The Old Shell Game

1948 Animation 7 minutes Directed by Seymour Kneitel

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About The Old Shell Game

Starving Wolfie goes after a calf and gets butted by the bull, so he tightens his belt to the notch marked Starving. He then tries a turtle named Murgatroyd, who is playing checkers on his own upturned shell and bites the wolf's nose. Corks, a mousetrap, a wave of seawater, a gun, and a cannon hidden in the shell all fail. Wolfie finally drops the shell in a boiling pot. A track rabbit folds the background back to a title card for The Tortoise and the Hare, the turtle apologizes that he is in the wrong picture, and Wolfie dives underground after a worm.

Cast & crew

More about The Old Shell Game

Seymour Kneitel directed, with Dave Tendlar animating alongside Tom Golden, Morey Reden, and Martin Taras. Joe Stultz and Larry Riley wrote the story. Paramount released the Noveltoon on December 17, 1948.

Themes

  • Hunger with a belt gauge
  • A turtle who will not cook
  • A gag that admits it is the wrong cartoon
  • Wolfie
  • Murgatroyd
  • turtle shell
  • checkers
  • cannon
  • worm

Making

When Wolfie counts to three with a gun at the shell, the top half opens like a tank hatch and a telescoping cannon swallows his arm.

Music

Winston Sharples arranged the score. The sneak music includes the traditional Mysterioso Pizzicato.

Preservation

Thunderbean's 2019 Blu-ray carries a restored picture. The 1948 registration lapsed when NTA skipped the renewal.

Notes

  • The title puns on the con man's shell game and on the turtle's shell.
  • Jack Mercer voices Murgatroyd and the ice-cream man. Sid Raymond voices Wolfie and the hare.
  • First Wolfie cartoon without Blackie the Lamb.
  • First appearance of the tortoise later called Tommy Tortoise, here named Murgatroyd, and of the worm later called Inchy.
  • The checkers-on-a-shell gag comes back in The Big Flame Up (1949).

Scenes

  • Wolfie's belt has a hole labeled Starving and a last hole drawn as a gravestone.
  • A cannon rises out of the shell and fires the wolf across the field.
  • The hare folds the scenery away to The Tortoise and the Hare and collects Murgatroyd.

Influenced by

  • The Tortoise and the Hare

Influenced

  • The Big Flame Up (1949)

Also available

  • Blu-ray: Noveltoons Original Classics (2019, Thunderbean Animation)

Quotes

Trifle crowded, don'cha think?

Pardon me. I'm in the wrong picture.

Hey, Murgatroyd! Where ya been?

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