Studio: Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Produced by: Leon Schlesinger
Short Synopsis
The cartoon is a spot-gag tour of the Old West in the 1800s, introduced by a narrator in the style of a historical travelogue. A map traces the trails and settlements of the frontier, and the film moves from town to town, each scene a separate joke. A thirsty prospector crawls across the burning desert. In a frontier town the camera passes the hotel, the saloon and the boardwalk, with signs and characters taken painfully literally. In the saloon, a gambler in a top hat and a cowboy face off with drawn guns, and the shootout dissolves into clouds of gunsmoke. Running through the whole film is a Pony Express rider who keeps trying, and failing, to get into the saddle of his horse as it gallops off without him, each attempt more desperate than the last, until the final gag pays off his effort.
Why It Matters
- The Pony Express running gag is the backbone of the film, a joke that grows funnier through repetition, and it shows Freleng's precise sense of rhythm in a format without a plot. The pun-heavy signs and literal-minded narrator belong to the Warner travelogue parodies that Tex Avery had made popular.
- It is a typical example of the one-shot spot-gag cartoons Warner Bros. turned out between its star vehicles, a format that let directors test jokes and timing quickly. As a one-shot, with no recurring star, it shows Freleng working purely with gags and pacing.
Notes and Trivia
- Standard filmographies describe only the Pony Express running gag; the other scenes summarised here follow the surviving film.
- Freleng directed it in the same year as his wartime Bugs Bunny cartoons, including Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941), which was nominated for an Academy Award.
- See also: Cross Country Detours (1940), Farm Frolics (1941).