Release Date:

December 30, 1950

Main Character(s):

Claude Cat, Frisky Puppy

Summary:

Claude Cat is living the good life until he hears his master, John, give his wife Frisky Puppy to her as a birthday present. Hearing that he’ll have to get along with Frisky or else he’ll be ousted, Claude pretends to be friends with him and puts up with Frisky’s playfulness in a fake manner to convince his owners that he likes him, but once they leave for the theater, Claude attempts several backfiring schemes to get rid of him.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1135 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. When it was restored for HBO Max in 2020, the original opening rings were put back in. This same restoration also appeared very recently back in June 2025 on the Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault Volume 1 Blu-ray set.

This is the first of three cartoons (all directed by Jones and with Claude appearing in all) with Frisky Puppy, who is exactly as his name says. The other two are “Terrier Stricken” (1952) and “No Barking” (1954).

Frisky shares the same character design as Charlie Dog, only he is a lot younger, the only noises he makes is barking, and is actually welcome as a pet (as evidenced when the mistress tells John that Frisky is the nicest present she’s ever had).

The cartoon gives Claude a new personality that is notably only seen outside of his appearances with Hubie and Bertie, where he is rather dishonest and devious and also mute. Other than the Frisky Puppy trio, Claude also appears with this persona in 1952’s “Mouse Warming” and 1954’s “Feline Frame Up”.

The title is a pun for the phrase “three’s a crowd” (which was actually the title of a Warner cartoon released all the way back in 1932. If you also go back and view my posts from 2023, you can also definitely see how much my writing has improved since then as I didn’t have much to say about the pre-1936 material, due to the studio not really having found their footing until 1936).

Not counting “Hillbilly Hare” and “Dog Collared”, this is the first cartoon where the 1951 orange rings with the black background are consistently used.

This is the last Jones cartoon to feature animation from Emery Hawkins.

Peter Alvarado did both the layouts and backgrounds for this one.

What I Like About This One:

As Claude is lying contently in his basket and enjoying some sort of candy made for cats, “Cat-Nip Bon-Bons” and then filing his nails, John tells his wife, “Happy birthday, dear”, giving her Frisky. She is immediately enamored with him, stating “Why, John, it’s the nicest present I’ve ever had!” The second Frisky lets out a yip, Claude makes a priceless horrified expression where his eyes are completely black in shock and his whiskers twitch (animated by Phil Monroe).

He runs over and peeks out from the curtains to see what it is (animated by Monroe). Seeing Frisky getting all the attention, Claude becomes angry and goes behind the curtain to sharpen his tooth with the file while listening to the wife asking in worry, “But dear, supposing Claude doesn’t get along with him?” Claude nods to this while sharpening one of his claws with the file before John answers, “Then Claude will have to go”. Claude absentmindedly nods to this as well before making a take upon realizing what John just said. He becomes sulky at the wife agreeing, “Yes. I guess so” but then decides to put on a friendly facade when she says, “But maybe Claude will be nice to him” (animated by Ben Washam).

“Well, Claude had better (animated by Washam) or-”, John starts to respond before Claude walks out on all fours pretending not to expect anything out of the ordinary. Upon approaching Frisky, he acts like he’s charmed by him and picks him up as Frisky starts licking him affectionately. Frisky then bites Claude on the nose to which Claude briefly grimaces in pain, before chuckling awkwardly upon realizing his owners are watching, and then scolding Frisky in an endearing manner by waving his finger and saying, “Mm-mm-mm-mm”. He also playfully imitates his barking before Frisky jumps in his arms and starts licking him with Claude smiling as if they’ve actually become friends. The wife is glad, “Oh, John, they just love each other!” to which John agrees, “Yeah, I guess it’s safe to leave them alone together”. As they leave for the theater, Claude nods to the wife telling him, “Now you take good care of the puppy, Claude” (animated by Emery Hawkins).

