Texas Tom
| Texas Tom | |
|---|---|
| Tom and Jerry series | |
 The reissue title card of Texas Tom | |
| Directed by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Story by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by |
Kenneth Muse Irven Spence Ray Patterson Ed Barge |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |
|
| Color process |
Technicolor Perspecta (reissue) |
| Running time | 6:34 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Saturday Evening Puss |
| Followed by | Jerry and the Lion |
Texas Tom is a 1950 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 49th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ray Patterson and Ed Barge and released to theatres on March 11, 1950. Excerpts of this cartoon are seen in two other Tom and Jerry shorts, Smitten Kitten and Cruise Cat; both instances with altered audio.
Plot
The scene opens with music from the song "I Tipped My Hat and Slowly Rode Away". Tom, at a Texas ranch, lifts a flower pot to reveal a cowering Jerry. Jerry flees, but Tom casually catches him with his lasso, with Jerry getting impaled by a spur and a cactus. Jerry whacks Tom with a cactus leaf to escape. Tom grabs the lasso, but crashes into a post. Tom catches the mouse again and pulls out a revolver, but Jerry blows the bullets into Tom's mouth, kicks the gun out of Tom's hand and hits him in the back of the head, causing the bullets to detonate. Tom goes to exact revenge, but an attractive cowgirl cat is dropped off at a saloon, and Tom instantly falls in love with her. Tom gets dressed and tries to impress the cowgirl, rolling tobacco onto a piece of paper and using Jerry's tongue to close it, Tom smokes it to spell "Howdy".
Tom then produces a guitar and sings "If You're Ever Down in Texas, Look Me Up" for her but secretly has a record player playing the song for him. Jerry messes with the speed of the player to make the cat change his lip sync speed accordingly causing Tom to knock Jerry out with his guitar. Jerry gets revenge by using a tree to launch a branding iron at Tom, striking him in the posterior. Tom leaps into the air and cools off in a water trough and then chases after Jerry.
Tom tries to lasso the mouse, and catches Jerry, but Jerry manages to throw the lasso around the horn of an observing bull. Tom pulls the bull to him, thinking he is Jerry and dragging him through a haystack, then grapples inside to find the mouse but instead wrenches a horn out. Realizing his (likely soon-to-be fatal) mistake, the cat chuckles nervously and blows a cavalry charge on the horn like a trumpet before reattaching it to the bull and turning it the right way, hoping this will assuage the bull. Supremely and understandably ticked off, the bull lets out an enraged bellow and charges with the cat on his horns, intending to crush him against a tree. Just before impact, Tom holds onto a tree branch to make the bull crash against the trunk, briefly knocking it out. Tom hides behind a gate, but the bull plows right through it (leaving Tom staring in horror at the hole where his torso used to be) and swaps his current horns with a much larger pair before resuming his pursuit of the cat.
Tom hides in a henhouse, but the bull rips it off the ground, scaring the hens away. Tom attempts to imitate a hen by clucking, but when the bull obviously isn't fooled, chucks an egg into the bull's face and legs it with the enraged animal in pursuit, but soon finds himself cornered. With the bull rapidly approaching, Tom accepts his fate, puts on a blindfold and smokes a cigarette as the bull plows into him, sending Tom flying onto the roof of the ranch house before sliding down the drainpipe and being deposited in front of the cowgirl. Jerry, now also wearing his cowboy outfit, gives the cowgirl a big kiss and jumps onto Tom, giddies him up and rides off into the sunset on his back.
Availability
DVD
- Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 1, Disc Two