Duck Pimples is a 1945 Disney cartoon starring Donald Duck and directed by Jack Kinney.
The short begins on a dark and stormy night. Donald is trying to relax by listening to the radio, but everything on is some combination of violent and terrifying. Then a mysterious, menacing stranger appears at the door... but he turns out to be a travelling book salesman.
Donald reads one of the crime novels the salesman leaves behind, and is quite literally pulled into the story when the characters in the novel accuse him of stealing a pearl necklace. And it gets much more bizarre from there.
This cartoon features the following tropes:
- Advertised Extra: Ajax the Gorilla appears on the poster despite only appearing briefly in the beginning.
- "Bang!" Flag Gun: The Cop uses one of these on Donald, but Donald is so wound-up he acts as if he's been shot for real. Pauline and King both freak out as well and make a break for it.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Pauline, who is exposed as wearing no unmentionables under her dress when she lifts it and this can be seen better in a freeze-frame.
- Cerebus Retcon: In the Mickey's 60th Birthday special on NBC, the salesman is instead written as a police investigator coming to arrest Donald for being the prime suspect in Mickey's disappearance.
- Crazed Concentric Eyes: Donald gains swirls around his eyes from the absurd situation unfolding around him.
- Creator Cameo:
- Lesley J. Clark, the hot-iron salesman, is a caricature of Les Clark of Disney's "Nine Old Men".
- Also, the author of the book, J. Harold King, is likely a caricature of Jack King, a longtime director of Donald cartoons.
- The cop (and the one who stole the pearls) is H. Hugh Hennessy, named after one of the studio's top layout artists.
- Deranged Animation: This is hands down one of the weirdest Disney shorts ever, with its bizarre dream logic plotting and surreal, constantly changing backgrounds. The cartoon feels like a toned down version of a late Bob Clampett cartoon.
- Dirty Cop: The Cop steals Pauline's bracelets. Then eats them like donuts (with coffee in his hat). He also turns out (when the time comes for the author to choose the culprit) to be the one who stole the pearls and is clearly not above threatening anyone's lives after the fact.
- Femme Fatale: Pauline, the dame whose pearl necklace got stolen.
- From Beyond the Fourth Wall: The characters in the crime novel Donald reads accuse him of stealing the pearls. Then the book's author shows up to explain everything.
- Going Commando: Pauline pulls up the hem of her dress so as not to trip while she runs to safety. In doing so, she's revealed to go without any knickers under her slinky dress.
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: The author is dressed as one of these when he shows up to explain the plot.
- Hurricane of Euphemisms: J. Harold King while fleeing back into the book:J. Harold King: Let's get out of- out of here. T-Take a powder. Beat it, w-we're take the rap, get the hotseat. Scram!
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The short opens on such a night at Donald's house.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: "CLARK! The hot irons!"note The Cop later threatens Donald with a switchblade knife."Hot! Hot! Hot!"
- Killer Gorilla: One of the radio shows Donald listens to is about one. As he listens, the chair he's sitting one turns into a green gorilla (Ajax from Donald Duck and the Gorilla) about to strangle him before it immediately changes back.
- Mexican Standoff: Played somewhat straight: in a scene often
removed from TV broadcasts, the Cop has a switchblade at Donald's throat, while Pauline raises an axe above the Cop's head. - Mood Whiplash: The book salesman goes from menacing to jolly as he talks about the bicycle he could win selling magazine subscriptions.
- Mind Screw: The whole story operates on surreal logic, where reality and fiction begin to blend very early on, where very eccentric characters change their moods at drop of a hat, backgrounds will change instantly into increasingly oddly angled locations often by the second, the author himself appears to explain the narrative of the story and Poor Donald slowly goes crazier as the short goes insane from being dragged into and experiencing these events.
- Ms. Fanservice: Pauline is very shapely and wears a Sexy Backless Outfit.
- Officer O'Hara: The Cop that threatens Donald is a textbook example.
- Offscreen Crash: Donald drops the hot irons back into the book; going by the ruckus that all the characters gather around to read about, it prompted quite a big fiery accident, eventually resulting in a geyser of water from the narrative's firemen attempting to put it out.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: Plays throughout the short, a nod to the organ music that played on radio crime dramas of the time.
- Only the Author Can Save Them Now: An In-Universe example. And then it's subverted when the Cop threatens the author's life when he is found out to be the culprit.
- Or Was It a Dream?: The short ends with Donald trying to brush off the whole experience as just his imagination getting away with him, only for the pearls to materialize on his neck.
- Out-of-Character Moment: One of the rare times where Donald does not lose his temper. In fact, where most cartoons put Donald at the center of the comedy, here, he is mostly the Straight Man, reacting to all the weird things going on around him, slowly descending further into madness as things go along.
- Police Lineup: A mugshot height chart appears in the background as The Cop accuses Donald while saying, "Aren't you ashamed? A big guy like you..." while stretching Donald's body to twice his size so he reaches over six feet.
- Portal Book: All the characters from the crime novel that Donald is reading leap out of the pages and into his living room, as well as the author of the story.
- Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: While searching for her pearls on The Cop's body, Pauline ends up pulling a rabbit out of his derby.
- Raincoat of Horror: Donald is greeted at his door by an intimidating-looking figure wearing a raincoat. It turns out to be a jolly character looking to sell him magazines.
- Retcon / All There in the Manual: A (slightly more) sensical explanation for the events of the short was given in an animated prologue made during the sixties for a rebroadcast of the short on TV. In that version, Witch Hazel (the one from the Donald Duck cartoon "Trick or Treat") creates all those characters to confuse Donald and makes him think he's having a bad dream.
- Rummage Fail: When Pauline first enters Donald's home (which is now a woman's apartment), she searches for her pearls in a dresser while frantically throwing a bunch of ladies undergarments behind her back.
- Screaming Woman: Pauline in horrified reaction to Donald after he was supposedly shot and collapsed.
- Also, a woman can be heard screaming on Donald's radio when a narrator mentions, "Our story begins: a woman speaks".
- Shout-Out: The whole short is basically the Disney equivalent of the Tex Avery short, Who Killed Who?, right down to the Ominous Pipe Organ music and the cop in both cartoons being voiced by Billy Bletcher.
- Surreal Humor: Justified, as it's all supposed to take place in Donald's imagination.
- Surreal Horror: At the same time, the equally as bizarrely skits will change into very uncomfortable situations, such as constantly changing backgrounds at a second's notice, characters will go from friendly to psychotic and it becomes obvious early on that the reality of Donald's home and the book start to blur gradually to the point that it's impossible to tell which is which as Donald starts going more hopelessly insane than usual.
- Traveling Salesman: One of these shows up and gives Donald the book that kicks off the plot.
- Your Radio Hates You: Donald tries to relax listening to the radio, but every station is playing either horror stories or crime dramas.
- "Wanted!" Poster: After Donald has been threatened for both stealing the pearls and abducting Pauline herself, various wanted posters appear on a wall behind him. Reward offers range from two cents up to 9,999 dollars.*