Gold Diggers of '49
| Gold Diggers of '49 | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Beans the Cat/Porky Pig) series | |
 Porky and Beans | |
| Directed by | Fred Avery |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Voices by |
Joe Dougherty Billy Bletcher Bernice Hansen |
| Music by | Bernard Brown |
| Animation by |
Bob Clampett Charles Jones |
| Studio | Leon Schlesinger Productions |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | November 2, 1935 (USA) |
| Color process | Black-and-white |
| Running time | 8 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Hollywood Capers |
| Followed by | Alpine Antics |
Gold Diggers of '49 is a 1935 Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon short in the Looney Tunes series. This film is the very first cartoon directed by Tex Avery for Warner Bros., and is the second Warners cartoon to feature the character Porky Pig. The star is Beans the Cat, with Porky Pig as the father of Beans' fiancée (Little Kitty). Beans and Porky set out to find gold and run into some meanies along the way.
The short's title alludes to the California Gold Rush as well as to the popular Busby Berkeley musicals Gold Diggers of 1933 and Gold Diggers of 1935 (which were also released by Warner Bros.).
It was released on DVD on October 30, 2007, in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5.
Plot
In July 1849, in the middle of the dilapidated town Goldville, Little Kitty observes near a gathering, a poster announcing a young prospector Beans about to hunt for gold in Red Gulch. Little Kitty takes the poster and shows it to Porky. Meanwhile, Beans strikes gold from a mountain slot machine, rides off to Goldville and puts the word out, making all the locals leave in pursuit of the gold source. Beans and Porky followed by Ham and Ex head off to the gold source and get digging. Suddenly Beans uncovers a trunk containing a book on how to find gold. Then a greedy bandit spies Beans' bag of gold and snitches it with a lasso fired from his rifle. Beans pursues the bandit on Porky's request hoping to get Little Kitty's hand in marriage. After a wild gunfight, Beans supercharges his car dragging the bandit, the bag of gold and Porky along and back to Goldville. Porky reveals that what the bandit stole was in fact his lunch bag.
Edited versions
When this cartoon aired on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network (though once upon a time, Cartoon Network showed the Chinese laundrymen scenes uncut and uncensored), the scenes with the Chinese laundrymen racing along with the other characters in search of gold (and digging for gold in the mine) were cut. On Nickelodeon, the sequence where Beans shoots at a villain, who shields himself with a metal tub was also cut.