Release Date:

July 14, 1951

Main Character(s):

Porky Pig

Summary:

While traveling to Dublin Town on a rainy night, Porky Pig decides to stay for the night at a castle that a sign warns is inhabited by leprechauns. Brushing it off as nonsense, Porky meets the red-haired caretaker, Seamus O’Toole, who is not only dressed like a leprechaun, but also warns Porky that leprechauns are the only living thing around these parts. After Porky gets knocked out from slamming the door and a mace falling atop his head, O’Toole himself is revealed to be the two leprechauns, O’Pat and O’Mike, who believe Porky is trying to steal their pot of gold and put him through the wringer by sentencing him to wear the green shoes that force its wearer to dance a non-stop Irish jig.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1163 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

This marks Porky’s final ever solo cartoon in the Golden Age. In every appearance of his after this in the Golden Age (barring a brief cameo in 1964’s “Dumb Patrol” where he is the officer, “Captain Smedley” assigned to go out to defeat German baron Yosemite Sam, before Bugs takes his place as Porky has a wife and six piglets), he would be paired with either Daffy or Sylvester (mostly the former).

This is also the last cartoon to feature the Porky headshot in the opening rings.

This is the only Warner cartoon directed by Jones that Eugene Poddany scored, which is interesting since he would score most of the Tom and Jerry cartoons Jones’ unit made for MGM in the mid-1960’s as well as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (1966).

This is a rare cartoon that is appropriate for more than one holiday (the only other one that comes to mind is “Holiday Highlights”, which is a spot-gag cartoon on notable American holidays). In this case, this one is recommended for both St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween (since this is somewhat of a “spooky” cartoon).

The title is a pun for the 1798 Irish ballad, “The Wearing of the Green”.

O’Pat and O’Mike were among the first one-shot characters to become playable characters in the ongoing “Looney Tunes World of Mayhem” game (2018-present), with both joining the game near the respective St. Patrick’s Days of 2020 (O’Pat) and 2021 (O’Mike). (speaking of which, I should definitely do a post on the playable characters in that game since a lot of them are references to most of the cartoons. I’ll probably consider doing that after I’ve finished with all of the cartoons on April 30, 2027 and do a follow-up after that: “Character Variants That Haven’t Been Used in Looney Tunes World of Mayhem”).

Interestingly, yesterday’s cartoon, “French Rarebit”, featured two characters who had red and black hair, respectively. This is also the case with this one as O’Pat has red hair and O’Mike has black hair.

This is a rare instance where John T. Smith doesn’t voice a gruff character. In this one, he is the voice of O’Pat (and O’Toole since O’Pat is the upper half).

O’Pat and O’Mike are two of the background characters in the bleachers during the basketball game in “Space Jam”.

In the endpapers of Jerry Beck’s 2003 book, “Looney Tunes The Ultimate Visual Guide”, MacRory from “My Bunny Lies Over the Sea” is mistakenly where O’Mike is supposed to be.

O’Pat would later appear in the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries episode, “A Chip Off the Old Castle”.

This is the only other cartoon besides “A Hick A Slick and a Chick” to feature a uniquely-shaped iris out.

What I Like About This One:

“Sure and It’s Still 12 Miles to Dublin Town”, a sign in the pouring rain reads. Porky is dismayed to find this out, “T-t-twelve miles! Gosh, I’ll n-n-never make it in this storm!” Spotting a castle up on a nearby hill, Porky decides, “Well, uh, m-m-maybe the people in that quaint old castle will, uh, p-p-put me up for the night”. As he walks up the trail, Porky spots a sign warning, “Beware the Leprechauns” and immediately dismisses it, “L-l-leprechauns indeed. Huh! W-w-what nonsense!” (animated by Ben Washam)

Porky knocks on the door with the door’s shamrock-shaped knocker and after opening it upon figuring the owners are asleep, he yells, “Is anybody home?”, which echoes all across the castle (“Is anybody home?”, “Anybody home?” “Body home?” “Home?”) and to where the camera pans to O’Toole’s silhouette. After Porky wonders while sputtering, “D-d-d-who are you!?” O’Toole lights a match and uses it to light his candle and then his pipe before answering, “Sure and me name is Seamus O’Toole, and it’s the caretaker of old Glory Castle, I am, I am”. Porky sighs in relief and requests to speak to O’Toole’s master about lodgings for the night. O’Toole warns, “Now is it daft you are altogether? The old castle is empty these many years and there’s never a living thing here, but… the leprechauns” (animated by Washam).

“L-l-leprechauns”, Porky says to us in a dismissive manner before scolding O’Toole, “N-n-now you cut out this nonsense and t-t-take my bags to a room, y-you picturesque p-p-peasant caretaker of the old sod, you!” He then slams the door with the impact causing a large mace held above the door to fall (animated by Washam) directly on to his head and knock him unconscious, with him collapsing forward. O’Toole then jumps out of his “pants” and runs over with his upper half being revealed to be O’Pat and his lower half being O’Mike (who was hidden scrunched down in O’Toole’s pants), who also runs over to take a look at Porky. “Oosht! He’s a fat one, O’Pat”, O’Mike remarks. “Ah, bundle. I see what he is, O’Mike”, O’Pat replies (animated by Ken Harris).

