Scalp Treatment is the 42nd animated cartoon

Animated cartoon

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

 short subject

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 in the Woody Woodpecker

Woody Woodpecker

Woody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic acorn woodpecker who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures...

series. Released theatrically on September 18, 1952, the film was produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal International

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

.

Plot

In a long shot of an Indian village way out West, all of the tepees have TV antennas, and some of the tepees are shops displaying Indian-made wares and merchandise. In the foreground is a millinery shop with a window full of feathered hats and coats, etc.; in the rear is a barber shop, complete with revolving barber pole. We discover Woody Woodpecker in the barber's chair reading a magazine, with Indian barber Buzz Buzzard stropping the blade of a tomahawk. Buzz tests the blade's sharpness by dropping a feather, which lands on the blade and slowly splits into two parts, each part floating in the air. Buzz trims the feathers on Woody's head, then, with "Feather Tonic," he gives Woody a vigorous scalp massage which, when finished, gives Woody's head the appearance of an Indian headdress, beautiful to behold. At this time, they discover a cute Indian maiden looking in the window and admiring a feathered bonnet, so they both zip out of the shop and tip their feathers to the maid. She continues to admire the bonnet, which carries a "$2,000.00 Wampum" price tag. She first asks Woody to buy the bonnet, but he's broke; she then asks Buzz, who's also without the necessary funds. The maid, with scorn, turns up her nose and walks away, leaving the two rejected swains very dejected and alone. Buzz then suddenly spies the beautiful feather-do that Woody has and, in a vision, dreams how it would look if transferred to the maid. With a malicious grin on his face, Buzz pulls out his tomahawk and starts for Woody, intending to acquire Woody's feather bonnet for the maid. From here on, there's a fast series of gags, with Buzz determined to get the feathers and Woody avoiding him at all times. Woody finally disposes of Buzz. In the final scene, we see Woody, his feathers all gone, now adorning the Indian maiden; Woody is stripped but happy.