A Fractured Leghorn is a 1950 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. The cartoon was released on September 16, 1950, and features Foghorn Leghorn.
Foghorn is in pursuit of a snack of earthworm, but if he wants the worm he will have to outwit a cat. As usual, Foghorn is voiced by Mel Blanc, as is the cat.
That is one of few Foghorn cartoons where Leghorn is not put at odds with Henery Hawk and/or the Barnyard Dawg.
Plot
In the opening scene, the cat is shown fishing in the pond in Foghorn's resident farm. He is after a large, juicy, succulent, tender fish that lives in the pond and is clearly willing to go to any lengths to catch one. His feet are actually far into the water — an anomaly for domestic cats. Almost all of him that is in the water is covered in hooks. It can also be assumed that he has sat for long hours, as he becomes inconsolably excited when he feels a tug on one of his hooks. However, when he pulls it out of the water, it doesn't bear the object of his desire; rather, it's attached to a note reading "Dear Dope, You can't catch us Fish without a Worm on the hook. Signed, The Fish." (The note from the fish to the cat questions the mental capacity of the fish, as it says that, no matter what, they will take the bait.)
Frustrated, the cat begins now to find a way to catch a worm. Little does he know at first that one has popped out of the ground — intending to enjoy the sunshine — but the worm is soon in peril as Foghorn begins to chase him, intending to snack on him. But once it comes into the sights of the cat, it stops moving. Both Foghorn and the cat are running at him with all their speed — the cat with an empty tomato can. The worm uses the only method of escape available to it: a nearby stone chimney. Instead of the worm, the cat catches Foghorn's head in the can. Instead of the worm, Foghorn drives his beak into the ground near the cat; and both of them see stars. Then, once they both shake it off, Foghorn confronts the cat and demands to know what he was doing chasing "his" worm, pointing out that he does not go around chasing mice, and that that's a cat's job. The cat is a cat, Foghorn says, so he should make himself useful chasing down mice. (While saying this, he advances on the cat so forcefully that the latter falls backwards through the fence. Foghorn picks him up and tells him that he ought to learn to stand on his own feet.) He also threatens to start eating mice if the cat won't stop chasing worms. All the while, he does not allow the cat to get a word in edgewise (this was also the situation that Henery's father found himself in two years earlier in The Foghorn Leghorn). Again, Foghorn advances upon the cat, stating that "if you'd just quit arguin' and jawin', you'd see my side of it" and to not "keep that mouth flappin' and do no listening", at the same time as forcing him to back up a ladder. At the top, the cat falls down backwards. From the ladder, Foghorn states that "There's nothin' worse than a blabbermouth cat" (even though Foghorn is the one that is the blabbermouth).
However, the cat recovers enough in a short time to dress his finger up like a worm, using green and black paint. He also rigs a paintbrush to a wheel (the brush fresh with green paint), and contrives to set up a guillotine-like system (the purpose of which isn't to decapitate Foghorn, but rather to hold him in place by the head, as the "blade" is actually made of wood and has a large hole in it). The cat sticks his decoy out under the "guillotine" where he hopes Foghorn will go for it. He has very little time to wait, as Foghorn is employing a telescope to get the location of the actual worm before the cat, and he spots the fake worm. When he dives headfirst for it, the cat pulls the rope and Foghorn's head is trapped in place. The cat drags out his wheel; Foghorn asks him what he'll do with it. The cat silently answers by setting his wheel, with its load of green paint, in motion, and the brush repeatedly hits Foghorn in the face, painting him green from the neck up.