The Night Watchman

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The Night Watchman

Directed By: Charles Jones Produced By: Leon Schlesinger Henry Binder Released: November 19, 1938 Series: Merrie Melodies Story: Ted Pierce Animation: Ken Harris Keith Darling (uncredited) A.C. Gamer (uncredited) Bob McKimson (uncredited) Phil Monroe (uncredited) Rod Scribner (uncredited) Ben Washam (uncredited) Layouts: Backgrounds: Art Loomer Film Editor: Treg Brown Voiced By: Mel Blanc Margaret Hill-Talbot The Sportsmen Quartet Music: Carl W. Stalling Starring: Tommy Cat Tough Mice Vocalists Preceded By: You're an Education Succeeded By: The Daffy Doc

The Night Watchman is a Merrie Melodies cartoon released to theaters on November 19, 1938. This short was the very first film directed by a then-credited Charles Jones after he was promoted from an animator (where he was under Fred Avery and Robert Clampett's units).

Plot

The watchman gets sick, so his son Tommy Cat is enlisted to watch the kitchen. When the gangland-style mice find out that he's the one on duty, they try to take over.

Trivia

• This was the first to use the green rings, which would be used until 1939.
• For the so-called "dubbed version" created by Turner, recreated Blue Ribbon title cards were made for this cartoon and Daffy Duck & Egghead (see this page for more details). For the 2006 DVD release, the original title cards were found for this cartoon.
  • The recreated blue ribbon card had the VITAPHONE rings from Count Me Out for unknown reasons.
  • While the USA Turner print has borders in the recreated WB shield and preserves the original 1938-1941 Merrie Melodies ending music cue, the EU Turner print on the other hand has no borders in recreated WB shield and has the 1941-1955 Merrie Melodies ending music cue replacing the original ending music cue.
• Margaret Talbot's (née Peggy Hill) first cartoon for Chuck Jones, later to do the voice of Sniffles the Mouse. Co-incidentally, Tommy Cat bears some facial resemblance to Sniffles, as he served as a prototype to the character.
• Much like Ain't We Got Fun, this cartoon features mice in villain roles rather than the cats. Jones would use similar role reversals in cat-and-mouse in Scaredy Cat, Claws for Alarm and Kiss Me Cat.
• The scene where the lead gangland mouse pulls of the button from Tommy Cat's suspenders (and Tommy Cat doing the same thing to the lead gangland mouse at the end) is a partial reference of the Mickey Mouse cartoon "Mickey's Rival" by rival studio Disney, where Mortimer Mouse pulls off the buttons from Mickey's shorts.

Gallery

Lobby Card

Comparision of the "original" Blue Ribbon reissue titles and the recreated ones.

Recreated Blue Ribbon Re-Issue Titles

External links

Animation breakdown of the cartoon