The Scarlet Pumpernickel

Blowing your brains out is the answer and that's just what Daffy Duck ends up doing.

The cartoon opens in the office of one of the Warner Brothers producers. Daffy is trying to get him interested in making a movie from his 1000 page script 'The Scarlet Pumpernickel'. Daffy plays a swashbuckling hero/thief who would like for no more than to marry his maiden in peril. But Sylvester is out to catch him and take her for himself.

The producer likes Daffy's script but need a bigger ending. How about a tidal wave? Not good enough? And a volcano explodes? Not good enough. But there's nothing left for the Scarlett Pumpernickel to do but blow his brains out?

Blam!

I love that Duck.

Daffy the actor is in the boss' office, pleading for a new role and a new image. He's tired of being typecast as a comic. He brings a script for a film he wants to do: The Scarlet Pumpernickel by Daffy Dumas Duck. He starts reading it and we see the images as the story unfolds.

"Once upon a time," Daffy starts...and then stops to say, "Great opening, huh?" Anyway, "in merry old England......."

We get the story with Daffy as the hero, and Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat playing key roles. The colors and the art in depicting the castles, streets and costumes of the day are spectacular. The story is good; not a ton of laughs but smart enough with inside jokes (Errol Flynn references, Jewish jokes and lines) to be enjoyable for us adults. Daffy Duck cartoons, from what I've seen, are geared more for adults than kids, anyway.

Daffy is tired of being cast in comedy roles. He writes a script where he will appear as the Scarlet Pumpernickel, a highwayman who gets what he wants. In this case, it is the hand of a princess (whose father is a pig and who is, herself a duck). Don't ask. Anyway, on her way to marry Sylvester who is a viscount, Daffy/Pumpernickel absconds with her. No wedding takes place. Then it is up to Daffy to keep what is his. Very crisp animation of Chuck Jones makes this work. Even though he is playing a serious role, Daffy continues to be Daffy. His script appears to be several thousand pages long. I've seen this so many times. It is somewhat endearing.

Daffy Duck goes to Jack Warner to pitch his take on "The Scarlet Pimpernickel" in another good looney Tunes short. This kinda broke away with the formulaic nature of the other Tunes shorts of the period. And as such it's able to stand out from the pack a bit more and it's better for it. This short is delightful.Furthermore, The ending is intact unlike what you'll see in the TV versions. So the cartoon goes out with more of a bang for your buck hehehe. This cartoon is on Disk 2 of the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1". It also has an optional commentary, as well as a music-only track.

My Grade: B+

We've all seen the images of up-and-coming writers trying to pitch their work to studio heads. Well, in "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", Daffy Duck is trying to pitch his 2,000-page script to studio head J.L. The script casts Daffy as the Scarlet Pumpernickel, an 18th-century rogue. Seeking to trap the guy, the dastardly Lord High Chamberlain (Porky Pig) comes up with a most devious scheme: marry fair maiden Melissa off to the unpleasant Grand Duke (Sylvester the Cat). So, it all comes down to a sword-fight between Daffy and Sylvester.

Actually, it doesn't come down to that. Daffy never wrote an ending, and so at the spur of the moment, he comes up with an ending that seems a little strange to put in a cartoon. But, as he notes, that's apparently what you have to do to sell a script these days. The cartoon makes fun not only of movies starring Errol Flynn (whom Daffy mentions by name), but also of everything Hollywood-related. Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, and that whole team probably knew all about such things. Another classic cartoon.