The Scarlet Pumpernickel

The Scarlet Pumpernickel
Looney Tunes (Daffy Duck/Porky Pig/Sylvester the Cat) series
The title card of The Scarlet Pumpernickel.
Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Produced by	Edward Selzer (uncredited)
Story by	Michael Maltese
Voices by	Mel Blanc Marian Richman (uncredited)
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Phil Monroe Ben Washam Lloyd Vaughan Ken Harris
Layouts by	Robert Gribbroek
Backgrounds by	Peter Alvarado
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date(s)	March 4, 1950 (USA)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 minutes, 2 seconds
Language	English

The Scarlet Pumpernickel is a animated Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1950, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

In 1994 it was voted #31 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

The cartoon is a story within a story. Daffy Duck is fed up with comedy and wants to try a dramatic act instead. He offers a script to Warner Bros.' chief Jack L. Warner--whom he addresses, as most people did, as "J.L."--called The Scarlet Pumpernickel, which he wrote himself (under the name "Daffy Dumas Duck.")

As Daffy reads the script to J.L., the cartoon cuts away to various scenes and then back to J.L.'s office. Each time, Daffy announces a page number. By the cartoon's end, the script has exceeded 2 thousand pages (movie scripts much in excess of 100 pages were usually rejected as too long back in those days).

In this script, the clumsy Scarlet Pumpernickel (Daffy) must save the Fair Lady Melissa from being married to a man she does not love, the Grand Duke (Sylvester) under the Lord High Chamberlain's (Porky Pig) orders. Melissa loves Scarlet, but her happy mood is extinguished in a heartbeat when the Chamberlain orders her to "Keep away from that masked band-d-d-d-d-a-desperand-d-d-d-d-that masked stinker!" The Chamberlain gets a brilliant plan and decides to marry Melissa to the Grand Duke in exchange for killing the Scarlet Pumpernickel.

As planned, the Scarlet Pumpernickel is drawn to town to interrupt the wedding. He arrives disguised as a noble and uses the disguise to research and develop his plan for rescuing Melissa. Storming the wedding ceremony through the use of a "ye olde Olympic Highjumper (a pin and a jab in the posterior) as she is walking up the aisle, he is instantly successful as Melissa tears herself from her father's arms and runs from the chapel, dragging Scarlet with her ("So what's to save?"). Scarlet takes her back to the inn where he was staying, and leaves briefly. The Grand Duke, in pursuit of Scarlet, stops for respite at the inn and spots Melissa on the staircase. He chases her and is bearing down upon her when Scarlet swings in. Notably in this segment of the plot there is a running gag in which Daffy compares his own daring stunts with those of Errol Flynn.