March 15, 1940 – The Donald Duck Short, The Riveter, is Released to Theaters
“Oh boy, oh boy! Am I a riveter!”
On March 15, 1940, the Donald Duck short, The Riveter, was released to theaters. Directed by Dick Lundy, and starring the voices of Clarence Nash as Donald and Billy Bletcher as Pete, the short tells the story of Donald eagerly taking a job as a riveter for Pete, even though Donald really has no clue what a riveter is.
It’s a busy day at a construction site, and a fence is seen bulging from some sort of racket. Suddenly, a worker bursts through the fence, with Pete yelling off screen, “Get out! You’re fired!” The worker dashes away, leaving his lunch behind. Pete steps through the hole the worker made through the fence and looks around menacingly before hammering in a sign with his fist: Riveter Wanted. Who should turn the corner at that moment than Donald Duck, who is happily signing “Heigh Ho” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He walks past the sign, but is suddenly drawn back to it.
Donald shows Pete the sign, explaining that he's a riveter
Suddenly excited, Donald grabs the sign and decides to apply for the job. He looks up at the outline of the worker that was thrown through the fence and remarks on what a peculiar doorway it is, not realizing the danger he’s going to be in. When Donald applies for the job, Pete laughs at him, but gives him the job when Donald shows Pete he has some backbone. Elated, Donald asks where he starts, and Pete grabs him by the collar, showing him that he’ll stop on the top floor of the skyscraper, which appears to be a hundred stories high. Donald nearly passes out at seeing the great heights he has to go up.
Pete throws Donald into an elevator, and Donald tentatively asks how he gets up to the top. Pete then throws a lever, which zooms the elevator up to the top floor. Donald walks across steel beams, as if dazed, and nearly walks off the edge before getting his act together and crawling back to the safety of the elevator. Unfortunately, the elevator falls beneath him, and he grabs onto a steel beam for dear life. Suddenly he hears Pete yelling at him from the ground to get to work. Donald grumbles at him to shut up, voice very low, but Pete flies up to the top in the elevator and demands to know what he said. Donald mollifies his boss, embarrassed, and Pete goes back down again.
Donald versus the rivet gun
Although Donald had been excited to be a riveter, he looks at the rivet gun curiously, wondering how it works. He smashes the handle of it on the beam, demanding that it do something, which it does when it begins shooting rivets into Donald’s hat, nearly tearing his head off. As Donald tries to gain control of the strange tool, it begins to rivet with him barely hanging on to the handle. When he is able to let go, he decides to give it a good kick, but ends up catching his foot in the handle and having it start to rivet again.
Donald is carried all around the construction site at the rivet gun continues to run, and ends up accidentally riveting Pete’s blueprints to the steel beams. When Pete pulls them out, he is able to pull out only a set of paper dolls made by the rivet gun. Many strange mishaps continue to occur thanks to the rivet gun, and although Donald is able to stop its rampage, the sound of other rivet guns being used makes him nervous and he shakes uncontrollably.
Donald's antics, however, have caused Pete's anger to grow
When Pete calls Donald over to serve him his lunch, Donald is ready to sprinkle some pepper when the rivet guns begin again, making Donald spill pepper all over the place. Pete lets out a loud, powerful sneeze, and loses his lunch in the process. Donald tries to make amends with coffee, but also loses control of it when the rivet guns start up once more. When the rivet gun sounds cause Donald to accidentally destroy Pete’s cigar, Pete has had enough, and begins to chase Donald around the construction site. The chase causes destruction of many parts of the site, but quick-thinking Donald causes Pete to fall into a vat of cement, turning Pete into a fountain as he poses with a water hose. Donald ends the short with laughter.
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