Credits:
Supervision by - Rudolf Ising
Drawn by - Isadore Freleng, Larry
Silverman
Musical Score by - Frank Marsales
Summary:
Rice-Puddin' the mad
monk kidnaps a gypsy girl and attempts to have his way with her.
Description:
The setting is a gypsy
village in Russia, where the peasants are performing traditional Cossack
dances to not-so-traditional music. Their band is led by a Paul Whiteman
caricature, and we see that their balalaika player can play his instrument
with a herring! One of the dancers jumps out of his pants, and a quartet
of men gurgle to the music. Another quartet of men is seen pulling a rope,
which seems to be a heavy burden. Suddenly the men do a dandy step, and
we see what's at the end of the rope: a little dog! One man cranks his
ear to tune his voice, and he then reveals three other men behind him
as they all break out into the title tune. This unusual quartet has the
uncanny ability to grow larger or smaller depending on the direction they
face. When a dog appears, their hats turn into cats which hiss at the
confused dog and scare him off. A young gypsy girl appears and begins
dancing with a tambourine. At the conclusion of the song, we spy upon
an unusual-looking cloaked stranger as he sneaks away from the festivities
and towards the palace. He is momentarily revealed to be a very short
peasant with four cannonball-like fuse bombs on his head; he is apparently
preparing to start a revolution. A title card appears which reads "Rice-Puddin'
-- The Mad Monk". We see that Rice-Puddin' is occupied by a jigsaw
puzzle, and that he cheats by using scissors to cut the pieces into the
right shapes. The stranger sneaks by a palace guard by using two of the
bombs as breasts, thus turning himself into a voluptuous beauty who can
get by with no questions asked. Rice-Puddin', still working on the puzzle,
is unable to fit a certain piece, so he cuts up a picture of the czar
into the appropriate shape. It is revealed that the puzzle is of a horse,
and that the czar's head is the piece that goes on the horses' ass! Rice-Puddin'
takes out a pair of binoculars and takes a close look at the festive gypsies.
"Bah! The fools!" he shouts, but soon he spots the young gypsy
girl and a devilish smile appears on his face. He turns to a guard and
says "You get for me little girl, eh?". Rice-Puddin' pulls a
cigar off the guard's uniform, and the guard goes off to do his dirty
deed. Rice-Puddin' sniffs the cigar, tugs on a string which lifts
his robe and reveals his underwear, then takes a lighter from his shirt
pocket. The lighter is, of course, a mouse with a match. He puffs away
impatiently, but soon the guard returns with the girl. After eyeing her
for a moment, Rice-Puddin' presses a button which sends the guard down
a trap door, thus leaving him alone with the girl. "Give old maestro
big kiss, eh?" he says, but the girl pooh-poohs the notion. He begins
to chase her around the room and soon manages to corner her, but her cries
for help are answered by a mob of angry (and armed) gypsy peasants. "Holy
mackerel! Revolution!" he shouts, and then leaves the girl behind
as he tries to escape with his life. He hops onto a donkey and makes a
run for it, but the gypsies catch up to him and -- without him noticing
-- drop a bomb in his pants! The gypsies break off their attack and leave
Rice-Puddin' to believe that he can make a clean getaway. He cranks his
donkey's tail, which turns the animal into a helicopter that sends them
soaring into the air. It is then that Rice-Puddin' notices the bomb in
his pants, but it's too late. The bomb explodes, and when the smoke clears
we see Rice-Puddin' turned into a caricature of Mahatma Ghandi, and we
iris out. "So long, folks!"
Notes:
- For more on bandleader
Paul Whiteman, read his biography at The
Jazz Age site.
- For those of you
who are history-impaired, Rice-Puddin' is a parody of Rasputin, the
mad monk of Russia who was said to have more power than even the Czar.
The people's hatred of him and the rest of the monarchy helped lead
to the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Memorable
Scenes:
Video
Availability:
Laserdisc:
Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 3
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