Director(s): Chuck Jones (credited as “Charles Jones”)
Summary: In this, Chuck Jones’ directorial debut, Tommy Cat, the son of a sick night watchman, is tasked to keep guard of the kitchen, and finds himself bullied by gangster mice. While there are gags involving mice eating the food and a musical number that doesn’t advance the plot (but does show that the mice are in control as Tommy tries to fight back), the short does have a story and character arc: Tommy, who has never had a position of authority before because of his timid demeanor, has to learn to stand up for himself so he can get the mice out of the kitchen and make his father proud.
Fun Facts:
- The obvious one: this is Chuck Jones’ first cartoon as director after years of animating for Bob Clampett, thanks to Frank Tashlin temporarily leaving Termite Terrace. This was also the start of his foray into being Disney-esque, which artistically, isn’t too bad, but since Leon Schlesinger Studios (a.k.a Termite Terrace, a.k.a Warner Bros. Animation) prided itself more on being brash and wacky (which Tex Avery and Bob Clampett did before they both left for greener pastures) to compete with Disney being beautifully animated and lacking in the jokes and gags department (though Snow White and the Seven Dwarves had its moments of being like a less harsh, but still slapstick-packed animated version of The Three Stooges, particularly in the sequence where The Seven Dwarves think their house is haunted and most scenes with Dopey. Walt even offered five dollars [that’s $112.78 in 2025 money] for the best visual and verbal gags that ended up in the movie. Not a bad price for coming up with funny stuff).
- The voice actress for Tommy Cat (Margaret Hill-Talbot, who, I’m not making this up, also went by the name “Peggy Hill”) would later be the voice actress for Sniffles the mouse (the Chuck Jones series of cartoons that symbolizes Jones’ early days trying to copy Disney, which has come under fire for being slow-paced and devoid of comedy [though I’d say that the comedy is lighter and not as cynical as his later works. It’s safe for kids and those who don’t like dark humor or thinks there’s too much of it in the world]).
- The short is also one of a handful of Warner Bros. cartoons that depicts the cat as the hero and the rats as the villains. It might not seem like much now, but try to look at it through the eyes of someone from 1938 who is used to seeing Warner Bros and some Disney cartoons where the cat is the enemy and the mice are the heroes (MGM wouldn’t come out with Tom and Jerry until 1940, with “Puss Gets the Boot,” so that’s why it’s not included).
-Right off the bat, you can see Chuck Jones was experimenting with visual effects and trying to take animation to new and exciting directions. “The Night Watchman” made extensive use of double exposure, as seen with the illumination of Tommy Cat’s flashlight, the singing rat trio against a spotlight, and the ghosting effects shown when all the rats glare at Tommy Cat who tells them to be quiet and when Tommy Cat’s guardian angel urges him to stand up for himself and fight back against the gangster mice. Despite Jones’s distinct vision, some sequences animated by certain artists still carried hallmarks of other Warner Bros. units, such as A.C. Gamer’s rats being drawn simply, resembling rodents from the Freleng unit, or the rats having exaggerated drawings that, ironically, would be at home on a Bob Clampett short.
Okay, enough animation history, let’s get to what we all came here to see: hardcore editing!
The Channel(s): The WB
Part(s) Edited: After Tommy Cat’s guardian angel urges him to fight back against being bullied, some scenes of Tommy Cat punching the gangster mice while “Yankee Doodle” plays are edited. The old Censored Cartoons Page and the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki don’t go into specifics into what punches were cut, so I just went by what I think a censorship editor for a free-to-air TV channel would do.
What Wasn’t Cut But Should Have Been: The mice bullying Tommy Cat, obviously. I don’t think it’s fair if the bad guys can get away with treating the hero (or heroine [the second “e” is the difference between a female hero and a dangerous needle drug. Please remember that during your English grammar classes]) like crap, but the hero can’t fight fire with fire. Maybe the end where the main mouse villain gets pants’d, since that counts as sexual harassment/humiliation, but if “The Night Watchman” was edited around the time The WB was a TV channel (the 1990s), then that can easily be brushed off as comedic karma.
What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): I…mentioned why I didn’t like the cut above: why do the villains get to be shown bullying the innocent, but the innocent can’t be shown fighting back with similar dirty tactics? Just once I’d like to see that if it doesn’t already exist.
Video Comparison (still using CapCut, which has an amazing free version that I want to use for my censorship blog videos...at least until it tells me I can’t use it anymore without buying it. So far, it hasn’t done that, but I have Davinci Resolve on standby in case it does. Filmora 15 is out, and I am seriously considering buying it so I can continue with my A.I. Snow White 1937 spoof [and definitely improve on the clips I have uploaded as of this writing], but that won’t come until either some time this month or in December, just in time for Christmas):
Availability Uncut: This one has a respectable presence on physical home media. First, it was on laser disc as part of The Golden Age of Looney Tunes VHS and laser disc collection (on laser disc, the short can be seen on the first volume, side 5). Then, it made its DVD debut as a bonus feature for the 2006 release of the film A Slight Case of Murder, starring Edward G. Robinson (see?), Jane Bryan, and Allen Jenkins, but the version shown was the 1995 Turner print that most likely had the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodie reissue title cards (it’s uncut, I assure you, but most people are anal when it comes to classic Warner Bros shorts having their original beginning and ending titles restored).
Speaking of which, the version of this short that has its original beginning and ending titles restored is available on the fourth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection (disc four, featuring obscure cat characters that aren’t Sylvester, Sylvester, Jr., or Claude) and all of its repackaged versions, such as Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection (a smaller collection of Looney Tunes shorts that is more suited for those who don’t like or don’t want their children to see the more racially offensive and sexually-charged content. I only got the first volume of the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection because that’s all I could afford before I got the actual Golden Collection. Pretty sure I sold the Spotlight Collection for food money in college), the international version called Looney Tunes All Stars (volume 5), and the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection (volumes four and five repack).
Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: It did a nickel (five years) on HBO Max (and Max before it reverted to its original name). It’s now on Tubi as the 700-800 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts available for free streaming as of this writing.
There’s no “‘Til next time…” because I included it in the video comparison above, but I will conclude with Sarthurva U.’s line from the “Claws for Alarm” podcast:
Stay Looney, and Be Merrie.
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