The Screwball

The Screwball
Woody Woodpecker series
Directed by Alex Lovy
Produced by Walter Lantz
Story by Ben Hardaway
Milt Schaffer
Voices by Kent Rogers
Harold Peary
Music by Darrell Calker
Animation by LaVerne Harding
Studio Walter Lantz Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s)
  • February 15, 1943 (1943-02-15) (U.S.)
Color process Technicolor
Running time 6' 50"
Language English
Preceded by The Loan Stranger
Followed by The Dizzy Acrobat

The Screwball is the seventh animated cartoon short subject in the Woody Woodpecker series. Released theatrically on February 15, 1943, the film was produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures.

Plot

A local crowd gathers at a baseball park for a game between the Droops and the Drips. A lone policeman stands at the park gate discouraging spectators who have not paid to see the game. Woody notices that kids returning baseballs can get in for free, so he tosses the policeman a cannonball and enters the park.

Woody tries to watch the game but the policeman finds him. He escapes by shaking a soda pop bottle and spraying it into his adversary's face, adding "No stopper, Copper!"

Woody joins the game as the pitcher for the Drips. When he is up to bat, he causes so much trouble that the entire team chases him along the baselines while the policeman waits for him at home plate. He escapes by pecking his way through a barrage of baseball bats. However, Woody ends up not getting away with murder, being assaulted with a barrage of baseballs as soon as he pops out of the park's scoreboard.

Production notes

Cultural references

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" can be heard in the background score during the establishing shot of the baseball park. The music is used sporadically throughout the film.

Trivia

This cartoon plays on Andy's TV in the post-credits scene of Curse of Chucky.

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