Switchin' Kitten - (8 min. 40 sec.) 1961

The night is stormy. A cart drives up and a gleaming paw tosses out a package containing Tom. Inside the nearby castle, Jerry is working with a scientist on a mysterious experiment. He picks out the cat who has been chosen for the experiment. The cat is tied up next to a dog. The machine is switched on; the cat becomes a dog...or at least behaves like one-and vice versa. Tom arrives at the castle and grabs Jerry, who calls for the dog-cat, who hits Tom over the head. Jerry thanks him. Tom catches Jerry again, but the dog-cat begins to snarl and growl. Jerry throws him a bone. Tom tries, without success, to explain to the dog-cat that he, too, is a cat. The dog-cat flattens Tom between the pages of a book filled with photographs of cats. Tom runs after Jerry. The dog-cat hits him, and Tom is shot outside. He then finds himself inside the circuit set up by Jerry and the scientist. Tom manages to escape. He sees a whistling elephant, a rooster who acts like a sheep, and a meowing dog. Overcome, he begs for mercy from Jerry, who begins roaring like a lion and soon nestles in the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo. Tom shoots away like a rocket.

notes:

• The first of the Gene Deitch films

Down And Outing - (6 min. 49 sec.) 1961

Tom wakes up and prepares to go fishing with his master. Jerry goes with them. The car leaves, first without Jerry, then with-out Tom. The cat catches up with the vehicle. While trying to hit Jerry, he strikes the driver. Jerry steps on the accelerator. The driver crushes Tom's paw, and Tom falls Out on the road. He puts out a fire in his rear end in a nearby pond, which immediately dries up. The driver attaches Tom to the seat, but Jerry draws a mouse on the driver's foot, who soon beats up Tom. The driver catches Tom with his fishing rod. A fishing party begins on board the "Sea Note." Tom throws Jerry in the water, but the mouse gets back at him by attaching the hook on Tom's rod to the driver. As the film ends, Jerry and the fisherman are quietly fishing away, while Tom is all tied up in a basket, with a fish landing, from time to time, on his head.

notes:

• Tom's master looks a lot like "Clinton Clobber", a character Deitch created in his Terrytoon days.

It's Greek To Me-ow! - (6 min. 46 sec.) 1961

The setting is Athens. Tom is looking for food. He sees Jerry eating in a relaxed position. He extends his arm and soon gets it back right in the face, with a smack. He launches a bullet with a catapult, and it falls on his paw. Chased by a guard, he traps Jerry in a bottle, but can't get him Out. Tom is hit on the head by a vase, and then by a column, thrown by Jerry. Pushed into a trash can, he reappears, looking like a monster. Jerry, now in soldier's garb, flattens his tail with a rock and knocks him out with a club. Tom lands in a chariot from which the horses soon disappear. Jerry hurls it into the abyss. Tom runs away screaming. "Ah, yes," says the narrator, "the Greeks have a word for it!"
 

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High Steaks - (6 min. 21 sec.) 1962

A man is preparing a barbecue. Tom is on the scene when Jerry comes along. Tom grabs him and throws him Out. Tom and Jerry then duel with forks, and Tom accidentally sticks the man in the rear. Jerry hides in a badminton shuttlecock. Tom hits it with a racket and sends the shuttlecock flying so that it lands in the man's mouth. He strikes Tom. Jerry spills some Kooky Kola on the barbecue meat. The man holds Tom responsible and makes him drink the contents of the bottle. Jerry laughs and then dips Tom's tail into the barbecue. Tom runs away, screaming. He dives into the pool, and the man fishes him Out and ties him up. Jerry then transports Tom into the street and attaches him to a car that carries him off into the distance. Jerry, now rid of Tom, greedily devours a steak.
 

