson). The butler opens the door and greets Daffy with a crazed Peter Lorre-like laugh, only for Daffy to immediately start interrogating him, “Alright, Roneymeade! Why did ya do it!?”, but then realizes, “Ah, what’s the use? The suspicious-acting butler is never guilty in these whodunits”. The butler then tells Daffy to “walk this way, sir”, as he walks to the library in a very bizarre way. Daffy shrugs to the audience and takes the butler’s instructions literally as he imitates the bizarre walk while following him all the way. In the midst of this, Daffy confides, “Tain’t easy”. The butler and Daffy then stop walking as they approach “the library, sir” (animated by DeLara).

After the butler leaves, Daffy decides, “Alright, let’s get to the bottom of this. Where’s the body?” He then hears a sexy voice asking, “Was someone asking for me?” (animated by Charles) This turns out to have come from a sultry female duck wearing a red prom-like dress. Daffy refers to her as, “Enter the inevitable amorous babe who’s just crazy about us hard-boiled gumshoes”. He then asks, “And just who are you, sister?” She walks up to him and answers, “I’m ‘The Body’, sweetheart. And I’m innocent. Do you hear me? Innocent”. Daffy exclaims in bewilderment about her, “THIS is innocent!?” “The Body” begins making love to him, “Rawr! Rawr! Oh, baby, you gorgeous hunk of duck!”, and starts smothering him with kisses, but Daffy won’t have any of it as he begins to ask her about the apparent murder she committed, “Why did ya do it!?”, as he gets out of her grasp (animated by Rod Scribner).

“The Body” replies, “I didn’t do it, sweetheart. I’m innocent” (animated by Scribner). Daffy gets up and accuses, “Ah, no, you’re not! You did it, alright! Guilt is written all over your face!” The word “guilt” is actually seen in cursive handwriting five times on her face, as she looks in her pocket mirror and powders it off with her powder puff. Daffy continues, “You did it, and you’re glad you did it! You’re despicable! Just plain despicable! And…and…and…”, but “The Body” completes the sentence herself with what she thinks of him, “And… you’re cute” as she removes his hat and affectionately musses the feathers atop his head. Daffy puts his hat back on, “You hated the old goat. You couldn’t wait to get rid of him. Then you saw your chance. And you drew your little pistol out of your bag”, as he pulls a large pistol conveniently in “The Body”’s small purse (animated by Charles) before giving it to her, “And you pointed it at him, and… slowly squeezed the trigger, tighter, and tighter, and tighter-” She actually does so, and shoots at Daffy several times in surprise (animated by Cohen). Daffy pops his head out from his trenchcoat with several holes in his beak and yells, “Not so tight!” (animated by Charles)

Daffy walks back up to “The Body” just as she pulls up her dress to reveal her sexy legs, “But you didn’t kill him”. “The Body” then shuts off the lights as several kissing noises are heard. When the lights are turned back on, Daffy is shown with lipstick marks all over his beak, as he says, “You only winged him”. She wipes the lipstick marks off of him as Daffy continues, “You grabbed the deer rifle off the wall (animated by Charles)” as Daffy gets the rifle off the wall above the fireplace, “He ran sca-reaming from the room”, and gives the rifle to “The Body” before running around the room while imitating a dramatic scream. After running out, he peeks out from an open curtain in the hallway, “And when he tried to sneak out…., you let him have it!” As Daffy is imitating sneaking out, “The Body” shoots at him continuously with the rifle with Daffy walking back and forth like the target in a shooting gallery as the numbers increase by 5’s up to 20, then 10’s up to 50, before jumping ahead to 90 and then 200, before the last one flashes, “Pretty Good Shootin’, Sister” (animated by DeLara).

Daffy looks up at it and agrees, “Yeah. Pretty good shootin’. But not good enough! He was still kickin’! So what did you do!?” “The Body” shrugs, “Search me”. Daffy tells her, “Business before pleasure, please, madam”, before he accuses, “You were determined to exterminate him, WEREN’T YOU!?”, but she just kisses him two times. “Stop that! We have work to do!”, Daffy exclaims, but she only responds with a “Rowr! Rowr!” (animated by Charles)

“The Body” watches as Daffy uses a rope and pulley to pull a piano up into the air, “Yes. You were determined to get rid of him, you e-vil woman, you!” She affectionately grabs his cheek and says, “You cutie pie, you”. Daffy continues, “And this time, you WEREN’T going to fail!” He then has “The Body” hold the rope while he runs off. “The Body” confides, “I bet he looks cute in a bathing suit” (animated by Keith Darling). Daffy walks into the room to demonstrate the victim walking right under the piano, “You held on to the end of the rope. And he entered the room, a little smile on his puss. Suspecting nothing. And when he got right here, directly under the piano, you let go of the rope- DIDN’T YOU!?”, as he suddenly shouts while pointing an accusing finger at her. Startled at Daffy’s sudden shouting, “The Body” lets go of the rope, with Daffy unable to run out of the way of the falling piano in time. The impact of the piano crashing atop him sends Daffy down into the basement with a red lump on his head (animated by Cohen) and with some of the piano keys for teeth (animated by Charles).

“The Body” is reclining on a couch and smiling while watching Daffy as he says, “You’re getting desperate. You had to finish him once and for all. And then, you recalled that the 5:15 ran right past your door, (she kisses him when he leans in close to her), and that he always opened the door to watch it go past! And you fixed it, so that this time, it WOULDN’T go past! Hmm?” To demonstrate this, Daffy detours part of the railroad track next to the mansion to go inside and run over the victim before shutting the door back. “And impatiently, you watched the clock, waiting for it to be 5:15. And at exactly 5:15, he opened the door” (animated by DeLara). Daffy opens the door and is promptly run over by the Somerset express, getting a red tail lamp stuck on his head (animated by Darling).

Daffy angrily pulls the tail lamp off of his head and remarks, “Sunday driver! Huh. It’ll take more than that to keep Duck Drake from solving this baffling crime”. “The Body” finally reveals, “Crime, sweetheart? Nobody’s committed any crime”. Daffy asks in confusion, “They haven’t!? Then, why, I ask you, why was I summoned here to the Ax-Handle Estate?” “The Body” chuckles, “Silly boy. The Ax-Handle Estate’s a couple of blocks up the street”. Daffy realizes, “Then… then you ARE innocent!”, only for “The Body” to contradict, “Uh, uh, sweetheart. I’m guilty”. Daffy becomes even more confused, “No crime committed, but SHE’S guilty”, before he asks, “And what pray tell may I ask are you guilty of?” Her answer is, “Of being ca-razy about you, sweetheart” as she attempts to embrace him. Daffy makes another realization, “Uh oh. She’s got that old ball and chain look in her eye”, where her pupils are now iron balls with a chain attached. He shakes her hand, “Well, so long!”, and runs off, with “The Body” running off after him. They both run right through the door, creating respective holes in the door in their shapes. The holes join together making it look like they’re holding hands, with a few bars of the “Wedding March” playing, ending the cartoon (animated by Scribner).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½