There’s a great gag when a mouse comes out of his hole driving a gangster’s sedan and rifles a cat with machine gun fire before driving back into the hole. Meanwhile, a hungry wolf rips off Santa’s beard to disguise himself so he can get close enough to Pooch the pup and his girl-friend to eat them. But the masquerade falls apart when the cat chases mice into the beard and start fighting in it, accompanied by Jimmy Dietrich’s xylophone music.
Then the mice-filled beard gallops back into the mouse hole with the cat in pursuit.
The cartoon ends with cat emerging from the mouse hole, grossly obese, after Santa clobbers the wolf back to the city dump.
Manny Moreno, Les Kline, Tex Hastings, George Cannata, Fred Kopietz and Bill Weber are the credited animators. This cartoon didn’t hit theatres until after New Year’s Day. In fact, one theatre in rural Nebraska ran it in August when the temperature was 106°.
Sorry for the fuzzy screen grabs, but this cartoon wouldn’t be on-line at all if it weren’t for Milt Knight.
"This cartoon didn’t hit theatres until after New Year’s Day. In fact, one theatre in rural Nebraska ran it in August when the temperature was 106°."
ReplyDeleteWell, if it hit theaters on January 2, it was still technically in season until January 6... So at least they didn't *completely* miss the target... ha, ha.
As for the Nebraska theater... all I can say is that I've heard of Christmas in July, but not Christmas in August!
Reminds me of one summer years ago when I was on vacation in Portugal. They were playing some obscure American Christmas special during the children's hour on TV. All I remember about it is a song that began, "When the toys come alive on Christmas Eve..." Again, this would have been in July or August! I found this bizarrely amusing then. It's interesting to see that this sort of thing also happened in the USA -- these cartoons' country of origin -- before the rise of television.