Wot a Night

Wot a Night is a 1931 animated film. This is the first film in Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry series, later re-issued as "Dick and Larry".

Plot

In their first film, Tom and Jerry are taxi drivers at the train station on a stormy day, waiting for a fare. A train comes up, and two identical-looking men come out. They both try to get them in the taxi. After the men are settled, Tom drives the men. It rained so much, a frog jumped in to taxi and went back again.

They reach a castle, and the men walk in. Tom and Jerry run to the men to be paid, but are locked inside. Then, a cloud turns into a human-like figure with arms. He then plays crenellations as piano keys, and near towers act as pipes, similar to a pipe organ, and two trees play their own branches like piccolos. As they walk, Tom is mortified as Jerry is interested as a giant bat-like creature appears in front of them.

They come to a room where a skeleton is cleaning itself. After this point, they were sure paranormal things are happening. Odd things that happen include: ghosts standing behind them, finding a skeleton playing a piano while another skeleton dances to the music, a glove dancing, and a blackface quartette of skeletons singing a song, which includes a few lines from versions of "Golden Slippers", such as a "long white robe" and a "starry crown", and to stop gambling.

After these things had happened the two men walk in, and point at Jerry. Jerry lifts his shirt, and he realises he's a skeleton, too. Tom laughs, and he realises he is a skeleton, too. Tom is scared, and both men run for their lives, and the cartoon ends.

References in the series

• The third part of the blackface skeletons' performance was retooled into "Plane Dumb", a later film in the series.

External links

• https://archive.org/details/TomAndJerryWotANight Watch or download from Archive.org
• Wot a Night on YouTube