Get Rich Quick Porky
| Get Rich Quick Porky | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Porky Pig) series | |
| Directed by | Robert Clampett |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Voices by |
Mel Blanc Cal Howard |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Charles Jones |
| Studio | Leon Schlesinger Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros., The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | August 28, 1937 (U.S.A.) |
| Color process | Black & White |
| Running time | 7 min. |
| Language | English |
Get Rich Quick Porky is an American animated short film. It is a Looney Tune cartoon, featuring Porky Pig, and released on August 28, 1937.[1] Bob Clampett supervised the production of the cartoon, and it is only the second short that he directed; Carl Stalling provided musical direction. Notably, Chuck Jones, later to be famed as a director, is credited as animator on the short. This cartoon marks the final appearance of Gabby Goat. The short's working title was The Early Bird gets Porky.
Summary
The title screen changes seamlessly into a sign reading: "Get Rich Quick", followed by "For Sale/This lovely lot containing lots and lots/Oh!--Just oodles of OIL!" As the camera removes, we see that "John Gusher", a shyster, stands by the sign and the lot in question. A truck comes by and is received by this corrupt businessman; the truck's tank is full of oil, and Gusher distributes the said oil throughout his barren plot by means of a sprinkler system and rubber hoses. From his mutterings we gather that he awaits the arrival of "a couple of suckers". Out of the corner of his eye, he spies Porky Pig ascending the steps of the First National Bank, where he means to deposit the money contained in a sack that he is holding; but Gabby Goat, his friend, follows close behind, eagerly trying to convince Porky to spend the money, to which overtures Porky replies that he wishes to get "two per cent." Just as Porky would enter the building, Mr. Gusher blocks his path, barely introduces himself by way of a hastily drawn and withdrawn business card, and points out the plot just across the street. With Gabby egging him on, Porky signs the wayward oilman's deed and turns over his sack in exchange for the field.
The two friends, having gathered some tools in the meanwhile, begin their excavation. Gabby, by means of a pickaxe, unearths a can of oil. A dog wanders onto the property and attempts to bury a bone, only to have it spat back at him by a small gusher; the dog has some further difficulties restraining the spouts of crude. Gabby rides a jackhammer as "The Merry Go-Round Broke Down" plays, and, as he can not control the device, drills into the earth and out again, and in again, not to be seen again for several moments. We return to the dog, who is confronted by a gopher, who performs a magic trick: he flattens the soup bone with his hands, then causes it to appear out of the dog's left ear, to the canine's delight. The gopher then buries the bone for the dog to personally exhume: but the dog only gets a face full of oil, while the gopher magically removes the bone from his "volunteer"'s mouth and absconds with it to his subterranean lair, leaving the poor dog to howl in frustration! Porky, now wielding a pickaxe, discovers one of John Gusher's tools of fraudulence, a rubber hose; not long thereafter, the con man reappears, and Porky confronts him for the crook that he is. An amiable double-crosser, Gusher offers to tear up the deed to the land and give Porky but one dollar of his money back!
By this point Gabby, still astride his jackhammer, is far beneath the earth. Just as Porky is about to accept Mr. Gusher's offer, Gabby hits a large vein of oil, which liquid then bursts through the surface and carries all of the major characters high into the air. Porky realizes his new wealth and proclaims it as he tries to pull the deed away from the con artist, who, following upon Porky's initial acceptance of the offer of one dollar, had grabbed it. Gabby unintentionally strikes Gusher with the jackhammer, leading the crook to shout in pain as Gabby falls backwards onto Porky and the two friends fall off of the spout and to the ground. Sitting up, Porky gleefully announces that he has the deed in his hand, but he soon realizes that, in fact, he is holding the dog's bone. A despondent Porky turns away, but his sulking is interrupted by the same gopher who earlier so annoyed our canine friend; silently requesting the useless bone, the cheerful gopher, exercising a variation on a now familiar magic trick, transmutes the thing into the deed, but withholds it from Porky, promising to release it once Porky makes him half-owner of the oil field!
References
- ↑ Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: a History of American Animated Cartoons. Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1980. p. 407