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Mouse Into Space - (6 min. 34 sec.) 1962

Jerry, fed up with Tom's harassment, decides to become a mouse astronaut and go off into space, where there are no cats. He packs his valise. Tom sees him leaving and tries to keep him from going by shooting him, striking him, and blowing him up with a bomb. Jerry goes to the astronauts' training center, takes a series of tests, and is declared fit for service. Meanwhile, Tom has become an alcoholic tramp. He hides in a pipe and soon finds himself being shot into space on a rocket. Tom gets into the cabin and harasses Jerry, who's inside. Tom is ejected and reaches another spaceship whose astronaut is a Soviet dog! Tom is hit by a shower of meteorites and falls through space, landing on the ground after a dizzying descent. There he finds Jerry, proudly sporting an astronaut's license. Tom sets it on fire. Jerry starts to chase him, and Tom takes to his heels.
 

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Landing Stripling - (6 min. 18 sec.) 1962

Tom is asleep. He is awakened by a bird, whom he captures and strikes. Jerry appears and saws away at a pole. When it falls Tom is thrown into a pot of boiling water. The unhappy cat loses some of his fur. He tries flooding Jerry's mouse hole with water, and soon finds himself caught in the water hose. He disguises himself as a birdman, but Jerry sends him off with the help of a ventilator. Tom fires a cannon, but Jerry has placed Tom's tail in the cannonball and Tom is thrown into a tree. He surveys the terrain with ground-lights, hoping to attract the bird, but he is soon carried off by a real airplane. The plane goes into a dive and lands Tom in the bird's tree. The bird pastes an airmail sticker on Tom's head.
 

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Calypso Cat - (7 min. 59 sec.) 1962

Tom is chasing Jerry. Jerry hides in a sack. Tom (ails into some water. He manages to embed Jerry in aspic. Chasing him once more, he suddenly notices a seductive white kitten. He forgets about Jerry, who tries to attract his attention by setting fire to his paw. The white kitten boards the Caribbean Queen. Tom and Jerry also manage to board the ship. Tom offers the kitten some pastry, but Jerry intervenes and the kitten is spattered with cake. Tom tries to clean her up, but bruises her. The kitten hits him with a tray. Tom offers her some flowers, but she gets soaked by the water from a tube under the bouquet. The Caribbean Queen finally docks, and the white kitten, simpering, disembarks with Tom. She turns her attention to a calypso musician with whom Tom has a fight. lamenting the loss of his ladylove, he consoles himself by chasing Jerry all through the return trip. Tom and Jerry meet up back where they started.
 

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Dicky Moe - (7 min. 5 sec.) 1962

A mad, one-legged sea captain tells of his obsession: Dicky Moe, the white whale Frightened, the crew quits the ship the Kumquat. The captain knocks out Tom and kidnaps him. Tom awakens on the Kumquat He's hoping for a rest but the captain makes him scrub the deck. Jerry, meanwhile, is qui etly reading. Tom scrubs him almost to the point of transparency. Jerry replaces the water Tom's been using with black grease which then dirties rather than cleans. Jerry laughs. Tom is hit on the head by the bucket of grease and turns completely black He eludes the captain's rage by pretending to be his shadow. He tries flattening Jerry with an anvil but gets smashed himself. The cap tam sights Dicky Moe. He fires at the beast with his harpoon cannon and Tom, who has been holding the end of the cord, is suddenly propelled forward and finds himself tied to the side of Dicky Moe, who carries him off into the distance.

notes:

• You can't believe how many times I get asked about this cartoon! A lot of you sure like this one.

The Tom And Jerry Cartoon Kit - (6 min. 28 sec.) 1962

A kit contains Tom and Jerry figures. The mouse emerges and eats a watermelon. Then Torn comes out and flicks Jerry with his finger. Jerry dances. Tom puts him in a box and begins to dance himself Tom finishes the watermelon and, with his mouth serving as a kind of cannon, shoots the seeds at Jerry. Jerry emerges from a book on judo and Tom goes to the mat. The cat practices boxing; he tries landing a blow on Jerry, but the mouse sends him reeling. He tries attacking him with a combat weapon, but gets all tangled up. Tom enters judo class and gets a diploma. Jerry breaks a stone. Tom goes to work on an enormous block and gets swallowed up in the ground. Jerry then shuts him up in the box labeled 'The End."

notes:

• This has to be the worst Tom and Jerry cartoon ever made.

