172. Porky's Railroad (1937)

Release date: August 7th, 1937

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Frank Tashlin

Starring: Mel Blanc (Porky, Sneezes, Bull), Billy Bletcher (Rival Conductor), Danny Webb (Bull), Berneice Kamiat (Fish)

Frank Tashlin’s love of streamline design is incorporated into this fast-paced cartoon about life on the railroad: it’s up to Porky and his “percolator on a roller skate” to win a race against an uppity conductor and his streamline shoe-in.

The typography lettering the animated title card melt away to reveal a rather complex steam train, chugging along to a merry score of a Stalling favorite, “California, Here I Come”. As to be expected with Frank Tashlin, we’re treated to close-ups of the train (usually in conjunction with the music score): bells, whistles, wheels and all. Some footage of the train itself has been reused time and time again, dating as far back as the Buddy era, but the close-ups and camera angles add a layer of freshness to it. The train hurtles straight towards the audience, labeled triumphantly “The 30th Century Limited – the railroad’s crack train”, a take on New York Central’s 20th Century Limited train.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Iris in to the antithesis of the crack train, a sluggish, bulky locomotive named “Toots”, headed by Porky Pig himself. Tashlin takes a job towards his (least) favorite porcine as the text narrates: “The 15th Century Unlimited - also a crack train. Everything cracked – including the engineer”. The typography is expertly done, the “15th century” lettering done in an old, archaic font. It’s all too easy to take font for granted these days–remember, these are all hand-painted letters, including title cards! 

Porky and his crack train Toots are headed straight for Piker’s Peak, a daunting mountain whose height is pronounced in camera pans. The camera pans up a layout painting of the mountain, and then we get a wide-angle distance shot of the train itself attempting to chug forth. To assert the unreliability of the train and its speed, or lack thereof, Porky observes a snail scaling up the mountain at lightning pace in comparison. Finally, the train stalls out all together.

Cut to an overhead angle of Porky inside the conductor’s booth, where he reaches into a compartment and withdraws a pepper shaker (a brief closeup of the pepper shaker dispelling any confusion as to what’s in the pig’s hand.) With that, Porky shakes the pepper shaker over a burning candle situated where the engine is–note his tail uncoiling and recoiling with each shake–and, predictably, the train begins to sneeze its way uphill, Porky giving his blessing with a polite “Gesundheit.” 

Soon enough, the sneezes grow rapid, and the train speeds over top the mountain like it was nothing. A habit of his, Tashlin gets a bit too trigger happy and cuts too quickly for the gag to sink in–the caboose and a few of the box cars actually fly off the tracks on account of the speed. Props for conveying such fast speeds, but it’s a little too fast, a problem area of Tashlin’s at times. 

Nevertheless, we’re greeted with more layouts of the scenery, motion conveyed by a camera moving closer to the backgrounds. At one point, the train even goes through a very short tunnel. The camera movements of the early LT cartoons can be janky at times, but here they’re conducted very well.

Next, a bird’s eye view of Porky’s train traversing a number of intertwining tracks. Whoever animated this next scene, my hat is off to you–the boxcars all weave in and out of different tracks in a rather short yet complex bit of animation before realigning on one single track. Very well executed and very fun, just one of the few scenes that make me say “I’m glad I didn’t have to animate that!” 

Unbeknownst to Porky, however, is a train hurtling right in his direction. Porky finally takes note, and hurriedly pulls his train up to an adjacent track just by a depot. However, the caboose is still on the track. At the very last minute, he manages to squeeze in and pull forward JUST as the train roars by, giving an audibly “Whew!” of relief (which I believe is Bob Bentley animation.) 

The layout of the two trains “colliding” is nice, but the scene itself has some execution issues: Porky pulling up is a bit too quick and looks comically unnatural, and the odd crunching sound effect makes it sound as though the oncoming train actually did collide with the caboose.

Porky doesn’t have much time to relax as he’s back on the rails. Even tugging on the whistle wildly does nothing to alert the obstacle in front of him, yet thankfully he manages to squeal to a stop. He’s greeted with an obstacle that has haunted cartoon characters for years: it halted Oswald in 1927 with Trolley Troubles, it plighted Mickey and Minnie in 1928 with Plane Crazy, it stopped Bosko and Honey a mere two years later in Sinkin’ in the Bathtub, and now Porky is up to battle: a cow lying in the middle of the tracks.

