The Duck Doctor

The Duck Doctor is a 1952 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 64th Tom and Jerry cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It stars a Quacker as a wild duck, rather than a farm duck.

Plot
A flock of wild ducks is flying west, among them is a duckling, and Tom with a shotgun sees them. He fires several shots at them by the way and shoots the duckling in the wing. The wild duckling cries out in pain and tries to catch up its family on one wing, but this attempt could not succeed. It slowly falls out of the sky and down to earth as Tom prepares to catch him. The wild duckling ends up sliding across the ground, hits a rock, and bounces down, where it is knocked out.

Jerry hears the racket, opens his door, and is terrified to discover that duckling laying lifelessly and with only one arm and the cat chasing after him. Jerry just manages to hide it in the hole of a tree before Tom shows up; then the cat runs away to look somewhere else. Jerry listens for a pulse and discovers that the wild duckling is alive. Jerry splashes the wild duckling with a bucket of water and the duckling immediately wakes up with a start. He begs not to be shot, but when he sees that Jerry has saved him, he explains his situation and clutches his arm. Jerry straightens out the duckling's arm and makes a makeshift sling for it. The duckling cries out in excruciating ache and scolded Jerry for a few seconds, but soon sees the sling and compliments the mouse on his abilities as a doctor.

Jerry shushes the wild duckling because he sees Tom outside of the tree. The wild ducks of the family flying in the sky are heard quacking; Tom perks up when he sees the opportunity to shoot another duck down. This sound also attracts the duckling who says a sound of "bye!" to Jerry and tries to join its family flock, and knocks over Tom in the process. The duckling cannot get off the ground and soon Tom starts to shoot at it. Tom corners the wild duckling, and just before he plants a bullet in his feathers, Jerry sticks a reed up Tom's gun such that it backfires and leaves Tom with only a blackface.

Jerry carries the duckling back to his hole, but soon it hears the ducks again and runs out, only to spot Tom with his rifle again. Tom's shots barely graze the wild duckling's rear and Jerry is told to patch him up after hearing the duckling's explanation. Tom imitates a duck sound by blowing through a thin tube intending to call him and flush him out of hiding. The wild duckling mows over the door and Jerry in order to get out of the hole, but then doesn't see anything. Tom pins the gun to that wild duckling's head and the duckling barely dodges the point-blank bullet. After a few more shots, Tom follows the wild duckling into a tree stump, and he fires a shot into the stump, hitting the wild duckling again. Tom then pursues the duckling with the gun again, but accidentally shoots a pig's bottom. The pig lets out a loud squeal of pain and leaps high into the air. Tom looks up, and before he can react, the massive pig falls too quickly and has flattened him into the shape of her backside. She then runs away in terror.

The duckling passes by Jerry's hole and Jerry pulls him in in order to patch up the duckling even more. Less than the third of the wild duckling's body is now visible. Jerry ties it to a large anvil to keep him from running away.

Tom stealthily crawls on his belly over to Jerry's hole and uses his caller again. Just then, the wild duckling obligingly comes out, taking the anvil with him. When the duckling runs past Tom, the anvil flattens him. Tom fires shots at the wild duckling as the anvil drags across the ground. the wild duckling grips onto a tree and the anvil swings around and hits Tom square in the face, molding him into a stool shape. Suddenly the wild duckling stops when the anvil gets stuck between two small trees, and Tom sees his chance to kill the duckling when the anvil bursts free and crashes into Tom sending him flying backwards into a water pump.

The duckling then succeeds in getting in the air, but is held down by the weight of the anvil. Since the wild duckling cannot go anywhere, Tom shoots at it, but instead breaks the rope. The anvil plummets downwards directly where Tom is standing; quick as a flash,Tom panics and runs back and forth but the anvil follows Tom. He sees that there is no way out so he digs out a grave and smokes his last cigarette, it squishes him, kills him and falls over the grave and then the anvil becomes Tom's "tombstone". The duckling shakes off its bandages and flies away with the wild ducks, bidding farewell to Jerry, who had borrowed Tom's duck call and bids him back farewell by blowing it and just after that waving goodbye to him.

Voice cast

 * Red Coffee as The Duckling (uncredited)

Availability
Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 3, Disc One