Daffy Duck in Hollywood

Daffy Duck in Hollywood is a 1938 Merrie Melodies animated short starring Daffy Duck (in his similar design from Daffy Duck & Egghead). This was the final Daffy Duck cartoon directed by Tex Avery.

Plot
At Wonder Studios, producer I.M. Stupendous is interrupted in his office by Daffy asking for an acting position, and quickly responds "No!" and breaks the fourth wall by stating, "Y'know, that duck's screwy!" The phone rings and Daffy pops out of it saying "You're correct, absolutely correct!", pinching Stupendous's nose. Stupendous then phones Director von Hamburger (a parody of Josef von Sternberg) and orders him to finish the picture he's working on that day.

On the set, all the crew rushes to follow Hamburger's order for a close-up, who starts smoking a cigarette. Daffy then swipes and starts smoking the cigarette, spelling out Warner Bros. with the smoke ("Just givin' my bosses a plug", he tells the audience. "I've got an option coming up!"). Hamburger asks how the sound is, and Daffy whistles into the microphone. He orders the lights turned, which Daffy has connected the emergency fire hose to, causing water to gush out of the lights and down on the set. When the camera rolls, it starts shooting bullets Daffy planted. Hamburger begins crying. Daffy sympathetically gives him a gift, promising to stop being screwy, and walks away. However, Daffy then pops up out of the gift box, bites Hamburger's nose and starts jumping around.

As filming begins, a typical romantic scene between a rooster and hen plays out. When the inevitable kiss comes up, Daffy jumps in and kisses the hen; he is so excited that he does it again. Hamburger declares the scene ruined and gives orders to cut the scene. The time being noon, Hamburger asks for lunch: turkey with all the trimmings. However, Daffy is under the platter and bites Hamburger's nose beak again, then jumps away. Then, in the film room, Daffy begins clipping and pasting together random film clips, which he switches out with Hamburger's film when Hamburger tells Stupendous that his film is finished. Hamburger shows the "film", which contains humorous live action clips of random scenes, such as gold mining, square dancing, the World Championship Fight in Madison Round Garden, etc. Despite Hamburger's obvious (and justified) fear, Stupendous approves highly of the film.

As a result, Daffy is now the director, uttering the same line asking for turkey at lunchtime as Hamburger, complete with Hamburger's accent and clothing. Hamburger is now the screwball, hiding under the platter, biting Daffy's nose, then jumping away, as Daffy did earlier.

DVD release

 * Daffy Duck in Hollywood is available restored on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3.