Dime to Retire is a 1955 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.
Title[]
The title is a play on "time to retire."
Plot[]
Porky Pig is driving into town during a long road trip. He is tired and is looking for a place to spend the night. Most of the hotels have no vacancies, but he finds one that only charges ten cents for a room. The hotel is run seemingly only by Daffy Duck. Although the room rate is just ten cents, greedy Daffy Duck sends a mouse into the room by pneumatic tube, then offers Porky increasing expensive extermination services:
- $5 for a cat to exterminate the mouse, only for the cat to take over the bed.
- $10 for a pedigree boxer dog to exterminate the cat, but then Daffy rings a bell in Porky's room, which makes the dog start boxing.
- $26 for a lion to exterminate the pedigree boxer dog, but then the lion tries to eat Porky.
- $72 for an elephant to evict the lion, but the room is too crowded with the elephant inside.
- $666 for a mouse to exterminate the elephant, but this puts Porky right back where he started.
- Total extra costs: $779
- Total cost including room fee: $779.10
Porky has had it and decides to leave the hotel, but Daffy confronts him, reminding him he still owes ten cents for the room. Porky refuses to pay, so Daffy confiscates his bags. The confiscated bags are filled with explosive powder, so Porky gets the last laugh by blowing up Daffy's hotel. Daffy hangs up a "closed for repairs" sign, then runs out of the ruins, shouting in pain as his tail feathers are on fire.
Caricatures[]
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Television[]
- This short appeared on The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show on 7 February 1998.[1]
Censorship[]
- When this cartoon aired on The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show on ABC, the ending was cut short to remove the final scene of Daffy running out of the hotel yelping in pain with his rear-end on fire. The ABC censored version ended the short after Daffy puts up the "Closed for Repairs" sign.
Goofs[]
- The production number shown on the opening rings is sourced from "Bunker Hill Bunny" (1950).
Notes[]
- This is one of the few cartoons where Porky Pig wears pants.
- This is the first cartoon since "Porky Pig's Feat" (1943) to bill Porky Pig's name above Daffy Duck's name in the titles.
- Director Robert McKimson animated most of the cartoon himself (although Keith Darling animated certain scenes of the film). McKimson also did most of the animation work for two other cartoons: "The Hole Idea" and "Too Hop to Handle" (with the former cartoon entirely animated by McKimson himself without any involvement by Darling).
- The short was released in 1955, so adjusting for inflation, the $779 that Porky has to pay Daffy is about $8856 in 2023 dollars.