The Night Before Christmas

Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera could not have made a better seasonal cartoon than The Night Before Christmas, which turns 80 this year.

Both Tom and Jerry show a range of natural, logical emotions. Scott Bradley’s score suits every bit of action, with a minor key during the building climax and a chorus singing carols to set the mood.

Especially worth looking at are the backgrounds and the incredible use of shades of colour. In the establishing shot of a house in the country, there are different tones of blue and purple blended together. The Christmas tree isn’t just one shade of green. Lights appear to be glowing. It is true artistry.



Below is a fine pan shot that has, unfortunately, been cut up because the shadowy toys are on a different layer in the foreground, photographed at a different rate than the background, adding depth to the shot.



It’s a crime the background artist wasn’t identified. MGM had several of them at this point, but the man most connected with the Hanna-Barbera unit was Bob Gentle over the years. I do not know if this is his work. I don’t know how far the studio worked in advance at this point, considering he was in the military when this film was released.



Hmmm. I wonder who the "J" and "B" blocks refer to.



The rocking chair, lion and furry lump (Tom) below are on cels.



Some time ago on the Yowp blog, we gave a short biography of Bob Gentle. Robert Mac Gentle was born in Norfolk, Nebraska on February 15, 1914, the third son of Burton Coe Gentle and Frances Davenport. His father was acting postmaster there, and later deputy assessor for the County of Los Angeles. The Gentles arrived in Los Angeles around 1927.

Bob attended Hollywood High School where, in 1930, he designed Christmas cards and seals. He graduated in 1931, enrolled for two years in the Otis Institute of Art, then eventually got a job at the Harman-Ising studio. When MGM dumped Harman-Ising and started making its own cartoons in 1937, Gentle made the jump to the new operation and ended up handling backgrounds for the Hanna-Barbera unit when it was formed a couple of years later. However, his son Drew recalled his dad was loaned to Disney to help get Snow White in theatres on schedule.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 23, 1941 and by April was in uniform along with Metro artists Paul Fanning, Tom Ray and Sam Dawson. Gentle married Jane Virginia Parmele on December 13, 1943. They had met years earlier in art school. Drew also recalled his father was a reconnaisance map maker for the Allied advance after D-Day. He was discharged November 9, 1945 and returned to MGM.

Gentle was one of the originals hired by H-B Enterprises in 1957 to work on Ruff and Reddy. Gentle’s name can be found on the credits of Hanna-Barbera’s TV cartoons up to “The Flintstone Kids” (1986). He died on January 24, 1988.

Joe Barbera’s story is set indoors for a little more than the first half of the cartoon. Jerry escapes outside through the front door mail slot and we get shots of the mouse getting colder and colder in the blowing snow. The backgrounds looked like this:



In a wonderfully animated sequence, Tom’s satisfaction in kicking out Jerry turns to concern that the little mouse may have frozen to death in the snowstorm. An an oboe plays a minor key version of “Silent Night,” the interior turns darker with shadows. The cat rescues Jerry from the buried snow in time and rushes him to the fireplace to warm up. The backgrounds are beautifully painted.



The fire and snow effects are first-rate, too. Again, there is no credit given on screen, but Al Grandmain was an effects artist for the studio for a number of years.

Jean Albert Grandmain was born in Paris on March 23, 1902 and his family came to the U.S. in 1905. He was married in 1923 in New Orleans where he was an artist and was initiated into the Masons (Polar Star No. 1) in 1926. He moved to Los Angeles by 1929 as a son was born there. The 1930 City Directory has him decorating windows for a dollar store. The 1932 directory lists him as a commercial artist, in 1934 he is a sign painter/card writer, but his occupation is “cartoonist” as of 1936.

When he left MGM isn’t clear. He had few screen credits at the studio, the last being on Just Ducky, released in 1953. Grandmain did not join Hanna and Barbera at their TV cartoon studio. He died in Visalia on June 25, 1972 (unfortunately, neither the Fresno nor Tulare newspapers gave his obituary).

The story ends with both characters in the Yuletide spirit of giving and friendship. But it seems the story may have been changed. The plot description of the short in the Motion Picture Herald of December 27, 1941 has little in common with the final cartoon:

Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse call a halt to their eternal battling and decide to celebrate the holiday by exchanging presents. But a lifetime of enmity cannot be resolved in a moment of repentance so when the presents are opened Tom gets a tome on “The Art of Catching Mice” and Jerry receives a package of cheese beautifully wrapped and neatly affixed to a mouse trap. Thus, once more, the feud begins. Round and round the Christmas tree, in and out of the piles of presents dashes the cat in pursuit of the mouse.

Tome? Not that I saw. Wrapped package? No, it’s just a hunk of cheese. Did this come from an earlier studio synopsis? Regardless, the story as it appeared on the screen is far superior.

Animator Mark Kausler has pointed out some of Jack Zander’s expert animation in this cartoon in previous comments. My understanding is George Gordon and Bill Littlejohn animated on this short, there must have been others. The whispery narration at the start is by Frank Graham, according to voice historian Keith Scott.

The print of the cartoon in circulation has the original Christmas title card, which adds a bit of charm.



Even if you are not a Christmas person or a Tom and Jerry person—and I am neither—you’ll still enjoy the fine overall artistry of this cartoon released December 6th 80 years ago. As the Exhibitor put it in a review at the time: “This is a heart-warming subject that will charm young and old...EXCELLENT.”