Mouse Trouble
Tags: psychedelic, comic

Plot synopsis:
A mailman delivers a box in the mailbox. Tom opens the box and finds a book on how to catch mice and for the rest of the cartoon, he takes its advice to attempt to catch the mouse (Jerry).
The first thing the book suggests is to locate the mouse. Tom "locates" the mouse, but when he tries to grab Jerry, the mouse steps off the book and slams Tom's nose in it.
Tom sets out a simple mouse trap and tests it by snapping it by touching it with a feather. Jerry, however, succeeds in freeing the cheese from it without setting off the trap. Shocked at the trap's failure, Tom tests it, and the trap snaps as soon as he touches it, causing him to scream in pain. Tom then sets a snare trap around a piece of cheese and gets ready to pull the string but Jerry sneakily replaces the cheese with a bowl of cream. When Tom peeks back at the trap, he sees the cream and drinks it, completely distracted by it as Jerry activates the trap, sending the cat out to the tree himself.
Tom's next attempt at catching Jerry is to guffaw while reading the book. A curious Jerry ventures out of his hole and Tom eventually captures Jerry by shutting him into the book. But when Tom grabs him, Jerry pulls the same trick on him with his fists. Tom inspects them only to get punched in the eye and leaving Jerry to escape. (This trick was pulled again in Safety Second.) After reading in the book that "A Cornered Mouse NEVER FIGHTS", Tom pounces onto Jerry, but Jerry fights back and beats Tom offscreen. Afterwards, Tom, now bruised and battered, drones "Don't you believe it!" - a cultural reference to the distinctive jingle on the 1940s radio show Don't You Believe it! (Voiced by Harry E. Lang.) (This was repeated at the conclusion of the episode The Missing Mouse).
At this point, Tom stops reading from chapter-to-chapter and skims the book, trying suggestions that he likes or thinks one of them will work. Upon reading Chapter VII: "Be scientific in your approach", Tom uses a stethoscope to listen for Jerry within the walls of the house. This backfires when Jerry screams into the microphone, almost deafening Tom. Tom then forces a double-barreled shotgun into Jerry's mousehole. However, the barrels of the gun bend upwards, protrude out of the wall and point straight at Tom's head as the cat fires and ends up shooting himself in the head, rendering himself bald.
In the next scene, Tom, wearing a dodgy, orange toupée, sets a bear trap and sticks it inside Jerry's hole. Jerry walks outside from another hole behind Tom and puts then trap behind him. Just as Tom sits down, the trap triggers. Tom screams in pain and is sent up into the ceiling. Tom then tries to use a mallet to flatten Jerry. Jerry pops out of a hole behind a picture right above Tom, grabs the mallet, and hits him, knocking him out.
Tom then attempts to hide inside a large gift box before knocking on Jerry's wall. Jerry, seeing the box, knocks on it. With no response, Jerry returns with a bunch of pins and sticks them inside the box while Tom whimpers in pain before sawing the box in half. Hearing nothing inside, Jerry looks inside the box, and in horror, he gulps and displays a sign reading "IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?"
Now covered in bandages (including one wrapped around his bisected torso), Tom reads the twelfth chapter of the book, "Mice are Suckers for Dames", which makes him wind up a female toy mouse which repeatedly says "come up and see me some time". Jerry, noticing the toy, walks with it. Tom attempts to lure Jerry into a mouse-sized pretend hotel which is named "cozy arms", the door of which leads into Tom's open mouth. But to Tom's dismay, Jerry ushers the toy mouse into the hotel first, which causes Tom to eat it and breaking it (shattering his teeth in the process). After hiccuping twice (which triggers the swallowed toy's voicebox), Tom looks at his decrepit teeth in a mirror. This infuriates the cat as he shatters the mirror and angrily rips off and destroys the book.
Tom goes insane and gets revenge by attempting to blow away Jerry with dozens of explosives (TNT, gunpowder, dynamite and a massive block buster that resembles the atom bomb Fat Man). When Tom ignites a piece of dynamite cautiously, it doesn't start the fuse enough, so he blows the fuse too hard. This causes the fuse to be fired immediately, and explosives erupt, killing Tom. Nothing at all remains of the house except Jerry (who remains unharmed after the explosion) and the part of his mousehole, while a fed-up Tom, this time with a spirit form, is seen on a cloud floating to heaven with a harp and a halo, all the while, repeatedly hiccuping "come up and see me some time" ad infinitum.

