Saps in Chaps
About Saps in Chaps
A narrator walks a black-and-white reel of pioneer gags. A moving line on a map of the West dodges a Painted Desert marked wet paint, and Mount Rushmore shows the presidents as boys. A man crawling through the desert is handed water at Custer's Last Stand and crawls on. Wagon trains roll on railroad tracks, a cowboy cat ropes a mouse, and a Pony Express rider spends the short trying to get onto his horse. They pass behind a rock, and the horse comes out riding the man.
Cast & crew
More about Saps in Chaps
Friz Freleng directed this Looney Tunes short for Leon Schlesinger. Dave Monahan, already in the Army, is billed as Sgt. Dave Monahan. Manny Perez animated. Warner Bros. and Vitaphone distributed it on 11 April 1942. It is the last black-and-white Looney Tunes cartoon Freleng directed.
Themes
Making
Monahan was one of the writers still turning out the spot-gag shape Tex Avery had used at Schlesinger, after Avery had left the studio. This short and Lights Fantastic are the two on which he is credited as a sergeant.
Music
Carl W. Stalling conducts. Cues include "California, Here I Come," "We Did It Before (and We Can Do It Again)," and "I Can't Get Along, Little Dogie."
Preservation
The copyright was not renewed, and the cartoon entered the public domain in the United States in 1971. The MPPDA number is cut off on most circulating prints.
Notes
- It is a Looney Tunes spot-gag short in black and white, not a color Merrie Melodie.
- Mel Blanc and Billy Bletcher voice the gags. A credit list names Reid Kilpatrick as the narrator.
- Treg Brown edited the sound, without a screen credit.
- A saloon he-man, hit by a burst of bullets, laughs and says, "Stop it, stop it, you're killin' me!
- A bucking horse gets stage fright, mutters "Ooooh, people," and walks back into the stall.
- Warner Bros. did not renew the copyright. The short entered the U.S. public domain in 1971.
- The title card layout was reused three years later on Hare Trigger.
Scenes
- The map line swerves around wet-paint signs on the Painted Desert.
- Mount Rushmore appears with youthful presidents.
- A thirsty man drinks at Custer's Last Stand and keeps crawling.
- The Pony Express horse and rider trade places behind a rock.
Influenced by
- Tex Avery's Schlesinger spot-gag cartoons
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Friz Freleng - Looney Tunes - Saps in Chaps (1942).webm)
Quotes
Stop it, stop it, you're killin' me!
