Cue Ball Cat

Cue Ball Cat
Tom and Jerry series
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Story by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Music by	Scott Bradley
Animation by	Kenneth Muse Irven Spence Ed Barge Ray Patterson
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	November 25, 1950
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7' 02"
Language	English
Preceded by	The Framed Cat
Followed by	Casanova Cat

Cue Ball Cat is a 1950 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 54th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ed Barge and Ray Patterson, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and music by Scott Bradley.

Plot

Tom plays pool in a deserted pool hall, pocketing two balls by lowdown means (physically moving the side pocket and tipping the table up) and then wakes Jerry up by shooting the 10-ball into the pocket where he is sleeping. Jerry awakes just in time to avoid the 10-ball and is carried out to the ball return, where the 10 and the 13 smash the mouse between each other. Jerry is mad and walks up through the pocket, first sees nothing, but after a few steps back to the pocket, he spots Tom perched behind it.

Jerry tries to jump into another corner pocket, but Tom aims a cue ball with so much English that it dives into the pocket, spins back out of it and rolls Jerry backwards to Tom, who has made a ramp with his cue stick for the mouse to slide up. Jerry stops at the top of the stick and is then blown down by Tom, who then shoots a stream of balls to make the mouse flat (or flatten the mouse). The whole train rebounds back towards the cat and the balls stack up at Tom's end of the table. Tom shoots all the balls in succession with his cue, and then tries to shoot Jerry, but the mouse hangs onto the cue tip. The cat, as if he were saying "Have it your way", chalks up and shoots the 8-ball using Jerry.

The mouse drops off the cue tip and then is upended by the 8-ball rolling in circles, and Tom forces Jerry to jump through the ball rack as if he were a circus performer. Tom then sets it on fire to add an additional level of torment, and when Jerry accomplishes this with poise, Tom discards the flaming rack and shoots the 8-ball across the table and back. Jerry is whacked in the rear, with the mouse finding out the "8" imprint remains behind. An incensed Jerry draws back Tom's cue stick and hits his opponent with it.

Tom throws the 8-ball at Jerry, but the mouse ducks and the 8 bounces off the rails back into Tom's face. Tom tries again with an 8 and 6 (or 8 and 6), but Jerry bats them back into Tom's eyes. The 10-ball is returned at such speed it burns a hole through Tom's glove. Tom makes one last attempt with the 1-ball, and Jerry bats it so hard that he breaks the cue and Tom retreats through the pool hall to catch it. Tom stretches backwards and catches the 1-ball, and because of its weight and the cat's unbalanced posture, Tom is pulled into a drink machine and spat out as a drink bottle.

Jerry dives into a corner pocket as Tom returns in anger. Tom gropes through the pocket to find Jerry, but instead grabs his own tail, pulling himself through the pocket tunnels and back out. When he sees he's holding his own tail, Tom escapes the tunnels and sticks a fire hose down them, sweeping Jerry up. He takes swings at the stream with a mechanical bridge to hit Jerry, but only catches Jerry on the end of it. The mouse steals the bridge and uses it as a balancing stick on a high wire. Tom throws two cues at the mouse; the first shreds exactly in half when it hits the wire dead center, but the second scrapes Jerry's rear to a deep, alarming red, and he shoots the mechanical bridge into Tom's mouth as revenge. Tom gets up with the mechanical bridge in his mouth and lazily says "Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

Back on the table, the mouse runs away as Tom shoots a stream of balls towards him, which chase him into and out of the various pockets on the table. Eventually, the balls chase Jerry of their own accord, but Tom is in their path; Jerry opens his mouth and causes Tom to swallow all seven balls. Jerry flees into the corner pocket, and Tom sticks a cue into the pocket, looking to poke Jerry. The mouse, just as before, tricks the cat by attaching a hatpin to the tip end of the cue, and then yanks the cue briefly. Feeling this, the cat strikes and stabs himself in the rear end, and is sent screaming manically into the air and crashing down into the corner pocket. At this point, Jerry breaks a rack of balls and all 16 of them fall into pockets, except for the 1-ball; the mouse whacks the cat on the head such that his mouth opens in pain and that the 1 falls into Tom's mouth. The cat's embarrassed, choked expression ends the cartoon.