''A Coy Decoy'' is a 1941

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

, directed by

Bob Clampett Robert Emerson Clampett Sr. (May 8, 1913 – May 2, 1984) was an American animator, film director, director, film producer, producer and puppeteer best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' animated series from Warner Bros. as well as the te ...

. The cartoon was released on June 7, 1941, and stars

Porky Pig Porky Pig is a cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created man ...

and

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Me ...

. The film is set in a closed bookstore at night, when the many characters and elements featured within the books come to life, similar to

Frank Tashlin Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972), also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator and filmmaker. He was best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' ...

's own shorts '' Speaking of the Weather'', '' Have You Got Any Castles?'', and '' You're an Education''. The idea would later be reworked five years later into '' Book Revue'', although only Daffy features in that.

Plot

The film begins with

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

's " Moonlight Sonata" playing as the scene descends on a bookstore. The camera pans across an array of the bestselling books of early 1941 (including Valtin's ''Out of the Night'', Fedorova's ''The Family'', and Nordhoff and

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

's ''No More Gas''), before reaching an older favorite, ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans ...

'', which as a gag has a

Federal Housing Administration The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), also known as the Office of Housing within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is a Independent agencies of the United States government, United States government agency founded by Pr ...

sign in front of the cabin. Porky Pig, featured on the cover of '' The Westerner'', comes to life and sings "Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride". Across the way, Daffy Duck, featured on the cover of ''

The Ugly Duckling "The Ugly Duckling" () is a Danish literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). It was first published on 11 November 1843 in '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection'', with three other tale ...

'', comes to life and sings "I Can't Get A Long Little Dogie". Daffy finds his way to ''

Black Beauty ''Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse'' is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was written from a horse as main character's perspective. She wrote it in the last years of her life, during which s ...

'' and comes out riding not a horse, but a big black woman, whom he rides to '' The Lake''. A wolf emerges from '' The Wolf of Wall Street'' (presumably Blake McVeigh's novelization of the 1929 movie), sneaks behind Zane Grey's ''The Green Bay Tree'' and lures Daffy to him using a female duck

decoy A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''eenden kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to ...

from the book ''Toys''. Daffy is entranced and exclaims (quoting a recent hit record), "Well,

Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

." He follows and woos the decoy, adopting a

Charles Boyer Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...

accent at one point, but when he closes his eyes, the wolf enters, and Daffy mistakenly embraces the wolf's nose. Once he realizes he is in danger, Daffy (recycling some of the dialogue from 1939's '' Hare-um Scare-um'') tells the wolf that he is not worth eating (he claims to have so many diseases that even the draft rejected him) and runs away. Daffy runs toward Ethel Vance's novel ''Escape'', but the wolf blocks his way. As the wolf pursues, Daffy turns on him and exclaims the catchphrase form number one radio program

Fibber McGee and Molly ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' (1935–1959) was a longtime American husband-and-wife team radio comedy program. The situation comedy was a staple of the NBC Red Network from 1936 on, after originating on NBC Blue in 1935. One of the most popular ...

"You're a hard man, McGee." He then uses the books to defeat the wolf. He opens a copy of Nordhoff and Hall's '' The Hurricane'' to blow the wolf away, and lightning from the book ''

Lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

'' strikes the wolf. The wolf surrenders, fittingly under

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

's recent bestseller ''

For Whom the Bell Tolls ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned ...

''. Daffy returns to the decoy. Porky enters the scene addresses in derision of Daffy, saying that Daffy and the decoy could never "mean anything to each other." Daffy sticks up his nose and swims away with the decoy, followed by four tiny decoys that look like Daffy.

Home media

This cartoon is available on many public domain video and DVD compilations (including ''Cartoon Explosion, Volume 2'' released in 2001 by Front Row Entertainment where it is presented in its 1968 redrawn colorized form). The original black and white print fully remastered and uncut was included on the '' Porky Pig 101'' DVD on September 19, 2017, that was officially released by

Warner Archive The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the int ...

References

External links

*
A Coy Decoy Soundtrack , Ringostrack.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coy Decoy, A Looney Tunes shorts American comedy short films Films directed by Bob Clampett 1941 comedy films Daffy Duck films Porky Pig films 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films 1940s English-language films American animated short films Films about ducks Animated films about birds Animated films about wolves Films set in bookstores English-language short films American animated black-and-white films 1941 animated short films