Must See Movie...

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

"Saturday Evening Puss", which has an R-rated ring to it by today's standards, is another Hanna Barbera MGM cartoon and this one was released back in 1950, so it is already over 65 years old. As always with these, there is not too much voice acting in here, but Lillian Randolph is featured prominently. It is relatively unusual that the first 60 seconds belong to her character, but here it is true as we see her leave for a card game with friends. And she is hardly out of the door when Tom invites all his buddies over to have a party. Jerry, who also takes unusually long to be seen for the first time, is not amused as he just wants his calm and when nothing helps, he finally calls Tom's owner showing us he is able to speak human language. Another humanization aspect here is that the cats never even try to eat Jerry, even after they catch him. This is probably not one for Tom lovers as the moment the party starts, he is just one of the cats and doesn't stand out anymore. The one who does is a smaller cat though, one of the best aspects of the cartoon and the main reason I gave it a thumbs-up. I wish he was in more of these T&J cartoons. Finally Jerry gets his fair share too for being a party pooper and a telltale Eventually, the watch here was really nothing special. The music doesn't stand out either. All in all, a really close call, but I still recommend the watch, even if it is nowhere near 1950's best in animation and nowhere near T&J's watch. It shows that the material was really thin as this one does not even reach the 6.5-minute mark.

Three things make this Tom&Jerry cartoon stand out from the crowd:We see more of Mammy Two-Shoes than ever, not just her face but also a bit of her social life.It is one of the relatively few cartoons where Jerry doesn't get a total triumph at the end.It is filled with good 50's jazz music.And it is even more. Tom has a whole gang of friends, and the cat(s)-vs-mouse chase, although basically the same as usual, is filled with gags around musical instruments. Jerry is even reshaping into the musical instruments he hear.Finally, it is one where censorship has done most work, with two revisions, first replacing Mammy Two-Shoes voice with a smoother, bland voice, and then redrawing a lot of it to replace her with a skinny white girl. And every change made it worse (except possibly replacing cards by dancing). I find it hard to see how Mammy Two-Shoes could be severely racist where she is clearly the master of her house, not always obvious in other cartoons, and replacing an overweight middle-aged black woman with an almost anorectic white girl is hardly a step forward, limiting both age, weight and skin color to something considered "right". Is it a good move to remove strong, independent black women from the screen? I know the voice is cliché but nothing more, and many new movies are worse (the new Ladykillers, the Rush Hour series...). If Chris Tucker can make fun of "black language" why can't Mammy Two-Shoes?So it has all the action and gags of an above average cartoon, but with these unique features on top. Not mind-blowing unique but quite significant.

Tom's owner is going out to play cards with some friends. Tom takes advantage of this by inviting some friends to come over and they spend all their time making a racket listening to Jazz records and playing along with the music. The sound is driving Jerry crazy, so he decides to fight back. A few times Jerry gets the better of these four cats, but in the end he is tied to the blinds and is helpless--until he phones the owner and tells her what's afoot. Oddly, Jerry can apparently speak in this episode but although the lady hears it, the audience cannot. She returns home to find the partying cats and throws them out--only to herself turn on loud music and Jerry isn't much better off than with the cats.This cartoon features excellent animation, the usual Tom and Jerry violence and good production values. A decent but not super-outstanding cartoon--but considering it's vintage Tom and Jerry, it's still well worth seeing.

* This has a spoiler of sorts, but not about the cartoon's storyline *One Saturday night, the black maid decides to go and play bridge at a club, leaving Tom alone. Tom then invites three cat friends (including the black cat, Butch) into the house for a party with loud music, which disturbs Jerry. Jerry then tries to get rid of the feline fiends!This is a funny cartoon, and has a bit of a twist at the end!There have been two versions of this that I have seen: the original one with the black maid intact, and the other where she was replaced by a white woman (who also had the same drawl as the original maid, and did some completely different actions at the beginning and at the bridge club in which the sound effects and dialogue made no sense) -- naturally the former is superior, especially as later on in the other version the sound effects go out of synch with the actions on the screen. NOTE: If you see this on video or DVD, there is one point where you can see the maid's face if you use Pause! (Normally you can only see her from the chest down)