Daffy – The Commando
Daffy – The Commando is a 1943 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The cartoon was released on November 20, 1943, and stars Daffy Duck.
Plot
Early one morning, somewhere in World War II-era Germany, Commander Von Vultur is pacing back and forth inside his bunker while fuming about how so many American commandos have managed to slip behind German enemy lines undetected. He receives a telegram from the "Gestinko Gestapo", threatening him with his 'ka-rear' if he lets 'vun' more 'kommando' through. Hearing an American warplane overhead, he calls in his batman – Schultz – whom he abuses by knocking him regularly over his helmet with a mallet. They run outside and use a searchlight to search for any more landing commandos and eventually spot one, who just happens to be Daffy floating down on a parachute, whilst singing Billy Bennett's "She Was Poor but She Was Honest" in a fake Cockney accent.After a quick shout of "Put out those lights!" gets the searchlight turned off temporarily and allows him to land unseen, Daffy uses his fingers on the searchlight's lens to make shadow puppets of animals and dancing chorus girls on the clouds to distract the Germans before hiding behind an asbestos curtain. When Von Vultur opens the curtain, Daffy makes an ugly face, causing Von Vultur to run off frightened.
Back at Von Vultur's bunker, Daffy tricks him into telling him the time and presents him with a ticking time bomb "as a little token of our esteem". Von Vultur hands the bomb off to Schultz, who is literally blown through the roof. When Schultz falls back, Daffy stops Von Vultur from hitting Schultz over the head with a mallet, and instead hits him. Von Vultur chases Daffy to a telephone booth, where Daffy continues to make fun of him.
Daffy jumps in a plane, narrowly avoiding "a whole mess of Messerschmitts". Daffy is shot down by Von Vultur, his plane progressively disintegrating from back to front, eventually leaving just the engine and propeller), with Daffy still clinging to the controls. Daffy runs into what he believes is a tunnel where he can hide, but it turns out to be the barrel of a huge howitzer cannon. Daffy is shot out by Von Vultur. However, Daffy flies unharmed into Berlin, where Fuehrer Adolf Hitler is giving a speech. Daffy whacks Hitler on the head with a mallet, causing Hitler to yell for Schultz.
Telephone booth scene
A gag where Daffy is on a pay phone as Von Vultur is trying to get into the booth has Daffy speaking to him in semi-correct German, while holding cue card–like signs with the dialogue translated for the audience. In many public domain prints, the signs are illegible, but read as follows:Daffy 1: "Kannst du nicht sehen, diese Telefon ist busy? Bleiben Sie ruhig!"
Sign 1: ENGLISH TRANSLATION: "Can't you see this telephone is busy? Wait your turn!"
Daffy 2: "Bitte, mein Herr, haben Sie ein Fünf-Pfennig-Stück?" "Danke schön."
Sign 2: "Got a nickel, bud?"
Daffy 3: "It's all yours, Von Limburger!"
Sign 3: GERMAN TRANSLATION: "Ich bin fertig mit der Telefon, Herr Von Limburger."
When Von Vultur enters the phone booth, he attempts to contact Schultz, but instead gets an operator, replying: "Ist dat you, Myrt?" This is a reference to the American radio comedy series Fibber McGee and Molly, which was popular at the time. Myrtle was the never-heard switchboard operator in the show.