Studio: Famous Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Short Synopsis
A hungry fox, scraping a living by roasting clams beside a shipwreck on the beach, spots something much better: Baby Huey, the giant, simple-minded duckling in a nappy and bonnet. The fox dresses up as a pirate captain and lures Huey aboard an old sailing ship, pretending to sign him on as a sailor, while planning to cook him. Huey, cheerful and incredibly strong, has no idea what is going on. Every time the fox sets him a task or springs a trap, Huey's clumsiness and enormous strength turn it against the fox. Barrels of tar, swinging rigging and the ship's heavy gear all end up crashing down on the would-be chef, who is left flattened, stuck and singed while Huey happily carries on, convinced he is being a good sailor. The full sequence of gags is not described in the sources this book could check, but the fox finishes the film far worse off than his intended dinner.
Why It Matters
- Baby Huey's comedy is the comedy of oblivious strength: the bigger and more cunning the villain's plan, the more completely Huey's innocent bumbling flattens it. The pirate-ship setting, with its masts, rigging and tar barrels, gives the formula plenty of props to collapse.
- Baby Huey was one of Famous Studios' most successful later characters, introduced in 1950, and he became a mainstay of Harvey Comics and of television reruns. This short is a typical example of the studio's 1950s output, built on a small number of reliable star formulas.
Notes and Trivia
- The title puns on "swab the deck".
- Anton Loeb painted the backgrounds.
- See also: Sleuth But Sure (1956), Cat Tamale (1951).