Payday (1944 film)

Last updated
Pay Day
Directed by Friz Freleng
Produced by Eddie Selzer
Starring Mel Blanc
Music by Carl Stalling
Animation byKen Champin
Gerry Chiniquy
Lenard Kester
Manuel Perez
Virgil Ross
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
September 25, 1944
Running time
5 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Payday is an animated short film, directed by Friz Freleng and first released in September 1944. It is part of the Private Snafu series. As in all the Snafu films, the voice of Private Snafu is performed by Mel Blanc. [1]

Contents

Plot

The film

The short opens somewhere in the Middle East. Snafu spends his payday by walking through a local bazaar. Technical Fairy 1st Class operates his own stand, allowing Snafu to invest in his future. He presents a poster with an ideal future for Snafu: a suburban house, a streamlined car, a gorgeous wife, a baby in a stroller, and a doghouse on a well-manicured lawn. Snafu is ready to hand over his money, but a devil appears and lures him into a souvenir shop. [1] As Snafu spends his money, the image on the poster changes. The streamlined car is replaced progressively to a Ford Model T, to a horse and carriage, to a bicycle, and finally into a pair of roller skates. [1]

The setting changes into the Caribbean. Snafu wears a pith helmet and fondles a wad of cash. Its another payday. Technical Fairy appears to him with a bank-book, within it written: "no dollars, no sense". Snafu is once again led astray, into a local bar. The smoke from the bar turns into a cocktail shaker. The image from the poster changes again. [1]

The setting changes into the Arctic, where Snafu purchases a totem pole from an Eskimo. Technical Fairy operates a "Last Chance" booth. Snafu chooses to enter a Quonset hut and risk his money in a game of craps. As he keeps losing, the image on the poster changes. The suburban house disintegrates into a flophouse, the stork repossesses the baby, and the wife packs a suitcase and leaves. Snafu exits the hut wearing a cardboard box. He has lost his clothes. [1]

He finds a single coin and runs naked to gamble it away. In the remains of Snafu's house, a phone rings. A mouse picks it up and informs the caller that Snafu does not live here anymore. [1]

Analysis

The scene at the bazaar includes stalls operated by the Sheik and the Son of the Sheik. These are references to the films The Sheik (1921) and The Son of the Sheik (1926), both featuring Rudolph Valentino in the eponymous role. [1]

The house that Snafu was supposed to invest was reused in the 1946 cartoon Bacall to Arms , seen in the newsreel segment of the short.

Sources

Related Research Articles

Private Snafu Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional adult animated shorts, ironic and humorous in tone, that were produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The films were designed to instruct service personnel about security, proper sanitation habits, booby traps and other military subjects, and to improve troop morale. Primarily, they demonstrate the negative consequences of doing things wrong. The main character's name is a play on the military slang acronym SNAFU, "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up". The cleaned-up version of that phrase, usually used on radio and in print, was "Situation Normal: All Fouled Up".

<i>Hell-Bent for Election</i> 1944 film

Hell-Bent For Election is a 1944 two-reel animated cartoon short subject film.

<i>Yankee Doodle Daffy</i> 1943 animated short film directed by Friz Freleng

Yankee Doodle Daffy is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released on June 5, 1943, directed by Friz Freleng and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was the second Technicolor Looney Tunes entry to feature Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. It is also one of the handfuls of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies to have entered into the public domain.

<i>Swing Shift Cinderella</i> 1945 film by Tex Avery

Swing Shift Cinderella is a 1945 MGM animated cartoon short subject directed by Tex Avery. The plot involves the Big Bad Wolf and Cinderella. Frank Graham voiced the wolf, and Sara Berner voiced both Cinderella and The Fairy Grandmother, with Imogene Lynn providing the former's singing voice.

<i>Hare Force</i> 1944 film by Friz Freleng

Hare Force is a 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Friz Freleng. The cartoon was released on July 22, 1944, and stars Bugs Bunny.

<i>Case of the Missing Hare</i> 1942 Bugs Bunny cartoon

Case of the Missing Hare is a 1942 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Chuck Jones and starring Bugs Bunny. The short was released on December 12, 1942.

<i>Blitz Wolf</i> 1942 film

Blitz Wolf is a 1942 American animated propaganda short film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A parody of the Three Little Pigs told via a World War II perspective, the short was directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons but lost to Der Fuehrer's Face, another anti-Nazi World War II parody featuring Donald Duck.

<i>Going Home</i> (1944 film) 1944 film by Chuck Jones

Going Home is part of the Private Snafu series of animated shorts produced by Warner Bros. during World War II. Made in 1944, the 4 minute cartoon features the vocal talents of Mel Blanc and was directed by Chuck Jones. The screenwriters for the Snafu cartoons were typically uncredited, though some animation historians believe that the writer of this short was Dr. Seuss.

<i>Snafuperman</i> 1944 film

Snafuperman is a 1944 animated short comedy produced by Warner Bros. and directed by Friz Freleng. It is one of a series of black and white "Private Snafu" cartoons created for the Army-Navy Screen Magazine and shown only to American soldiers. The "Private Snafu" cartoons were not released commercially, until December 2010. The cartoon's title is a play on "Superman" and parodies the popular Superman cartoons of the 1940s.

Bacall to Arms is a 1946 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies series short planned by Bob Clampett and finished by Arthur Davis, in his second-to-last cartoon at Warner Bros. The short was released on August 3, 1946.

<i>Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike</i> 1944 film

Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike is an animated short film, directed by Chuck Jones and first released in March 1944. It features Private Snafu facing a malaria-transmitting mosquito.

Of Thee I Sting is a 1946 Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, written by Michael Maltese and narrated by Robert C. Bruce that is a parody of World War II documentaries. Material was reused from the Target Snafu cartoon. The short was released on August 17, 1946.

<i>A Lecture on Camouflage</i> 1944 American film

A Lecture on Camouflage is a 1944 American animated film directed by Chuck Jones, a Private Snafu cartoon short made for the troops during World War II.

<i>Three Brothers</i> (1944 film) 1944 American film

Three Brothers is part of the Private Snafu series of animated shorts produced by Warner Bros. during World War II. Screened for troops in September 1944, the cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng and features the familiar voice of Mel Blanc.

<i>Commando Duck</i> 1944 Donald Duck cartoon

Commando Duck is a Walt Disney anti-Japanese propaganda cartoon starring Donald Duck. It was released on June 2, 1944.

Gas is an animated short, directed by Chuck Jones and first released in May 1944. It features Private Snafu learning the value of a gas mask in warfare. The cartoon was produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons. The script writers for the Snafu cartoons were typically uncredited, though animation historians consider that several of them were written or co-written by Dr. Seuss and Munro Leaf.

The Chow Hound is an animated short, directed by Frank Tashlin and first released in June 1944. It is part of the Private Snafu series.

Censored is an animated short, directed by Frank Tashlin, produced by Leon Schlesinger and first released in July 1944. It is part of the Private Snafu series.

Outpost is an animated short film, directed by Chuck Jones and first released in August 1944. It is part of the Private Snafu series. As in all the Snafu films, the voice of Private Snafu is performed by Mel Blanc.

<i>Donalds Decision</i> 1942 Donald Duck cartoon

Donald's Decision is a four-minute educational short animated film made by the Walt Disney Studios, for the National Film Board of Canada. The film was released theatrically on January 11, 1942 as part of a series of four films directed at the Canadian public to buy war bonds during the Second World War.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Shull, Wilt (2004), p. 197-198