Carl Stalling switches from “California, Here I Come” to a slow, lumbering yet fitting rendition of “Rural Rhythm” to accommodate the lazy cow chewing on some grass. The animation of the cow is rather amusing–her tail is high in the air, her exaggerated cycle of chewing is great, and the detail of her haphazardly cracking an eye open to pay Porky any mind is another plus. 

Stepping off the train, Porky opts to bargain with her with a polite tip of the hat. “Excu-uh-excu-uh-pardon me, uh-muh-meh-missus cow, will you eh-keh-keh-kindly get off the t-teh-eh-teh-track?” 

Despite his efforts, coupled with another tip of the hat and a smile, Mrs. Cow stays right put, barely acknowledging Porky’s presence. Porky’s attempts to make pleasantries quickly fade away in favor of a more hostile attitude, telling her to amscray (putting the “pig” in “pig Latin”, I see!) and calling her a mess of T-bones, all while pushing her from behind. 

Finally, the cow does step off the tracks on her own, prompting Porky to fall flat on the tracks as she lazily stalks away. Porky fumes as he marches back onto his train, ranting about how cows like her give milk a bad name, how she can’t give sweet milk with a sour puss like that, etc. 

Enter the bull. The bull’s entrance is great: I love the bristling hairs, the assertive glare at the camera, the missing tooth, the flared nostrils. Stalling’s score of “Rural Rhythm” is also wonderfully moody and alert. The bull marches across the tracks and hides behind a bush, with only its tail exposed. Porky, not typically known for his intelligence, thinks it’s the cow from before and grows confrontational. “So, you weh-won’t walk, eh? I’ll sheh-show you, you feh-four-legged eh-peh-piece of hamburger!” 

Porky tugs on the aggravated bull’s tail before cursing at the bull (which is just dialogue reversed. Reversed, the dialogue is “…Toots, old gal. Don’t pop your…” you can hear a comparison here.) the bull grunts, causing Porky to rush back to his train and hurtle across the tracks in a flash. Don’t quote me on this, as I’m not 100% sure, but I believe the animation of Porky and the bull may be Joe D’igalo…? 

Spark the ever prevalent Tashlin Montage: up-angles of disjointed hands tapping away on a telegraph to communicate the message (that comes out on a paper strip) “Stop Porky’s train”. 

More cinematic angles of brakes being pulled, barriers being put up. Porky himself screeches his trusty train to a halt, waiting outside the depot as a paper rolls across a wire line to him. He grabs it and observes the news: 

“Streamline train” is highlighted, and sure enough, we fade to meet Tashlin’s streamlined fantasy, a sleek feat of modern architectural design barreling down the tracks, named THE SILVER FISH. There’s a nice little intricate piece of animation as the train weaves closer into view, the conductor tipping his hat to the audience with a commanding grin. 

Elsewhere, Porky bids his train a tearful goodbye. “Au rev-v-vo… au rev-v-v… au rev-v-v–goodbye, teh-t-Toots old gal. Parting is seh-seh-such sweet seh-seh-sorrow…” However, William Shakespig has little time to mourn his loss, for The Silver Fish itself comes whipping into place in the adjacent track, nearly knocking Porky off his feet in the process. 

Ever the good sport, Porky marches over to greet the conductor (towering feet above him) and wish him good luck. As he sticks his hand out, “Mr. Silver Fish” reaches down and grabs Porky, shaking him vigorously. The animation being shot on ones paired with Mel Blanc’s near-incomprehensible cries for help pair together for a nice gag. 

Porky flops to the ground, his lowly status only confirmed as the conductor (voiced by Billy Bletcher) regards his train: “Saaay, what is that? A percolator on a roller skate?” The train deflates from the insult, coupled with Bletcher’s signature laugh.

Volney White animates Porky’s close-up as he mutters to the audience “I’ll buh-be-beh-be-bet my eh-t-teh-t-Tootsie can beh-beh-beat his old eh-seh-seh-eh-seh-silver fish.” The camera pans out as the conductor lurches into view, picking up Porky by his tail and giving him a few pokes in the eye Stooges style as he sneers “Oh yeah? It’s a bet. We’ll have a race and see!” Volney’s animation is very well executed, very dimensional.

Fade to reveal both trains on adjacent tracks, complete with a referee toting a starter pistol. Tashlin’s need for speed is unmistakable–as soon as the referee fires, the Silver Fish rockets off in a cloud of smoke, leaving Porky’s old train tangled in a pretzel (complete with a score of “You’re a Horse's Ass.) 

