Cat and Dupli-cat
| Cat and Dupli-cat | |
|---|---|
| Tom and Jerry series | |
 Cat and Dupli-cat title card | |
| Directed by |
Chuck Jones Co-director: Maurice Noble |
| Produced by |
Chuck Jones In charge of production: Les Goldman |
| Story by |
Chuck Jones Michael Maltese |
| Music by | Eugene Poddany |
| Animation by |
Ben Washam Ken Harris Don Towsley Dick Thompson Tom Ray |
| Studio | MGM Animation/Visual Arts |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |
|
| Color process | Metrocolor |
| Running time | 6:45 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Catty-Cornered |
| Followed by | O-Solar Meow |
Cat and Dupli-cat is a 1967 animated Tom and Jerry cartoon produced by Chuck Jones and MGM Animation/Visual Arts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble, with animation by Ken Harris, Ben Washam, Dick Thompson, Don Towsley and Tom Ray. It was written by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Terence Monck once again provides Tom's baritone singing (as he had done in The Cat Above and the Mouse Below), while Dale McKennon provides Jerry's falsetto singing.
Plot
The cartoon starts with Tom rowing on a bucket amongst some docks using a broomstick under the crescent moon (which doubles as the "C" at the beginning of the title), singing the Neapolitan ballad "Sta. Lucia" in an operatic baritone voice as the title cards are shown. As he reaches the docks, he finds Jerry rowing a small cup with a spoon and mimicking him.
Sitting on a piling outside a nearby steamer, Tom steals some tea and sugar from a nearby steamer and pours them all over Jerry. As he begins sipping, an orange cat (the "Dupli-cat") pulls on Tom's tail through a porthole, points at an empty saucer and holds his hand out as if to say, "Mine." Tom gives him the teacup. Dupli-cat pulls on Tom's tail again, and Tom then returns the spoon. Tom then innocently sits on the piling until he hears Dupli-cat drinking the tea, and then after a few seconds Tom blows his top.
Tom enters the ship's galley through the porthole and sees the empty teacup. He races through the ship, and then sees Dupli-cat running through an open doorway, seemingly a reflection of himself. Tom continues walking back and forth, and the two cats mimic each other (imitating the "mirror scene" in Duck Soup). When Tom crosses again imitating a train, Dupli-cat does likewise making a train whistle sound. Surprised, Tom repeats the sound, then tricks Dupli-cat into opening his mouth: Jerry is inside it. Tom walks away and then catches on.
Tom chases Dupli-cat off the ship and along a pier. Dupli-cat cowers, holding out Jerry for Tom to take. As Tom reaches out, Dupli-cat stomps open a trap-door, causing Tom to falls through it into the water. Tom angrily climbs up the ladder, but Dupli-cat drops the trap-door, knocking Tom back down.
Dupli-cat then runs along the pier and Tom is shown to be doing the same on the pier beneath. He snaps a loose board in Dupli-cat's pier, hitting Dupli-cat and smashing him back into another piling. Grabbing Jerry, Tom then runs along the pier, but fails to see another piling and runs into it. Dupli-cat steals Jerry and ties him to his tail, and then ties Tom's fingers together around the piling. Tom manages to lift the piling and drop it on top of Dupli-cat. Dupli-cat falls through the pier and slowly sinks into the water as Tom grabs Jerry.
Tom goes aboard a ship in dry-dock about to be launched and Dupli-cat swings a bottle of champagne used for launching at his rival, hitting him in the head and causing the bottle to open. Some of the champagne spills on Jerry and inebriates him. The two cats then successively grab the mouse, but Jerry is propelled up to a yardarm on the mast.
In an act of drunken bravado, the now-annoyed Jerry motions both cats to join him, ties the two cats' faces together by their whiskers and around the mast by their tails. Then the mouse, singing "Sta. Lucia" once again and drunkenly hiccuping, stumbles off with bubbles emerging each time he hiccups and some of them forming the words "THE END" to end the cartoon.