Release Date:

October 15, 1955

Main Character(s):

Pepe Le Pew, Penelope

Summary:

In the French Alps, a short bank robber catches Penelope and paints a white stripe down her back in order to scare everyone in the bank away, allowing him to rob said bank without any witnesses. Upon coming across Pepe Le Pew and getting a whiff of his odor, he is so repulsed that he locks himself in jail. Pepe then chases Penelope all over the Alps.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1377 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

Jones wrote this cartoon himself, marking this the first time since “Rabbit Every Monday” where a director (Freleng in that one) wrote his own cartoon, and the first time a director is given story credit for doing so.

Robert Gribbroek also returned to the studio with this cartoon doing the layouts.

The title is a play on words for “two cents worth”.

Pepe’s line, “Poems are made by fools like me” after he bashes into a tree is a reference to Joyce Kilmer’s poem, “Trees”.

Pepe would also pursue Penelope in the Alps in 1961’s “A Scent of the Matterhorn”.

Favorite Scene:

The robber comes across Pepe walking along on all four’s and mistakes him for Penelope, telling “her” not to follow him as “she” has served “her” purpose, just before getting a whiff of his odor. Pepe’s calm smiling expression during the whole thing is absolutely hilarious.

What Happens in This One:

In “Les Alpes Francais (The French Alps)” in “Le petite village d’ N’estce Pas (The small village of Nasty Pass)”, the robber walks into the shop of a “Fishe Monger”. From outside with their dialogue not heard, the robber asks the fishmonger for one sardine. The fishmonger clearly mouths “one fish!?” to which the robber nods. After he is given the sardine, the robber pays for it and leaves to go up the stairs to his hideout one story above “Le First Nationel Banque”. From the top story’s window, he reels the sardine from a fishing pole down to where Penelope (whose bowl is inscribed “Fifi”) is resting. Sniffing the sardine, Penelope bites on it and is pulled up into the window. The robber paints the white stripe on her back, while she finishes eating the sardine (animated by Keith Darling).

The robber then walks out with Penelope and drops her through the skylight from the bank’s roof. She lands into full view of everyone in the bank, “Un skunk de pew!”; “Un polecat!”; “Le yipe!” They all run out at once while exclaiming indistinctly in unison as the robber, leaning his hand against the wall, watches. Now able to rob the bank without any witnesses, the robber fills his bag with all the money before leaving. From the opposite direction comes Pepe, walking on all four’s and humming to himself. The robber comes across Pepe and initially mistakes him for Penelope, “Pas bleu, Mamselle Kitty. Do not follow me. You have served your purpose”. He then gets a whiff of Pepe’s odor and is so disgusted by it that he runs all the way to “Le Hoose Gow” and into “Cell 7” where he locks himself in said cell and tosses the key aside (animated by Ken Harris).

After a while, Penelope walks out of the bank on all four’s. The camera pans up to the hill Pepe was walking on, before he notices her from the distance and becomes love-struck. “Ah-ha! Un petite femme skunk!” He runs down to her (animated by Richard Thompson) and comes up from behind, covering her eyes, “Guess who?” Pepe then picks her up to reveal himself to her, “It is me!”, before putting her down. “Oh, but, eh, pardon-a-moi. Eh, eh, but permit me to introduce you myself. I am Pepe Le Pew. Your lover!” Pepe begins kissing her from the arm up numerous times before he jumps into her arms, “Mm. So impetuous, but nice!” She runs off, leaving Pepe landing gently on his rear. He confides, “You know, it is not a case of physical attraction. I admire her mind too!” (animated by Darling)

Penelope runs off, out of the village, with Pepe hopping after her on all four’s, chasing her up the mountain, up the cliff side leading to the Alps, and into a cable car, where Penelope accidentally causes it to start by leaning against the brake, which pushes it into moving. Pepe manages to catch it anyway by jumping off the edge the cable car departed from and landing on it by catching the end with his hand (animated by Darling).

Silently sighing in relief, Penelope hears Pepe saying, “Hello, cherie!” and turns around to find him wearing a conductor’s hat, “All is FARE in love and war, eh, darling?”, pointing to a sign inside the cable car, “Fare 5 fr.” when he says the latter. Pepe grabs her in an embrace, “Alright, butter-duck! You have done all that could be expected. You have resisted your natural impulses and have run away from me, (chuckles), you little flirt!” He stops smooching to briefly aside, “Charming situation, is it not?” Pepe continues, “I tell you what. You stop resisting me, and I… I will stop resisting you”, before picking her up, “When have you had a better offer than that?” (animated by Thompson)

Penelope runs out to the top of the cable and walks across it and runs all the way up to “Le Jumpe D’Ski” as Pepe is heard calling out, “Hey, chow mein! Wait for baby!” After looking down at the long ski jump below, Penelope turns around to find Pepe dressed up as a mountain climber, “Ole, ole, eh, yo, epule? I am your guide to love, no?” He dashes over to her for another embrace, “Together, we shall explore the heights of delight. The conquest of Everest will pale into insignificance! We shall ascend the Matterhorn of-” She runs out of his arms again and ends up going down the ski jump backwards on only one ski (animated by Thompson).

As Penelope sails through the air on her one ski, Pepe is revealed to have come after her properly on two skis. He imitates operating a plane, “Navigator to pilot. Pretty girl at 3 o’clock. Over”. Upon coming closer to Penelope, he says, “Pilot to navigator. Rowr-rowr! Over. Roger. Wilco”. Pepe then imitates machine gun fire and informs Penelope, “I Pierce you with the ack-ack of love, flower-pot!”, only to fly smack face-first into a tree due to not paying attention to what’s actually in front of him. “Poems are made by fools like me”, he admits before shrugging. Pepe swings across various tree branches with ease. When he lands, Pepe reveals, “I always got A’s in gym” (animated by Abe Levitow).

Still flying through the air, Penelope and her ski land on a hill and go downward. Using his branch-swinging skills, Pepe catches up to her and gets back on the skis, which have continued going on without him after his tree incident. After a few shots of them both going downhill on their respective skis/ski, Pepe is shown leaning on his skis while giving a wave as Penelope pushes her hands across the ground to go faster. Pepe is then seen leaning backwards on his skis. They eventually come towards the edge of a cliff, to which Penelope manages to come to a stop, with her ski hanging off of the edge. Pepe goes flying right into her and finds himself holding Penelope in his arms, “Darling! How good of you to wait for me!” Seeing the long drop below, Penelope holds onto Pepe for dear life, not paying attention to his odor due to being more concerned about the fall. Pepe notes, “She is no longer timid!” before he deploys a heart-shaped parachute, as they descend down slowly. “A true gentleman must be prepared for anything”. A heart-shaped iris out with a red background ends the cartoon (animated by Levitow).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½