The Lonesome Mouse is a 1943 American animated short film directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby.[1] It contains the first speaking role of the cat and mouse duo, and the only one with significant dialogue between the two main characters. Both Tom and Jerry were voiced by William Hanna. It was created and released in 1943, and re-released to theatres on November 26, 1949.[1]
| The Lonesome Mouse | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | |
| Story by |
|
| Produced by | Fred Quimby (uncredited) |
| Starring |
|
| Music by | Scott Bradley (uncredited) |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 8 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
editTom is sleeping by the fireplace, but Jerry drops a vase onto his head, framing Tom and causing Mammy Two Shoes to throw Tom out of the house. Jerry teases Tom from inside, and spends the whole day having lots of fun with Tom's stuff, but at the end of the day, he soon becomes lonely without the cat. Watching Tom from the window, Jerry's conscience convinces him that he could get Tom back in the house if he wanted to. Jerry runs outside and makes a deal with Tom in a whisper to get him back in the house,
In the kitchen, Mammy is cooking some dinner, before Jerry comes in and snaps Mammy's sock, before shaking a terrified Mammy on a stool. Jerry then cuts a leg off the stool, and Mammy falls with a big crash, calling for Tom to save her. Tom and Jerry play patty-cake behind a curtain, mimicking fighting sounds, before Jerry turns on the cooker, which Mammy is cowering on. Tom rips a drumstick from a cooked chicken, and shares it with Jerry behind a wall. Tom then chases Jerry into a cupboard, where the mouse pretends to choke Tom before they use the pots and pans as a drum set.
The two then exit the cupboard, staging a fight with a knife and fork, and poke Mammy several times. Tom then grabs a meat cleaver and chops a table leg, a curtain, a table in half, and an apple on top of Jerry's head in half. Jerry notices that last one was a close shave, and as Tom chases after him, he asks, "Hey, we're still kiddin', ain't we?" Tom assures him that they are, then chases Jerry around Mammy, who clumsily hits the cat three times with a broom, aiming for the mouse, before Tom snaps it in half. Jerry then runs under the carpet, with Mammy in pursuit, before he escapes and Tom puts a tomato down in his place. Mammy hits the tomato and Tom feigns mourning, laying down flowers.
Later, Tom receives a reward for taking care of Jerry, a lemon meringue pie. Jerry starts to eat it, but Tom refuses to share it with him, causing Jerry to kick the selfish Tom's face into the pie. Jerry is disappointed and mumbles angrily to himself, "Why that dirty double crossin', good for nothin', two-timin'..." and the cartoon ends.
Controversy
editMammy Two-Shoes was retired from the Tom & Jerry cartoons by Hanna and Barbera following several years of protests and condemnations from the NAACP. A 1949 reissue of the 1943 short The Lonesome Mouse prompted the start of the NAACP's campaign against Tom & Jerry.[2] In this short, Mammy is scared by Jerry onto a stool and shakes with fear as a diamond ring, false teeth, a pair of dice, and a straight razor fall from beneath her dress.[3]
In response to the NAACP's campaign and angry about the potential loss of acting roles, Lillian Randolph questioned the authority of then-NAACP president Walter White, stating that the light-complexioned White was "only one-eighth Negro and not qualified to speak for Negroes." When Randolph departed from Tom & Jerry to appear on television, Hanna and Barbera declined to recast the voice role and Mammy ceased to appear in the cartoons.[2]Voice cast
edit- Lillian Randolph as Mammy Two Shoes (uncredited)
- Harry E. Lang as Jerry's Conscience and Tom (uncredited)[4]
- William Hanna as Jerry (uncredited)
Home media
editSee also
editReferences
editCitations
edit- ^ a b Webb (2000), p. 288
- ^ a b Lehman (2007), p. 97-99
- ^ Pilgrim, David, 1959- (30 December 2017). Watermelons, nooses, and straight razors : stories from the Jim Crow Museum. Oakland, CA. ISBN 978-1-62963-459-3. OCLC 1009241552.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "MGM's "The Lonesome Mouse" (1943). Retrieved 2018-05-01.
Further reading
edit- Webb, Graham (2000). The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences 1900-1979. McFarland. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-78640-728-6.
- Lehman, Christopher P. (2007). The Colored cartoon : Black representation in American animated short films, 1907-1954. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-61376-119-9. OCLC 794701592.
External links
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