| Daffy – The Commando | |
|---|---|
.png) Title card | |
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
| Story by | Michael Maltese[1] |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger[1] |
| Starring | Mel Blanc[1] |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Ken Champin |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7:24 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Daffy – The Commando is a 1943Warner Bros.Looney Tunes cartoon directed byFriz Freleng.[2] The cartoon was released on November 20, 1943, and starsDaffy Duck.[3]
Early one morning, somewhere inWorld War II-eraGermany, Commander Von Vultur is pacing back and forth inside his bunker while fuming about how so manyAmerican commandos have managed to slip behind German enemy lines undetected. He receives a telegram from the "GestinkoGestapo", threatening him with his 'ka-rear' if he lets 'vun' more 'kommando' through. Hearing an American warplane overhead, he calls in hisbatman – Schultz – whom he abuses by knocking him regularly over his helmet with a mallet. They run outside and use asearchlight to search for any more landing commandos and eventually spot one, who just happens to be Daffy floating down on a parachute, whilst singingBilly Bennett's "She Was Poor but She Was Honest" in a fakeCockney accent.
After a quick shout of "Put out those lights!" gets the searchlight turned off temporarily and allows him to land unseen, Daffy uses his fingers on the searchlight's lens to make shadow puppets of animals and dancing chorus girls on the clouds to distract the Germans before hiding behind an asbestos curtain. When Von Vultur opens the curtain, Daffy makes an ugly face, causing Von Vultur to run off frightened.
Back at Von Vultur's bunker, Daffy tricks him into telling him the time and presents him with a ticking time bomb "as a little token of our esteem". Von Vultur hands the bomb off to Schultz, who is literally blown through the roof. When Schultz falls back, Daffy (who was hiding underneath Schultz's helmet) stops Von Vultur from hitting Schultz over the head with a mallet, and instead hits him. Von Vultur chases Daffy to a telephone booth, where Daffy continues to make fun of him.
Daffy jumps in a plane, narrowly avoiding "a whole mess ofMesserschmitts". Daffy is shot down by Von Vultur, his plane progressively disintegrating from back to front, eventually leaving just the engine and propeller), with Daffy still clinging to the controls. Daffy runs into what he believes is a tunnel where he can hide, but it turns out to be the barrel of a hugehowitzer cannon. Daffy is shot out by Von Vultur. However, Daffy flies unharmed (as a "human cannonball") intoBerlin, where (arotoscoped)FuehrerAdolf Hitler is giving a speech. Daffy whacks Hitler on the head with a mallet, causing Hitler to yell for Schultz.
A gag where Daffy is on a pay phone as Von Vultur is trying to get into the booth has Daffy speaking to him in semi-correct German, while holdingcue card–like signs with the dialoguetranslated for the audience (a classic example of "breaking thefourth wall"). In many public domain prints, the signs are illegible, but read as follows:
Daffy 1: "Kannst du nicht sehen, diese Telefon ist busy? Bleiben Sie ruhig!" ("Can you not see this telephone is busy? Stay calm!")
Sign 1:ENGLISH TRANSLATION: "Can't you see this telephone is busy? Wait your turn!"
Daffy 2: "Bitte, mein Herr, haben Sie ein Fünf-Pfennig-Stück?" ("Please, sir, have you a fivepfennig coin?") "Danke schön." ("Thank you very much.")
Sign 2: "Got a nickel, bud?"
Daffy 3: "It's all yours, VonLimburger!"
Sign 3:GERMAN TRANSLATION: "Ich bin fertig mit der Telefon, Herr Von Limburger." ("I'm done with the telephone, Mr. Von Limburger.")
When Von Vultur enters the phone booth, he attempts to contact Schultz, but instead gets an operator, replying: "Ist dat you, Myrt?" This is a reference to the American radio comedy seriesFibber McGee and Molly, which was popular at the time. Myrtle was the never-heardswitchboard operator in the show ("Is that you, Myrt?" was a popular catchphrase in it that referred to her).[4]
This short is in thepublic domain[5] due toUnited Artists (successor-in-interest toAssociated Artists Productions) neglecting to renew thecopyright in time. It was also featured inBugs & Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons (1989) (MGM/UA), and then on theLooney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6. An episode ofFuturama titled "When Aliens Attack" uses a short clip in the screen gag on the opening sequence.
Is that you Myrt?.
