The Mouse from H.U.N.G.E.R. is a 1967 entry in the Chuck Jones era of the classic series, notable for the portion's producer, Chuck Jones, producing the entries in a way that is much more wild than the Hanna-Barbera era. It was directed by Abe Levitow.
Plot
Secret agent Jerry from the title organization H.U.N.G.E.R. drives through the street of a city (the buildings in the opening shot suggest New York City) and enters his secret headquarters, a cigar store cash register, through a cigar store Indian. He is given his mission: infiltrate the mansion of Tom Thrush and recover a refrigerator with lots of cheese. But before that, he checks all of the weapons inside his coat. But when he seals it very tight, they were activated, causing several holes on it as he comically grins at the audience and the title cards were shown.
Tom Thrush (portrayed by Tom, notably with a gap in his teeth here) sees Jerry coming on his radar and sets some traps for the secret agent (which are removed with a trap system-overriding car horn), including an exploding robot female to attract Jerry and get a blast out of this. These are mostly ineffective, evident with a blackened Jerry instead going "WOW!" at the pretty lady as she retreats. Tom Thrush manages to make it to the safeguarded room and sets even more traps, such as blades and sensitive mines. Jerry plays a tape-recorder; it sounds as if he is walking through the room. Tom waits a few seconds, then says "Boom!" Not hearing the explosions that should result from the walking, Tom runs in. He is attacked by his own traps.
After that, he "helps" Jerry by opening the safe that keeps the refrigerator as he gets bonkers (due to the traps that he ran over). Jerry thanks Tom by lifting his fedora up as he gets the refrigerator from him. Jerry straps the refrigerator to his tiny car and Tom is crawling out the front door of his mansion, though it is obvious that, since the earlier incident, he is in a very bad way. His hand lands on the "Play" button of Jerry's tape player; "Taps" is the track, recreating a death sequence. Tom grabs a flower and lays it on his chest. The words "THE END" are seen behind his number plate ("JERRY-AKIN 00 1/7", a pun on both Illya Kuryakin and James Bond) before Jerry drives off.
Trivia
- The title is a parody of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
- This is one of the few cartoons where Tom yanks off one of his own whiskers unusually he doesn't express pain after doing this.
- During the sequence where Jerry is given a mission, the flickering strobe effects from the projector is known to cause epileptic seizures, prior to the notorious Pokémon episode, "Electric Soldier Porygon" (aired December 16, 1997), which was banned after its first run in Japan for causing 635 children to be hospitalized, as the strobe effects are completely different (blue and red flickers rapidly).
- Owing to this issue, this reel is banned from airing on American television.
- This is the series' 157th entry.
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