Devil’s Feud Cake (1963)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Friz Freleng and Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Virgil Ross, Bob Matz, Art Leonardi, Lee Halpern
Music by Bill Lava
After an encounter with Bugs Bunny goes fatally awry, Yosemite Sam winds up in Hell. Satan makes a deal with Sam – if he can bring Bugs down into the underworld, he will be freed from having to spend eternity in Hell. Sam makes two attempts to snare Bugs for Satan, but fails fatally each time. Rather than accept Satan’s offer for another chance, Sam dresses in a devil’s costume, grabs a pitchfork, and declares he would rather stay down below.
Friz Freleng had a penchant for recycling storylines and gags, but for “Devil’s Feud Cake” he took this habit to a new extreme by recycling a 1961 television episode from “The Bugs Bunny Show” for a theatrical release. The episode was “Satan’s Waitin’” and it incorporated three classic shorts – “Hare Trimmed,” “Roman Legion-Hare” and “Sahara Hare” – into an offering with new footage taking place in Hell. “Devil’s Feud Cake” condensed that half-hour episode into a one-reeler.
For “Devil’s Feud Cake,” Freleng footage from “Hare Trimmed” with “Hare Lift” and had Bill Lava replace the original scores by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn with new music. Film historian Keith Scott claimed some of Bugs’ lines from “Hare Lift” were re-recorded by Jerry Hausner, who filled in after Mel Blanc was incapacitated in a near-fatal car accident prior to the cartoon’s completion.
The resulting work, not surprisingly, is strange. The new footage looks flat and cheap compared to the classic animation, and the idea of having Sam negotiating with Satan is rather peculiar for a cartoon of that era. As for the conclusion of Sam preferring to spend eternity in Hell – well, the less said about that, the better.