Directed by: Chuck Jones

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

Synopsis: A pampered pussycat (voiced by Mel Blanc) panics when his butler quits. He then mistakenly trusts mice Hubie (voiced by Michael Maltese) and Bertie (voiced by Tedd Pierce) to show him how to hunt.

Cartoon Cat: The black and white cat, whose only name appears to be Pussy, is served breakfast in bed. He beckons the butler, Meadows, closer, only to squirt the man servant in the eye with his grapefruit.

Next the butler draws a bath for the cat who slides his soap beneath Meadow’s feet, causing the man to fall.

After ringing for Meadows several times and getting no answer, the cat goes downstairs to investigate.

A note on the door from Meadows telling the lady of the house that he quit because of the cat drives home the fact that Pussy is now all alone.

Desperately the cat cries repeatedly for Meadows to no avail.

A book about cats falls on his head and he reads how cats are supposed to catch mice. He practices looking fierce in a mirror.

But when he comes across Hubie the mouse, Pussy’s fierceness gives way to terror.

Hubie shows the cowering cat to Bertie. They realize the cat has no idea what a mouse even looks like.

Hubie points out the bulldog in the yard and tells the cat that the dog is a mouse.

The cat is nervous but approaches the sleeping dog . . .

. . . and makes a sandwich out of the canine’s leg.

The dog is quick to react to this!

After racing back inside, the cat sees the book with illustrations of mice and dogs.

He chases after the mice, circling a vase in pursuit. The cat then mistakes his own tail for a mouse and makes another sandwich, yowling in pain when he bites down.

Eventually they all end up in the doghouse and a fight ensues, but then the cat wakes up in bed gasping about what a bad nightmare he’s had. As it turns out the mice and bulldog are in the bed with him as well, having apparently suffered from the same dream!

This cat bears some similarities to an earlier Chuck Jones character named Conrad and was also a preliminary version of Claude, a yellow and white cat who would co-star with Hubie and Bertie in future shorts.

Final Mewsings: For a cat who’s starving he sure has access to a lot of bread!

Relevant Links:

To discuss this film and other cats in movies and on television, join us on Facebook and Twitter.