Cue Ball Cat is a 1950 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 54th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ed Barge and Ray Patterson, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and music by Scott Bradley.
Plot
Tom is playing pool in a pool hall, pocketing two balls by physically moving the table and a side pocket. Tom then wakes Jerry up by pocketing the 10-ball, which rolls Jerry to the ball return before the 10 and 13 balls squash Jerry between each other. Jerry walks up through the pocket, but spots Tom perched behind it.
Jerry tries to jump into another corner pocket, but Tom hits a cue ball at Jerry with so much force that it rolls and spins backwards to Tom; Jerry slides up Tom's cue stick before Tom blows him down. Tom then shoots a stream of balls to flatten Jerry before the balls rebound back towards Tom with Jerry on them and stack up at the end of the table. Tom hits the balls in succession with his cue; Jerry hangs onto the cue tip, but Tom rubs chalk on Jerry and shoots him at the 8-ball.
Jerry becomes dizzy and is upended by the 8-ball, which rolls in circles. Tom forces Jerry to jump through a ball rack, even setting it on fire, before discarding the flaming rack and shooting the 8-ball across the table, which rebounds and hits Jerry, giving the mouse the 8-mark printed on his rear like a tattoo. Enraged, Jerry flings Tom's cue stick into his face.
Tom throws the 8-ball at Jerry, but Jerry ducks and the ball bounces back into Tom's face. Tom then throws the 8 and 6 balls, but Jerry hits them back into Tom's eyes with a cue. Tom puts on a catcher's glove and throws the 10-ball, which is returned with such force that it burns a hole through Tom's glove. Tom then throws the 1-ball, and Jerry breaks his cue returning it. Tom, dashing through the pool hall to catch it, stretches backwards and barely catches the 1-ball, but due to its weight and the cat's unbalanced posture, Tom is pulled into a drink machine and spat out as a drink bottle.
Jerry then dives into a corner pocket. Tom gropes through the pocket to find Jerry, but grabs his own tail, pulling himself through the pockets. Tom then sticks a hose down the holes, sweeping Jerry up, and swings a mechanical bridge to hit Jerry, but Jerry, latching onto the end, climbs up onto a wire and steals the bridge. Jerry uses the bridge as a balancing stick, but Tom throws two cues at Jerry. The first hits the wire dead centre and shreds in two, but the second scrapes Jerry's rear to an alarming red. Angry, Jerry then shoots the mechanical bridge into Tom's mouth.
Jerry then runs away as Tom shoots a stream of balls at him, which chase Jerry in and out of various pockets. The balls then chase Jerry on their own accord, but Jerry jumps on Tom and opens his mouth, causing Tom to swallow all seven balls. Jerry then flees into a corner pocket, and Tom pokes his cue through it, but Jerry attaches a hatpin to the tip of the cue, which strikes Tom when he pokes again, causing Tom to rise yelling in pain and then fall into the hole at a corner. Jerry then tidies the rack, with all fifteen balls inside it, and hits them all. The cue balls all fall into holes except for the 1-ball; when Jerry whacks Tom with the cue, Tom screams and ends up swallowing it before the cartoon closed.
Production
- Directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
- Animation: Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ed Barge, Ray Patterson
- Story: William Hanna and Joseph Barber
- Layout: Dick Bickenbach
- Music: Scott Bradley
- Produced by: Fred Quimby
Availability
DVD
- Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 2
- Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 1, Disc Two
External links
- Cue Ball Cat at The Big Cartoon DataBase
- Cue Ball Cat on IMDb