150. The Village Smithy (1936)

Warner cartoon no. 149.
Release date: December 5, 1936.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Tex Avery.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Joe Dougherty (Porky Pig), Ted Pierce (Blacksmith) and Earle Hodgins (Narrator).
Animation: Cecil Surry and Sid Sutherland.
Musical Direction: Carl W. Stalling.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: Retelling of the Village Smithy poem; Porky works as a blacksmith.

The narrator (narrated by Earle Hodgins) begins his story as he narrates the short trying to set the scene reciting the poem (called 'The Village Smithy': Under the spreading chestnut tree... a chestnut tree then drops to the ground in the middle of an empty fields...the village smithy stands. A village smithy then lands to the ground as he's laying down by the grass who's a big softie plucking glass out of the ground.

The narrator who is annoyed that the village smithy is ruining the story shouts in his soft voice; "I said stand. Stand up you lug." The smithy then realizes that he's supposed to stand and does stand but turns away from the camera. "Hey, this way" - the narrator tells the village smithy. The village smithy then turns to the audience. The narrator then goes on with the poem "The smith, a mighty man is he / with large and sinewy hands". The village smithy then brings out his hands that are HUGE as it's a good gag use of exaggeration. The smithy then places his hands back.

"And the muscles of his brawny arms", the narrator says, "are strong as iron bands". The gag is that as fit as his physique is or even how large his hands are - he hardly has any muscles at all. The narrator comments disappointingly, "No, no, no - strong as iron bands!" The village smithy then starts to blow on his thumb to create large muscles which you'll get the kick of seeing as the blowing sounds are funny.

The narrator then moves on with the story, "...and now - the Blacksmith shop". A Blacksmith shop then drops to the ground with a rather loud THUD. While the blacksmith is working in his blacksmith shop; the narrator retells the poem:

"And children coming home from school / Look in at the open door / They love to see the flaming forge and hear the bellows roar". The gag is that the bellows then starts to roar itself like a bear roaring which is pretty funny but look at that mouth roar - it does looks powerful in terms of weight. The narrator comments, "Boy, what a roar".

The children are still looking at the blacksmith doing his job and "watching the bellows roar" until the narrator becomes bothered as he tells the kids to scram, "Alright, get out of the scene now, you're botherin' me!" All of the kids leave rather annoyed kicking cans out of the way. I guess that this is pretty funny since the narrator certainly has personality.

"Week in, week out, from morn 'til night / You can hear his bellows blow". The narrator then starts to go into a type of rhythm shouting "Up and down, faster and faster, etc." as the village smithy starts to blow on his bellows very loudly and very quickly. The village blacksmith becomes very disgruntled and tired and throws the bellows away to talk to the narrator.

Blacksmith: Listen, chief. Take it easy. We got plenty of time. This cartoon ain't half over yet.
Narrator: (moving on) Now our hero; Porky Pig!

We pan along to Porky Pig who is a young blacksmith for the village smithy. Porky then shakes to the audience with delight. The Narrator moves on, "Let's see, we have the blacksmith (blacksmith sticks his tongue to narrator) in his blacksmith shop".

The narrator goes on as the blacksmith and Porky are in the scene, "Now boys we need a horse. Let's see, where did we put that horse?" Porky and the blacksmith are trying to look out for the horse in their blacksmith shop. We then hear galloping sounds of horse's hoofs, "Ah; listen boys - here comes one now".

The gag is that a camel ends up walking into the blacksmith shop but then a crane pops into the scene to yank the camel out of the scene. Kind of typical of what Avery would do as though this short is being filmed in a studio as Avery liked to show his cartoons that sort of shows us the real world. A horse is then tossed into the scene as it's a white plough horse that has a cart. Work on that horse begins as the blacksmith takes him out and sits him on a chair. The gag is that they're not going to be working on fixing the horse's hoof as we think; they measure the hoofs for the horse for a new horse shoe just like they do when buying new shoes where they measure your feet. The size for the horse's hoof is 6 7/8.

Porky then starts to walk up to the cupboard and uses the wheelie ladder to find the 6 7/8 horse shoes available while the blacksmith shouts, "Hurry now". Porky then reaches the part as the blacksmith says "They're in the top shelf, somewhere". Porky can't seem to reach or see which horse shoe he needs; as there is a rubber horse-shoe box and a iron horse-shoe box. He picks up the rubber by mistake and boy what will the consequences be?

Porky then starts to grab his hammer to work on the rubber horse shoe but since it's so rubbery the hammer then whacks him on the head which is the reaction to hitting rubber. Porky looks at the horse shoe again to see if there's anything wrong with it but instead gets whacked on the head again. The next gag is a very funny one as Porky puts on a safety helmet for his head in which there is little reaction for that but as he takes his helmet off; the hammer then whacks Porky in the head by force which was just spontaneous but devilishly funny.

The village smithy then orders for Porky to place the horse shoe into the hoof. Porky who was very clumsy back then in that period accidentally whacks the horse shoe onto the blacksmith's foot as he replied "Okay dokey". Porky makes a take realizing he's made a mistake.

