Porky's Railroad

Porky's Railroad
Directed by	Frank Tashlin
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Starring	Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Joe D'Igalo, Robert Bentley
Color process	Black and white (later colorized in 1968 and the 1990s)
Production company	Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	August 7, 1937
Running time	7:15 7:04 (1968 Korean redrawn colorized edition with two banned shots cut)
Language	English

Porky's Railroad is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin.^[1] The short was released on August 7, 1937, and stars Porky Pig.^[2]

Plot[]

The short begins with many views of the #515 4-4-2 Atlantic type steam engine, Alfred, after the title card appears to be showing the front of the train and the engine. A message appears reading: "The 30th century limited, the railroad's crack train." Alfred blows his whistle 4 times and rings the bell 2 times. The song "California, Here I Come" plays in the background until Porky's scene comes along (The same 4-4-2 engine later appeared on the Merrie Melodies short "Steamlined Greta Green"). After many scenes of the 4-4-2 engine (which will show later in the short), it fades black to Porky and his 2-2-2 typed engine (#131⁄2 "Toots" ), because Porky immediately enjoys riding his "15th century unlimited (also a crack train, even more cracker including the engineer, Porky)." Many single-chime toots are heard while the train jumps for power. The train then manages to climb up the Piker's Peak, a steep hill. The train manages to stop in the middle, while going up the hill. Porky then manages to open its firebox, which is a candle. Porky then looks to the left, opening its second seat-box to find a can of pepper. Porky then starts to spray pepper all over the candle. Toots starts to sneeze multiple times as the train starts to move faster as he rockets up the hill. The train later runs out of control, going up and down the hill like a rocket. Porky then manages to go through tunnels, scenery, etc. Porky then speeds up to the switchers, in which his 10 boxcars and a caboose scrambles into man forms of tracks, then connecting them all together back. Alfred later makes the appearance again, blowing his whistle again 3 more times. But Porky sees throughout the window after looking some scenery. Porky then tries to find another switcher. Porky parks his engine, 10 boxcars and caboose near the Portis station. He notices that he has no room. He tries to look at the caboose, but fails when it is too late, then succeeds in other shots. The caboose is snapped off by Alfred, who bumps into it, but is moved by Porky in other shots, who moves his train. Porky feels in relief that Alfred continues to roll down the tracks. The caboose however does appear later. The same scene where Porky looks through the scenery before Alfred plays until he blows 4 toots of his single-chime whistle. Porky stops the train when he sees a cow, who is eating grass on the tracks as Porky blows the whistle four times and stops the train. Porky asks the cow to move out of the tracks in a polite manner, but is so annoyed when the cow ignores him, so instead Porky tries to tell her again. The cow ignores him again, so instead of reminding the third time, he tries to push the cows legs, but ends up falling on the tracks after the cow gets up and leaves. The cow finally gets off the track. Porky then angrily tries to get back on the train by scooping more coal into his firebox (candle). A bull later arrives marching, crossing the tracks and started to sit nearby a bush. Porky then tries to start up his engine, but sees the bull's tail (thinking it is still the cow). Porky then angrily gets off the train, and tries to teach the bull a lesson. He calls the bull a 4 legged piece of hamburger. He pulls the tail angrily while saying a reversed line (which apparently recognizes about not to explode Toot's unrecognizable wording, more information is at the next section below). The bull yells while Porky starts to jump and spin. He immediately gets back on the train by hopping into the engine's cab and continues his faster journey, speeding more than 400 miles per hour (the bull later appeared minutes later).^[3]

The Silver Fish[]

Meanwhile, at the dispatch center, The call is waiting, forcing Porky to stop his train. After a moment of riding his "Toots", Porky stops at the dispatch center, waiting for the message. He reads it after a clothes line with a piece of paper clipped came to Porky. It reads that the "Silver Fish" is waiting, from the President "I. FULLER CINDERS". Porky is informed that his beloved train engine, the 131⁄2 named 'Toots', is to be replaced by a streamline train by the name of 'The Silver Fish'. The engineer, a dog, later greeted the audiences by riding on the fish, blasting his single chimed horn. The fish then arrives in a flash after Porky starts to tear down to say goodbye to his engine, Toots. Porky tries to greet the driver, who violent shakes Porky hand forcing the pig to stunt and fall down in sight. After the driver of 'The Silver Fish' insults 'Toots' by calling his a "brickulator on a roller skate", and much to the harsh words of the dog engineer, who hurts his feelings, Toots starts to faintly dying on air, because he thinks that the engineer is rude to him. Porky mutters that his train can easily take on the streamline train against the driver. The driver agrees to a race after the driver pokes Porky's nose between his eyes twice, which the camera fades black into the race, and the starting mark.^[4]

The race[]

Another dog person waits with his stopwatch. And then, "boom" goes the pistol, and the race starts as the dog puts away his stopwatch. The Silver Fish leads in a flash while Porky's boxcars are all tied up, shocking the dog who is watching Porky's engine, and previously The Silver Fish. Clips were also showing the Silver Fish leading in a very fast movement, forcing a wood pile of logs to break free while a monkey hides inside, shockingly looks at the camera. The fish however then immediately blasts through a tunnel which its exterior of trees painted, forcing the tunnel to show its broken interior. The fish then stops at the boat crossing. A slow boat then goes underneath the bridge halfway. A fish then woos herself telling about the Silver Fish, calling the train a "man". Toots then immediately shows up catching up with Porky blowing his whistle a couple of times, who immediately almost makes it through the boat crossing. As the boat "S.S. Leon" (for Leon Schlesinger) starts to cross with the gates up, Porky immediately makes it through with no damage. Some equipment is left with the boat, including a rowing boat with a sailor singing a song while rowing, which is connected on one of the boxcar's left side. The bull, who appeared earlier, thinks about the same train speeding by, about Porky can't get anything away like that, instead he wants to get a tore. The bull rushes while yelling, finds the caboose, and the bull smashes through the caboose and the boxcars (which is counted 12). The bull however tries the push the engine, but immediately sets the train upwards near the electric wires. The same song from the beginning then plays as Porky flies on top of The Silver Fish. Many dogs from the row begin watching Porky while the other dog starts to raise the checkered flag, forcing Porky to win the race in a bounce (thanks to a bull seeking revenge after being previously insulted by Porky from earlier). And lastly, Porky (who is shown blasting the horn) becomes the new engineer of 'The Silver Fish' whilst a battered, completely damaged 'Toots' is on a trailer behind with 'Headin' for the last roundhouse' written on a sign attached to it as the cartoon ends where the engine might be repaired and restored to full working order again.^[5]

Reversing sequence[]

At the scene where Porky gets insulted by the bull by pulling the bull's tail, it is more likely that the short went through the Hays Censorship board. It was due to a hidden sentence telling the name of the train “Toots” (subtitled: old gal) to don't pop Toots's “b..b..b..b..”^[6]

In-jokes[]

When a woodpile is knocked over there is a brief view of a black man, a derogatory visual reference from the cartoonists to the then commonly used term "a nigger in the woodpile". During the race, Porky runs his train over the top of a boat called the 'S.S Leon', a gag dedicated to the cartoon's producer Leon Schlesinger. Also, the Morse Code heard is a message to write "QST QSL Leon Schlesinger Hollywood picture of Porky"^[7]

See also[]

• 1937 in film
• List of public domain cartoons

References[]

External links[]

• Porky's Railroad at IMDb
• Porky's Railroad on the Internet Archive
• Porky's Railroad (Colorized) on the Internet Archive