Porky's Movie Mystery is a 1939 Looney Tunes short directed by Bob Clampett.
Plot[]
A radio news report from Walter Windshield says that a mysterious phantom has been haunting Hollywood for weeks, ruining pictures and frightening stars. At Warmer Bros Studios, the phantom is on his rampage.
Studio cops look all around the lot for the phantom. They even question famous movie monsters like Frankenstein, who's biting his fingernails as a cop grills him with questions.
Later, the phantom climbs a spiral staircase all the way to the ceiling, then slides back down the pole to the top floor. He sneaks into The Invisible Man's dressing room and reveals himself to be The Invisible Man himself. He says that the reason he's been doing what he's doing is because he was fired after starring in one picture. He says that he will crack every camera, wreck every reel, smash every set and scaring off every star away from Hollywood, and laughs.
Fed up with the phantom's wrath, the public and the police call upon Mr. Motto to stop him. Unfortunately, Mr. Motto is currently on vacation. The police chief doesn't care if Mr. Motto is on vacation and demands that they summon him.
Mr. Motto is on a tiny island reading a book on Ju Jitsu. He suddenly receives a phone call and answers the coconut. The caller tells Mr. Motto about the phantom, so he ends his vacation flies off to Hollywood. He crash lands in the chief's office and greets the chief with a throw down. Mr. Motto apologizes and goes to work at once.
While Mr. Motto searches for the phantom, The Invisible Man phantom spots him, takes off his black attire and blends into a poster showing an actress named Lotta Dimples in a film called Great Guns. Mr. Motto continues his search and is kicked by The Invisible Man. The Invisible Man grabs an ax and attempts to kill Mr. Motto. The Invisible Man corners Mr. Motto at a wall, but before he can finish him off, Mr. Motto reads his book again, grabs the ax, and attacks the phantom. Mr. Motto even puts the ax down. Mr. Motto punches the phantom, throws him around and finishes him off. As the reporter reports on what's about to happen, Mr. Motto grabs his anti-invisible juice and sprays it all over the phantom. The Invisible Man phantom is revealed to be Hugh Herbert?!
Caricatures[]
- Walter Winchell - as Walter Windshield
- Boris Karloff - as his character Frankenstein's monster
- Peter Lorre - as his character Mr. Moto
- Bert Gordon - "How do you do?"
- Hugh Herbert
Availability[]
Notes[]
- It is a parody of the Mr. Moto series.
- The print included on the Guffaw and Order: Looney Tunes Fight Crime LaserDisc and the DVD set Porky Pig 101 has a scene that was likely missing. It took place where Porky is looking through his magnifying glass, following a trail and walking toward a director sitting in his chair. There was a sudden cut to the villain laughing and walking away from the camera, as though he had covered the scene with his black cloak.[3] As the scene also plays this way on televised versions (specifically on Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon and all Warner Bros. cartoons installment shows on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, including The Bob Clampett Show, which had all of the shorts shown uncut and uncensored, or as close to it as possible in the cases of this cartoon, "Bacall to Arms", "Russian Rhapsody", and "Baby Bottleneck"), it can be assumed that whatever scene was supposed to be between Porky walking up behind the director and the cloaked villain backing away from the camera was cut either before the cartoon was released (most likely due to a Hays Code complaint), was cut before the short was reissued to a TV syndication package in the 1950s, or was cut during production due to time or money constraints.
- The animation of Hugh Herbert laughing was previously used in "Speaking of the Weather" and "The CooCoo Nut Grove".
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 69.
- ↑ http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-p.aspx