Tail in the Trap (1962)

 

Tail in the Trap marks the only Tom and Jerry cartoon to be written by Tedd Pierce. Though he wrote cartoons for other studios, Tedd Pierce is best known for his work at Warner Brothers where he was a writer on some truly great Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts. As well as writing for these shorts, Pierce also provided voices. He voiced Bertie in some of the Hubie and Bertie cartoons and Babbit in Babbitt and Catstello, Looney Tunes' version of the comedy team Abbott and Costello (who first appeared as cats and then later as mice). 

In this short film, Jerry is a cheese bandit in a western town. Sheriff Mutt Dillin (a play on Matt Dillon on the popular TV western Gunsmoke) hires Tom, "Fastest Trap in the West" to stop Jerry. Tom naturally finds this a much harder job than he anticipated. 

In all these Gene Deitch directed Tom and Jerry cartoons, the European visual style seems at odds with the essentially Amercian slapstick of Tom and Jerry. Never is that more evident than in this short. With a writer well versed in American cartoon slapstick, this film is full of great slapstick gags. However, these gags don't mesh well with the art style and therefore are never as funny as they ought to be. The European art style and feel here also seem at odds with the very American western setting. Once again, I must complain about the sound effects which often come off as distracting and annoying. However, I very much enjoyed the musical score here. Having much of it being played on guitar and featuring old cowboy song helped make it stand out.   

This is the 10th of 13 Tom and Jerry cartoons directed by Gene Deitch and the 124th Tom and Jerry short all together. Wáclaw Bedřicz receives credit as "Animation Director." Štěpán Koníczek and George Jirmal receive credit for the music. This short film is available on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5 and Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection. 

This marks the last Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoon short to feature a western setting. Previous films in the series with a western setting include Texas Tom (1950) and Posse Cat (1954). The duo would later return out west in some of their TV adventures as well as the direct to video movie, Tom and Jerry: Cowboy Up! (2022). 

According to the Tom and Jerry Wiki, "The cartoon's concept was originally written by Warner screenwriter Tedd Pierce and co-writer Bill Danch for a Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies short featuring Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester the Cat, which may explain the presence of the light-switching gag previously used in the Bugs Bunny cartoon The Windblown Hare. It was pitched to director Robert McKimson, but McKimson decided against purchasing it (or, according to some other sources, was not able to purchase it due to the imminent closure of Warner Bros' cartoon studio). Instead, Pierce sold it to Deitch, who was desperately looking for suitable storylines for Tom and Jerry. Ironically, McKimson would later do his own Have Gun – Will Travel parody with the cartoon Feather Finger about three years later, which like the original story for this short, featured Speedy Gonzales (though with Daffy Duck as his opponent instead of Sylvester)." If you can find any other sources confirming this story, please let me know. It is a fascinating story but one should not take what they read on any wiki as automatic truth. 

-Michael J. Ruhland