O’Mike suddenly becomes worried and tells O’Pat that “he’s after our pot of gold, he is (makes worried noises)”. O’Pat: “The devil, you say, O’Mike”. O’Mike: “The devil, I don’t”. Upon O’Mike saying O’Pat’s name in worry again, O’Pat asks, “And NOW what is it, O’Mike?” O’Mike takes off his leprechaun hat, revealing the pot of gold was under it: “We must hide the pot of gold, we must, we must”. He then starts running around the room with the pot of gold and making the same worried noises. O’Pat calmly tries to get him to stop before he resorts to yelling and punctuating for emphasis: “Hold on, O’Mike. Wait. Stop. Here, now. Whoa. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. WAIT! A! MINUTE!” Once O’Mike stops, O’Pat takes off his leprechaun hat to reveal his chief hat, “I’M chief of the leprechauns here about, and ‘tis ME alone as we’ll decide how to treat the likes of this intruder. Is that clear, me boy-o?”. Embarrassed, O’Mike agrees, “Yes, O’Pat” before going back down into the pants in order for O’Pat to become O’Toole again (animated by Harris).

At this moment, Porky regains his senses as O’Toole helps him up, “An accident, sir. Sure, I’ll show ya upstairs to a room and a soft bed”. Hidden in O’Pat’s pants, O’Mike picks up the suitcases and hands them to O’Pat for him to carry as they follow Porky up the stairs, but accidentally get separated on said stairs as O’Pat goes up the railing and goes a different way on the top of the stairs, while the hidden-in-pants O’Mike properly walks up the stairs and follows Porky all the way to the room (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Porky is too tired to initially notice only “O’Toole”’s pants behind him, “J-j-just put the bags down anyplace, Seamus” and hands his hat and coat to O’Mike, who walks away. Walking to the bed, Porky then sees O’Pat with his bags asking him, “Uh, pardon me, sir. But have you seen the lower half of me, abouts?” Porky obliviously points to O’Mike and answers, “It’s r-r-right back there, Seamus” and after O’Pat thanks him, Porky says to himself, “Eh, s-s-some people just can’t keep track of their other halves” before making a scared take and looking back. Seeing “O’Toole” next to his “other half” and asking him, “Now isn’t this sight enough to set the heart crossways in you?” Porky lets out a high-pitched, terrified, “L-l-l-leprechauns” before diving into the bed, shaking under the covers. The bed retracts into the wall sending Porky sliding all the way down into a chair in the leprechauns’ secret courtroom (animated by Vaughan).

Shortly, O’Mike dances in with a cane and announces, “Here ye! Here ye! The leprechaun court, O’Ho-Ho-Shaughnasee township, county of Rourke O’Hoolihan is now in session. The little people versus Porky Pig, for attempting to steal the pot of gold”. The pot of gold is shown as “Exhibit A”. Porky attempts to explain this is false, “B-b-but that’s silly, I-I-I didn’t-”. Refusing to let him get a word in edgewise, O’Mike demands, “Silence in the courtroom, ya blatherskite!” before hitting Porky on the head with his cane, which gives him two lumps. O’Mike then announces, “The right honorable Judge O’Pat presiding”. O’Pat, wearing a judge’s wig dances in before sitting in the judge’s seat and declaring Porky to be “guilty as the day is long!” Porky starts to become angry, “I p-p-protest! I-I demand a fair trial! I-I-” but O’Mike demands, “Silence, me boy-o!” and hits Porky on the head again, giving him another lump. O’Pat announces while banging the gavel, “I sentence you to the wearin’ of the green shoes! Court adjourned!” (animated by Phil Monroe)

O’Mike brings out the green shoes and ties them onto Porky’s feet. Not seeing how this is a punishment, Porky chuckles, “Gosh. I’m afraid I had you fellows all wrong. Why, th-they’re the nicest shoes I ever-I ever-” before sputtering in shock (and his lumps somehow disappear) upon seeing that the shoes have minds of their own. They force Porky to dance an Irish jig all the way out into the open as he enters a surreal landscape where the laughing leprechauns’ faces appear on gold coins spilling out of a large pot of gold (animated by Monroe).

Porky eventually removes the shoes, but they follow him (animated by Monroe) all the way into the distance to the point where he falls off a ledge with harps on either side. The shoes jump down after him and chase him in mid-air before they go through a pipe in mid-air with Porky forming from a puff of smoke before continuing to fall. He lands near a harp in front of him, and pulls on its strings in desperation, before it suddenly shrinks around his wrists, like handcuffs. He then runs (animated by Vaughan) behind a tree, but the shoes sneak up on him and kick him into the air, so he ends up landing in them. The shoes force him to continue the Irish jig to the point where he ends up dancing off a cliff and falls into a pot full of liquid-like gold (animated by Monroe).

Porky rolling in the liquid-like gold, making shivering-like noises, fades back into the castle, where he’s back in his traveling clothes and is rolling around on the floor shivering from the water O’Toole has thrown on him after the mace fell atop him, revealing the whole thing was a dream. Once Porky stops and wakes up, he screams upon seeing O’Toole and clings to the support above the door where the mace was. “L-l-leave me alone, you old leprechaun, you! I-I don’t want your old pot of gold!” (animated by Monroe)

O’Toole is confused by this, “‘Leprechaun’, sir? ‘Pot of gold’, sir?” Porky reminds him, “Eh, d-didn’t you sentence me to the wear the g-g-green shoes?” O’Toole answers, “No, sir. Why would I be up to doin’ such a daft thing? Come on down, now, and… and we’ll find you a bit of a rest in a soft bed”. Porky climbs down and grabs his bags, “Oh, eh, n-n-no thank you. I-I-I really must be going. I’m late for an appointment. Heh, heh. W-w-with my psychiatrist” before running off quickly into the distance. Watching this, O’Toole shakes hands with his lower half, O’Mike in his pants, as he slyly flutters his eyebrows for the camera, leaving us to wonder whether if the events were really a dream or not, and with a shamrock-shaped iris out ending the cartoon (animated by Monroe).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½