Pecos Pest

Pecos Pest
Tom and Jerry series

Title Card
Directed by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Produced by Fred Quimby
Story by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Voices by Shug Fisher
Music by Scott Bradley
Animation by Ed Barge
Irven Spence
Ray Patterson
Kenneth Muse
Additional animation:
Lewis Marshall(uncredited)
Backgrounds by Robert Gentle
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) November 11, 1955
Color process Technicolor
Running time 6:40
Language English
Preceded by Smarty Cat
Followed by That's My Mommy

Pecos Pest is the 96th one-reel animated Tom and Jerry short, released in 1955 directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera scored by Scott Bradley and released in theaters on November 11, 1955 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Pecos Pest was directed by Hanna and Barbera, and was the last Tom and Jerry cartoon released to be produced by Fred Quimby before he went into retirement. The cartoon was also the last Tom and Jerry cartoon produced in Academy format; all subsequent Tom and Jerry cartoons were released in CinemaScope format. It was animated by Ed Barge, Irven Spence, Lewis Marshall and Kenneth Muse with backgrounds by Robert Gentle. Uncle Pecos and his music were performed (uncredited) by Shug Fisher.

Plot

Uncle Pecos (right) with Tom in Pecos Pest

Jerry receives a telegram from his Uncle Pecos, saying he is on his way to the big city from Texas for a guitar solo and will be staying with his nephew for the night; Pecos then arrives shortly after. The mustached mouse (who stutters in a fashion similar to Porky Pig) gives Jerry a performance on his guitar, playing his new song, "Crambone" (his variation of the song "Frog Went A-Courting"), which he gets through most of until he breaks a guitar string toward the end.

Uncle Pecos asks Jerry if he has a spare guitar string, but Jerry shakes his head no. Pecos looks out the mouse hole and claims he sees another string. He walks up to a sleeping Tom and fearlessly plucks a whisker off the cat's face and installs it into his guitar, startling Tom awake and out of sleep. As Pecos starts to play a song, a shocked Jerry comes to the rescue and quickly carries his reckless uncle away from Tom back to the mousehole, accidentally banging his uncle's head on the wall just above the hole whilst doing so. Just as Tom is about to get him, Jerry drags Pecos into the hole, but Pecos sticks his head out and thanks a confused Tom for his "service".

Tom then heads to the bathroom to examine his damaged face in the mirror, but then he hears the sound of Pecos breaking another string. Pecos then appears and plucks another whisker from Tom's face. An angry Tom then grabs Pecos, but Jerry arrives and rescues him again by squirting Tom with a tube of toothpaste. As Jerry makes a run back to the mousehole with Pecos, they fall through a floor grate. Tom arrives and listens to Pecos continuing to play his guitar until he breaks another string and claims he needs another whisker. Not wanting to be a cat without any whiskers, he barricades the grate and flees in panic. He hides next to the basement door, which Pecos throws open on top of him.

He calls for the cat with Jerry grabbing his tail trying to restrain him. The force of the impact causes the basement door to break into pieces, revealing a flattened Tom. When Pecos notices him, Tom runs away in fear. Pecos follows him and tries to reason with the cat that he needs a whisker to fix his guitar and is not going to let a broken string stand in the way of his fame and fortune. But Tom is adamant not to lose anymore whiskers and slams anything he can find onto Pecos in order to try and keep him at bay: first a bread bin , then the top half of a Dutch Door shut (without realizing that because Pecos is only a mouse, he can simply walk underneath it), and finally a mop. As a last resort, Tom jumps out the kitchen window and runs back to the front door before shutting it. He checks through the peep-hole to see if the coast is clear, but Pecos suddenly reaches through and yanks off a whisker.

As Pecos installs the whisker and tunes his guitar off-screen, the sound of yet another string horrifies Tom and he frantically runs away to look for another place to hide. Pecos comes searching for him again, and finds him sitting on a chair wearing a knight's helmet and holding a book and a lit cigar. Tom dumps some cigar ash onto Peco's head, and Pecos responds by flipping over the chair and removing another whisker. Wanting to save the last of his whiskers, Tom dashes into a nearby closet and slams the door shut. Pecos then invites Jerry to listen to his encore. He plays it with no problems, and Tom steps out of the closet, liking the music that Pecos generates. Until, to Tom's horror, the snap of another string is heard, forcing him to retreat back into the closet.

Determined to get another whisker, Pecos attacks the door with an axe, saying that "You know darn well I can't play without a guitar string". Tom finally surrenders with a white flag and pulls out his fifth whisker as a sacrifice to keep Pecos away from him. Fortunately, Pecos announces to Jerry that he has to leave and reminds him to watch his concert the next night. The night comes, and both Jerry and Tom (who now has one whisker left and is extremely annoyed) are watching his performance on the living room TV. Pecos starts playing, but midway through, one of the guitar's strings snaps again. Tom goes up to the TV and laughs hysterically at Peco's situation, knowing that he has no replacement strings. But in a comical twist, Pecos reaches through the TV screen and yanks out Tom's last whisker, leaving Tom baffled as Pecos finishes his performance.

Availability

DVD

See also

External links

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