"Mississippi Duck"

Who's Mrs I. P. Duck then?

Season 2 episode 14 (episode 40 overall)

Original broadcast date: 12 December 1989

Writer: Jimmy Hibbert
Additional voices: Captain Colonel

                             Theseus Q. Clockhammer/

                             Trumpeter/Gamblers/

                             Conductor/2nd Sailor/

                             1st Gator/Thin dock-hand/ 

                           Sheriff/Mayor: Jimmy Hibbert

                           Wyatt/Gamblers/1st
                           Sailor/Large dock-
                           hand/Deputy: David Jason

                           2nd Gator: Jack May

Travel location: New Orleans, Louisiana

Castle transport visual used

Joke Credit: Alligator - Crock O'Doyle

Count Duckula decides he wants to soak up some jazz so he travels to New Orleans to shill his trumpeter skills. A standard kind of set up for the Count and his servants, which takes an interesting turn when they run into a genuine threat. Needless to say, Duckula possesses no real talent for music as exemplified by this quote from Igor.

Duckula: Hmm, think I may just have played a wrong note there.
Igor: Just one milord?

Even Nanny isn't much of a fan; in spite of  claiming she likes it, she contradictorily doesn't like the noise it makes. Sometimes, just sometimes, one wonders where her dim-wittedness stops and her cheekiness starts.

So, without much preamble, we're off to New Orleans. This obviously means we'll be spending the bulk of the episode on a location-specific plot, since the Count gets the castle moving within the first scene. We get a nice dialogue free interlude where the artists get to show off some stylised "Nawlins" scenery, which looks like it would be more at home in an episode of Danger Mouse.

 After a failed attempt to crash a jam session (there's a weird joke about trumpet jam that I don't quite get) we meet the guest villain of the show in the shape of Captain Colonel Thesseus Q. Clockhammer. It's Jimmy Hibbert doing a really funny Suth'n Co'nel tahype performance and adding 'sah'(sir) to the end of every other sentence. He puts me in mind of King Dedede from "Kirby Right Back At Ya" and by association, Foghorn Leghorn. Expectedly, he's a larger-than-life, blustery sort of fella, who at first seems quite affable but slowly proves to be more sinister and backstabbing. He reveals (perhaps foolishly) that he needs his shipment of gold guarding by some hard-case, so he can ship it safely to Memphis in his steamer. It stretches credibility a wee mite, when the Colonel immediately assumes Duckula is some kind of gangster, but I suppose it might be believable that such people could frequently hang around a rougher area of New Orleans. The whole scene is couched in sitcom dialogue so that each party thinks the other means something different. Duckula assumes he is being given a musician's job, the Colonel believes he is hiring a hitman. The same misunderstanding applied earlier, when the jazz-man told Duckula to 'beat it' and he got thrown out.

The remainder of the episode takes place mostly on the Mississippi steamer in question. Duckula once again fails to impress with his trumpet-playing, causing the audience to throw vegetables at him. Not even fresh ones, he might just have taken that as praise! This also manages to anger the Colonel who soon realised his mistake in hiring Duckula in the first place. Tricky situation now, as he doesn't want to let Duckula go as he's 'too much of a risk' and might shop him to the police. Duckula's laughing, closely followed by his offended tone when he realises the Captain thought he was a crook is a great little bit of funny acting by David Jason. Igor reacts as he does in "Mysteries of the Wax Museum."

Duckula: I am no criminal. I couldn't get involved in crime. I might get caught!
Igor: Oh just try it sir! It could be the very thing to put you on the straight and narrow!

Since Duckula is neither a crook nor a musician ("Don't argue with him milord! He knows what he's talking about!") the Captain has them all scrubbing the decks and cleaning the ship instead. The Count of course blames Igor using his usual twisted, angry logic. If Igor had praised his master's trumpet-playing, the Count wouldn't have had to prove him wrong by taking the castle to New Orleans in the first place. Igor finds this very suspect and his 'apology' sounds more like 'well screw you...sir'. Regular viewers will note he's rather good at this. He knows that Duckula would have done what he did regardless. Igor may be a bit of a 'stick-in-the-mud' but he often knows what's for the best. He always seems to have the best grasp of what's going on, even if it's something he can't (or won't) help with.

Fortunately for all concerned, silly old Nanny comes to the rescue of this episode by first falling off the boat and then trying to get back on using the paddle wheel. The 'gators that the Captain warned them about earlier don't seem to pose much of a threat - one of them breaks his teeth biting Nanny's leg - and Nanny seems to be more concerned about drowning. The fact that she thinks the paddle wheel is a ladder is a great joke. She uses it to try and climb aboard, making it go in the opposite direction, which first makes the boat stop, then makes it travel in the opposite direction!  ("This ladders seems to be longer than it seems!") This of course means that they all end up back crashing into the docks where they started. This attracts the attention of a very laid-back, drawling Sheriff (Hibbert again) who seems all set to arrest Duckula and company for wrecking the boat, until it's discovered that said boat is full of stolen gold bars. The Cap' cas some 'spainin' to do! While it's true that Duckula never seems to improve his lot in life, neither do the genuine villains.

Nanny is rightly hailed as a hero by the mayor and given a medal. I love how the big speech by the mayor is met by a simple "Ooh that's noice!" and a less eloquent speech by Nanny herself. Duckula, somewhat unfairly, tries to steal the credit and draw attention to himself, but no-one's having it. Even Igor wouldn't accept that as being right. Fair play to Nanny!

