A Pest in the House

1947
7.4| 0h7m| NR| en
Details

A very tired businessman needs some sleep and checks into a hotel run by Elmer Fudd, where Daffy Duck is the bellhop.

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Warner Bros. Cartoons

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Reviews

Protraph Lack of good storyline.
Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action
pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.
Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Robert Reynolds This is a particularly good Daffy and Elmer cartoon. There will be spoilers ahead: This is a very funny short with a simple but effective premise. It sets up a basic situation where there is potential conflict and then introduces an irritant to exploit that potential for conflict in order to get laughs.Much to Elmer's sorrow, there's one constant running gag, a punch line of sorts, all through this short and Daffy is the trigger with Elmer the unfortunate "beneficiary" of Daffy's misplaced enthusiasms. If I were the tired businessman, duck would be on the menu. But Daffy is like a kid brother. No matter what he does here, he always seems to get away with it, while you get grounded for a month because of what he did. Life isn't fair.Would someone please send an ice bag, some aspirin and bandages to the front desk? This short is relatively easy to find, is on one of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection sets (Blu-Ray/DVD) and is well worth watching. Most recommended.
slymusic "A Pest in the House", directed by Chuck Jones, is one of the funniest Daffy Duck cartoons ever made. Elmer Fudd is the manager of a hotel where Daffy is employed as a bellhop. A tired old heavyset businessman checks in and requests nothing but a peaceful, quiet sleep. Well, pal, you've got Daffy Duck on the premises, and you think you're going to get a good night's sleep?! Two highlights: First, Daffy hears a joke that is so funny he has to wake the poor guy up and tell it to him! And second, Daffy attempts to silence an inebriated tenant next door singing "Nobody Knows How Dry I Am", but instead, Daffy is heard taking a big swig and then joining in the song.With "A Pest in the House" like Daffy Duck, how could we not feel sorry for this poor old guy who just wants to GET SOME SLEEP?! It makes me wonder how many people can relate to this kind of situation. The frustrated look in that man's bloodshot eyes is all that is needed to convey his disappointment, and Elmer Fudd is the unfortunate recipient of punches to the face for Daffy's unintentional iniquities.
ccthemovieman-1 Daffy the bellhop drives a customer batty. He's a big goon who only wants one thing: peace and quiet at the hotel so he can get some sleep. He tells the desk clerk (Elmer Fudd) that if he doesn't get it, he'll punch him in the nose. "Likable chap, isn't he" asks Daffy to us, the audience. I guess that made it better to endure some guy, since he's pictured as a jerk, getting mentally tortured by our overzealous and crazy bellhop who makes life miserable for the man who wants "peace and quiet" a phrase Daffy uses six times in about 20 seconds. Yeah, this duck could drive anyone crazy! The guy's suite number is 666, too, which is an omen of things to come. Actually, Daffy is trying to help the guy. He's not nasty in here, just ignorant.Daffy ruins the customer but poor Elmer pays the price. The gags in this one are so-so and our duck friend is so loud and obnoxious he was irritating. Justice was not served in the end, either.
Lee Eisenberg At face value, "A Pest in the House" looks like the average wacky Looney Tunes cartoon, as bellboy Daffy Duck keeps awaking a sleepy guest who proceeds to punch clerk Elmer Fudd in the nose. But I notice something else. At the beginning, the narrator says that there was a labor shortage, so places would hire anyone...or anything (at which point we meet that famously loony member of the genus Anas*). This cartoon was released in 1947, the year of the Taft-Hartley Act. The Taft-Hartley Act cut off unions' power. Therefore, not only would a labor shortage have made sense, but one could say that they were hiring non-union labor in the form of Daffy Duck.OK, I've gone irrevocably overboard in trying to analyze this cartoon. I'm sure that in reality, it was just intended as zany entertainment to get shown right before a feature film (and it is really funny). So check it out. And the next time that the phone rings, don't answer; it might be a fist (although in this age of text-messaging cell phones, we're probably safe).*Anas is the genus to which ducks belong.PS: the guest looks a little bit like Arthur Q. Bryan, who provided Elmer Fudd's voice. I don't know whether or not that was just a coincidence.