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 (uncredited) Daws Butler (uncredited) |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by |
Ed Barge Irven Spence Ray Patterson Kenneth Muse |
| Layouts by | Richard Bickenbach |
| Backgrounds by | Robert Gentle |
| Distributed by | Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
| Release date(s) |
|
| 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. The animated by Ed Barge, Irven Spence, Lewis Marshall and Kenneth Muse with backgrounds by Robert Gentle. It is one of the special episodes featuring a guest appearance with Uncle Pecos and his music were performed (uncredited) by Shug Fisher.
Plot
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 he [Jerry] shakes his head. Pecos looks out the mouse hole and claims he sees another string. He walks up to a sleeping Tom, 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 mouse hole, accidentally banging his uncle's head on the wall just above the hole whilst doing so. Jerry quickly drags Pecos into the hole. Just as Tom is about to get them, Pecos sticks his head out and thanks a confused Tom for his "service".
Tom then heads to the bathroom to examine his severed whisker 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 seizes Pecos, but Jerry arrives, rescuing his uncle again by squirting a tube of toothpaste on Tom's eyes, and the toothpaste assembled into the shape of glasses. As Jerry makes a run back to the mouse hole 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. Scared of feeling any more pain due to another whisker being plucked, Tom barricades the grate and flees. He hides next to the basement door, which Pecos throws open on top of him, and calls for the cat while Jerry holds onto his uncle's tail, trying to restrain him.
The force of the impact causes the basement door to break into pieces, revealing a flattened Tom, who immediately runs away as Pecos follows. Tom slams anything he can find onto Pecos in order to keep him at bay: first a bread bin, then the top half of a Dutch Door shut (without realizing that, because Pecos is a mouse, he can simply walk underneath it), and finally a mop. As if uninterrupted, Pecos keeps coming and trying 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. As a last resort, Tom jumps out the kitchen window and runs back to the front door before shutting it. He slowly checks through the peep-hole to see if the coast is clear, but Pecos suddenly reaches through and yanks off a whisker.
Pecos installs the whisker and tunes his guitar off-screen, but soon afterwards, another string breaks. Tom 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 Pecos's head, but Pecos, unfazed, flips over the chair and removes another whisker. Adamant not to lose the two leftover 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, which causes Tom to relax a bit and step out of his hiding place, liking the music that Pecos generates. Until the snap of yet another string is heard. Tom instantaneously gasps and retreats back into the closet.
Determined to get another whisker, Pecos approaches the closet door, declaring, "You know darn well I can't play without a guitar string." before he proceeds to attack the door with an axe. Tom finally surrenders with a white flag, pulls out his fifth whisker and hands it to Pecos, who then 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 very irritated) 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 he finishes his performance.
Availability
DVD
- Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 3
- Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 1, Disc Two