As the blacksmith is walking down; the step he makes with the blacksmith caught on it is rather a jumpy step for him as it seems to make quick jumps after taking that step. Now that is some funny gag as the rubber horse shoe makes him bounce which is worth some laughs. The blacksmith then starts to hit his head on the ceiling and bumps back down as though what the hell just happened?

The blacksmith then spots a horse shoe stuck on his foot that Porky hammered into by mistake. He then tries to take it off and manages to do it. The blacksmith then tosses the horseshoe out of the workshop but the horseshoe hits a tree and whacks the blacksmith on the head.

The blacksmith then tosses the horse shoe out of the way again but closes the door so it won't return. Instead a gag of which the horseshoe is the antagonist then flies past the window and whacks the blacksmith again like a boomerang. The blacksmith then starts to toss it away very aggressively but after changing his mind from the sounds of birds chirping, he places it back on the ground gently. The horseshoe plays unfair on the blacksmith as it bounces off the ground like a slingshot and whacks the blacksmith again which is pretty funny.

The blacksmith then places the rubber horse-shoe on a vice to lock it tight so it won't fly off. It starts to fly off as the vice is shaking very badly but the blacksmith grabs out a gun and shoots it and dies. A little dark but it's the only cure. I imagine that there was a cut scene between the blacksmith shooting the horseshoe and the death shot. What had happened there?

Porky then walks into the scene wondering what had happened but the blacksmith obviously annoyed by Porky's clumsiness and stupidity in this short then pushes him away shouting "Go away and get me another horseshoe". The blacksmith places the horse on the plough cart to get ready while Porky is on the role looking out for another horseshoe. Porky then uses the bellows to steam up the horseshoe until he is finally ready as he is holding onto it with a stick to protect his hands but trips onto a box by accident - stupid of him in which the hot horseshoe lands on the horse's behind.

The horse then starts to neigh in incredible pain as he starts to go on the run. The blacksmith then looks behind to see what has happened but flies in the air because of the horse and lands on the cart. The horse starts to run frantically as it crashes into the general store.

While on the run, a police officer blows on his whistle ordering the horse and the rider to stop but the horse has completely lost his senses as he can't control himself but run. The zips past the police officer who ends up spinning around. The horse then starts to zip past a bank blowing away much of the building in which the robber is caught trying to open a safe which would be funny since everyone knows his crime. Meanwhile a digger is digging the ground but then sees the horse and the blacksmith run straight past. He scratches his head confused.

A sign pointing left reads "Here They Come"; but as the horse and the blacksmith run past that the sign switches to their direction that reads "There They Go". A subtle Avery gag that he would've liked to use.

They start to jump across a bridge with the horse halting but the cart turns around and hits the other side of the bridge pulling the horse from the other side. This is something that Avery would be experimenting with his timing. While they're still running; the blacksmith and the horse halt as the blacksmith comments, "Phew, what a buggy ride" until they go into action again which is one of them funny jokes that Avery always did; for example like in the middle of an dramatic scene the characters would pause and say "Gruesome, isn't it?" that would inspire Bob Clampett to do that.

They continue to run until the horse tries to run part a piece of wire on a fence that stretches him back. The next part is a Tex Avery trait that he would do in his cartoons is where every bit of action that just happened before happens but it's completely reversed animation.

The action scenes then continue to happen until the digger starts to think in his mind, "Say, am I missing somethin'?" It's all reverse animation again as the Bank goes back into it's original building. The General store is being built again but notice the horse and the blacksmith are coming back again as they move it slightly so that they don't miss.

They enter back into the blacksmith workshop as the blacksmith sweats after such a "buggy ride". The blacksmith then asks Porky, "Say, tell me how all this happened?" Porky then demonstrates the action as to what he did tracing his steps. "Well, I just had my horse-shoe like this; and I was running like this and..." Porky then demonstrates the action again until he trips in which the hot horseshoe lands onto the horse's behind again which means ANOTHER buggy ride for the blacksmith which is funny as we feel pity on him. They end up crashing into the general store again that is humorous - since they just built it; now they'll have to rebuild and pay for it again.

Overall comments: This is Tex Avery's final cartoon for which he made in 1936 and was certainly the best director of that year. This is a very unique Porky cartoon that he has encountered as he used the narrator for the beginning; who is reciting the poem and even gives the narrator some personality. Ted Pierce even voices the blacksmith character himself which is a pretty funny voice for him (sorry for the error when I thought it was Avery voicing that character). The horse buggy ride sequence was a classic for WB cartoons in 1936 as this is probably the first time that Avery used that for his cartoons as he loved to reverse scenes for some of his cartoons to make the action funny. Porky Pig is called "the hero" of this cartoon and yet he is just a clumsy oath here. I would feel pity for the blacksmith since that he's had a lot to go through such as controlling a rubber horse shoe as well as the exhausting buggy ride. Tex Avery would use Porky Pig until 1937 and then stopped directing the 'Looney Tunes' series to direct 'Merrie Melodies' although he did direct a Porky cartoon again in 1941 - which was 'Porky's Preview'.