Part Time Pal is the 28th entry of the classic series and was made in 1947. Pete Burness, from the amination team for this entry, animated around 50% of the cartoon, but received no credit due to the fact that he left the studio shortly after it was made.
Characters
Plot
Tom is being scolded by Mammy Two Shoes in the kitchen: "And this, Mister Thomas, is your last and final chance! Either you keep that mouse out of this icebox, or you go out! Understand?!" She hands him her broom. "Remember: you're on guard."
As she leaves, Tom marches around the kitchen angrily and alert for mice. However, Jerry opens up a grille on the floor, exposing a hole, and directs Tom into it. Jerry immediately heads for the fridge, about to eat some corn, Tom swipes it off him starting a chase. Jerry rapidly knocks every empty glass milk bottle to the ground rolling into Tom's path leading him to trip over the collection of empty milk bottles. Speeding out of control, Tom ends up being sent to the basement, falling into a barrel of cider marked "X X X", and drinking it.
A drunken Tom emerges from the cider barrel, inebriated, to become Jerry's Part Time Pal.
Jerry hears Tom gargling thinking he's drowning in the cider. Later, Tom submerges from the cider barrel, completely drunk in result, he befriends Jerry and makes his way back to the kitchen, drunkenly sharing the food with his new "friend". Tom offers him some jelly but Jerry declines the offer. Later, Tom grabs two soda bottles and shakes them, leading the corks and soda to fire in his face, with the outcome of him looking like Santa Claus. Tom later sees a bottle of cream, he grabs it form the fridge only to find that a roast chicken is stuck to his arm. Regretting to let go of the cream, Tom pulls it to his feet, He gives Jerry the bottle of cream and tells him (without any dialogue) "I'll be right back.", He immediately heads for the top shelf and eats some cherries from a bowl. However, when bending over he accidentally pulls out a tray of food from the refrigerator, it collapses on him with an almighty crash. This wakes up Mammy, who comes downstairs to investigate what is going on.
Later, we see Jerry diving into a pie with Tom being next to jump, as Jerry licks the leftovers on his face, Tom prepares to dive, he hits to the ground with the entire pie all over in his face, Jerry finds out that Mammy is coming and hides the drunken Tom, covering his mouth so that his hiccups are not heard. Mammy enters to discover the kitchen in a shambles—"Well I'll be darned. this is such a mess!"—and badmouths the cat who she believes has gone AWOL. As Mammy leaves the room, "In the morning, I'll mop dis floor with his ornery hide.", Tom emerges from his hiding place, but he trips up over some of the spilled food and crashes into the refrigerator where he is squirted with some water, sobering him up again.
Jerry, wielding a breast of chicken, approaches Tom, unaware that he is now sober, and very angry. Tom chases after Jerry towards the bathroom, but slips on a bath mat and crashes into a wall. A bottle of bay rum (a kind of lotion, not for drinking) falls from the bathroom shelf and into Tom's mouth, causing our feline to become blitzed again.
Tom takes Jerry into the dining room for dinner and rings the bell, expecting service for them both. But Mammy is upstairs, fast asleep, and doesn't hear. The drunken cat grows impatient and, despite Jerry's objections, goes upstairs to get her. He takes a jug of water and, after reciting, "1 for the money (hic), 2 for the show (hic), 3 to make ready (hic), and 4 to go!", with Jerry eavesdropping on him, douses Mammy with it.
Mammy screams furiously, hurls some furniture off-screen at the cat and then chases after Tom downstairs with a broom, wrecking the house in the process and jumping down the stairs. Jerry watches the fiasco as Mammy proceeds to chase Tom out into the night, swiping the broom at him, only to miss due to every one of his drunken hiccups lifting him up.
Censorship
- On Cartoon Network, not only is Mammy Two Shoes' voice redubbed, but her line, "Well, slap my face, if this ain't a mess!" was changed to "Well, I'll be darned, if this ain't a mess."
- Tom's drunken speech when he prepares to splash Mammy with water was muted. When Mammy is being splashed, she shrieks "Thomas! Why- why you, crazy cat!".
Trivia
- An excerpt from this cartoon was used in 1967s Shutter Bugged Cat.
- This is the first of the four shorts where Mammy Two shoes' head is shown. The others are A Mouse in the House, Mouse Cleaning and Saturday Evening Puss.
- The plot of the episode is remarkably similar to the central plot of Bertolt Brecht's stage play, Mr Puntila and his Man Matti, in which the title character Puntila is a happy, generous man while drunk and a miserly grouch while sober, with his man Matti following him and trying to account for the aftereffects of his various escapades. Charlie Chaplin's 1931 film City Lights also utilizes this plot.
- If you look closely at the end, as Mammy hits Tom with a broom, breaking the vase on his head, she lowers her head, and you are able to see her mouth and lips.
External Links
Part Time Pal at SuperCartoons.net
Part Time Pal at B99.TV
