Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/The Scarlet Pumpernickel
From Eccentric Flower
The Scarlet Pumpernickel
1948
Summary: Daffy, desperately wanting a dramatic role, pitches his new script to a producer.
Director: Chuck Jones
Writer: Michael Maltese
Featuring: Daffy Duck; Porky Pig; Sylvester. (And a cameo from Elmer Fudd.)
Onreel
0:34 Sound cue as we zoom in on the Warner Brothers lot (with its distinctive red roofs and water tower): "Hooray for Hollywood." Plays again every time we cut back to Daffy and the script.
0:42 "I'm tellin' ya, J.L. ..." J.L. is Jack Warner. The real Jack Warner would never have been this meek or this polite.
1:03 The "Dumas" Daffy has added in is to invite comparison with Alexandre Dumas (surely pere and not fils as Daffy would be more likely to invoke The Three Musketeers or The Count of Monte Cristo here than, say, "Camille.")
1:05 Sound cue: About the same time as Daffy's title page we start to slip into Suppé's "Jolly Robbers" overture. (Organ performance; note especially fast theme near end at 3:15 or so.)
1:47 The Lord High Chamberlain is getting a permanent.
2:22 Sound cue: "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes."
2:38 Sound cue under Daffy's dialogue with Elmer: Boccherini's minuet from his String Quintet #5. More audible version.
3:16 Although this music could be credited as Raymond Scott's "In an 18th Century Drawing Room," it is more likely Mozart's Piano Sonata #16, which Scott took his primary theme from.
4:05 Back to "Jolly Robbers" again.
4:17 "That's funny - that never happens to Errol Flynn." (And later, "I'll have to check with Errol.") These are two hints about what inspires Daffy's derring-do.
4:21 Sound cue: Wagner bridal march. One day this will be the last scrap of Wagner left in our collective memory.
5:03 "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" again.
6:34 That's a mighty expensive kreplach.
Offreel
The Scarlet Pimpernel was a 1903 play and then a 1905 novel by Baroness Emma Orczy. It is essentially the prototype for the masked man of action who by day is a useless fop/coward/playboy, paving the way for Zorro and Batman and that lot. The pimpernel of the title is a small red flower which is used as a recognition symbol between our hero and his secret society of crusaders. The S.P. has seen his way to a film or television adaptation countless times, of which the best is probably the 1934 film with Leslie Howard as the hero. Ye olde Pimpernel is a bit dated these days, but still can be found kicking around popular culture from time to time.
The Scarlet Pumpernickel, who invokes bread instead of flowers, is actually not very much like the Pimpernel except in the "nobleman" scenes when he's out of costume. His red mask/bandana and black outfit is basically straight Zorro, and the rest of his schtick is very Robin Hood, particularly of the Errol Flynn school.
This is a rare-for-the-time ensemble cartoon; in addition to prominent parts for three "star" characters and the Elmer Fudd cameo, there are also appearances by Henery Hawk and Mama Bear from Chuck Jones' Three Bears series. Incidentally, since Elmer only has one line, they got Mel Blanc to do it instead of bringing in Arthur Q. Bryan. Bea Benaderet does Lady Melissa.
IMDb says that Mendelssohn's "Athalie" overture makes an appearance here. I don't know it well enough to pick out its location. It may be during Sylvester's speech ("First, I am happy ...") They also claim some of the "Dance of the Comedians" shows up (see Hare Conditioned), and if someone wants to find where, I'll add a note about it.
Daffy's suicide has been cut by the squeamish on various television airings.
This cartoon was somewhat inexplicably named one of the "fifty greatest cartoons" in a vote of 1000 animation professionals in 1994.