Another upbeat adventure/travel style episode with some sunny visuals to break up the characteristic Transylvanian gloom. My only real complaint is that Jack May and Brian Trueman aren't given any* additional voices, resulting in David Jason and Jimmy Hibbert being a little taxed in places, though Jimmy's Captain and Sherrif voices are great stuff.

I remember making a point of watching this one the day before we went on a family holiday to Memphis in 2005. We had originally planned to go to New Orleans but because of Hurricane Katrina, we had to re-arrange. I did manage to go on a steamer with a jazz band, similar to the one on this episode. Both New Orleans and Memphis appear or are mentioned in this episode.

Music

As you might expect, the soundtrack is jazz and blues, but unusually, not a single piece of horror or comic music is heard, making this a unique episode in that respect. Despite being rather keen on this type of music myself, I couldn't name you any of the stock music used here other than "Oh When The Saints Go Marching In" which plays at the end. Duckula's actual trumpeting is off-key and may have been composed for the show, but again, I cannot be certain. "Handy Blues" (Keith Nichols) is heard during the Captain's first appearance. The harmonica music while Nanny attempts to reboard the ship also plays in "Panda-Monium" (Victor & Hugo) when the panda drives the van off a bridge and onto a ship.

Pans and Backgrounds

Some of the backgrounds incorporate photographic elements and what looks like grease pencil that would ordinarily seem more typifying of Danger Mouse. A lot of organic pans that cannot be reconstructed however. For the scenes on the exterior of the boat, the backgrounds are all on at least two levels, to allow the stage for the characters to remain stationary while the distant scenery moves, giving the impression of the boat travelling. Very tricky to shoot I would imagine, what with the characters moving too. For the front shots of the boat, I imagine they would have had one large drawing of the boat on one plane and either moved that closer to the camera or moved the background further back on a different plane.

 

This looks like a different artwork, but drawn from the same layout as the earlier view.

 

One of the Count's favourite things and he can't even touch it.

Trivia

• Another episode with the word duck in the title and Duckula himself appears in the title card.
• Episode starts on Duckula's trumpet-wailing and ends on his own wailing.
• Episode starts in Transylvania and ends in Louisiana.
• Duckula (or his father?) blows a trumpet in the Danger Mouse episode "The Great Bone Idol." 
• When Igor states that Duckula has no soul, Duckula makes reference to metaphysics.
• Jazz fans will spot references to Jelly Roll Morton, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis in the backgrounds. Those last two would still have been alive (just) when this episode was broadcast. There is also at least one band called Basin Street Stompers, though they would not be formed until 2009. The "Jumping Jelly Bean Jitterbug Rag" (in G) I'm fairly certain wass invented for this show.
• 1st of two times Jimmy Hibbert plays an American Colonel in the series. Though in this instance, it may be a gentry title rather than a military one. One of two times he plays a ship's captain.
• Another instance of an American character sporting the ludicrous naming convention (Posh first name-middle initial-funny thing surname). Guess who? He even uses the same formula as an exclamation of surprise a couple of times. "What in the name of Silas P. Melonburger!" Silas is of course Baron Greenback (from Danger Mouse)'s first name too. Duckula mispronounces it as 'silence.' Theseus in Greek legend was a king who founded Athens.
• The Captain's boat is called the Saucy Widgeon. A widgeon is a type of duck.
• The steamer leaves from and returns to the Huey P. Duck dock. This is most likely a reference to Louisiana state senator Huey P. Newton, political activist Huey P. Long or maybe even Huey Duck for the Disney pantheon.
• The gamblers are playing old maid, a card game played using three queens. The object of the game is to pair up cards until there is only one card left that cannot be paired - the queen. The player with that card is the loser.
• The gambler who loses this gamer is named Wyatt. This is the name of the marshall (Wyatt Eartle) from the Victor & Hugo episode "Cowboys and Indiscipline" which is a spoof on Wyatt Earpe. The name is also spoofed as Quiet Earp in "Dead Eye Duck."
• The Captain is seen carrying a telescope once but he doesn't use it.  
• Vampires traditionally cannot cross running water, but the Count is far from traditional.
• One of the patrons suggests putting Duckula in an oven and eating him! Does this count as cannibalism or racism?
• The Count and the Captain do the 'laugh/echo laugh/what does that mean?' bit Duckula and Mrs. Grab did in "Rent a Butler."
• One of the 'gators is apparently called Morrice. This was the name of the strongman in "Sawdust Ring." I'm spelling it that way because that's the best way to spell it! (it's my surname)
• Nanny needn't worry about drowning. She floats on water as she did in "Transylvania Take-Away" and "Duck Ahoy."
• The sheriff uses the 'what in blue blazes' line that the colonel from 'Astro Duck' would say. Similar appearance and same voice actor.
• Were Jack May and Brian Trueman pushed for time when this one was recorded? *Apart from one of the alligator's brief line, all the additional voices are handled by David Jason and Jimmy Hibbert. And there's a lot of them!
• The voice Jimmy uses for the mayor is the same as the one he uses for the mayor in 'Fantomcat.'
• I might catch it for this, but I'm sure the jazz band and dock hands are meant to represent black people and characters like the Captain and the Sheriff are code for white people.
• This episode was released on VHS along with "Bombay Duck" and "Mystery Cruise."
• First episode to have a 1989 copyright credit.
  

Goofs and Nitpicks

• Duckula omits the word 'time' from the poster when he reads it.
• Igor's eyebrows are miscoloured when he fetches the spade. Nanny's collar when she's cleaning the ship. Duckula's neck when he's mocking the Captain's laugh.
• Wyatt's queen of spades card is coloured red.
• Where does the lower part of Duckula's cape go when he gets on the stage?
• The sailor with the pointy beak's voice and actor changes each time we see him.