They Shall Sample My Blade

Duck Amuck has always been one of my favourite cartoons but so much has been written about it, there’s nothing I can add.

Chuck Jones’ cartoons can have such subtle movement and expressions that you feel it, even if you don’t notice it. Here is the open with dramatic actor Daffy Duck in an Errol Flynn-type swashbuckler role. Phil De Guard’s background pans to the left and disappears.



A realisation take. But Jones (or whoever animated this) doesn’t just have a static pose. The plume in Daffy’s chapeau drops to add to the effect that Daffy is stunned.



Daffy turns around to inspect the disappearance of his sword-fight scenery. Again, it’s not just a turn. Daffy flattens the palm of his hand. The gesture adds to what he’s feeling.



Daffy then gives us a shrug before tip-toeing out of the scene to adjust and give the audience watching his latest cartoon their money’s worth. Daffy, if nothing else in the 1950s, fancied himself an entertainer.



I shan’t attribute this scene to Ken Harris, but my wild guess is that’s who animated it. Ben Washam and Lloyd Vaughan also get screen credit, with Maurice Noble laying out the scenes, and Mike Maltese adding his unique style of dialogue. This post has the opening credit scroll snipped together.