Cue Ball Cat

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.

Characters[]

Starring[]

• Tom Cat
• Jerry Mouse

Plot[]

Tom plays billiards in a deserted pool table hall, where he sets up 3 balls and cheats to get them in the pockets (getting the 1-ball in a corner pocket by tilting the table and then physically moving a side pocket to get the 11-ball in it). He then wakes Jerry up by shooting the 10-ball into the pocket where he is sleeping. Jerry wakes up just in time to avoid the 10-ball and is carried down to the ball return, where the 10-ball and the 13-ball with 7-ball smash the mouse. Jerry is cross, he walks up through the pocket, first sees nothing, but after a few steps back to the pocket, he spots Tom perched behind it.

Jerry tries to jump into another corner pocket, but Tom aims a cue ball with so much force that it rolls into the pocket, spins back out of it and rolls Jerry backwards to Tom, who has made a ramp with his cue stick for the mouse to slide up. Jerry stops at the top of the stick and is then blown down by Tom, who then shoots a stream of 6 balls to run over the mouse. The whole train rebounds back towards the cat and the balls stack up at Tom's end of the table. Tom shoots all the balls in succession with his cue, and then tries to shoot Jerry, but the mouse hangs onto the cue tip. The cat, as if he was saying "Have it your way.", chalks up and shoots the 8-ball using the mouse.

The mouse drops off the cue tip and then is upended by the 8-ball rolling in circles, and Tom forces Jerry to jump through the ball rack as if he were a circus performer. Tom then sets it on fire to add an additional level of torment, and when Jerry accomplishes this, Tom discards the flaming rack and shoots the 8-ball across the table and back. Jerry is whacked in the bum, with the mouse finding out the "8" imprint is stamped onto his bum. An incensed Jerry looks at Tom as if to say "Real funny!" and retaliates by drawing back Tom's cue stick and hits his opponent with it.

Tom throws the 8-ball at Jerry, but the mouse ducks and the ball bounces off the rails back into Tom's face. Tom tries again with a 6-ball and another 8-ball, but Jerry uses a cue stick to bat them back into Tom's eyes. Tom throws a 10-ball at Jerry and the ball is returned at such speed it burns a hole through Tom's catcher's mitt. Tom makes one last attempt with the 1-ball, and Jerry bats it so hard that he breaks the cue and Tom retreats through the pool hall to catch it. Tom stretches backwards and catches the 1-ball, and because of its weight and the cat's unbalanced posture, Tom is pulled into a vending machine and spat out as a drink bottle.

Jerry dives into a corner pocket as Tom returns in anger. Tom gropes through the pocket to find Jerry, but instead grabs his own tail, pulling himself through the pocket tunnels and back out. When he sees he's holding his own tail, Tom escapes the tunnels and sticks a fire hose down them, sweeping Jerry up. He takes swings at the stream with a mechanical bridge to hit Jerry, but only catches Jerry on the end of it. The mouse steals the bridge and uses it as a balancing stick on a high wire. Tom throws two cues at the mouse; the first shreds exactly in half when it hits the wire dead center, but the second scrapes Jerry's bum to a deep, alarming red, and he shoots the mechanical bridge into Tom's mouth as a sign of revenge. Tom gets up with the mechanical bridge in his mouth, making it look like he has an overbite, complete with lazily saying "Duh...!"

Back on the table, the mouse then runs away as Tom shoots a stream of 8 balls towards him, which chase him into and out of the various pockets on the table. Jerry approaches one of the pockets in which the balls emerge, with the 11-ball glaring at the mouse. Eventually, the balls chase Jerry of their own accord, but he is in their path. Just then, Jerry opens Tom's mouth and it causes Tom to swallow all 7 balls.

Jerry flees into the corner pocket, and Tom sticks a cue into the pocket, looking to poke Jerry. The mouse, just as before, tricks the cat by attaching a hatpin to the tip end of the cue, and then yanks the cue briefly. Feeling this, the cat strikes and Tom accidentally stabs himself in the rear end, and is sent screaming manically into the air and crashing down into the one pocket. At this point, Jerry breaks a rack of 15 balls and all 15-balls of them fall into different pockets, except the 1-ball heads toward Tom; the mouse hits Tom on the head such that with his mouth open he yells in pain. The 1-ball enters Tom's mouth and is swallowed whole.

Notes[]

• This is the fifth and final Tom and Jerry cartoon in the Hanna-Barbera era to involve a sport.
• The ending gag where Jerry whacks a buried Tom in the head to make him swallow the 1-ball is similar was recycled in Tee for Two.
• Other balls chase Jerry in a fashion similar to The Bowling Alley-Cat and Tee for Two.
• This cartoon was reissued in 1956.
• A clip of this cartoon is shown in the horror film Night of the Lepus, where it is playing at a drive-in theater.
• In Boomerang Latin America, for unknown reasons, it does not show the MGM Cartoons intro. Instead, the cartoon starts when the Tom and Jerry logo appears.
• Clips from this cartoon were used in a French Pepsi commercial promoting Pepsi Cool in February 6, 1999.

Errors[]

• When Tom accidentally stabs himself with the needle, his face turns red. However, the needle is not visible in The Little Orphan.
• When the train of balls is first shot towards Jerry, ten of them are shown returning towards Tom, but only six stack up onto each other.

Availability[]

Super 8

Tom & Jerry Cartoon Festival Volume 3 (VHS, Betamax, & CED Videodisc)

Tom & Jerry's 50th Birthday Classics II (VHS)

The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume I (LaserDisc)

Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 3 (DVD)

Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 1 (DVD)

Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases Vol. 2 (DVD)

Tom and Jerry: World Champions (DVD)

Devil's Doorway (Blu-ray)^[1]

Gallery[]

Main article: Cue Ball Cat/Gallery

References[]