Robert McKimson | Daffy's Inn Trouble / 1961

competing establishments

by Douglas Messerli

 

David Detiege (story), Warren Batchelder, Ted Bonnicksen, and George Grandpré (animators), Robert McKimson (director) Daffy's Inn Trouble / 1961 [6 minutes]

 

Daffy’s definitely in trouble in this 1961 film, but so too is Porky Pig, one of his last films (his final film was also with Daffy in the 1965 release, “Corn on the Cop”) in which inexplicably the animators have turned his usually recognizable face into a couple of abstract squiggles that even the voice of Mel Blanc can’t quite save. Moreover, this is a Daffy Duck cartoon which Porky is only an ancillary figure.

     Daffy fed up with having to use his brilliance merely to sweep up Porky’s floors at the Bristle Inn, is finally fed up when Porky presents him with a surprise present—merely another new broom.

Determined to go into competition with his former boss, Daffy quickly constructs his own Duck Inn Tavern just across from the Pig’s hotel.

    Despite his touted offerings of free lunch, Plaid stamps, Free TV, and assurances that “Western [is] spoken here,” Daffy’s new establishment just doesn’t draw in the customers the way Porky’s

place does. Even his own schilling to bring in the crowds. What it does attract is a robber who demands Daffy’s money or his life. The robber takes away Daffy’s empty till.

     Still crowds pour into Porky’s place, and Daffy is determined to find out what “he’s got that I don’t haven’t got?”

    What he discovers is a full line of female barroom dancers offering up what might be described as a French Can-Can.

     Daffy gets into his drag costume and attempts to lure the men to his place, but the record gets stuck and the admirers turn in “sore-losers” as they plaster him with tomatoes and other vegetables.

    Daffy next attempts to lure Porky into becoming a partner, but the Pig argues that he has all the business he needs, and refuses the agreement.

    The only choice now that Daffy has to try what he always does, to get even. He spins around his revolver and shoots himself in the face. The next step is to levitate a gigantic boulder over-looking both the establishments in order to crash the Bristle Inn into pieces. The large rock bounces, of course, and crashes into Daffy’s Duck Inn, totally levelling it. For an instant, Daffy turns into a total jack-ass.

    Again dressing up in drag, this time in the dress of a traditional pioneer woman, Daffy straps explosives to himself, sits down at the table in the Bristle Inn and orders “service,” ordering up lasagna, a glass of paté de foie gras, and “a half of dozen medium rare truffles.” Porky suggests that her order will take a little time, giving Mlle. Daffy the opportunity to plant the explosives and run out to hide behind a rock.

   Yet even there, Porky reappears to remind her that she hadn’t ordered anything to drink. Suddenly the bomb goes off resulting in an oil gusher, she suggesting “How’s about a drink of oil, on the rocks, in a tall glass?”

      Now wealthy, Porky has opened a swank Hotel where, once again, Daffy works. Porky awards him a new office, one filled with mops and brooms.

      So quotes Daffy: “You know, I bet if he put his mind to it, he could be positively obnoxious.”

 

Los Angeles, June 15, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2026).