114. Little Dutch Plate (1935)

Release date: October 19th, 1935

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Friz Freleng

Starring: Carol Trevis (Dutch Girl), Billy Bletcher (Vinegar Bottle), Tommy Bond (Dutch Boy), Bernard Brown (Cuckoo Clock), The Rhythmettes (Chorus)

Not to be confused with any other cartoon that features a) a Dutch figurine of some sort or b) anthropomorphic kitchen utensils. A little Dutch girl on a plate and a Dutch boy salt shaker are smitten for each other, but a villainous vinegar bottle plans to put a halt to their happiness immediately.

The cartoon opens with a lovely, warm, rich chorus of The Girl on the Little Dutch Plate”. The sound is exquisite as always, full of charm and sentimentality. Open to streets of Holland, specifically a cottage along the canal. Inside the “little Dutch kitchen” on the “little Dutch shelf” is the girl on the little Dutch plate. She sighs, smitten with a salt shaker boy who reciprocates her infatuation. Cute animation as the boy strolls over coyly to meet his sweetheart, a collection of plates narrating the event in song.

Finally they meet, and the two engage in a fun clogging routine. The animation is solid, fun, and fluid, a joy to watch. Elsewhere, other kitchen utensils contribute to the fun. Two beer steins exchange alcohol, a pair of overalls does a clog dancing routine, and the singing women on the plates do a lovely dance number as well. A great bit of animation as they roll the plates around and hang upside down, their many layered skirts piling up one by one. They sink their legs through the exposed hole and pop right side up, back to normal. A gag difficult to describe, but certainly a must see.

Interesting to note for the girl and boy clogging—animation was done by Ken Harris, legendary animator most commonly associated with Chuck jones. According to animator Greg Duffell, Harris made his debut by working with Friz first. He wanted to assert that he could animate, and Friz assigned him this scene as a test. Harris worked his magic and impressed Freleng, and the rest is history. Harris worked for Freleng, later switching briefly to Frank Tashlin's unit. Chuck Jones inherited the Tashlin unit in 1938, and Harris stayed with him all the way until 1962, the longest time an animator has stayed with a director at Warner Bros.

Anyway, enter the villain, a nefarious looking salt shaker who swats his way past a thicket of cobwebs. He spots the clogging couple and hatches an idea—to reach them, he fires a mousetrap beneath himself and rockets up a long, curving candlestick. His hat smashes against the candle holder as he reaches the top, and he struggles to get it off. Wonderfully amusing animation as he (now on the safety of the shelf) gets on all fours, sitting like a dog scratching its butt across the floor and pops the hat off with the aid of his feet.

Meanwhile, the boy escorts his sweetheart into her real home, a model of a windmill. He serenades her with a whimsical little love song, as the villain watches in disgust. He snags a paper from his pocket, adorned with a ribbon. Must mean business! He saunters to the couple and wastes no time heckling them, insisting they have until 12:00 to pay their mortgage. A very similar premise would be reused in a Tex Avery cartoon, Milk and Money, where a mustachioed villain characterized by Billy Bletcher heckles Porky’s father on the matter of paying mortgage, or else he’ll take the farm (and in a good bit of Tex Avery humor, the villain whips back to the camera and whispers “He’ll never make it!).

All of the characters speak in prose as the Dutch girl begs for the villain’s mercy. The villain’s motives are revealed as he suggests the girl marry him, and the matter of the bill will be gone. The little Dutch boy insists he’ll have the mortgage paid on time, met with a Billy Bletcher belly laugh.

A cuckoo clock reveals its cuckoo bird, who announces that it’s 11:30. A figure of a Native American is perched on top and whacks the bird in the head with a tomahawk, sending him back into the confines of his clock. The girl is clearly distressed, but the boy reassures her everything will be fine. He gives the a villain a nasty insult of “You old meanie!”, to which the villain terrorizes him in response.

Time passes, and the clock hands reach 12. The cuckoo bird opens his beak, about to signal the demise for the couple, when the Native American socks him on the head once more with the tomahawk and winds the hands back to 11:30.

The poor boy paces around, seeking the help of a piggy bank, but to no avail. No matter! He spots something much more intriguing. An amusing set up of dentures lined up on a shelf, labeled “PAW”, “MAW”, and “SONNY BOY”. Paw’s dentures have a big cigar clenched between the false teeth, which the boy trades for a stick of dynamite. He strikes a match and the dentures explode, a shower of false teeth raining down. I love how random and interesting this is! Dentures, the answer for everything.

Once more, the cuckoo clock and the Native American repeat their charade. The Native American wallops the bird before he can open his beak (taking off the bird’s helmet), winding the hands of the clock back to 11:30.

Elsewhere, the villain continues to pester the girl, proposing she marry him. She does the right thing by kicking him in the face multiple times and exclaiming “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!” Good for her! Finally, the villain gives up his polite act and drags the girl along, right into the belly of a grandfather clock where he attempts to advance on her.

Back to the boy, who has shoved all of the false teeth into a sack. He lugs the sack over his shoulder and runs to the rescue. We get a shot of the villain and the girl, and the mood has drastically changed. As archetypal as it gets as the girl is tied to a wooden plank, heading straight for a whirring saw. She cries for help, and the boy, who has been puzzled as to why she wasn’t in the windmill, hears her pleas and rushes to the grandfather clock.

The villain steps out of the clock to confront the boy. Finally, we see the use for the perplexingly amusing bag of teeth—perfect for hitting. The boy slams the bag right over the villain’s head, the force enough to get the villain’s hat stuck on his head.

The boy is then able to rush inside and free his sweetheart from her peril. They both run outside hand in hand, just in time to see the villain get his head unstuck from his hat. He swings a punch at the boy, who ducks and returns the favor, this time hitting him in the face. The villain’s head spins and flies up and down with each punch he receives from the feisty boy. Eventually, he receives a punch so hard the villain’s head flies towards the great unknown.

Headless, the villain bumbles around, attempting to reconnect with his head. He stumbles upon a DIFFERENT head on a perfume bottle, a much more handsome and appealing head. Just as the boy is about to sock the villain hard, the girl protests, saying “Don’t you dare hit him!” I LOVE endings like these. She cozies up to the vinegar bottle, cooing “You handsome man!” they stroll away arm in arm as the boy is left to his own devices.

Another great ending that would become a Looney Staple—random bursts of gunfire. The cuckoo bird pops once more out of its hole, and just as the Native American is about to conk him on the head, the bird retaliates and pulls out a machine gun, blowing him to smithereens. Iris out as the bird is free to cuckoo to his heart’s content.

Very cute little cartoon! The quality of Friz’s cartoons are getting much better. The song was fun, flighty, and endearing, and the Dutch couple were very cute. The villain was entertaining (and archetypal) as always, and both endings—the girl falling for the villain and the machine gun wielding cuckoo bird—added a nice element of surprise. The choice of putting a Native American on the clock was... odd, but that's probably my only complaint. The story was archetypal but executed in a manner that makes it fun and intriguing. Worth a watch! 

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