Review: Excellent tom and jerry short.
One of Tom and Jerry's best shorts involves Tom ordering a book on how to catch mice.
As Tom finds out, the advice is hardly fool proof and leads to some of the most memorable gags in the history of the cat and mouse duo.
the toupee, the robotic female mouse, the pretending to read something uproarious gag, "Don't you believe it".
This short is excellence personified and a MUST HAVE for everyone with even a passing interest of Tom and Jerry shorts.
This hilarious Oscar winning cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry" My Grade: A+.
This Had The Feel Of A Roadrunner Cartoon.
It's pretty sad when a cat has to send away for a book entitled, "How To Catch A Mouse," but that's what poor Tom did.
By the way, the publisher of the book is "Random Mouse."This cartoon reminded me early on of a Road Runner episode.
The difference is that Tom plays Wile E.
Coyote and Jerry is the elusive Road Runner.
No matter what trap Tom sets, Jerry figures a way to beat it....or the trap backfires in predictable manner.Yes, half the gags were too predictable but it was still entertaining and it did offer a few new wrinkles....like a windup Mae West doll which provides all the laughs in the final minute and is very original material..
Tom's "how to" book must have been written by a mouse!.
This cartoon won an Oscar in 1944 and it's easy to see why.
Tom tries to use a book's advice on how to catch a mouse.
Which works out very well for Jerry, but not for Tom!
I suspect that the book was written by a mouse-maybe even Jerry himself.
Tom certainly comes out the worse for wear here.
I almost feel sorry for Tom.
A very funny (and violent, even for a Tom and Jerry!) cartoon that runs frequently on the Cartoon Network.
Recommended..
Come up and see me sometime..
Despite the rather generic title (there had already been a T&J short called Dog Trouble) this Oscar-winning cartoon proves that it's worth the Academy Award by being very funny and inventive.Mouse Trouble has Tom order a book on how to catch mice (from Random Mouse Publishing nonetheless) and follow the foolproof instructions exactly as printed no matter how many times they prove to be completely ineffectual.
Naturally they all come back to bite him in the ass.
Poor Tom, he gets so beaten up in this one but never lets the pain lessen his enthusiasm.Plenty of visual jokes and laughs in this one..
Mouse Trouble.
Mouse Trouble (1944)*** 1/2 (out of 4) If you go through the Tom and Jerry shorts in the order that they were released you'll notice that 1944 had some of the greatest films.
That trend continues here as Tom orders a book on how to catch a mouse, which he reads and tries to do but Jerry isn't going to go without a fight.
This short is basically broken up into several chapters as Tom reads from the book, tries what it says and then moves onto the next chapter.
For the most part this is just one violent attack on the poor cat after another and of course it's fast and funny.
The highlight is certainly the sequence where Tom tries to use curiosity to catch the mouse.
There's no doubt that the funniest thing is just that high-pitched scream from Tom..
Predictable with an obvious title, but still very funny and well made.
I am a fan of Tom and Jerry, and have been for as long as I can remember.
Mouse Trouble is not the best of their cartoons, but I like it.
Where Mouse Trouble is not so impressive is in its predictable story and its somewhat obvious and generic title.
However, the animation is very good for its time, with lovely backgrounds and the characters are drawn well.
The music is wonderful too, as it nearly always it, while the sight gags are clever if quite violent too, particularly the one with the robotic female mouse and "Mice are suckers for dames".
The pacing is good as well, while both Tom and Jerry are very entertaining.
And I do agree, it does have a Roadrunner vs.
Wile E.Coyote feel to it.
Overall, I liked it, but I don't consider it a favourite like I do with The Cat Concerto, Mice Follies or The Two Mouseketeers.
8/10 Bethany Cox. Too predictable to be very funny..
