The Mouse That Jack Built

The Mouse That Jack Built
Title card
Directed by	Robert McKimson
Story by	Tedd Pierce
Produced by	John W. Burton, Sr.
Starring	Jack Benny Mary Livingstone Rochester Don Wilson Mel Blanc
Music by	Milt Franklyn
Animation by	Tom Ray George Grandpré Ted Bonnicksen Warren Batchelder
Layouts by	Robert Gribbroek
Backgrounds by	Robert Singer
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	April 4, 1959(1959-04-04)(U.S.)
Running time	6 minutes 54 seconds
Country	United States
Language	English

The Mouse That Jack Builtis a 1959Warner Bros.Merrie Melodiecartoonshort starringJack Bennyand the regular cast ofThe Jack Benny Programas mice.The short, released on April 4, 1959, was written byTedd Pierceand directed byRobert McKimson.

Plot

Somewhere inBeverly Hills,in the house ofJack Benny(a sign out front proclaims, "Star of Stage * Screen * Radio * Television...also cartoons" ), a mouse version of Jack is practicing his violin—off-key—and saying to himself, "Who is this guyIsaac Stern?"(In real life Benny and Stern were good friends.) Outside Jack's mouse hole, a cat is lying in wait, wearing ear muffs to filter out the discordant sound of Jack's violin.

Jack calls his servant, Rochester (portrayed as a dark brown mouse) to get his white suit, which Rochester is wearing at the time. Jack tells the valet that his rental period is up (a week for $5.00, equal to $52.26 today) and he needs the suit because he is taking Mary Livingstone out for her birthday, and, true to character, is looking for a goodcheaprestaurant.

While waiting for Mary, Jack decides to count his cheese in a basement vault. Using a coin on a string, he opens the lock, which appears to be a coin-operated lock from a pay toilet. As soon as he walks through the door, he takes a cane from a nail on the wall and starts humming "We're in the Money".When he reaches the bottom of the stairs, he reaches through a hole and trips arazor bladehanging above the passageway like aguillotine.He then comes up to aderringerand uses the cane to trip the trigger on the derringer. Finally, he comes up to another hole, reaches through with the cane and trips a mousetrap. He then reaches the vault door, opens a combination lock, pulls the door open and numerous sound effects including various alarms, afoghornand machine gun noises are heard. Ed, the vault guard, asks "Halt! Who goes there?", and then an exchange is heard where Ed, apparently having been in the vault for a long time, asks "We win the war yet?" When Benny assures Ed that the war has been won, thinking that Benny was referring toWorld War I,Ed says: "Good. What do you think they'll do withthe Kaiser?"

Mary arrives while Jack is inspecting his cheese vault, and he emerges wondering who has been pilfering his bestgorgonzola.A fat rodent version of Don Wilson attempts to deliver a commercial when Jack advises him that this is a movie and not a television program, Don storming off in a huff when Jack refuses to let him do a scene. When Mary suggests a place, Jack's eyes ring up like an oldcash registerwith a dollar sign ($) and "no sale", they discuss other options (she sarcastically suggests the Monkey House at theGriffith Park Zoo). As they discuss their options, the cat writes a message extolling the "Kit Kat Club" ( "entertainers admittedfree") and sends it to Jack as a paper airplane. Jack and Mary putter off in hisMaxwellwithRochesterbehind the wheel until they reach the Kit Kat Club by following the arrows pointing to it. While en route, Mary asks forchampagne,while Jack says that he prefers a good "mousecatel".Unbeknownst to them, the" club "is actually the maw of the cat, and as Jack and Mary enter, the cat's mouth closes on them.

Jack cries: "Help! Help!" as the camera cuts to the live-action Jack Benny, who wakes up and, breaking thefourth wall,tells the audience: "Gee, what a crazy dream! Imagine, Mary and me as two little mice trapped inside a cat! And I was playing the violin!" At that point, Jack is interrupted by the sound of a discordant "Rock-a-Bye Baby"played on the violin, coming from within Jack's live-action cat. From there, the rodent versions of Jack and Mary emerge unharmed from the live-action cat. Following one last bit of animation (where the rodent Jack and Mary return to their mousehole), the real Jack Benny does one of his famous" takes "as the cartoon fades out.

Voice cast

The cartoon is noticeable to credit all of the voice actors rather than only crediting Mel Blanc. The list of actors includes:

• Jack Bennyas Jack/Himself
• Mary Livingstoneas Mary
• Don Wilsonas Don
• Eddie "Rochester" Andersonas Rochester
• Mel Blancas theMaxwell/ Ed, the vault guard

Production

The cartoon was released on April 4, 1959. Written byTedd Pierce,it is a parody ofThe Jack Benny Programstarring the voices ofJack Benny,Mary Livingstone(in her final public performance),Don WilsonandEddie "Rochester" Andersonas rodent caricatures of their respective radio and television characters, withMel Blancreprising his imitation of Benny'sMaxwell automobile(also assuming the voice of "Ed", Jack's underground vault guard, usually portrayed on radio and TV byJoseph Kearns).The title is a play on thenursery rhyme"This is the House that Jack Built".As revealed on the audio commentary for this short, Benny only supplied his voice, but not his violin playing, as evidenced by the" pre-score "music of the violin soloist attempting to play as badly as Benny did on the radio show.

Home media

The Mouse That Jack Builtis available onLooney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3,Disc 2.

See also

• List of American films of 1959

The Honeymousers,another TV show parody (that is, ofThe Honeymooners), featuring mice as caricatures of the TV actors. In this case, however, the original actors did not perform. The voices were impressions done byJune Foray(Alice) andDaws Butler(Ralph and Ed).

Mel Blanc had stated that he did not like doing impressions, believing that to be like stealing from other actors. This personal objection may have led toWarner Bros.using the actual cast ofThe Jack Benny Programto do their own voices inThe Mouse that Jack Built.

External links

• The Mouse That Jack BuiltatIMDb
• The Mouse That Jack BuiltatBig Cartoon Database