The cartoon, at least for me (I am a tad biased on account of my unabashed love for Porky), has been rather enjoyable up to this point, but here’s where things get sour. It’s literally 5 seconds, but enough to be incredibly uncomfortable and infuriating: the Silver Fish rushes past a woodpile (explicitly labeled as such), revealing a Black caricature sitting beneath it. The gag itself is based off of an incredibly racist saying synonymous to “a fly in the ointment” or “a skeleton in the closet”–it’s in extremely poor taste and more than uncomfortable. I love Frank Tashlin, he’s one of my favorite directors, but this leaves a very sour taste in my mouth, even if it was 83+ years ago. 

Nevertheless, the Silver Fish speeds through a tunnel with such frightening speeds that it actually turns the tunnel inside out–the animation is a bit matter of fact, and thus the gag doesn’t reach the amount of potential as, say, Porky pulling his entire garage inside out like in Porky's Badtime Story, but working with a tunnel also poses flexibility issues. It’s easier for a garage to appear rubbery than a tunnel. 

The Silver Fish screeches to a halt near a harbor as the bridges raise to let a boat through. It is then when a fish caricature of Mae West pops out of the water, spotting the silver fish and cooing “Oh boy, what a man!” The Tashlin Looney Tunes shorts of the 1940s would use burlesque and sex comedy as a main topic for lampooning–this is a neat little precursor to that. 

Porky finally gets his share of screen time, chugging along frantically. The animation of him pulling on the whistle is incredibly smooth–judging by the complexity of the train and the thickness of Porky’s eyebrows, I’d wage this as Bob Bentley animation. The bridges raise to pass another ship through, the S.S. Leon. 

Yes, as in Leon Schlesinger, who was actually a boatsman! According to a 1939 trade paper, Schlesinger was a skipper–he’d bought actor Richard Arlen’s yacht (named Dijo) and rebranded it as, fittingly, the Merrie Melody. According to Phil Monroe, he took the studio's baseball team (yes, that's right) out to Catalina for one weekend on his boat as a reward for winning. 

Porky’s train rushes right across the bow of the S.S. Leon, bringing back a few unwarranted treasures in the process: a life preserver and a singing sailor in a lifeboat (singing “Don’t Give Up the Ship”), dangling from pulleys attached to a boxcar.

The temperamental bull from before makes another appearance, watching Porky’s train speed by from the hilltops. Mel Blanc provides the bull’s raspy monologue as the bull recalls his prior experience with porky–”He can’t get away with a thing like that, I’ll show him!” 

Sure enough, the bull rushes onto the tracks, bellows out a roar, and rams into Porky’s train at the speed of light, literally just a mass of dry brushed streaks. The animation of the bull plowing into boxcars like nobody’s business is more than satisfying to watch. The lack of a music score, just the chuffing of Porky’s engine, adds a greater burst to the bull’s impact when he makes contact with the train. 

The bull, as it turns out, does Porky a favor: as he collides with Porky’s section of the train, the impact is enough to send him flying. That is, flying right over the befuddled head of the silver fish’s conductor. Conveniently, Porky lands right across the finish line, where he’s met with cheers and applause from the stands. The underdog wins at last.

Iris in onto the side of the Silver Fish. We pan out to reveal the conductor, a happy Porky Pig waving his hat in the air in a direct parallel to the conductor’s initial debut. Despite the upbeat, celebratory nature, we meet a rather morbid end: the camera pans back to reveal a crushed and mangled Toots, a sign draped over it reading “Headin’ for the last roundhouse”. Iris out.

For its time, this is a very fun and lively cartoon. As to be expected in a Tashlin cartoon, the camera angles are divine as always, and the fast-paced cutting, although a bit too fast at times, adds a nice bit of exhilaration to the cartoon. The race between Porky and the conductor truly does feel like a race and leaves you breathless at parts. 

Carl Stalling’s music score is a joy like always, and the backgrounds are beautifully painted. There are some really unique pans and camera angles of just the layouts alone. Tashlin has a fine concept of speed–more than fine, really. He serves as a rather suitable competitor to Tex Avery in that department. In some cases, he may even surpass him. 

My only true gripe with the cartoon is the incredibly racist gag–it can be easily skipped, it’s very much a throwaway gag that the cartoon’s success doesn’t rely on, but it does sour my glowing review quite a bit.

Nevertheless, this is a fun, early Porky entry that’s worth a watch. The racist gag is around 5:30-5:35 in the link I provided, so be sure to skip it.

Link!