Crowing Pains

Crowing Pains
Looney Tunes (Henery Hawk) series
The original opening title card, taken from Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6. This scene also appears near the end of the short.
Directed by	Robert McKimson
Produced by	Eddie Selzer (uncredited)
Story by	Warren Foster
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	John Carey Izzy Ellis Manny Gould Charles McKimson
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	July 12, 1947 (USA premiere)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	6 minutes 48 seconds
Language	English

Crowing Pains is a cartoon in the Looney Tunes series that was released in 1947. The cartoon, directed by Robert McKimson, stars Henery Hawk, Sylvester, and Foghorn Leghorn and The Barnyard Dawg, all of whom are voiced by Mel Blanc. It is also the first cartoon to feature more than two Looney Tunes characters since A Corny Concerto. In addition, this is the only short that Sylvester and Foghorn Leghorn share the screen together. It is also Foghorn's first appearance in the Looney Tunes series.

It is featured, fully restored (including original titles), on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6. As a result of the title restoration, this is the earliest Foghorn Leghorn cartoon to survive with its original technical credits intact, surpassing 1948's The Foghorn Leghorn (which inherited the "title" in 2003 from Henhouse Henery when its credits were restored for its own DVD release) - Walky Talky Hawky (from 1946), on the other hand, exists only as a Blue Ribbon reissue. On television, the Blue Ribbon reissue still airs (the current TV print has the wrong ending music as well).

Plot

Sylvester is sneaking to the doghouse in a bush. he tries to steal the bone, but the Barnyard Dawg grabs the paw and looks inside the bush to see Sylvester with a flower in his mouth. After Sylvester deliberatly whacks Barnyard Dawg on the head with his dog food dish, Barnyard Dawg gives chase and chases Sylvester on the wall and jumps over a branch,only to get caught by the leash and hangs from the branch by the leash. Sylvester is about to cut the leash with an axe,but Foghorn grabs the blade and Sylvester whacks too hard and vibrates as he goes by the Fire wood , and the branch breaks and Barnyard Dawg gets hit on the head and walks off. as Foghorn lectures Sylvester to "bury the hatchet-i say bury the hatchet but not in anyone's head,boy!" when Sylvester is trying to speak, Sylvester angrily yells "ah,SHUT UP!" and whacks Foghorn on the head with the bladeless axe and leaves as Foghorn sees stars and still holds the blade. Henery says to the audience "i'm not sure, but this might be a chicken" and drags him as Foghorn asks "what's the gag-i say what's the gag son? GAG that is! where are we taking me boy? speak up!". after Henery tells Foghorn that he (Foghorn) is a chicken, Foghorn convinces Henery that Sylvester is a chicken. Foghorn sticks Henery in an egg and places it under Sylvester. Sylvester wakes up, thinking he's laid the egg and has become a Mother, sings "Rock A Bye Baby" to it then hides the egg when he sees Foghorn coming and Foghorn congratulates Sylvester for laying the egg and Sylvester realizes that "HEY,Tom Cats can't be Mothers! Cats don't lay eggs! There's something screwy here!" and attempts to detach himself from this egg that suddenly follows him and attaches itself to him and that scares Sylvester out of his wits when he thinks the egg is possessed by a Ghost . He runs from it and does all sorts of things...including running into the dog house belonging to the Barnyard Dawg. The dog pulls the cat out and stomps all over him and walks off...Henery, still in the egg, runs into the dog, which causes the dog to trip and fall over. The dog looks at the egg and then at the camera and ponders "i just takes a step and presto, I lays an egg!". the scene fades to a mother duck, with her ducklings, who says to herself "presto and he lays an egg. and to think for fifthteen years i've been doing it the hardway." The egg/Henery finally discovers Sylvester's hiding spot(a Barrel), and he starts to attach himself to Sylvester's skin.

Reaching a breaking point Sylvester comes close to smashing the egg with a Mallet...just as the egg is about to be smashed Henery pops out and hollers "STOP!!" to which Sylvester, in a classic scene,yanks his head up and down by his ears and grabs his tail and yanks on it, causing his head to pop up and down on his shoulders because he himself thinks he's crazy. Henery, seeing enough, clobbers Sylvester with a mallet and drags him off. Sylvester wakes up and asks "say, what's the big idea?!" and Henery warns the "chicken" to not give him any trouble and Sylvester realizes that he's been part of a trick and he leaps up and shows Henery that the actual chicken, "a rooster in fact", is Foghorn himself. "Rooster? if i'm a rooster-i say if i'm a rooster, i hope to be struck by-" bellows an offended Foghorn,but is interuptered when almost struck by lightning and decides"well, let's put it in another way. WAY that is" and an argument arises between Sylvester, Foghorn, and the Dog as they accuse each other of misleading Henery Hawk. Finally, Henery decides the only way to settle the matter is to see who crows at dawn, and they all agree with an "OKAY!" with Foghorn alone "OKAY,THAT IS!". The scene fades and it's dawn the next morning...a sun pops up...and rooster crowing is heard...but from who? Sylvester has his mouth open because he typically always has his mouth open, looking dumbfounded...but Barnyard Dawg thinks Sylvester is crowing and walks off after hearing enough and Henery mistakes this for the sound of the rooster and he drags Sylvester away. The scene ends with Foghorn crowing...out the side of his mouth...holding up a how-to book on Ventriloquism. Foghorn tells the audience "you gotta-i say you gotta keep on your toes. TOES that is!".

Censorship

• When this cartoon aired on The WB television network, the part where Barnyard Dawg is hanging from a tree branch by his leash and Sylvester, armed with an axe, is about to swing it at him, was cut.^[1] The cartoon jumps from Barnyard Dawg chasing Sylvester to Foghorn telling Sylvester, "Let's bury the hatchet, but not in anyone's head".

References

1. ^ [1]

External links

• "Crowing Pains", Internet Archive. Full film available for free.
• Crowing Pains at the Internet Movie Database