Wot a Night

Wot a Night
Directed by	John Foster George Stallings
Produced by	Amadee J. Van Beuren
Animation by	Unknown
Color process	B&W
Distributed by	R-K-O Radio Pictures
Running time	8:19 min

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,similar to the pair from the Farmer Alfalfa cartoon Wooden Money. 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