The Great De Gaulle Stone Operation

The Great De Gaulle Stone Operation
The Inspector series
Directed by	Friz Freleng Gerry Chiniquy
Produced by	David DePatie Friz Freleng
Story by	John W. Dunn
Voices by	Pat Harrington, Jr. Larry Storch Paul Frees
Music by	William Lava Henry Mancini
Animation by	Manny Perez Don Williams Bob Matz Warren Batchelder Norm McCabe George Grandpré
Layouts by	T.M. Yakutis
Backgrounds by	T.M. Yakutis
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	December 21, 1965
Color process	DeLuxe
Running time	7' 14"
Language	English
Followed by	Reaux, Reaux, Reaux Your Boat

The Great De Gaulle Stone Operation is the first short in the Inspector series of theatrical cartoons. A total of 34 entries were produced between 1965 and 1969.

Plot

The Inspector has been tasked by the Commissioner to guard the De Gaulle Stone, an enormous diamond worth 10 billion francs. The Commissioner warns the Inspector of the dire consequences should he lose the diamond, but the Inspector manages to lose it in seconds, handing it to what he thinks is his assistant, Sgt. Deux Deux, but is in fact a three-headed thief, collectively referred to as the Matzoreilys. The left (the Soviet Russian-accented "Weft") and right (the American-accented "Wight") heads argue about what to do next, and the apparently dim third head (the Chinese "Wong", but sounding like "wrong") tries to break up the fight, only to be clobbered by his brothers. The Inspector uses this chance to try and catch up with them, at which point they get into their car and drive away, accidentally flattening the Inspector in the process. Deux-Deux tries to pursue them himself, but he flattens the Inspector some more instead.

The Matzoreilys are heading home when they see the Inspector chasing them. They shoot bullets at him, breaking his car and stripping him until he's only wearing his Pink Panther underwear. They also drop a bomb on him from up in the air.

The Matzoreilys have their car convert itself into a plane, forcing the Inspector to man a plane of his own in order to pursue them. The crooks easily dispose of him with a giant fly-swatter however, and his plane crashes into the Sûreté building, destroying the Commissioner's office and earning the Inspector another ear-bashing. The trio manages to escape, but once back at their mansion, Wong discovers that their coat pocket has a hole in it, and they have managed to lose the diamond.

The Commissioner returns the diamond to the Inspector, who puts it in a safe. Unfortunately, the safe turns out to be the evil three in disguise. The Inspector and Deux-Deux pursue the thieves to a hotel, where the Inspector's attempts at catching them meet with a predictable lack of success. The Inspector is shot in the eye by a random bullet, but when he shows Deux-Deux what's coming through the keyhole, nothing happens. When the Inspector announces he will shoot at the count of three, the Matzoreilys escape in their car, knocking down the door and flattening the Inspector, who fires a bullet that only drops to the ground.

The three are finally surrounded in their hideout by the Inspector and a number of backup units. Realizing that they are finished, Wong places the diamond in a glass of water, within which it is inconspicuous. The Inspector and the other officers break in, and apprehend the thieves. While the others search for the missing diamond, the Inspector decides to help himself to the nearby glass of water, and swallows the diamond in the process. He is then rushed to the hospital where the De Gaulle diamond is surgically removed and given to the assisting nurse, which is actually the The Matzoreilys in disguise. The Inspector touches the area of the cut in his surgery, where the diamond was removed, and winces in pain, when he describes how he feels about the diamond escapade.

Production notes

The Great De Gaulle Stone Operation was released with the James Bond film Thunderball during its original theatrical run. The title is a parody of the medical condition gallstones as well as a reference to then-French President, Charles de Gaulle.^[1]

The Matzoreilys first appeared in the credits of A Shot in the Dark and were seen again in Depatie-Freleng's first feature film, Mitzi in 1965, as well as the sequels and in The Super 6, another cartoon series produced in 1966 by the same company. They were referred to as "The Brothers Matzoriley."^[2]

The Pink Panther Show contained a laugh track when the Pink Panther cartoons were broadcast on NBC-TV.^[1] Currently, the laugh-tracked version airs on the Spanish language Boomerang TV channel.

See also

• List of The Pink Panther cartoons

References

External links

• The Great De Gaulle Stone Operation at the Internet Movie Database
• The Great De Gaulle Stone Operation at AllMovie
• The Great De Gaulle Stone Operation at the DePatie-Freleng website