The Bodyguard (1944 film)
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| The Bodyguard
Tom and Jerry series |
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| Directed by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Voices by | Billy Bletcher |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by | Kenneth Muse Ray Patterson Irven Spence Pete Burness |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |  July 22, 1944 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7' 21" |
| Preceded by | The Million Dollar Cat |
| Followed by | Puttin' on the Dog |
The Bodyguard is a 1944 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 15th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred Quimby and animated by Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Pete Burness. The cartoon features Spike the bulldog in his second role, though this is the first time that we hear him speak. It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on July 22, 1944 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.
Plot
The cartoon opens with Tom chasing Jerry. Jerry hides behind a potato mound in a garden when he hears Spike the bulldog call to him. Spike has been caught by a dog catcher and locked in the back of his truck. Spike asks Jerry to help him escape which Jerry does by removing a piece of wood that latches the cage shut. Spike falls out of the truck just as it pulls away. Spike then thanks Jerry and says, "Thanks, chum! Boy, I'm your pal for life. Anytime if you ever needs me, just whistle." Spike runs off to enjoy his freedom.
As Jerry is walking down the sidewalk, Tom jumps out from around the corner with a plate, a fork, and a knife, and a napkin around his neck. This scares Jerry and he runs back in the other direction. Tom then makes a U-turn around the corner and holds out two pieces of bread, which the mouse cannot avoid at his speed. Just as Tom starts to cut the bread in half with Jerry in it, Jerry whistles and Spike makes the save by grabbing Tom by the neck. He checks on Jerry to make sure he is O.K. and then tells Tom, "Listen pussy cat! If anything happens to me pal, I'll poke ya in the puss, I'll pulverise ya, I'll pound ya to pieces, that's what I'll do, pound ya to pieces! Like this!" Spike then proceeds to squash Tom into an accordion before walking off and reminding the mouse to just whistle. Jerry picks up a mini-board and starts to pick a fight with Tom. The cat knocks the board away and prepares to punch the mouse into oblivion when Jerry whistles and the dog extends his fist out to make a punch to Tom's face. This results in the cat being thrown into a gumball machine and for all the gumballs to come out his mouth, leaving his eyeballs to drop back into his eye sockets.
Tom then tries to smash Jerry with a lead pipe and the resulting chase takes the duo to Spike. Jerry perches on the dog and pushes on Spike's nose to reveal a sharp set of teeth. This forces Tom to shrug, kiss Jerry, put him in a stroller and walk away, using the pipe as a flute. After running near a set of garbage cans, Tom has Jerry in his grasp and laughs menacingly and then says "In me power!" Eventually he sees a cute female cat, which he loudly wolf-whistles at (Musical theme: "Dark Town Strutters' Ball") and gets Spike to pop up behind him and use two garbage can lids as cymbals on Tom's head.
Jerry is walking down the sidewalk again and Tom sees him coming (Musical theme: "Spreadin' Rhythm Around"). Tom is near a bubble gum machine, and he shakes, throttles, and nudges the machine to obtain two pieces of gum. He takes one piece, covers it in glue, and starts chewing on the other piece. Jerry sees how much Tom is enjoying his gum and this makes Jerry hungry for a piece. Tom then offers Jerry the glue-covered piece of gum. At first Jerry is a little hesistant to accept this from Tom and smells it, but he takes it anyway. Jerry then shakes Tom's hand as a thank you and Tom winks at the camera. Jerry then realizes that something is wrong and he tries to whistle, but can't because his mouth is glued shut. Jerry tries to escape the situation by pointing to his lips, then rubbing his tummy as if to say that the gum is good. Jerry begins to walk away and say goodbye, but Tom starts to go after him. Jerry quickly shakes his hand again and runs away with Tom behind him.
Jerry briefly stops the chase, tries to whistle, shrugs it off, and runs away again. The mouse then holds up an anvil to temporarily stop Tom. The impact causes Tom to resemble a table. Jerry tries to escape through a hole in a fence but he gets stuck. As he unsuccessfully tries to free himself, Tom then grabs a two by four and he is just about to hit Jerry with it until he sees Spike walk by. Jerry tries to gesture to Spike that he needs help and that he can't whistle, but Spike doesn't understand what Jerry is saying (only being on a whistle relationship with the mouse) and continues walking. With the danger of retaliation past, Tom finally hits Jerry which releases him from the hole and Jerry lands in front of Spike. Jerry tries again to tell Spike what had happened and he begs Spike to help him. Spike laughs at this, calls it "baby talk", and goes inside a yard. Jerry then pounds on the door for help, but has to run away from the approaching cat. As Spike opens the door, Tom's head gets stuck in Spike's mouth, causing Tom to smile and run away.
Jerry ends up crawling through a hole in a face and he tries to whistle until he turns red in the face. While trying to whistle, Jerry ends up blowing a bubble and it keeps getting bigger and bigger as Jerry exhales. Tom climbs over the fence to chase the mouse and sees he's practically dead now. The bubble bursts and all the air is pushed out causing a loud whistle. Tom pleads with Jerry to stop whistling, but he keeps going. Tom then digs his own grave rather than suffer, but for some reason, Spike doesn't show up. Tom then writes his will which says "I Thomas leave all to charity". As Tom finishes writing, they both look up in puzzlement for the dog and find him locked up in the back of the dog catcher's truck again, with a padlock keeping the door shut, thus making Spike unable to protect Jerry. Jerry then tries to chase after the truck, whistling frantically, with Tom in pursuit.
Trivia
- This is the second cartoon showing Spike the bulldog, but the first where he is not a prototype and when he talks.
- Tom's evil laughter when he captures Jerry is provided by Billy Bletcher.
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