The Henpecked Duck is a 1941 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert Clampett.
Plot[]
Porky Pig presides as judge over divorce proceedings at the "Court of Inhuman Relations." He calls the case "Duck vs. Duck." Daffy and Mrs. Duck approach the judge's stand. Mrs. Duck shouts over and over, "I want a divorce!"
Porky asks her to relate to the court what happened. She explains that she had left Daffy in charge of keeping their egg warm while she visited her mother. Daffy grew bored, so he took the egg and performed a magic trick, causing the egg to disappear and then reappear. Impressed with himself, he tried the trick a second time but was unable to make the egg reappear. When Mrs. Duck returned home, he had replaced the egg with a door knob, hoping to fool her. She discovered this and ends her story by shouting "I want a divorce!" three more times, but this time not in a blind rage but extremely close to tears.
Daffy pleads for one more chance, and Porky grants his request. He tries the trick again, and the egg reappears, to the court's shock. The egg hatches, and the Ducks reconcile their differences.
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Notes[]
- This was the final cartoon to use the "Porky in a Drum" opening.
- The computer-colorized version, and certain prints of the black-and-white version, have the wrong opening music playing over the opening logos, i.e. the 1936-37 "Porky Signature" theme as heard on "Porky's Badtime Story" and "Porky's Railroad", instead of the correct 1941-45 "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" theme music.
- As the re-restoration aired on MeTV is sourced from this print, this error persists in the re-restoration.
- During the title card, The Wedding March from the "incidental music" of Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream can be heard in the background score.
- Proud of his magic trick, Daffy mutters to himself, "If Major Bowes could see me now," a reference to The Major Bowes Amateur Hour, a popular talent competition show of the time.
- This cartoon entered the public domain in 1969 since Warner Bros.-Seven Arts didn't renew the copyright.
- MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of the cartoon on Saturday Morning Cartoons.
- Prior to it airing on the network, numerous clips of the restoration were leaked on YouTube, before eventually airing on MeTV on 21 May 2022.
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