A Mouse in the House

A Mouse in the House is a 1947 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 32nd Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, Don Patterson, Richard Bickenbach, and Michael Lah, and was released to theatres on August 30, 1947. The title of this cartoon is an appropriate play on "a guest in the house."

Plot
Mammy Two Shoes is winding the alarm clock before she enters the kitchen, which has been ransacked by Jerry (who has had a "jam session" in the bread box, raided the refrigerator and taken bites out of a chocolate cake), and goes on a tirade against the residents of the house: Tom and Butch. She goes into the living room, where she finds them lazing around and drinking cream. Sarcastically pleased that the cats are satisfied, she yells at them, warning them that the one who catches Jerry can stay, but the other will have to leave the following morning.

The two cats frantically begin their search for Jerry, and are unsuspectingly aided by him, before realizing Jerry was under their noses the whole time. They scramble to catch Jerry, but instead become entangled. On only one of their eight feet, they tiptoe across the floor, until Jerry motions at them to stop and hits that foot with a fireplace log. This was Butch's left foot; he screams, jumping up and down, clutching Tom's left foot and eventually noticing he's got the wrong foot. He lets go of Tom's foot and grabs his foot, screaming appropriately.

The chase continues as Tom and Butch both grab Jerry together and decide to have a duel using a pair of guns they find lying around. Tom turns around early and shoots Butch as he turns around, but both finds out he is holding a "novelty gun", which whacks Butch on the nose. Butch (who thinks he has a real gun) angrily chases Tom into the wall, but when Tom sees exactly the same brand name on it, Tom assumes it is another "novelty gun", chuckles at this and snaps his fingers in victory. Extremely angry at this turn of events, Butch proceeds to shoot Tom; the gun goes off, and he has barely dodged the bullet, but it comes out of the wall, rolls down the head and onto his nose.

Meanwhile, Jerry enters an oven, Tom and Butch slam the door and turn on the gas as Jerry sneaks out, lights a match and drops it in the oven. Tom and Butch open the oven door, puzzled as to wondering why the oven hasn't exploded yet... and then it does, leaving them in blackface.

Jerry and the cats move into the living room, and the two cats hide to catch the mouse by stealth. The mouse looks both ways, slowly walks out, and is caught by both cats simultaneously. Jerry squeezes out of their grip, but is then grabbed by Butch. Tom grabs his leader's tail as he flees, keeping the cat from running away, but provokes further attacks: Tom bops Butch on the head, and Butch slips the mouse into a box with a sliding cover before continuing the fight.

Jerry escapes from the box and rings a boxing gong, ending the fight, and cleans up and coaches Tom and Butch to hit each other. Jerry rings the gong and both cats end up punching each other, as planned. They realise they've been tricked and glance towards Jerry, who is making fun of them by punching the air. Both of them pull up on either side of the mouse, incensed at the idea of a mouse tricking them into bopping each other. Eventually seeing he is trapped between the two cats and thus also realising that he pushed them around too far, the mouse chooses Butch via Eeny Meeny Mine Mo, makes a face to Tom, and sits down in Butch's hand.

Butch assumes that he has Jerry in his clutches, snaps his fingers in triumph and dares Tom to walk out in the morning. Tom slumps down and walks away, then hides behind a curtain. Butch is reveling in his victory until Tom reaches out and grabs Jerry directly out of the other cat's hand. Butch turns the corner and opens the curtain to find only Tom, who pretends to not know where the mouse is; in reality, he is underneath the cat, who lifts Tom up and carries him around to reveal himself. Tom simply continues with the charade, and Butch grabs Tom, revealing the mouse underneath, who soon sees Tom is missing. Butch drops him into the trash can and chases Jerry.

Annoyed, Tom runs into the kitchen, dressing himself in Mammy's clothing to trick Butch. Butch enters the kitchen, with Jerry clenched in his fist, and offers him to Tom, thinking that he is Mammy. He wallops Butch over the head with a frying pan, dashes out of his disguise and runs off with Jerry. Butch regains consciousness and runs into the living room, wearing Mammy's clothing, while pretending to arrange the bookshelves. Tom manages to fall for the same trick, getting walloped over the head with a chimney shovel. Butch runs off with Jerry until he runs straight into an ironing board and knocks himself out; Jerry escapes from Butch's clutches and runs off. Both cats pick up the weapons used against them and chase after the mouse.

Tom approaches from one room, sees Mammy coming down the stairs and refusing to be fooled again hides behind the stairs with frying pan and broom weapon; Butch is also taken in and hides on the other side of the stairs, neither of them seeing each other. As Mammy peeks through a door to check on them both, the two cats hit her rear end repeatedly with their weapons, each thinking that Mammy is the other cat in disguise. Mammy gets hurt from the beating, and it is why she screams at the top of her lungs. Tom and Butch look at each other in confusion, then lift Mammy's skirt, revealing their mistaken target.

Realizing they are in big trouble, they attempt to flee, but an overly angry Mammy grabs their tails and noisily throws them out of the house as Jerry opens the door. The mouse then wipes his hands clean and marches back joyfully, guessing he has won, but is met with Mammy tapping her foot, effectively about to give the mouse the boot as well. Resigned, Jerry slowly retreats to the door while the cartoon irises out. It stops on Jerry, who waves to Mammy with a smile on his face, then shuts it when he dashes away.

Voice cast

 * Lillian Randolph as Mammy Two Shoes (original) (uncredited)
 * Thea Vidale as Mammy Two Shoes (dubbed version) (uncredited)

Censorship
On Cartoon Network, the scene showing Tom and Butch in blackface after the oven explosion is censored.

Availability
DVD
 * Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 3, Disc One
 * Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume One, Disc Two