Deer Mother-in-Law

In 1910, humourist Irvin S. Cobb wrote the mother-in-law joke was one of only eight jokes in the world, and all others were derivatives of the eight. (The “Peevish Wife” and the “Husband-Who-Comes-in-Stewed” were among the other two).

They were old then. And, more than 40 years later, Tex Avery was putting them on screen at MGM.

In Field and Scream (1955), the narrator tells us “Our old friend Ed here has designed a special deer hunting outfit for the mother-in-law.” Ed even helps her on with it.



It comes with a special accessory.



The mother-in-law strolls out of the scene. We hear a shot off-camera. Ed bows his head in mock sorrow.



A great look to cap the scene.



Grant Simmons, Mike Lah and Walt Clinton are the animators. Designs by Ed Benedict.

If you want an earlier example of a mother-in-law cartoon, here's one from a newspaper from 1903.

How To Slam a Newspaper By Jerry Mouse of Prague

No, this post won’t bash the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerry cartoons made in Czechoslovakia. They do have some redeeming factors. One is they never included an annoying duck that became Yakky Doodle. Another is they never featured a way-too-cute little French mouse.

Instead, we’ll simply post the frames from a scene in Mouse Into Space (released March 1962). Todd Dockstader’s story has Jerry reading a newspaper ad encouraging mice to enlist in the space programme, promising “There are no cats in outer space!” Here's an in-between as Jerry turns to look at Tom.



Fed up with Tom trying to kill him, first with a pistol, and then a bomb, Jerry has had enough, and storms off out of the scene after slamming down a newspaper. The action takes place pretty quickly, though it still seems a little jerky on screen. These are the drawings, one for each frame (exceptions noted below).



The drawing below is held for four frames.



The next two drawings are held for two frames.



33 frames in all, less than a second and a half. Lots of jagged impact animation, isn't there?

Vaclav Bedrich is given an "animation director" credit, though Deitch is credited as the director. Who did what is your guess. Gene isn't around any more to ask.

Gambling on Women

T.V. of Tomorrow was no kiddie cartoon. Gags were aimed at sex-starved 1950s suburban men. There’s a television set with a Faye Emerson-esque “plunging neckline.” An annoyed man has his set shoot down a small plane for distorting the picture while he’s watching a bathing beauty. There’s another set “which allows you to see all of the picture,” which happens to be another young lady in a swim suit.

There’s yet another gag featuring another bathing suit model, this one in repose. The TV set is the “Las Vegas Special, for you two-bit gamblers, lets you gamble on your channel.” It’s a one-armed bandit set. The viewer put in two bits and, well, the pictures tell the story.



If you’re wondering, the “tired businessman” gag featuring the TV with a full-sized film of Joi Lansing posing is in the earlier House of Tomorrow cartoon (released 1949).

The voiceover for this gag is provided by John Brown. Paul Frees did the rest of the cartoon. I have no idea why Avery switches voices.

At least one gag appears to have been edited out of this cartoon. At the 0:53 mark, there’s a sudden cut in the soundtrack. But if you listen to the soundtrack of the cartoon on the Scott Bradley music CD that came out some time ago, you’ll hear the music that was under the gag (the soundtrack is 30 seconds longer than the cartoon in circulation).

Heck Allen assisted Avery with the “story” in the 1953 release, with Ray Patterson added to Avery’s usual unit of Mike Lah, Grant Simmons, Walt Clinton and Bob Bentley.

Hit the Love Jackpot

Tom and Jerry and the female cat don't speak in Springtime for Thomas (1946), so words are not necessary to describe this fun sequence.



Ed Barge, Ken Muse and Mike Lah received screen credit for animation in this short (I think that's Muse doing the Cupid scene). Frank Graham supplies the voice of the evil aparition of Jerry.