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The Mouse that Jack Built
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The Mouse that Jack Built is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short, released April 4, 1959, directed by Robert McKimson and written by Tedd Pierce, a parody of The Jack Benny Show starring the voices of Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Don Wilson and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as rodent caricatures of their respective radio and television characters, with Mel Blanc reprising his imitation of Benny's Maxwell automobile. The title is a play on the nursery rhyme "This is the House that Jack Built".
where in Beverly Hills, a mouse version of Jack Benny is practicing his violin and saying to himself, "Who is this guy Isaac Stern?" (In real life Benny and Stern were good friends.) Outside Jack's mouse hole, a cat is lying is wait, wearing ear muffs to filter out the discordant sound of Jack's fiddle.
Jack calls his servant, Rochester (portrayed as a dark brown mouse) to get his white suit, which Rochester is wearing at the time.
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Encyclopedia
The Mouse that Jack Built is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short, released April 4, 1959, directed by Robert McKimson and written by Tedd Pierce, a parody of The Jack Benny Show starring the voices of Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Don Wilson and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as rodent caricatures of their respective radio and television characters, with Mel Blanc reprising his imitation of Benny's Maxwell automobile. The title is a play on the nursery rhyme "This is the House that Jack Built".
Plot
Somewhere in Beverly Hills, a mouse version of Jack Benny is practicing his violin and saying to himself, "Who is this guy Isaac Stern?" (In real life Benny and Stern were good friends.) Outside Jack's mouse hole, a cat is lying is wait, wearing ear muffs to filter out the discordant sound of Jack's fiddle.
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 and he needs the suit because he is taking Mary Livingstone out for her birthday, and, true to character, is looking for a good cheap restaurant. The cat writes a message extolling the "Kit Kat Club" ("entertainers free") and sends it to Jack as a paper airplane. Mary arrives while Jack is inspecting his cheese vault, and he emerges wondering who has been pilfering his gorgonzola. 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. Jack and Mary putter off in his Maxwell until they reach the Kit Kat Club by following the arrows pointing to it. Unbeknownst to them, the "club" is actually the maw of a real cat, and as they 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 the fourth wall, tells the audience, "What a crazy dream! Imagine Mary and me as two little mice trapped inside a cat's mouth! And me 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.
Censorship
Later showings of the cartoon are often cut to show only a brief appearance by Rochester, with his gravelly voice removed to avoid accusations of racial stereotyping.
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