Pepe Le Pew
A favorite Bugs Bunny (Warner Bros.) cartoon was a suave, overly romantic French skunk with a thick accent, Pepe Le Pew. This polecat definitely had a very high opinion of his lady-killing charm.
Typical plot formula: A female tuxedo cat (later named Penelope Pussycat) accidentally gets a white stripe painted down her back. Then Pepe would see her--love at first sight. He ardently pursues her with florid, romantic declarations and advances, such as wanting her to run off with him to the Casbah.
(This was an age before the #MeToo movement.)
Meanwhile, the unwilling pussycat is fighting to get away from the odor of this skunk. But Pepe believes she is flirting and playing hard-to-get, and he enjoys the thrill of the chase.
Where did the idea of this cartoon come from?
https://youtu.be/HMnbNTv_D3A?si=HeC0m7qtCZtMFVFY
Go back a few years, before World War Two to the introduction of another character.
Pepe le Moko
In the first half of the 20th century, one of the movie heartthrobs was Charles Boyer. He was a lady-killer with a French accent, which could make his female fans swoon.
In 1938, an American crime/romance drama Algiers, made the big screen starring Charles Boyer as Pepe le Moko. This suave Frenchman was the inspiration for Pepe Le Pew, no doubt.
This Pepe was a notorious French jewel thief, hiding in the Casbah (the native quarter) of Algiers, where he was virtually untouchable. Yet, it was an effective prison of his own making. Meanwhile, French police were determined to arrest him, and they waited for the right moment to pounce.
The girls in the Casbah were wild about Pepe. But he had developed a strong attraction for one beauty, Gaby, unhappily married to a wealthy man, who was visiting the Casbah.
Gaby reminded Pepe of the Paris life and freedom he can no longer have. In the end, Pepe was drawn toward risking everything to leave the Casbah for Gaby. When he ran to Gaby's departing ship, the police pounced and shot him.
Not so happy ending for this paramour.
https://youtu.be/vGFFItr9_8I?si=5GIz8NGQ39bkRiPj
One note: Hedy Lamarr made her Hollywood debut as Gaby, the woman Pepe died for.
This is the same Hedy Lamarr who was the co-inventor of a frequency-hopping technology during World War Two. Later, this tech would be an important foundation for wireless communications such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi--which is how you are reading this blog.
That will be a connection for another story.
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photo: Wikipedia/Skunk
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