Tuesday 22 February 2022

Western Cliche Time

Directors of Westerns found different ways to set up shots of scenes leading up to the climax gun battle. In their hunt to avoid clichés, they created clichés. Director Chuck Jones, layout artist Phil De Guard and writer Mike Maltese got a chance to make fun of them in Drip-Along Daffy. It was released in 1951, a year before High Noon.

Here are the angles they came up with.



Maltese’s story has “comic relief” Porky Pig undermining the whole thing. He casually winds up a little toy that blasts, and disposes of, bad guy Nasty Canasta.

All Daffy Duck knows he is a Western hero and steadfastly continues to behave like one, walking with his guns toward a shootout that will, now, not happen, as a crowd rushes past him to mob Porky. Carl Stalling plays one of his stand-bys, “Cheyenne,” on the soundtrack.

Backgrounds are by Bob Gribbroek.
Posted by at 07:20
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4 comments:

  1. Errol22 February 2022 at 10:39

    The last lines always stick in my mind. Porky is the new sheriff.
    Porky:Oh Drip-a-long...Drip-a-long, Pal.
    Daffy: I told you I'd clean up this one horse town! ( Camera pans back to show Daffy in a Sanitation Engineer's uniform)
    Porky(looking wryly at the camera)Lucky for him it *is* a one horse town.

    Yep, great stuff all around.

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    Replies
    1. granitoons23 February 2022 at 01:59

      I remember seeing that last bit was cut out at least once on TV.

      Delete
  2. Bruce Laing22 February 2022 at 14:37

    If memory serves me right, on the original Bugs Bunny Show, Porky's final line "Lucky for him, it *is* a one horse town" was excised.

    ReplyDelete
  3. granitoons23 February 2022 at 02:00

    It's interesting to discover that High Noon came out a year after this. I remember watching that film a few years back and even though I enjoyed it, it did feel like a parody as I'd seen so many parodies by that stage before seeing the original.

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