The Haunted Mouse

The Haunted Mouse is a 1941 Looney Tunes short directed by Tex Avery. 
== Title ==
The title is a play on "haunted house".
== Plot ==
A cat is starving, when he sees a sign that says "Ma's Place Home Cooking" within 3 miles. He rushes into town at once but neglects to read the part that says that the town full of a hundred ghosts. The ghost town has nearly every building having the word "ghost" in the name. The cat enters the restaurant hoping to find some grub.
One of the ghosts residing in the place happens to be a mouse who wants revenge on cats for tormenting him all his life. The mouse decides that the cat would make a perfect target for his wrath, and sets out to ruin his life. The mouse sets out a saucer of milk that suddenly disappears. As the mouse taunts the cat, the mouse states he should go for sardines or mice, and once the cat realizes the ghost is a mouse, he pursues the mouse.
Since the mouse is an intangible ghost, the mouse is easy to trick the dumb cat. The ghost kicks the cat, ties his tail into a knot, tickles him in the stomach, drums on his head with drumsticks, and smooches him. Finally, the mouse sets off a match near the cat's foot as he tries to search the mouse hole, causing the cat to run out, but he crashes through a window and mortally falls down. The cat's ghost, now angered at the mouse, ends up scaring the mouse out of the ghost town.
== Availability ==
LTCE VOL 8 TEX-BOOK LOONEY.jpg|(2000) VHS Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 8: Tex-Book Looney
=== Streaming ===
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2023) (restored)
lt max.jpg|Max (2023 - 2024) (restored)
== Goofs ==
* The 2020 restored print of the short uses the prototype 1937 Looney Tunes opening theme from "Porky's Double Trouble".
** This same print also has an audio splice near the end before the "That's all Folks!" sequence.
== Notes ==
* This is Michael Maltese's first writing credit for a Warner Bros. cartoon, although his last name is misspelled as "Malteze".
** This is the only Looney Tune directed by Tex Avery with Michael Maltese as writer.
* This is the first Looney Tune to be a one-shot cartoon, which is a cartoon that does not feature any of the regular or semi-regular characters. Prior to this, all one-shot cartoons were part of the Merrie Melodies series.
* This is the final Looney Tune with the slowly-paced 1938-41 opening rendition of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down".
* The cartoon is now in the public domain due to Warner Bros.-Seven Arts failing to renew the copyright in 1969. All black-and-white Looney Tunes cartoons released after this one are in the public domain.
* The film was copyrighted on 15 February 1941, along with "The Crackpot Quail."Catalog of Copyright Entries
** Both shorts were theatrically released on the same day.
== Gallery ==
2900b5df449f6ded982df0f628b5db08.jpg|Lobby card
TheHauntedMouseRestored.jpeg|Cropped screenshot of 2020 restoration
File:1333333333.png|Model sheet
HauntedMouseLAYOUT.jpg
File:The Haunted Mouse Title cel.png|Title card production cel
== References ==
fr:The Haunted Mouse
Category:1941
Category:Shorts
Category:Cartoons directed by Tex Avery
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:Black-and-white cartoons
Category:Post-1935 Black & White Looney Tunes
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons animated by Sid Sutherland
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons animated by Charles McKimson
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by John Didrik Johnsen
Category:Cartoons in the Sunset Productions package
Category:One-Shot Cartoons
Category:Public domain films
Category:Mice
Category:Cats