Release Date:

November 29, 1952

Main Character(s):

Claude Cat, Frisky Puppy

Summary:

After getting a flea, Frisky Puppy is in need of a bath, much to Claude Cat’s delight since he is again always startled by Frisky’s barking from behind him. In various ways, Claude ends up getting wet instead.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1215 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

This is the second part of the Claude and Frisky trilogy.

The title is a pun for “terror stricken”. Interestingly, the words “terror” and “terrier” would be flip-flopped in a Warner cartoon title again with McKimson’s “Fox Terror” (1957). Both are coincidentally written by Michael Maltese.

Oddly, Claude doesn’t seem to mind eating dog food as evidenced by when he tries to eat out of Frisky’s bowl when he’s still hungry at the start of the cartoon. In the Garfield Show episode, “Fido Food Feline” (2011), Garfield reveals that he used to enjoy cat food, but has since no longer eaten it when he was mistakenly given Odie’s dog food and was convinced he would become a dog when he overheard Liz (Jon’s girlfriend) saying that “you are what you eat”.

Due to Mel Blanc not voicing any characters in the cartoon, there are no voice credits.

Despite Maurice Noble having begun his association with Jones with “Rabbit Seasoning”, Robert Gribbroek still did the layouts for this cartoon and for Jones’ next cartoon, “Don’t Give Up the Sheep” (which is also the first cartoon of 1953 and this coming Wednesday’s cartoon).

Favorite Scene:

Both times Claude ends up going on a wild ride, the bit with the sweater string in particular.

What Happens in This One:

Claude is seen finishing the cat food in his bowl and licks up the last speck to make sure he’s eaten it all. Still hungry, he looks over and sees Frisky hasn’t eaten his dog food, so he sneaks over to Frisky’s bowl and attempts to eat Frisky’s food, only for Frisky to suddenly appear behind him and scare him into jumping up to the ceiling with his barking. Claude ends up hanging onto the ceiling with his claws while upside down, while his teeth chatter in fear. In one second, Frisky consumes all his food rapidly before he races out of the room. Still on the ceiling, Claude gives an irritated expression while meowing grumpily (animated by Ben Washam).

Frisky then attacks a ball that rolls under the rug. He goes in after it and exits the rug with it in his mouth. Frisky tosses the ball into there and attempts to catch it with his teeth when it comes back down and bounces back up, only for him to miss. He runs after it and comes back with it in his mouth again, before tossing it into the air a second time. When it doesn’t come back down for a while, he becomes confused and begins to look around the room, only for the ball to now come back down and land on his head when he wasn’t expecting it. This causes him to yelp while jumping around on his rear end before hiding behind the hallway wall (animated by Ken Harris).

Frisky goes back to the ball to angrily bark at it, but after he walks away in satisfaction, he starts to scratch himself, due to having gotten a flea. After the flea falls off of him, Frisky sniffs at it only to become startled when it bounces up, so he angrily barks at it. The flea jumps back into Frisky’s fur when he leaves, causing him to scratch again. This time, the mistress comes in and observes, “So, Mr. Frisky, I see YOU need a bath”. She picks him up as she walks over to give him one, “Well, there’s no time like the present”. Claude watches this and gives him an audible “Nyah!” while sticking his tongue out at him. Frisky then bounces away on his rear end as the mistress shouts, “Frisky, you come back here this minute!” When she is unable to find him, Claude helps her out by lifting up the skirt on the bottom of the armchair with his foot, revealing Frisky hiding under there. “Oh, there you are, you naughty thing!” (animated by Washam)

After the mistress prepares the hot bath, the phone rings much to her annoyance, “Oh dear, that phone again!” She tells Frisky, who’s sitting against a corner, “Now you stay right there til I get back!” (animated by Washam) In order to imagine what Frisky is about to experience, Claude slightly dips his claw in the water and realizes it is indeed very hot to which he nods in satisfaction about. Frisky then appears behind him while barking, startling Claude into jumping into the hot bath. After a very peeved and wet Claude emerges, he dashes out, grabs a pail to collect some of the hot water with, and goes after Frisky with it to dump it on him. Unable to find him, Claude stops while in the living room, only for Frisky to appear from behind the armchair and scare him into flying up to the ceiling again with another bark. This time, Claude’s feet are seen sticking out while hanging on with his claws and with the bucket stuck on his body. When he goes back down, he stops in mid-air to turn himself right side up before landing gently on the ground, all the while with the bucket still on him (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Still dripping wet, Claude watches Frisky running around outside and attempts to sneak up on him. First, Claude’s upper half appears from behind a tree while Frisky’s lower half appears on the tree’s other side, before they both switch sides. Frisky again barks at Claude, causing him to fly into the air and land in a watering can, getting stuck in it. The sprinkling end from the watering can falls off, revealing Claude’s face stuck in the pouring end (animated by Vaughan).

Back inside, Frisky is chewing at the rug, before Claude uses a fishing pole with a bone as bait to lure Frisky to him. Frisky manages to catch the bone, but the hook lets go of it and instead snags the goldfish bowl which Claude doesn’t realize he’s caught until he attempts to jump on what he thinks is Frisky, realizing too late that he’s about to fall into the goldfish bowl, which he does (animated by Vaughan).

Claude sharpens an ax on the grinding wheel and goes back into the house to get Frisky with it. Frisky scares him up to the ceiling with another bark. The blade ends up stuck in the ceiling before Claude and the ax handle then fall. Claude slides down the banister and lands on a roller skate that sends him rolling out the door, flying off the porch, and landing in a wagon that crashes into a brick wall and causes him to fly into a second story window of the house across the brick wall. The offscreen woman of the house screams when Claude lands on her, so she kicks him back out, sending Claude flying (animated by Vaughan) and landing in a water barrel. To add insult to injury, Frisky appears and barks at him again, to which Claude jumps out and after flying through the air again, lands in the house’s chimney and rolls out on the fireplace logs. Claude grabs the water cooler in the midst of rolling and falls down the basement with it and the logs. He comes back up with his body stuck in the water cooler and is sent flying up to the ceiling by yet another bark from Frisky, who in turn becomes startled by the water cooler’s glass shattering on impact (animated by Harris).

Claude chases Frisky through an “Acme Cleaners and Dryers” van with Frisky coming out while wearing a sweater. Claude grabs the end of the sweater and ties the string to the van, so it will drive off taking Frisky with it. Following the string back inside, Claude instead finds the string tied to the banister, going into one mouse hole on the second story and going out another, through the handles of a vase, through a kettle, through both hot and cold water faucets in the sink, and stopping in a tipped over green trash can with flowers on it. Believing Frisky is hiding in there, Claude attempts to sneak up on him, but grabs only the string just as the van is beginning to drive off. Claude ends up going through both faucets, through the kettle, around the vase handles, through both mouse holes, through the banister, and once more flying out the door high into the air. Claude lands on the diving board of a 12 foot pool, and thinking he’s about to get wet once more, shrugs and holds his nose before he is about to submerge under the water. However, it turns out that the pool is empty, and he ends up landing smack on the concrete bottom. Dazed from the blow, Claude starts “swimming” in place while spitting out pieces of concrete instead of water while meowing (animated by Washam).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