Tall In The Trap - (7 min. 49 sec.) 1962

Dry Gulch, a small western town, has a particularly ineffectual sheriff. Mutt Dillin is unable to lay a hand on Jerry, wanted for cheese robbery. He calls in a specialist, Tom, and asks him to capture Jerry. Tom and Jerry face it Out in the town's main street, but Tom loses his pants while drawing his gun. He chases Jerry, who takes shelter in a saloon. Jerry knocks out Tom. Tom pursues the mouse and falls down the stairs. Jerry shoots Tom with the cat's own gun. The chase begins again. Tom draws on a mousetrap and a piece of cheese, but it's Tom who gets caught. He prepares a trap with gunpowder and is blown up. Mutt Dillin, the sheriff, chases after him with his gun while Jerry grabs another piece of cheese.

notes:

• Mutt Dillin is obviously a spoof of Matt Dillon in the Gunsmoke tv series.

Sorry Safari - (7 min. 17 sec.) 1962

A hunter arrives at the Nairobi airport. Out of his valise comes Tom and out of a hatbox comes Jerry. The hunter leaves on safari on an elephant's back. Tom soon ends up in a tree. The hunter ties a knot around Tom with his gun. The elephant crushes Tom. The hunter falls off his elephant, and he's growing very angry. A lion appears. He attacks the hunter, whose gun Tom has replaced with a thermos bottle. The hunter remounts the elephant, who crushes Tom's paws. Tom shakes Jerry. A rhinoceros arrives. The elephant, seeing Jerry, is frightened. The rhinoceros chases the hunter, Tom, and Jerry. He is hit by a tree branch. As the film ends, Jerry and the elephant are carrying the rhinoceros, the hunter, and Tom, like the spoils of a fruitful hunt.
 

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Buddies Thicker Than Water - (8 min. 58 sec.) 1962

New York is covered with snow. Jerry is relaxing in a luxurious apartment while, outside in the blizzard, Tom is freezing to death. Jerry receives a message of distress from Tom: "Help! I'm freezing!" Signed, 'Your old pal, Tom." And then another message: 'I'm dying of hunger, too. Tom." Jerry goes to the aid of Tom, who is completely frozen. He warms him with an electric blanket, feeds him, and soon they're tossing off a bottle of champagne. But the mistress of the house arrives and wants to throw Tom out. The cat shows Jerry to her; she screams, and Torn chases Jerry out of the house. The woman strokes him. Jerry covers himself in powder, puts on a record, dims the light and appears like a ghost. Tom is terrified. He then discovers the truth but falls into the snow. He sends Jerry a new distress signal. Jerry responds by sending him a hockey player's outfit.
 

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Carmen Get It! - (7 min. 38 sec.) 1962

Tom chases Jerry along Broadway. They find themselves in front of the Metropolitan Opera. The usher chases Tom away, but he manages to sneak in, hidden behind a cello. Tom sits down in the orchestra and plays a violin, inside of which a miniature tape player plays the music of Carmen. Tom rubs his bow with a piece of cheese and strikes Jerry with the bow. Jerry plays the tape player in reverse and the conductor, furious, breaks the violin over Tom's head. Jerry hides in the conductor's suit, so that he begins jigging about in the middle of the overture to Carmen. The conductor traps Tom between the pages of the score and continues to direct. Jerry discovers some ants and, by playing the flute, attracts them toward the score. Under the blare of the lights, Tom conducts the Carmen overture but the ants begin to move and the score moves with them. Tom grabs Jerry, screws him in like an electric bulb, and turns the switch on. The conductor returns. The singer playing Carmen sees Jerry and runs away. Tom finds himelf facing the conductor like a toreador confronting a maddened bull. They chase after one another while Jerry leads the orchestra in a brilliant rendition of the music.

notes:

• The last of the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerry's.

Thanks from: Randy Simcox