The Blow Out 1936

In a city gripped by fear, a hooded figure—the The Bomber—arrives at a doorway and leaves behind an alarm clock that suddenly starts smoking. Within moments the clock explodes, reducing the building to rubble. Newspaper headlines flood the streets, naming the mysterious Mad Bomber responsible for planting time bombs at different sites, and the police swing into a full-scale manhunt, offering a hefty reward of $2,000 for any successful capture. The menace unfolds as the bomber’s next move unfolds on a map: every blown-up building is marked with an X, with the Blotz Building marked as the target, just before the hooded figure slips away into the shadows.

Across town, Porky Pig gazes into the window of a cheerful ice cream parlor where sodas go for a dime, and dreams of treating himself. He counts his money and finds five pennies—not enough for a full ice cream soda. The cashier’s refusal is met with a clever twist: Porky decides to buy half a soda for half the price, but the price remains out of reach. Undeterred, he schemes to earn the remaining coins by doing small favors for strangers. A rich gentleman drops his cane; Porky returns it and earns a penny, and then, in a series of quick gestures, retrieves a glove for a stylish lady and a handkerchief for Mrs. Cudd, each time earning another penny. His pockets gradually fill with the coins he needs, and his upbeat songs and dances punctuate his growing fortune.

The chase intensifies when the Mad Bomber sits outside the Blotz Building, activating the time bomb and leaving it at the base. Porky, mistaking the bomb for a regular alarm clock and thinking the Bomber has misplaced it, pockets the device and hurries to return it to its rightful owner. The Bomber bolts into alleys, dives through garages, and scales a fire escape, with Porky in hot pursuit, determined to hand back the weapon before catastrophe strikes. Through a maze of doors and stairwells, their pursuit weaves through a city that seems to close in around them: a garage’s two doors, a missing door, a rooftop chase, and a final pursuer’s ascent to the street level where a manhole becomes a tactical obstacle. Undeterred, Porky corners the Bomber, grabbing hold of the cloak as two policemen close in, mistaking Porky’s persistence for an attempt to tackle the criminal.

The Mad Bomber retreats to his hideout, locking five doors and barricading the last with furniture as the police and reporters arrive to witness the confrontation. Porky returns once more to hand back the smoking device, and a climactic escape pushes the Bomber toward a waiting paddy wagon. The police arrest the Bomber just as Porky delivers one last attempt to save the day. The paddy wagon pulls away, and the bomb detonates, exploding in a spectacular shower of fireworks and skyrockets that announce the end of the threat.

Thanks to Porky’s tenacity and a fast, steady hand, the Chief of Police rewards him with the promised $2,000. The celebration is buoyant, and Porky performs a victory jig as the money bag is hoisted into the air. However, a comic twist awaits: the bag bursts open when it lands on his head, scattering the cash. A reporter asks what he plans to do with the windfall, and Porky, in his characteristic stammer, begins to answer—only to retreat to the Ice Cream Parlor. The final scene reveals the reward’s true use: Porky spends $6 of the $2,000 to treat himself to a feast of roughly 60 ice cream sodas, savoring a jubilant, frosty payoff after a day of danger and comic misadventure.