Well, it’s actually more than that. It was rather audacious of Bob Clampett to make this one, considering the hyper-patriotic films and songs swirling around during the war. Here’s a character who doesn’t want to serve in the military, something I imagine reflected the feelings of some Americans at the time.
As for the running, we’re fortunate today that DVDs were invented so we can watch this cartoon frame by frame and enjoy Daffy’s emoting.
There are plenty of scenes to pick from but here’s one (Manny Gould’s animation?) where our favourite duck joyously sings about the man from the Draft Board coming to see him. Then he realises what that means.
Below, some anticipation drawings following by curly-tongued extremes.
Daffy goes up. And down.
Clampett and writer Lou Lilly toss in a send-up of the Sinatra-associated song “It Had To Be You” (written in 1924, long before Frankie began his singing career). “It couldn’t be him,” Daffy cries, pointing to a goldfish that shows up in the cartoon solely for the gag. I like the expression on the fish.
“It couldn’t be you,” he wails as he points to a mirror. Since he’s in the mirror, it could be him!
Daffy trembles. “Get ahold of yourself,” he says. So he does. Literally.
Clampett seems to have loved including radio show references in his cartoons. The man from the Draft Board sounds like Mr. Peavey (played by Richard LeGrand) on The Great Gildersleeve, who remarked “Well, now, I wouldn’t say that” on the show. Clampett treats the line as a running gag.
The cartoon ends with Daffy being chased through the underworld by the Draft Board guy dressed as Satan. The message: draft dodgers can go to Hell. It seems Clampett made a patriotic cartoon after all.
Best use of "It Had to Be You" (IMO) is in Book Revue, but this is a close second.
ReplyDeleteWhen Daffy strikes bottom in Hell, Stalling plays a bit of Siegfried's Funeral Music from Wagner's Die Gotterdammerung. Stalling must have though Wagner was just the ticket for Hell, as uses another Ring Cycle opera theme for Sylvester's descent to Hell in Satan's Waitin', one that accompanies the descent into the dwarf's underworld Nibelheim.
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon must have been a big hit during Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteOh, well, now, I wouldn't say that.
My copy is in storage, but in Danny Peary's 1980 book, "The American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology", I remember one of the essays described a late Sixties university showing of DD that "yielded the expected results": (paraphrasing) "Hisses and boos for Daffy's flag-waving, laughter at his realization, boredom during the chases, and wild applause at the end."
DeleteA book that's a mixed bag, full of either keen perception or perverse navel-gazing.
DeleteAs I have said before, Bob Clampett created the definitive Daffy Duck. Same goes for Bugs.
ReplyDelete