Directed by: Robert McKimson

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Dodsworth the cat (voiced by Sheldon Leonard) is too lazy to catch a woodpecker by himself, so he enlists the aid of an eager kitten (voiced by Mel Blanc) to get the bird.

Cartoon Cats: This Merrie Melodies cartoon begins with Dodsworth spotting the woodpecker and licking his lips.

After climbing up a telephone pole after the bird, Dodsworth comes back down with his face all bumpy from where the woodpecker pecked him.

Dodsworth follows the woodpecker to a tree and debates how to go about getting the bird. But then a small kitten suddenly shows up.

Introducing himself as an expert, Dodsworth offers to give the kitten lessons in birdcatching. The kitten eagerly agrees.

The kitten’s first lesson is to climb the tree and get the woodpecker and bring it down. The kitten is nervous but when Dodsworth asks if he’s afraid the kitten assures him he is not. The kitten growls and hisses and scurries up the tree.

The woodpecker drops a bowling ball onto the kitten and it drops down on Dodsworth’s head, leaving the kitten’s head in place of Dodsworth’s.

Next the kitten hangs onto the tail of a kite which Dodsworth flies up to the tree.

The woodpecker cuts up one end of a stick of dynamite and lights it. The kitten mistakes the frayed end for the head of the bird and grabs it, bringing it down to Dodsworth who eats it eagerly. The stick explodes and Dodsworth drinks some water which leaks through tiny holes in his stomach.

Next a tall ladder is employed. The kitten scurries up.

The woodpecker pecks the latch holding the ladder up and it crashes down on Dodsworth, leaving him trapped. This is further complicated when the kitten tries to raise the ladder again and pulls off Dodsworth’s fur.

Next Dodsworth lifts the kitten up on a pole but the woodpecker places a bottle of nitroglycerin on top instead (where do these animals order all of these things??)

Dodsworth resigns himself to his fate by putting on a blindfold and lighting a cigarette.

The kitten finally manages to reach the woodpecker’s hole via a crossbow but then all is quiet. Dodsworth starts to suspect the kitten is eating the bird himself.

As it turns out, the kitten throws down a note saying he has decided that if you can’t beat them to join them. The kitten dons a rubber glove comb and a beak and helps the woodpecker peck out the message Gnats to Cats.

This was the second Warner Bros. cartoon to feature Dodsworth and the kitten, the first being Kiddin’ the Kitten from 1952.

Final Mewsings: Lazy cats don’t deserve to eat birds.

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