Cured Duck

**Cured Duck** is a 1945 *Merrie Melodies* short directed by Jack King.

## Plot

Donald decides to visit Daisy at her home. Daisy is first annoyed by Donald blowing smoke from his cigar into her face. Daisy asks Donald to open the windows. Donald struggles and strains to open it, but it won't budge. Donald strains so hard his face sweats, turns red with anger, and he nearly tears the house apart with his straining, but still the window doesn't move. This causes Donald to enter an uncontrolled and maniacal rage. He smashes the window, tears down curtains, rips a refrigerator off its base, destroys a sofa, destroys some dishes, and even rips telephones and power lines through the wall, virtually wrecking the house. Daisy is appalled at his behavior and shows Donald that he just needed to turn the little knob atop the frame to open it. Disappointed, she tells him, "Temper, temper, shame on you. You never see me lose my temper, do you?" Upset at how easily he got angry, she orders Donald to leave and she refuses to go out with him until he can control his temper.

While trudging through the streets, Donald sees an ad in a newspaper, from the Tootsberry Institute, promising a way to cure temper issues. They send an "anger control machine" to Donald which promises that if Donald can take its taunts for 10 minutes, and still control his temper, he'll be cured forever. The machine abuses Donald in numerous ways, from punching him, clipping the buttons off his sailor suit (a clever, in-universe explanation for why his buttons never re-appear after this cartoon: they were eliminated to increase animation pencil mileage), pummeling his feet with a brick, and even blaring loud sounds into his ear. After 10 minutes, Donald is still standing, and has not lost his temper. At this point, the machine declares that he's done it!

Donald eagerly races back to Daisy's, to tell her that he's changed. She decides to test this by having him open the window. Donald manages to turn the little knob atop the window, but still struggles to get it open. He eventually uses a fire cleaning tool to hold the window open again, but it still falls down. Just when it seems he's succeeded, the glass in the window pane falls out and smashes over his head. But even though this happens, Donald still remains in good spirits. Daisy is pleased, and decides to go out with Donald. She rushes upstairs, and returns wearing a strange-looking hat for their date. Donald laughs at her hat, only to have her lose her temper - for the first time ever - and begins hitting Donald with her broom.

## Notes

* This is the second episode where Donald tries to find a way to cure his temper; the first one was *Self Control*. However, this one differs from *Self Control* in that Donald has better luck learning to control his temper (he returns to his old angry self at the end of the *Self Control*). His curing in *Cured Duck* seems to be more successful; Donald does not have any extreme temper outbursts in cartoons following this one (though he still seems to be easily agitated).
* The ending of this cartoon evidently proves that Daisy herself has a temper even worse than Donald's, hence this makes Donald not the only Duck that needs anger management training.
* This is the final cartoon where Donald's usual blue sailor shirt has four white buttons on it; beginning with *Donald's Double Trouble* the white buttons have been removed from his sailor shirt.
* This is the second time Donald is shown smoking; the first time was in *Donald's Better Self*.
* In some scenes, Daisy's bangle is seen on her right wrist instead of her usual left.