Oil and Indians Don't Mix is a 1959 Felix the Cat cartoon, and the 18th episode of the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) series.
Felix is running a diner for prospectors out in the middle of a desert. While serving hot coffee by throwing it around on a very slick bar, Rock Bottom shows up to cause trouble, smashing through the wall and scaring off the customers. He sits down and demands service, and Felix sends him a glass of water. Professor, who was playing the piano nearby, comes over and points out to Rock that there is oil leaking into the water that was used for the cup, which means that Felix's diner is located directly above black gold. Seeing money in his eyes, Professor hatches a plan with Rock to steal the diner from Felix and thus claim the oil for themselves. Professor challenges Felix to a game of darts, betting his bag of gold against Felix's diner, which Felix accepts. Professor throws three darts, which Rock pulls towards the bullseye of a target with a magnet. Felix, unaware of the trickery, is impressed, and then takes up three darts to throw himself—he not only hits a bullseye, but manages to get the darts to perfectly line up with each other. Felix is about to take the gold, but Professor has hatched a contingency plan—arrows come flying through the diner, and Felix sees the feathers of an Indian mob outside of it as he dodges numerous arrows.
After dodging more arrows, a familiar looking Indian chief shows up at the hole Rock Bottom tore in the wall earlier. The chief orders Felix to surrender, and the cat complies. The chief signals for the mob to stop—which is really just Rock Bottom shaking a long stick with Indian headdresses lined up on it outside the windows of the diner, with a record player supplying the angry voices. The chief offers Felix a peace pipe to smoke, and Felix accepts it. Felix quickly gets ill from it and faints. Professor drops the charade and ties up Felix, and he and Rock Bottom waste no time building an oil drill on the site of Felix's diner and get right to work, with their drill gradually going underground and making many twists and turns. Meanwhile, Felix comes to and realizes he's tied up. The drill unwittingly travels right through Felix's water pipe and through the diner, severing the ropes binding Felix before it goes back underground. Not a few seconds water, the pipe finally hits black gold, and sprouts up right below the drill tower, sending Professor and Rock helplessly flying in the air. Felix, seeing the crooks misfortune, laughs heartily as the cartoon irises out.
Tropes:
- Paper-Thin Disguise: As usual, Professor employs a flaccid disguise, in this case dressing as an Indian chief, to try and trick Felix and get access to the oil underneath his bar.
- Pun-Based Title: On the phrase "Oil and Water Doesn't Mix".
- Wingding Eyes:
- Professor's eyes turn into dollar symbols at the idea of getting Felix's oil.
- Felix's pupils spin around once he gets ill from smoking a pipe.
