The Framed Cat

Overview

Transcript

Gallery

The Framed Cat
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Story by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Music by	Scott Bradley
Animation by	Ed Barge Kenneth Muse Irven Spence Ray Patterson
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	October 21, 1950
Color process	Technicolor
Preceded by	The Hollywood Bowl
Followed by	Cue Ball Cat

The Framed Cat is a 1950 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 53rd Tom and Jerry short.

Characters

• Tom Cat
• Jerry Mouse
• Spike Bulldog
• Mammy Two Shoes

Plot

At the kitchen, Tom sneaks over to pull the leg off of a fresh cooked chicken but he accidentally knocks down some crockery. Mammy Two Shoes hears this so he plants the evidence on Jerry, effectively framing the mouse. He then proceeds to dispose of Jerry in front of Mammy Two Shoes. She orders him to get rid of this 'chicken-stealing mouse'. Tom acting like a 'hero' to the maid chases Jerry out in the yard, looks around, throws the mouse away and eats the chicken and takes a nap. Jerry, upset at Tom for setting him up, thinks of a way to get back at him. He then notices Spike cuddling with his bone before taking a nap too. Jerry quietly takes the bone away from Spike and plants it on Tom's chest. Spike gets awakened after noticing his bone has disappeared and screams in the voice of a man when he sees Tom with his bone.

Spike angrily warns Tom to stay away from his bone or else there'll be trouble. Tom is thrown back into the tree as Spike storms off with his bone. The cat sticks out his tongue at the dog and gets whacked again, biting it. He then spots Jerry laughing himself silly which makes him realize that the mouse framed him. Tom angrily begins chasing Jerry again, but the mouse stops in front of Spike and spins his bone into the air. Tom can't think of anything to do but catch it, but Spike wakes up and starts growling furiously at the cat. Tom quickly tricks Spike into standing up and puts Spike's bone on top of his nose. Spike is incensed at being made to look like a "jackass", but can only go back in the doghouse, as the cat is nowhere to be seen. Spike drops his bone into a hole that he just dug, but Jerry steals it while Spike isn't looking. Satisfied that Tom won't get to the bone, Spike goes to sleep. Jerry sneaks behind Tom, who is keeping watch behind an automated trash can, ties the bone to Tom's tail, and slams the lid into Tom's face. Jerry makes sure to take the chase past Spike, who is astounded that someone got to his bone.

While Tom keeps up the chase, Spike bites on the bone attached to Tom's tail, but gets tangled up in a tree with the cat. Tom ends up in possession of the bone, and when Spike growls, Tom puts it in Spike's mouth, but then winds it up and blows Spike away as if he were a model aeroplane. Spike decides to go to sleep by his house. Meanwhile, Jerry screws a piece of magnetic iron into Spike's bone, then places a magnet in a sleeping Tom's mouth, causing the bone to end up being attracted to Tom, no matter how many times or how hard Spike tries to retain his grip on the bone and Tom tries to rid himself of it. Tom throws the bone out into the street where Spike chases it, only to miss it twice, in midair then off the fence, which he bites through. He finally does get a hold of it, only to lose it running into the fork of a tree, managing to grab it once more with his tongue before losing it once more.

Tom winds up running off down the street with the bone following him, pursued by Spike, with the magnetic bone remaining close to Tom. Jerry, in a tin can, cheers for his victory, but not for long because suddenly the tin can is dragged along in the pursuit. In the final scene, Tom runs off with as Spike dashes after him to get his bone back and Jerry is dragged from the tin can by the magnet, himself thus thinking his plan backfired at him, during the chase down the roadside.

Voice actors

• Jerry Mann as Spike Bulldog and Tom Cat
• Lillian Randolph as Mammy Two Shoes
  • June Foray as Mammy Two Shoes, but replaced by The Skinny White Maid
  • Thea Vidale as Mammy Two Shoes

Availability

The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume I (LaserDisc)

Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 3 (DVD)

Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 3 (DVD)

Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases Vol. 5 (DVD)

Tom and Jerry: In the Dog House (DVD)

Notes

• This is the only cartoon where Spike does not have the white part on his chest.
• This is the one of the only cartoons where Spike is assumed to be owned by Mammy Two Shoes, although the two do not interact like they did in Dog Trouble.
• The title card is itself a double-sensed play on the word "frame"; the first sense is a literal picture frame in the title card, and the second one means as in "frameup".