So Which One is the Peasant?

A wild ending of fox vs. ballerina duck greets viewers of the Walter Lantz classical musical The Poet & Peasant (1946).

The fox chokes the duck. The duck quickly turns things around and clobbers the fox. Look at the expressions.



Dick Lundy directed this cartoon and the pacing is a lot more frenetic than I'm used to in his work at Lantz.



These four frames are almost consecutive. The action’s fast and Lundy cuts further back in the final frame.



Finally, the duck blows the horn and rides the fox into the background.

Paul J. Smith and Les Kline receive screen credit for animation, but could this be anyone's scene but Emery Hawkins'?

Milt Schaffer and Bugs Hardaway get the story credit. Darrell Calker did a fine job with the music. There is no dialogue. Terry Lind is the background artist.

The short was nominated for an Oscar.