Studio: Walter Lantz Productions
Distributor: Universal-International
Produced by: Walter Lantz
Short Synopsis
Written accounts of this late-1950s Woody short are thin, and this summary is drawn from the film itself. The city has a problem: a woodpecker is attacking its telephone poles. In his office, beside a wall map of "Our City" criss-crossed with phone lines, a fussy, balding official decides something must be done. A repairman from the phone company is sent out in his van to catch the culprit. The culprit is Woody Woodpecker, cheerfully drilling his way along the poles. The repairman sets trap after trap, at one point dangling Woody from a rope tied to the top of a pole while he tugs from the ground beside his truck, but Woody keeps slipping free. Perched on the crossbar of a pole against the open sky, Woody grins, spreads his arms and taunts his pursuer. The details of the final gag are not described in sources this book could check, but in true Woody fashion it is the repairman, not the woodpecker, who comes off worse.
Why It Matters
- The film shows the late-1950s Lantz style, with bright flat colours, simple sky backgrounds and a cleaner, rounder Woody, the look that would carry the character on television for decades. The premise, a woodpecker against the telephone company, is a neat update of Woody's oldest gag of pecking where he shouldn't.
- It comes from the period when Alex Lovy, who had directed some of Woody's earliest films, returned to direct the series in the 1950s. These films were shown widely on The Woody Woodpecker Show on television, which kept the character famous long after theatrical shorts declined.
Notes and Trivia
- It was the 78th Woody Woodpecker cartoon.
- Grace Stafford, Walter Lantz's wife, voiced Woody in this period.
- See also: Knock Knock (1940), The Barber of Seville (1944).