The Impatient Patient

The Impatient Patient
Looney Tunes (Daffy Duck) series
Directed by	Norman McCabe
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Story by	Don Christensen
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl W. Stalling Milt Franklyn (uncredited)
Animation by	Vive Risto Cal Dalton (uncredited) I. Ellis (uncredited) John Carey (uncredited)
Studio	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	September 5, 1942 (USA)
Color process	Black-and-white (original) Technicolor (1968 reissue)
Running time	8 minutes
Language	English

The Impatient Patient is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon released in theatres in 1942, directed by Norman McCabe and features Daffy Duck as a telegram deliverer. The film is set in a mad scientist's laboratory. This cartoon was colorized in 1968 (just after Seven Arts Productions, successor to Guild Films, to whom the black-and-white cartoon library had been sold some time before, acquired Warner Bros.) by having every other frame traced over onto a cel. Each redrawn cel was painted in color and then photographed over a colored reproduction of each original background. The animation quality dropped considerably from the original version with this method. The cartoon was colorized again in 1992, this time with a computer adding color to a new print of the original black and white cartoon. This preserved the quality of the original animation (the end result also resembled the actual color cartoons released around the same time).

Plot summary

While traipsing through the Ookaboochie Swamps, Daffy Duck seeks to deliver a telegram to "Chloe." Unable to find the telegram's recipient, and suffering from a severe case of hiccups, he stumbles upon the home of "Dr. Jerkyl" and hopes that the physician can cure his condition. Daffy's hiccups are so severe that they cause him to damage or destroy everything around him.

Dr. Jerkyl captures Daffy and restrains him to a doctor's chair. Hoping to scare Daffy in order to cure his hiccups, Dr. Jerkyl created and drinks a potion that turns him into a grotesque, female ogre named Chloe. Daffy, realizing he has reached his destination, then reads her the telegram: the lyrics to "Happy Birthday To You," sent to her by a Mr. Frank N. Stein.

Chloe, who is enamored with Daffy (who in turn is now cured of his hiccups), chases the duck around the laboratory until the radio is accidentally switched on, prompting her to dance. Once the music ends, the chase resumes. Daffy scrambles to the lab table and mixes a potion, which turns Chloe into an infant. As each brandishes a hammer insisting each one doesn't know the other that well, the action moves offscreen, a large thud is heard, and the bird from the doctor's cuckoo clock displays a large sign reading “He Dood It!”

References