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.

With TWO good themes carried off in a hilarious way, good characters chosen and a good plot, this Daffy Duck episode is pretty tough to beat! Yet another good thing about this episode, is the clever, brilliant mux-ip of the modern and the old Daffy Duck (this episode was made in 1950, when the new greedy, sly, mean Daffy Duck that most of us know was just starting to appear) and the choosing of so many Looney Tunes characters - including a new one!

The episode begins with Daffy feeling hyperly angry and stressed at doing so much comedy and he has had the nerve and steel to write a script which focuses on a more serious theme - or as serious as Daffy can possibly be. The story is not the Scarlet Pimpernel - but the Scarlet Pumpernickel, as Daffy! Also appearing is Porky as the High Chamberlain and who seems to be a new character, a yellow duck, as the fair Melissa. She is to marry the Grand Duke, who is Sylvester, but she loves the Scarlet Pumpernickel, who is an outlaw. It's the start of a grand adventure, with good gags along the way...

Good for people who like comedy versions of famous book people and good for people who want to watch Daffy's attempt at a more serious episode. Enjoy "The Scarlet Pumpernickel"! :-)

Tired of being typecast in comedy-duck roles, Daffy pitches an adventure story to a studio executive. He tells the story of the Scarlet Pumpernickel, a gentleman bandit that befuddles the authorities, until, that is, the Lord Chamberlain devises a cunning plan to draw him out and trap him.

This cartoon is a mix of period piece and studio-spoof; it starts and ends in the studio and has a vague Errol-Flynn tale in the middle. The main story is surprisingly unfunny and really could have used a great deal more spark to really make it enjoyable. As it is it only has a few gags, such is the time given to the array of characters and the frame of the plot. The studio set bits are quite funny due to the joke of how hard it is to sell the story, the idea that Daffy is a real actor worried about typecasting and the delivery of the duck himself - but these aren't enough to carry it.

The cast are very good on paper, the problem is there are too many players. Daffy is funny in his twin roles as actor and character, but Porky is given too little time to really do anything. Likewise Sylvester is pretty much wasted. The feeling of an ensemble cast is not necessarily a good thing in a 4 minute long film - sometimes things need to be scaled down to be more effective.

Despite the promise shown by the film, it tries to do too many things and the end result is that it doesn't do the main story or the studio stuff justice. If anything I was surprised by just how average this cartoon was!

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.

Scarlet Pumpernickel, The (1950)

*** (out of 4)

Daffy Duck, tired of playing comedy roles, goes to J.L. Warner with a new swashbuckler screenplay and begins to read it. It features our hero (Daffy) trying to save the woman he loves from her evil father (Porky Pig) and the man he wants to marry her off to (Sylvester). This film has a lot of heart and imagination but not enough laughs to make it one of the best from Merrie Melodies. The visual animation is top-notch from start to finish with some beautiful looking backgrounds especially those inside the castle. The wedding scene in pedicular stands out as does the ending where we see a volcano go off as well as a dam break. Sylvester is pretty much wasted in the film as is Porky but we do have Daffy going all out.