BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Warner Bros. animated short THE SCARLET PUMPERNICKEL is one of America's first flicks to draw a correlation between tobacco usage and suicide-by-gun. Powder proves to be Daffy Duck's downfall. First, his title character suffers uncontrollable spasms and fits from ingesting the Demon Snuff. Then, gun powder powers a bullet into Daffy's skull. Daffy's motivation toward self-destruction here seems to be his strong desire to be a chain-smoking movie star like Errol Flynn. Big Tobacco paid billions in bribes to put the Wicked Weed in the mouths of stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, John Wayne, and Flynn in a successful effort to get 1900s America smoking like a rusty muffler. (These tobacco shills also introduced the illogical concept of the post-coital cigarette, realizing that the American Race would peter out and die from the effects of their product--hurting sales growth and year-end bonuses--unless smokers started to reproduce at rabbit-like rates). So what if kissing a smoker is akin to licking an ashtray? With Humphrey, Errol, Bette, and Daffy pushing coffin nails, why NOT succumb and then shoot yourself in the head to avoid a lingering Death by Cancer?

Mightyzebra With TWO good themes carried off in a hilarious way, good characters chosen and a good plot, this Daffy Duck episode is pretty tough to beat! Yet another good thing about this episode, is the clever, brilliant mux-ip of the modern and the old Daffy Duck (this episode was made in 1950, when the new greedy, sly, mean Daffy Duck that most of us know was just starting to appear) and the choosing of so many Looney Tunes characters - including a new one! The episode begins with Daffy feeling hyperly angry and stressed at doing so much comedy and he has had the nerve and steel to write a script which focuses on a more serious theme - or as serious as Daffy can possibly be. The story is not the Scarlet Pimpernel - but the Scarlet Pumpernickel, as Daffy! Also appearing is Porky as the High Chamberlain and who seems to be a new character, a yellow duck, as the fair Melissa. She is to marry the Grand Duke, who is Sylvester, but she loves the Scarlet Pumpernickel, who is an outlaw. It's the start of a grand adventure, with good gags along the way...Good for people who like comedy versions of famous book people and good for people who want to watch Daffy's attempt at a more serious episode. Enjoy "The Scarlet Pumpernickel"! :-)

Lee Eisenberg We've all seen the images of up-and-coming writers trying to pitch their work to studio heads. Well, in "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", Daffy Duck is trying to pitch his 2,000-page script to studio head J.L. The script casts Daffy as the Scarlet Pumpernickel, an 18th-century rogue. Seeking to trap the guy, the dastardly Lord High Chamberlain (Porky Pig) comes up with a most devious scheme: marry fair maiden Melissa off to the unpleasant Grand Duke (Sylvester the Cat). So, it all comes down to a sword-fight between Daffy and Sylvester.Actually, it doesn't come down to that. Daffy never wrote an ending, and so at the spur of the moment, he comes up with an ending that seems a little strange to put in a cartoon. But, as he notes, that's apparently what you have to do to sell a script these days. The cartoon makes fun not only of movies starring Errol Flynn (whom Daffy mentions by name), but also of everything Hollywood-related. Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, and that whole team probably knew all about such things. Another classic cartoon.

Shawn Watson Blowing your brains out is the answer and that's just what Daffy Duck ends up doing.The cartoon opens in the office of one of the Warner Brothers producers. Daffy is trying to get him interested in making a movie from his 1000 page script 'The Scarlet Pumpernickel'. Daffy plays a swashbuckling hero/thief who would like for no more than to marry his maiden in peril. But Sylvester is out to catch him and take her for himself.The producer likes Daffy's script but need a bigger ending. How about a tidal wave? Not good enough? And a volcano explodes? Not good enough. But there's nothing left for the Scarlett Pumpernickel to do but blow his brains out?Blam!I love that Duck.