Studio: Fleischer Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Max Fleischer
Short Synopsis
Betty comes home delighted with a new fox fur, a whole pelt with head and glass eyes, and drapes it over a chair. Pudgy, jealous of the attention and convinced the fox is alive, growls at it, circles it, and finally attacks, shaking and worrying it. When it does not fight back or move he decides he has killed it. Guilt descends. He sees accusing faces in the furniture, the shadow of a lamp fitting becomes a hangman's noose, the fox's glass eyes follow him round the room, and he hides under the bed in terror of the gallows. Betty returns, finds him trembling, and explains that the fox was never alive. Pudgy's relief turns instantly to fury, and he tears the fur to shreds, with Betty's new purchase in tatters by the fade.
Why It Matters
- Pudgy's guilt sequence is a small masterpiece of expressionist cartooning, with the Fleischers' old taste for nightmare imagery, the noose shadow and the staring eyes, applied to a puppy's conscience, and it shows the Waldman-Lokey unit capable of something more than cuteness.
- The film is in the public domain in the United States and is one of the best-regarded Pudgy cartoons; the fox-fur stole was a mid-1930s fashion that cartoons found irresistible, and Pudgy's final revenge on it has the ring of the animators' own opinion.
Notes and Trivia
- Frances Reynolds, the second voice credit, supplied the kitten and incidental sounds.
- It was one of the last cartoons Hicks Lokey animated before leaving for Disney.
- See also: Pudgy Takes a Bow-Wow (1937), Taking the Blame (1935), Ding Dong Doggie (1937).
