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This article is about the 1958 short. For the 2022 Looney Tunes Cartoons short, see Hook, Line and Stinker!.


Hook, Line and Stinker is a 1958 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.

Title[]

The title is a pun on the angler's phrase "hook, line and sinker."

Plot[]

Road Runner (Burnius-roadibus) races right to left along a stretch of desert highway, with Wile E. Coyote (Famishus-famishus) behind him. The road runner stops and steps aside. Wile E. passes him and stops in a cloud of dust. Road Runner zips into the distance with the force lifting the ribbon of pavement off the ground in his wake. Wile E. lowers his expectations (and his mouth) and thinks of new schemes.

  1. Wile E, on a cliff, drops a washtub on Road Runner on the road below, jumps on it and puts a stick of dynamite underneath it. the road runner zips up to him. Wile E. goes under the washtub to investigate why the bird isn't there and the dynamite blows up, encasing Wile E. in a tube made from the washtub.
  2. Wile E. hides around a corner to bash Road Runner with a sledgehammer, but the hammer falls off and the stick bashes Wile E. and chases him into the distance.
  3. Wile E. places some ACME birdseed on some railroad tracks but a train runs down Wile E. before he can get off the runway.
  4. Attached to a green balloon, Wile E. carrying a harpoon jumps off a cliff, tied to a rope. He misses Road Runner, but the force carries him into a storm cloud. The harpoon attracts lightning which zaps Wile E. and burns the rope, causing him to fall.
  5. A bundle of dynamite is rolled beneath a short underpass. But gravity carries the bundle back to Wile E. hiding spot and one push of the plunger blows him up.
  6. Using a rope and a pulley, Wile E. raises a baby grand piano high above the road. As Road Runner passes, Wile E. lets go of the rope, which sticks in the pulley. Wile E. jumps on top of the piano, which loosens the rope and causes the piano - and Wile E. - to drop to the ground. Dazed, Wile E. opens his mouth to reveal that the piano keys are now his teeth; he plays "Taps" on them briefly before passing out.
  7. In an elaborate Rube Goldberg device, Wile E. uses a tiny slingshot to knock loose a stick holding up a watering can suspended on a wooden yardarm. The can tips and water pours onto a plant which has a wooden match attached to it. The plant grows and the match strikes against a rock and lights a stick of dynamite. On top of the dynamite is a boot with a brick in it. The blast sends the boot on top of a teeter board, which rises and releases a mouse in a cage at the other end. The mouse runs to grab a piece of cheese on a scale. A weight on the other end of the scale falls, pulling the trigger on a rifle attached to a cliff. A bullet from the rifle ricochets off two metal bull's eyes and knocks down an upright cannon. The wick on the cannon is lit by a nearby candle, which fires a ball that goes through two funnels and plummets on top of an unsuspected Wile E. After Wile E. is bashed into the ground, 'The End' appears on the cannonball.

Production Music[]

Some of the background music was composed by Philip Green for the EMI Photoplay library and were give GR designations by that library. Other background music was composed by George Hormel, William Loose, John Seely, Spencer Moore, Emil Cadkin and Harry Bluestone. The theme to the situation comedy television show Dennis the Menace composed by William Loose and Seely, and originally in the Hi-Q library, is not in this cartoon. A variant also written by the two for Hi-Q is used instead.[1] Some of the cues heard:

  • GR-453 The Artful Dodger/PG-214 Comedy Movement (Green) in the first gag.
  • L-78 Comedy Underscore (Spencer Moore) and GR-255 Puppetry Comedy/EM-131C Comedy 6/8 Mysterioso (Green) in the second gag.
  • GR-459 Dawn in Birdland/PG-215 - Lite Comedy Melodic and GR-97 By Jiminy! It's Jumbo Bridge No. 1/PG-212A - Comedy Movement (both by Green) in the third gag.
  • GR-256 Toyland Burglar/EM-131D Comedy Mysterioso (Green) at the start and end of the fourth gag.
  • CB-88A Comedy Underscore (Cadkin and Bluestone) in the fifth gag,
  • TC-303 Zany Comedy (Loose and Seely) in the sixth gag. This piece of music was also heard in many early Yogi Bear cartoons.
  • L-82 Comedy Underscore (Moore) at the start of the seventh gag.
  • ZR-50 Light Underscore (Hormel) near the end of the seventh gag.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • On ABC, two dynamite gags were cut:[2]
    • The scene where Wile E. places a pot over Road Runner and tosses a dynamite stick underneath it.
    • Wile E. putting dynamite underneath a bridge.

Notes[]

  • With only 5 minutes and 3 seconds of footage (not counting the credits and cards), "Hook, Line and Stinker"' is the shortest Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short ever made in the Golden Age of American animation.
  • This is one of six cartoons (and the first of two Wile E./Road Runner cartoons) where the score is credited to John Seely of Capitol Records using stock music from the Hi-Q library because of a musicians' strike in 1958. The others are "Pre-Hysterical Hare", "Weasel While You Work", "Hip Hip- Hurry!" (the other Wile E./Road Runner cartoon), "Gopher Broke", and "A Bird in a Bonnet".
  • This is the first time Road Runner frowns in animation, though he frowned previously in the Beep Beep the Road Runner comics.
  • When this short aired on WKBD in the 1980s, the credits and director cards in the titles were removed, as was the animation before the title card, although the title and the "with" card were kept.[3]
  • This cartoon was shown in theaters with The Old Man and the Sea during its original release.

Gallery[]

Best of Backgrounds[]

References[]

External Links[]



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