141. At Your Service Madame (1936)

Release date: August 29th, 1936

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Friz Freleng

Starring: Tedd Pierce (W.C. Squeals), Martha Wentworth (Mrs. Hamhock), Berneice Hansell (Giggles)

The last cartoon to be scored by Norman Spencer (who did NOT die in 1936, contrary to an interview Mel Blanc gave) and the first cartoon to feature some reoccurring characters: Piggy and W.C. Squeals! A different Piggy than the Rudolf Ising character—he’d make another appearance in the sequel Pigs is Pigs, voiced by Berneice Hansell, whereas W.C. Squeals would reappear in another Freleng short, The Coo-Coo Nut Grove, and a Tashlin short, Cracked Ice. Squeals, of course, being a parody of comedian W.C. Fields.

Piggy Hamhock is far from obedient, much to his mother’s chagrin. However, his rebellious spirit may come in handy when a greedy pig tries to swindle Mrs. Hamhock out of her fortune.

A beautiful shot at dawn as the sun rises, illuminating the exterior of a house. Inside, a line of little pigs are all asleep in their beds. Their mother downstairs prepares the finishing touches on breakfast, ringing a bell and summoning her kids. They all rise slowly... except for one pig on the end. He jolts out of bed in a split, running to get dressed and wash his face. A nice little detail as he slides back down the hallway and halts, running into the bathroom once more to wet his toothbrush. He zips down the stairs and assumes his position at the table, knife and fork in hand, eagerly awaiting his meal.

His siblings aren’t too far behind, all rushing down the hallway. A callback to the Harman and Ising days as we get yet another butt flap gag! Man, and I thought we were past these. A constant reminder of the brazen Harman-Ising days, with butts and outhouses galore! One of the pigs trips in the midst of his excitement, the butt flap of his pajamas spilling open. Another one of his siblings lifts him up and rebuttons the flap, pulling on the pig’s tail and smacking it against his butt for good measure.

Already the hungry piglet is indulging in his food (cleverly displayed in a mini trough). His mother snaps “Piggy! Now you wait for the others!”, and Piggy glowers down at his hands in impatient frustration. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to wait for too long. The crowd of siblings come pouring in, Piggy motioning for them to hurry up.

The mother pig instructs her children to begin by counting off a cadence “Begin, 2, 3, 4!”, eating a spoonful at the final count. Not at all unlike the barrage of synchronized gags in the oh so memorable Tom Palmer cartoon I’ve Got to Sing a Torch Song. Coy as it is, it’s a great opportunity for Friz to show off his timing. All of the pigs eat in obedient unison, keeping time... except, of course, for Piggy, who scarfs down his food twice as fast (great timing as he’s still kept in time, 1/8 instead of 1/4). His mother takes notice and smacks him with a wooden stick. She scolds him, lamenting that he can’t behave like the others and that she doesn’t know what she’ll ever do with him. Piggy frowns at his trough and impatiently drums his fingers along the sides.

Transition to a pig caricature of W.C. Fields strolling down the streets. On the other side of the street sits a deserted cigar on the sidewalk, still smoldering. HILARIOUS timing as view lines from Squeals hit the cigar, accompanied by the sound of a car horn. Like some sort of weird game of Frogger, squeals zips through busy traffic just to get the cigar, placing it in his mouth and chuffing on it as he continues his stroll.

Squeals stumbles across the pig household, where he picks up a stray newspaper and reads the headline: WIDOW INHERITS FORTUNE — Mrs. Hamhock who resides at 13 Pine Street. Squeals reads it out loud, droning “13 Pine Street, huuuuh? I’ll have to remember that, yeeeaahh.” He looks at the mailbox in front of him, which is conveniently labeled 13 PINE. Squeals marches onto the porch and prepares to ring the doorbell, but stops. Instead he peers through the window, hilarious animation as his snout gets stuck to the window like a suction cup (a reoccurring gag) as he moves his head around. He attempts to pry his face off of the glass, his snout slapping him back in the face after some struggling.

Now ready to pounce, Squeals pretends to chalk and aim his cane like a pool stick, ringing the doorbell with it. He plucks the flowers out of Mrs. Hamhock’s window box, fashioning a makeshift bouquet. Mrs. Hamhock opens the top portion of the door to see who her guest is, and we see Squeals tip his hat, greeting “Good morning, my little chickadee!” (a saying used by Fields in movies such as If I Had a Million.) Mrs. Hamhock allows Squeals in, who hands her the bouquet. “Pretty flowers for pretty lady!” Mrs. Hamhock giggles, inviting him to sit down.