Tom once again attempts to trap Jerry, this time using a variety of ingenious methods which are described in his recent book purchase, entitled 'How To Catch A Mouse'.An episodic T&J caper (as opposed to the usual, single, prolonged chase scene), Mouse Trouble is basically a series of quick fire gags, which sees Tom's different traps backfiring in amusing ways.
I use the word amusing, because, unfortunately, they are very rarely hilarious, being way too predictable in their outcome.This style of cartoon would be done much better (and again and again) years later by the brilliant Wile E.Coyote and Roadrunner..
Very well done, possibly my favorite T&J episode.
"Mouse Trouble" is a short film from over 70 years ago, already in color and with sound, and it features world's famous cat and mouse duo.
Tom has ordered a book that helps him keep up-to-date with how to catch mice these days.
Probably not a bad idea as he has failed so many times in the past.
Sadly, Jerry is once again simply too smart for him and manages to get out of every dangerous situation and take revenge on Tom for trying to catch him.
This is basically a collection of very short sketches, each one around 30 seconds.
This is not a problem at all though as these are really creative, funny and also brought some new tricks to the table that hadn't been done in cartoons already.
Interesting about this one is also that we see Tom with a ginger wig to hide his bald head at some point.
I enjoyed it.
The Academy obviously did as well.
Thumbs up, this one is definitely worth the watch..
Catching mice...
by the book!.
This 'Tom and Jerry' short opens with Tom getting a book on how to catch mice in the post.
He quickly starts reading it only to notice that Jerry is reading it too!
Tom chases him back to his mouse hole then sets about trying each of the ideas proposed in the book.
Of course none work; when he sets a trap it doesn't go off even when Jerry tugs at the cheese on it but does go off when Tom touches it, next he sets a snare but Jerry switches the cheese for a bowl of cream and Tom gets caught himself...
and so it goes on with each successive idea leading to Tom getting more and more damaged until he is ultimately blown to kingdom come.The gags here might be fairly predictable but they come thing and fast and are pretty funny...
and delightfully cruel.
The thing I found funniest was that after shooting himself in the head and effectively scalping himself Tom wears a shocking red toupee...
normally this would be a one shot gag but here he continues to wear it to the end of the cartoon!
The animation here looks good; certainly much better than it was in their '60s outings..
Well made, but I agree that it is awfully predictable..
I love Tom and Jerry cartoons for two reasons.
First, the original ones were unashamedly violent--funny and cartoony but violent.
Second, the animation of their films from the early 40s to mid-50s was probably better than the shorts from Looney Tunes and Disney.
However, despite these pluses, the films are amazingly predictable.
Tom chases and tries to kill Jerry and Jerry ends up beating the snot out of Tom instead is the plot of 90% of these films and MOUSE TROUBLE is no exception.
It seems odd to me, then, that Tom and Jerry actually took home more Oscars than the Looney Tunes people for all their cartoons during the the 40s and 50s.
I dunno.
They sure were animated nicely but they just weren't especially novel.
Perhaps the Oscar people just hated cats!
As for this particular film, I've seen it many times.
It's the one where Tom buys a book on how to catch a mouse (has such a book EVER really been written?!?).
And, by using the book, Tom STILL gets clobbered by Jerry and proves he's just a boob.
Aside from the great animation (Tom and Jerry cartoons pre-1950 are the most beautiful), I also liked that there was better than usual continuity.
When Tom has the top of his head shot off, he wears a toupee the rest of the film to hide it!
Clever--just not earth-shaking.By the way, me divulging that Jerry beats Tom--is this REALLY a spoiler?!?!.
Cat Trouble (Contains Spoiler).
There is a scene here where the "How To" book talks about curiosity so Tom begins laughing at a book and Jerry curious as always decides to see what Tom is laughing at but every time he gets near the book Tom moves to another direction.
Finally Jerry gets in top of the book and as he reads Tom shuts the book close and when he opens it Jerry is looking at something inside his covered hand.
Tom is the one curious now.
So Jerry does the same thing Tom did to him but finally Jerry decides to show Tom what he has inside of hand.
When Tom peeks inside Jerry punches him in the eye!HILARIOUS!
3(***)out of 4(****)stars