Cue Ball Duck

Cue Ball Duck is a Douglas Duck and Sparky the Bee cartoon.

Plot
Douglas Duck plays billiards in a deserted pool table hall, when he sets up 3 balls and cheats to get them in the pockets (The 1 ball stops short of the corner pocket so he lifts the table to get it in, and he shoots a 11-ball which continues to bounce in the same areas until Douglas moves a pocket). He then wakes Sparky the Bee up by shooting the 10-ball into the pocket where he is sleeping. Sparky wakes up just in time to avoid the 10-ball and is carried down to the ball return, where the 10-ball and the 13-ball with 7-ball smash the bee. Sparky walks up through the pocket, first sees nothing, but after a few steps back to the pocket, he spots Douglas perched behind it.

Sparky tries to jump into another corner pocket, but Douglas aims a cue ball with so much force that it rolls into the pocket, spins back out of it and rolls Sparky backwards to Douglas, who has made a ramp with his cue stick for the bee to slide up. Sparky stops at the top of the stick and is then blown down by Douglas, who then shoots a stream of 6 balls to run over the mouse. The whole train rebounds back towards the cat and the balls stack up at Douglas' end of the table. Douglas shoots all the balls in succession with his cue, and then tries to shoot Sparky, but the bee hangs onto the cue tip. The duck, as if he was saying "Have it your way.", chalks up and shoots the 8-ball using the mouse.

The mouse drops off the cue tip and then is upended by the 8-ball rolling in circles, and Douglas forces Sparky to jump through the ball rack as if he were a circus performer. Douglas then sets it on fire to add an additional level of torment, and when Sparky accomplishes this, Douglas discards the flaming rack and shoots the 8-ball across the table and back. Sparky is whacked in the bum, with the mouse finding out the "8" imprint is stamped onto his bum. An incensed Sparky draws back Douglas' cue stick and hits his opponent with it.

Douglas throws the 8-ball at Sparky, but the bee ducks and the 8 bounces off the rails back into Douglas' face. Douglas tries again with a 6-ball and another 8-ball, but Sparky uses a cue stick to bat them back into Douglas' eyes. Douglas (winking at the audience) throws a 10-ball at Sparky and the ball is returned at such speed it burns a hole through Douglas' catcher's mitt. Douglas makes one last attempt with the 1-ball, and Sparky bats it so hard that he breaks the cue and Douglas retreats through the pool hall to catch it. Douglas stretches backwards and catches the 1-ball, and because of its weight and the cat's unbalanced posture, Douglas is pulled into a drink machine and spat out as a drink bottle.

Sparky dives into a corner pocket as Douglas returns in anger. Douglas gropes through the pocket to find Sparky, but instead grabs his own tail, pulling himself through the pocket tunnels and back out. When he sees he's holding his own tail, Douglas escapes the tunnels and sticks a fire hose down them, sweeping Sparky up. He takes swings at the stream with a mechanical bridge to hit Sparky, but only catches Sparky on the end of it. The bee steals the bridge and uses it as a balancing stick on a high wire. Douglas throws two cues at the mouse; the first shreds exactly in half when it hits the wire dead center, but the second scrapes Sparky's bum to a deep, alarming red, and he shoots the mechanical bridge into Douglas' mouth as a sign of revenge. Douglas gets up with the mechanical bridge in his mouth and lazily says "Duh...!"

Back on the table, the bee then runs away as Douglas shoots a stream of 8 balls towards him, which chase him into and out of the various pockets on the table (even turning right when the mouse turns right to scurry to another hole). Sparky approaches one of the pockets in which the balls emerge, with the 11-ball glaring at the bee. Eventually, the balls chase Sparky of their own accord, but he is in their path. Just then, Sparky opens Douglas' mouth and it causes Douglas to swallow all 7 balls.

Sparky flees into the corner pocket, and Douglas' sticks a cue into the pocket, looking to poke Sparky. The bee, just as before, tricks the duck by attaching a hatpin to the tip end of the cue, and then yanks the cue briefly. Feeling this, the duck strikes and Douglas accidentally stabs himself in the rear end, and is sent screaming manically into the air and crashing down into the one pocket. At this point, Sparky breaks a rack of 15 balls and all 15-balls of them fall into different pockets, except the 1-ball heads toward Douglas; the bee hits Douglas on the head such that with his mouth open he yells in pain. The 1-ball enters Douglas' mouth and is swallowed whole.

Trivia

 * This short was produced in 1948, but released in 1950.

Home video
DVD
 * Michael Shires Treasures: The Chronological Douglas, Volume 3