Tall in the Trap is a 1962 Tom and Jerry cartoon. It is the tenth cartoon in the series of thirteen directed by Gene Deitch and produced by William L. Snyder in Czechoslovakia. The title is a play on the 1944 film "Tall in the Saddle".
Plot[]
In the stereotypical Wild Western town of Dry Gulp, Jerry - wanted for "cheese rustlin'" - steals a wedge of cheese from the general store. When an enraged shopkeeper demands action, the sheriff hires the "Fastest Trap in the West". This turns out to be Tom, who arrives in town riding his spurs as if they were roller skates. As Tom was rolling along, he trips on a rock and in the process crashes into the sheriff's office. He introduced himself to the sheriff to demonstrates himself, even though he gets his finger caught in his own mousetrap while displaying his quick-draw skills, but gets the job anyway.
Tom and Jerry meet for a showdown, but when Tom draws his traps, his belt and pants fall down making him humiliated, and while Tom was struggling to pull his pants up in embarrassment, Jerry laughed and laughed himself silly, and Tom started giving Jerry time to escape to a mouse-sized saloon. Tom reaches in to grab him, but Jerry puts a bag of flour - too big to fit through the hole - into his hand. As Tom tries to yank it out, Jerry opens up a trick entrance behind the saloon's sign and hits Tom over the head with a mallet and puts his hat upside down. Tom then puts his fingers in his ears and blows his hat up and Jerry laughs himself silly again. He then runs to a full-sized saloon, with Tom getting his head caught in its batwing doors before chasing him into the basement. Tom tries to shoot Jerry with a rifle, and they turn the lights on and off a few times but Jerry tricks him into turning off the light switch at the top of the stairs so that he tumbles to the bottom. Jerry hits the lights and shoots Tom instead.
Another chase ensues, and after Jerry dives into a hole, Tom baits a trap and slides it in after him. Jerry catches Tom's tail in the trap, sending him screaming hilariously in pain, back to town. Finally, Tom brings out a barrel of gunpowder, intending to blow up Jerry's hole. As he lights the fuse with a cigar and rolls the barrel away, Jerry bores a hole in the bottom and lights the powder trail that trickles out. In a panic, Tom dumps the barrel into a watering hole near the sheriff's office, dousing the powder trail. Just as Tom thinks he is safe, he suddenly remembers and notices the still-lit fuse and tries to put it out, but to no avail as it sets off the powder and destroys the office. The singed sheriff starts shooting at Tom and ran him out of town, while Jerry steals the last wedge of cheese from the general store.
Characters[]
Notes[]
- This cartoon was originally going to be titled "Top Trap".
- The MGM's Lion logo does not appear in the opening titles; rather this one creatively uses a poster of a lion at the old west town instead.
- The scene of the store owner urging the sheriff to find someone to get rid of Jerry is shown twice, once at the start and once more after the opening scene. This may have been to emulate the way some TV shows gave teasers of an episode before it would start.
- The store owner is named Gene, after the cartoon's director.
- This cartoon is a parody of Have Gun – Will Travel, an American Western series that was produced and originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963.
- The cartoon's concept was originally written by Warner screenwriter Tedd Pierce and co-writer Bill Danch for a Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies short featuring Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester the Cat, which may explain the presence of the light-switching gag previously used in the Bugs Bunny cartoon The Windblown Hare. It was pitched to director Robert McKimson, but McKimson decided against purchasing it (or, according to some other sources, was not able to purchase it due to the imminent closure of Warner Bros' cartoon studio). Instead, Pierce sold it to Deitch, who was desperately looking for suitable storylines for Tom and Jerry. Ironically, McKimson would later do his own Have Gun – Will Travel parody with the cartoon Feather Finger about three years later, which like the original story for this short, featured Speedy Gonzales (though with Daffy Duck as his opponent instead of Sylvester).
- This is the 124th short of the series.
- This cartoon features a much greater amount of spoken dialog, including a conversation between Sheriff Mutt Dillin and the store owner, than was usually seen in Gene Deitch's shorts. Usually any spoken dialog would only take place in short, isolated snippets (such as with Tom's owner or The Peg-Leg Captain) or happen in voice-over form, due to the shorts' low budget and the expense involved in lip-syncing dialog.
- This is one of Václav Bedřich's work that take place in the Wild West, the other is Last on the Draw (Poslední výstřel).
Reception[]
While the Deitch shorts were generally negatively received by Tom and Jerry fans, this particular short is often considered one of the better of the thirteen cartoons, with the gags often seen as closer in tone to the Looney Tunes series than Tom and Jerry (reflecting its origin as a story intended for that series), but still a better fit for the series than most of Deitch's earlier shorts.
Errors[]
- At one point, the sign on "The Six Shooter Saloon" is incorrectly read as "The Six Schooter Saloon".
- When Tom draws his traps, his boxers from Down and Outing are shown when his pants fall down.
- As Tom's pants fell down, he lacks his tail, which is somehow just a fur; later, as he was exploded by the powder, his unskinned tail is present.
Gallery[]
