This cartoon is ample evidence that Art Davis' directorial career was over at Warner Bros. much too soon.

A later-era WB winner, with Daffy centerstage.

By 1962, with the dissolution of the WB animation wing imminent, Daffy Duck had proven himself as (arguably) the most dependable and versatile character in the WB pantheon. For “Quackodile Tears” Arthur Davis, in his last directorial credit for WB, returns Daffy to his earliest roots, as a true denizen of the wetlands, henpecked by a formidable wife who insists he share the domestic chores—in this case, sitting on their egg. Daffy’s lack of enthusiasm leads to the egg getting confused in a clutch belonging to a pair of alligators, and soon Daddy Alligator and Daffy are trading abuses, Laurel and Hardy style, to see who retains possession of the egg. Unlike Chuck Jones’s treatment which emphasized timing and wordplay, “QT” recalls the early years at WB with little actual dialogue and violent physical humor. In fact, whenever “QT” would air on CBS, a scene was censored in which Daffy tricks the gator into stealing a lit stick of dynamite out from under him. Wise to the trick, the gator puts it back in the nest, and the blast sends frantic Daffy to the riverbank with his tail feathers on fire. This was a pointless deletion considering that the same gag is used later in the cartoon when Daffy paints a hand grenade to look like an egg. He is about to lob it to the gator when Mrs. Duck shows up. Furious that he’s not on the job, she makes him sit on the grenade and stalks away as poor Daffy begs her to listen to him. The “egg” hatches with a bang, and the delighted missus returns to the nest. However, instead of a bundle of joy, she finds her husband dancing about with his rear end in flames. She confronts him with a mighty scowl and Daffy, aware that this inferno before him is more fearsome than the one that’s behind him, quits his dance and meekly smiles back at her—and his fanny is still burning! (Wives everywhere must LOVE this cartoon!) The throaty voice of Mrs. Duck is handled by the amazing June Foray, who has a legacy that stands alongside Mel Blanc’s, including the voices of Rocket J. Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, and Cindy Lou Who, among many, many others. The swampland backgrounds, under the production of David H. DePatie, are drawn in a clean, contemporary style, foreshadowing the work he and Davis would do later in the “Ant and the Aardvark” series. As for the feud between Daffy and the gator, the mix-up is never resolved, and the cartoon ends with the two grumpy dads leading households that each feature a curious “ugly duckling” which the loving moms have accepted into the fold. Oh, the stories those kids might tell later on…

Last Screen Appearnce Of Mrs.Daffy Duck