Clock Cleaners

Clock Cleaners is a Mickey Mouse cartoon released 15 October 1937.

Summary
Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are assigned to clean a tall clock tower in New York City. Mickey is outside cleaning the face with a mop by riding on the second hand. Goofy is inside the building cleaning gear teeth with a large toothbrush. Donald, singing "Hickory Dickory Dock", starts to mop the mainspring, ignoring several warning signs. He gets the mop caught and springs it loose.

Meanwhile, Mickey, now cleaning inside the clock, comes across a sleeping stork which he tries unsuccessfully to remove. Mickey is left hanging on a rope outside the tower.

Back inside, Donald is getting the mainspring back into place with a mallet, but he struggles to get the very last piece in place. Donald gets furious at the spring and asks "What's the big idea?" The spring seems to respond with an echo of Donald's question. Donald gets into an argument with the spring, culminating in him hitting the spring with the mallet, which knocks the duck back. Donald gets his head stuck in a gear on the balance wheel shaft. When he finally is free from it, the oscillation continues to shake his body.

Goofy, singing "Asleep in the Deep", is cleaning the outside bell. As he is cleaning the interior of the bell, the top of the hour arrives, causing two mechanical statues to come from inside the tower and ring the bell by taking turns striking it. The first figure, resembling Father Time, approaches without Goofy noticing. When the bell rings with Goofy inside it, his head vibrates violently and he sits down. Before he has regained his composure the statue has returned to the tower, and he then looks around suspiciously and says "Mice!" The second figure, representing Lady Liberty, rings the bell from the other side and he is once again vibrated. After the second ring, Goofy is determined to be ready for the next time. As the bell is struck a third time, he leaps out and is ready to attack, but when he sees Lady Liberty coming for the fourth ring, he chivalrously apologizes and bows. But Goofy is standing between her torch and the bell, and he receives a big knock to the head.

This puts Goofy in a dizzy lovestruck stupor. Mickey is alarmed when he sees Goofy almost fall and tries to save him. At each turn, Mickey is just barely able to save Goofy. At last, Goofy lands on a flag pole that sends him and Mickey flying through a window into the clock, landing on the mainspring which Donald had finally managed to put back together and now undoing all the springs again, then all three land in the same gear in which Donald was stuck earlier, causing their bodies to move in a humorous rhythm.

Trivia

 * Goofy's line "Mice!" is a reference to W.C. Fields who used the same line when there was a crash backstage during one of his comedy acts.