Der Fuehrer's Face/Recap
The cartoon begins with music from Richard Wagner's comic opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg before continuing into the title song:
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(chorus) All: When der Fuehrer says, |
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A German oom-pah band composed of Nazi caricatures (a Japanese guy (Hirohito?) on sousaphone, a fat guy (Göring?) on piccolo, an unnamed lanky man on trombone(perhaps Goebbels or Himmler?), a big guy with Simpleton Voice on bass drum, and a little man (Mussolini?) on snare drum) marches through a small German town, where everything, even the clouds and trees, are decorated with the swastika, singing the virtues of the Nazi doctrine. Passing by Donald Duck's house (the features of which depict Hitler), they poke him out of bed with a bayonet to get ready for work. Because of wartime rationing, his breakfast consists of wooden bread, causing hiccups, coffee brewed from a single hoarded coffee bean, and a spray that tastes like bacon and eggs. The band shoves a copy of Mein Kampf in front of him for a moment of reading, then parades into his tiny house, bass drum, sousaphone, and all, and marches him off to a factory.
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All: When Herr Goebbels says |
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Upon arriving at the factory (at bayonet-point), Donald starts his 48-hour daily shift screwing caps onto artillery shells in an assembly line. Mixed in with the shells are portraits of the Führer, so he must perform the Hitler salute every time a portrait appears, all the while screwing the caps onto shells, much to Donald's disgust. Each new batch of shells is of a different size, ranging from minute shells to massive shells as large as Donald, if not larger. The pace of the assembly line intensifies (as in the Charlie Chaplin comedy Modern Times), and Donald finds it increasingly hard to complete all the tasks. At the same time, he is bombarded with propaganda messages about the superiority of the Aryan race and the glory of working for the Führer.
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All: When der Fuehrer says |
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After a "vacation mit pay" that consists of making swastika shapes with his body for a few seconds in front of a painted backdrop of the Alps, Donald is ordered to work overtime. He has a nervous breakdown with hallucinations of artillery shells everywhere, some of which sing and are the same shape of the marching band from the start, music and all. When the hallucinations clear, he finds himself in his bed -- in the United States -- and realizes the whole experience was a nightmare. Donald embraces a miniature Statue of Liberty, thankful for his American citizenship.
The short ends with a caricature of Hitler's angry face. After two sets of "Heils", a tomato is hurled right in Der Fuehrer's Face, forming the words "The End."
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(repeat chorus)(Hitler's face get hit with a tomato) |
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