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China Jones is a 1959 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.
Title[]
The title is a parody of the 1950s television series China Smith.
Plot[]
China Jones (Daffy Duck) is an Irish private eye working in Hong Kong in the Far East. Jones, looking for a fast buck, finds his next call via a fortune cookie in a restaurant with a message inside from someone telling Jones that they're being held prisoner in a Chinese bakery and that the reward for freeing them is £150 (around £4,374 in today's money). Jones is unsure where to look out of the thousands of Chinese bakeries, until his servant bangs a drum advertising good hot tips at a bar run by Limey Louie, a friend of Jones who is currently doing time. As Jones leaves the restaurant, he encounters Charlie Chung (Porky Pig) and thinks he's also working the same case hoping to get the reward; Chung's suggestion of bringing up a "matter of money" only further convinces Jones of this being the case.
As Jones heads off via rickshaw to investigate, the servant turns out to be a minion for Limey Louie (who has already gotten out of prison), who goes on ahead and tells him that China Jones is about to come. The ex-convict knew that Jones, whom he blames for his imprisonment, would fall for his trap and disguises himself as his widowed "wife" who is grieving for Louie. As Jones comes in, Louie beats Jones up, comparing that to the way that the police treated "her" husband. A dazed Jones then asks for a hot tip, and Louie gives him a card that suggests he visit "No. 10, Wong Way". Deciding Wong Way might be the right way to the bakery he's looking for, Jones takes a taxi to the address from the tip and finds a lady calling herself the "dragon lady". As Jones asks her why she is called that, the lady breathes fire on him. After Jones comes back from Wong Way, he tells Louie that the tip he'd been given was a little too hot to handle, so Louie gives Jones another card that suggests he investigate "Ho Down Wharf, second sampan". Once Jones arrives at the wharf, as soon as he boards the sampan in question, someone cuts the mooring rope securing it, causing the sampan to instantly sink into the wharf, Jones going down with it.
After Jones comes back from the wharf and inquires in irritation about more "hot tips", Louie drops his ruse and declares his intention of revenge on him. Jones promtly escapes into the back room and tries to make his exit via the back door, only to notice a space marked "trap door" at his feet. His attempt to open the door from a distance with a bamboo stick ends up triggering the actual trap door right beneath him and he almost falls into an alligator pit. Unfortunately, Louie comes in and makes Jones fall into the pit by playing "This Little Piggy" with his fingers.
As Jones narrowly escapes via a back hatch, Charlie Chung comes back and Jones begs him to arrest Limey Louie. However, Chung explains that he was not a detective; he's a laundry man, and that the money he was talking about earlier was Jones' laundry bill. Jones still refuses to pay the bill, sarcastically telling Chung "Confucius say 'can't squeeze blood from turnip!", but Chung threatens him with a club, telling Jones "Also say, 'better you press shirt than press luck!'". Jones ends up as a "prisoner" in Chung's laundry, forced to work there until he can pay off his bill, rambling in subtitled "Chinese", "Help! - I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese laundry!"
Television[]
- The Porky Pig Show: Episode 25 (7 March 1965) along with "Rabbit Rampage" and "Mouse Mazurka".
- Porky Pig and His Friends (1970s)
- Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon (1990s, edited. See "Censorship" below)
Availability[]
The Looney Tunes Video Show, Volume 5
Porky Pig Tales
Porky Pig (1990)
Classic Collection (WHSmith Exclusive Video)
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 2)
Looney Tunes Collection - Porky Pig
Porky Pig Tales Time-Life edition
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3 (restored)
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volumes 1-4
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- When this cartoon aired on Nickelodeon in the 1990s, the end where China Jones (Daffy) is imprisoned in Charlie Chung's (Porky's) laundromat, loudly rambling, "Help! I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese laundry!" in faux Chinese was cut, ending instead on Charlie Chung brandishing a club and telling China Jones, "Confucius also say, 'B-better you press shirt than press luck."[1]
- This short has seldom aired on American television ever since Nickelodeon stopped airing Looney Tunes cartoons due to outdated racial stereotyping of East Asians that modern audiences would find offensive. Despite this, it was available to stream on the discontinued Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE service until its shutdown in October 2023 and is now on the third volume of the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Blu-ray set.
Notes[]
- The part where China Jones/Daffy hits an alligator with his bat and closes the cellar door is reused from "Stork Naked".
- The "Dragon lady" scene (among other Speedy Gonzales shorts) was re-used in "Mucho Locos".
- This cartoon was originally slated to be included on the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl DVD, but was replaced early in development due to restoration issues and Warner Home Video executives being concerned over a politically-incorrect short being featured on a DVD targeted towards family-friendly audiences.[2] The short would not be made available restored on home media until Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3.
- The press release for Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3 originally stated by error that this was a Chuck Jones-directed cartoon instead of a Robert McKimson one. This error was corrected shortly afterwards.[3]
