The Cat Above and the Mouse Below was the second Tom and Jerry cartoon to be directed and produced by Chuck Jones and one of the best.
In this short film, Tom is a famous opera singer about to give a major concert. However, Jerry is underneath the stage, Tom is performing on and is trying to get some sleep. When Tom's singing wakes Jerry up, Jerry does everything he can to make the concert end early.
This is a bit of an oddball entry in the Tom and Jerry series. While cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck or Mickey Mouse play human type roles in their films, Tom has always been treated as a real cat not a humanoid one. The idea of Tom being an opera singer is also a strange one as in most cartoons Tom doesn't speak. It is no secret that when he took over the series, Chuck Jones molded Tom and Jerry into more typical Chuck Jones characters. This is probably the most extreme example of that.
Just because this doesn't feel like a typical Tom and Jerry short does not make it a bad cartoon. On the contrary, this is a great cartoon. Everything about this film simply works. The opening scenes with Tom arriving for his concert are my favorite part of the film. These scenes make for a wonderful satire on celebrities and high culture. These scenes take the concept of high culture to a ridiculous extreme. From the exaggerated extravagance of Tom's limo to a group of women fighting over a flower that Tom throws, this is a truly hilarious satire made funnier by the dignified and nonchalant facial expressions on Tom. After these opening scenes the film morphs into a more typical Tom and Jerry fight. While this may not be as funny as the earlier scenes, the slapstick moves at a fast pace and is a lot of fun. Meanwhile the opera singing itself is fantastic and compliments the slapstick perfectly. I don't know why cartoon slapstick and classical music work so well together, but they do.
The opera singing is provided by Terrence Monk (sometimes spelled Terence Monck). Born on January 10, 1936 (in Long Beach, California), Monk was a trained opera singer studying at UCLA and Juilliard as well as the San Francisco Opera. In 1964 (the year this cartoon was released) he won the San Francisco Opera auditions. Over the course of his career, he had appeared with such stars as Judy Garland, Shirley Jones, Carol Lawerance, Anne Bylth and Barbara Eden. He would appear in such productions as My Fair Lady, Panama Hattie, Mack and Mabel, I Do, I Do!, See-Saw. He would also appear in soap operas including Days of Our Lives. He would go on to provide Tom with a singing voice in one more cartoon Cat and Dupli-cat (1967). Despite his impressive career it is these Tom and Jerry cartoons that he is best known for. He passed away on January 3, 2003 (in Long Beach, California) at the age of 67 from lung cancer.
Maurice Noble gets a co-director's credit. Tom Ray, Dick Thompson, Ben Washam, Ken Harris and Don Towsley. The music is credited to Eugene Poddany. Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese (who collaborated on some of the greatest Looney Tunes) share a writing credit. This was the first Tom and Jerry film of 1964 and the 129th Tom and Jerry cartoon overall. The film is available on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection, Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 6, Tom and Jerry: The Deluxe Anniversary Collection as well as the Laserdisc set The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume III: The Chuck Jones Cartoons.
Here is part of the storyboard for this film.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/The_Cat_Above_and_The_Mouse_Below
https://variety.com/2003/scene/people-news/terrence-monk-1117885275/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/255233906/terence-monk
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