They both cozy up on the couch, Squeals holding Mrs. Hamhock’s hand. He spots a diamond ring and puts on a loupe, clearly interested in the ring as he admires “What a beautiful hand you have!” Once again Mrs. Hamhock giggles, the gag enhanced as the ring turns out to be a gag ring, squirting water right in Squeals’ eye.

Squeals butters her up, scanning the surroundings as he gabs about how lovely her home is, very homey, yeahhh. He spots a safe right next to a piano, loaded with cash. Just what he needed. He asks her if she plays piano, mentioning that he sings a little, and of course Mrs. Hamhock answers in the affirmative. She moves over to the piano and begins to play, Squealsstanding next to her and flashing an excited grin at the safe behind him. Thus launches the title song, accompanied with Tedd Pierce’s hilarious, nasally, talk-songy W.C. Fields impression.

Piggy overhears the piano and the stranger and peers out from the upstairs landing. He makes his way down the stairs and stands behind Squeals, so as to get a good look at him. Squeals dismisses him (“Go along son, you bother me!”), giving the safe a subtle turn of the knob after he waves his fingers at Piggy. Piggy grows suspicious and scowls, standing his ground. Squeals once more pushes him away with his foot, and Piggy once more inches closer. Very amusing setup with Squeals’ interjections of dismissal, finalized by a final kick that sends Piggy flying into a fishbowl, getting the bowl stuck on his head. He frees himself, spitting out a half eaten fish in the process. The fish continues to swim around in its bowl, its entire body reduced to bones.

Squeals gives the knob on the safe a few more turns, attempting to discreetly flash a few looks in the process, all while under the observant eye of Piggy. At last he manages to open the safe, and Piggy, sensing what’s going on, darts away to take action. The entire time, squeals is singing, stuffing wads of cash in his inside pockets, flashing a cheesy grin as he desperately attempts to keep things discreet.

The entire Hamhock family is crowded around Piggy, who whispers a plan in their ears. They all disperse, squeals still loading himself. Piggy creeps into the room, now armed with an electrical cord. Like in Into Your Dance, Piggy ties the cord around Squeals’ tail, giving the okay to one of his siblings, who yanks on the cord of a lamp. Instantly Squeals is turned to bacon as he leaps into the air in agony. The song is put to a halt as Mrs. Hamhock recognizes Piggy as the culprit, pushing Squeals out of the way to scold him.

While Mrs. Hamhock continues her lecture, two of the pigs on the above landing lower a hook, snagging it on the end of squeals’ jacket. Two other pigs crank the handle of a wringer, which lifts squeals up to the landing, through the bars and across the hallway, sliding down the stairs and under the rug, bumping into furniture in the process. Great animation of the pattern on the rug whizzing by. He’s spun around two support beams, finally hitting a chandelier and hanging in the air, suspended. Two other pigs charge down the banister of the staircase, armed with a moose head mount and ramming it into squeals’ butt.

He’s now swung like an uncontrollable piñata, hitting the side of the wall, his nose struggling to get unstuck as it smacks him like a suction cup (accompanied by great Treg Brown sound effects.) The pigs give him another push on the opposite end and the charade continues. Eventually, he’s swung towards the open window, where one of the pigs closes the window on his head. Piggy pushes an exercise shaker towards Squeals and fashions it around his waist. With a simple start of the shaker, all of the cash in Squeals’ pocket is shaken loose. The force of the vibration catapults him out of the window, the entire Hamhock family (mother included) crowding around to ogle at him.

Mrs. Hamhock kisses the heads of her children in gratitude. Squeals, meanwhile, is still shaking, uneasily grabbing his hat and cane and bidding goodbye—something you gotta hear. It’s hilarious, it sounds like his voice is glitching out and skipping as he talks and sputters along. What a great detail! Iris out as he shakes along, walking into the horizon.

While I think Pigs is Pigs is more cinematographic, this is a very clever cartoon with some great comedic timing. Even if you don’t know who W.C. Fields is, W.C. Squeals is hilarious and Pierce does a great job of voicing him. He totally steals the show. I love the gag where he picks up the cigar off the street, and the scene where he’s stuffing fat stacks of cash into his coat and grinning as if everything is peachy keen is great. And, of course, the ending where his dialogue is skipping as he vibrates is very clever. Timing was definitely a pivotal part to this cartoon, in terms of musical timing (the pigs eating their breakfast) and comedic timing. Definitely a funny cartoon that’s worth a watch, it doesn’t at all feel like your archetypical Friz Freleng cartoon (like Bingo Crosbyana or something like that. Not that it’s bad, but it’s certainly formulaic.) 

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