"A Donald Duck Cartoon"
Release Date July 20, 1951
Synopsis
Characters
Credits
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Television
Technical Specifications
Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Comments
Call this the worst promotional nightmare for Donald Duck and his nephews. As Huey, Dewey, and Louie work on an older car, one of them gets accidentally nailed in the face with oil. As he complains, the radio announces a bulletin about a lottery number that would be announced. Whomever has the lucky number win a brand new Zoom V-8.
Donald, of course, holds one of the tickets. As he puts himself in front of the radio anticipating the announcement, he pulls his ticket out. The drawing takes place and the winning number is 3-4-2. Unfortunately, Donald has 3-4-1. As he removes his finger from the last number of the ticket, and finds that it does not match, Donald throws the ticket in disgust. The ticket somehow lands under a drawer. As Donald walks away, the radio announcer suddenly announces that there was a slight error, and that 3-4-2 was the winning number. The nephews quickly take notice and are elated that Uncle Donald won. Little does Donald know what was about to happen.
The nephews formulate a plan, wanting to pick up the car so that Donald would be surprised. Of course Donald sees the nephews pull up to his gas station so that they could get gas. However, Donald asks them for money to pay for it, and the nephews could only come up with a couple of coins combined. Thus, the plan has to go to round 2, and the nephews come up with a very sophisticated idea.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie combine to dress up as a tall lady. Obviously, for effect, they climb on top of one another and put a long dress on to hide ther evidence. One of the nephews puts on makeup (for obvious reasons). To top it all off, they cut off a picture of the Zoom V-8 from a billboard and strap it on to the left side of the car (where the gas tank is).
With the plan all set to go, Donald notices the stylish car (at least he thinks it is) and sees this composition of a beautiful woman so he obliges to fill the gas tank. Mesmarized, the tank fills and Donald is left frozen with a wig on his head. Once he comes to and realizes that he had been tricked, Donald goes ballistic and sets up a practical joke which would eventually backfire on him severely. In the meantime, Donald gets a call from the radio station informing him that his nephews were coming back with the car. Donald suddenly got some devious look on his face, and that was not a good sign.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie pick up the car, chill out as they are driving back (with some cozy music on the radio), and drive it back to the station. Once Donald sees them return, the evil side shows up big-time. Donald puts a slu of oil over the car, then sends it to the garage where he would destroy the car. First, Donald blows the tires up to about 1500 pounds of air pressure each, then tries twice to smash the car against the top of the garage. On his second attempt, the tires separate from the car and the car gets smashed to the thinnest piece of metal imaginable.
As Donald laughs hysterically, the radio announcer states that Donald would be having a blast in his new Zoom V-8, and he makes a little advertisement about the car, stating that the car was streamlined, had super balloon tires (literally, after Donald put all that air into them), and 25 miles to the gallon. Not realizing he was the actual winner, Donald passes out, and the nephews could only look on and shrug.
Good luck, Mr. Duck...in the nearest anger management center.
-- Tom Wilkins
I have seen "Lucky Number" and would like to
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