''One Bad Knight'' was a 1938 theatrical advertisement for

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

, produced by the Jam Handy Organization, featuring the

gnome A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

Nicky Nome Henry Jamison "Jam" Handy (March 6, 1886 – November 13, 1983) was an American Olympic breaststroke swimmer, water polo player, and founder of the Jam Handy Organization (JHO), a producer of commercially sponsored motion pictures, slidefilms (l ...

. Nicky Nome Rides Again, Cartoon Research
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Plot

To the tune of "The Love Bug Will Bite You," a "love bug" sprays a pair of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s, a pair of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s and Nicky's "horse hopper," Hortense, with a love potion. A young boy, pulling a toy horse, sees a wanted poster for the Black Knight, then meets a princess. While he and the princess are picking flowers, the unnamed hero boy encounters Nicky, while the Black Knight kidnaps the princess. King Louis, a

trencherman A trencher (from Old French ''tranchier'' 'to cut') is a type of tableware, commonly used in medieval cuisine. A trencher was originally a flat round of (usually stale) bread used as a plate, upon which the food could be placed to eat. At the en ...

, leaves his dinner table to rescue the princess, only to be repulsed by the Black Knight's castle. Overnight, Louis is lamenting how to breach such a strong castle, mentioning many horsepower, a mobile fortress and great speed. Nicky then whispers to Louis, and through the remainder of the night, a

Trojan horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...

is built. At dawn, Louis looks out of the right eye of the Trojan horse and says, "Give up, Blackie?" only to be answered with a salvo of arrows that surrounded the eye where Louis issued his challenge. Louis replied, "Let 'em have it!" A hatch opens in the front of the Trojan horse, and out drives the hero boy at the wheel of a 1938 Chevrolet. The wheels bounce over logs and rocks to tout their "Knee-Action" suspension, arrows go in and out of the vent windows to tout their "Draft-Free Ventilation," rocks bounce off the roof to tout their "Turret-Top" roof, and then the car bulldozed the castle walls with the sound effect of a

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

blowing its whistle for a railroad crossing. The hero boy returns in the undamaged car to the last turret standing in the castle, rushing up a spiral staircase to free the princess and to battle the Black Knight, although with a wooden toy sword. The hero boy winds up on his back, and the Black Knight picks up a

battleaxe A battle axe (also battle-axe, battle ax, or battle-ax) is an axe specifically designed for combat. Battle axes were specialized versions of utility axes. Many were suitable for use in one hand, while others were larger and were deployed two-ha ...

and swings it at the boy, who rolls out of the way. When the knight hits the floorboard, it acts like a catapult, hurling the knight down the spiral staircase to his doom. The Princess and the hero boy kiss. Back at the king's castle, Louis knights the hero boy for bravery on the field of combat, and offers the hero boy one wish, pushing his daughter toward the boy. The boy looked at the Chevrolet and said, "One wish, Sire?" The boy looked again at the car and back at the king, and said, "Double or nothing, Your Majesty!" Louis gave the boy a waving, left-handed salute. Flanked by knights on horseback singing "The Love Bug Will Bite You," the young couple drive away in the Chevrolet. Nicky and Hortense appear from behind the grille and shake hands. The End.

References

{{Reflist

External links

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Chevrolet Advertisements 1938 animated films Jam Handy Organization films 1938 films Promotional films American short films