Studio: Walter Lantz Productions
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Short Synopsis
Oswald runs a little diner, working as the cook, with a girl beagle as his waitress. The first customer, a tall terrier, eats a plate of spaghetti, strolls to the till as if to pay, then dashes out of the door blowing a raspberry. Oswald and the waitress just laugh: they have a plan for the next one. A young beagle orders pancakes, finds them as hard as rocks and starts throwing them around, and when he tries to leave without paying, the mechanical cash register grabs him and shakes the money out of him. The third customer is a huge bear, Pete, who orders an egg sandwich. Oswald cracks the egg and a chick hops out. While Oswald is in the kitchen, Pete flirts with the waitress. Annoyed, Oswald saws two square wooden boards and glues them together as a "sandwich"; Pete bites into it and breaks his teeth. Furious, he goes after Oswald, and a fight breaks out in the diner. The film ends, as it began, with Oswald singing beside his partner.
Why It Matters
- The cash register that seizes non-paying customers is the gag to remember, a piece of machinery with a personality of its own, and the film is a tidy example of a three-customer structure, each scene topping the last.
- It is an early credit for Fred "Tex" Avery, who was animating at the Lantz studio before he moved to Warner Bros. in 1935 and changed the pace of American cartoon comedy. Watching the escalating, mechanical gags here is a glimpse of his apprenticeship.
Notes and Trivia
- It was the 72nd Oswald cartoon made under Lantz, and the 124th Oswald cartoon overall.
- See also: Broadway Folly (1930), The Navy (1930).