The second they leave, Claude puts on an evil smile and lets his claws out in the manner of a switchblade (animated by Hawkins) before attempting to sneak up on Frisky. Realizing that Claude’s friendliness was all an act, Frisky goes behind Claude and barks loudly at him, scaring Claude into jumping up to the ceiling and hanging on by his claws. Claude then falls off the ceiling but just before he can land on the floor, turns his body right-side up and lands gently on his feet (animated by Monroe).

Frisky goes into a dark room with Claude following and waiting outside. As he turns around, however, Frisky comes out and again barks at him loudly. Claude again ends up on the ceiling and once more lands on his feet. Spotting what appears to be Frisky looking at him in another dark room, Claude lets all of his claws appear out of all four feet as his fur ruffles up and runs toward “him” only to realize he was actually looking at a mirror in the darkness when he runs smack into it, shattering the mirror’s glass (animated by Monroe).

Claude goes back to his basket only to find Frisky waiting for him and scaring him with another bark. With an annoyed expression while holding his hand on his cheek, Claude keeps this expression and position as he descends back down (animated by Monroe).

After Frisky chases his tail, he sees Claude slide out a mousetrap with a bone as bait. Hiding behind the corner, Claude’s chuckling at the outcome turns to bewilderment when he sees Frisky simply walk off with the bone. He looks around the corner and gets the mousetrap snapped on his nose (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Frisky then buries the bone in a potted plant before Claude leaves a trail of dog treats called “Puppy Biscuit” towards the washing machine. He fails to notice that after he’s gone into said washing machine and come out the other end, his tail has been caught in the machine’s spinner. After he turns it on, Claude goes into the machine instead as Frisky lets out a startled “Yipe!” from the door on top of the machine shutting loudly. After going through the processes of “Wash”, “Rinse”, “Whirl”, and “Fluff Dry”, Claude comes out as a floating puff (animated by Vaughan).

As Frisky is playing with a ball, Claude lights a string of dynamite sticks that he has attached to a string of sausages before putting the sausages out into view and leaving the dynamite sticks hidden in the dark room (some great continuity is also used here as the mirror is shown as still shattered from Claude’s earlier mishap with it as he’s lighting the dynamite sticks). He then hides behind a trunk as Frisky eats them but then becomes scared upon seeing Frisky next to him (animated by Washam up to here) and runs off into the dark room to hide. After catching his breath, he looks down to see the dynamite sticks still there, realizing that Frisky didn’t actually consume them, as they explode on him (animated by Vaughan). Coming out dazed and chuckling, Claude is once again scared by Frisky barking at him from behind, causing him to jump up into the chandelier (animated by Monroe).

Claude chases Frisky with an ax and as he’s standing atop the heating vent that Frisky’s hiding in, Frisky again barks at him, sending both him and the ax up to the ceiling with the blade sticking in it (animated by Vaughan). After getting down, Claude lifts the cover off the vent and attempts to reach down for Frisky. As he runs off to get a plunger, Frisky exits the vent. Unaware that Frisky’s no longer there, Claude uses the plunger to force him out of there as the camera pans down to the furnace getting hotter and hotter from the air being pushed down towards it from the plunger. When Claude removes the plunger from the vent’s opening, the furnace erupts like a volcano sending hot coals flying everywhere and ruining the living room as Claude jumps around, shouting in pain. Conveniently, this is when the masters return home as the wife is upset at what she’s witnessing: “Oh, John! Look at my house! It’s a wreck!” Immediately figuring out who the culprit is, John angrily walks up to Claude in a threatening manner, “Why, you filthy cat, I’ll-!” Claude is then kicked out of the house as John yells, “Get out and stay out!” (animated by Hawkins)

Later, Frisky is enjoying a meal from Claude’s dish when Claude sneaks back into the house through the window and gives Frisky a dose of his own medicine by startling him with barking of his own, scaring Frisky into jumping up to the ceiling upside down. Satisfied that he managed to get even, Claude leaves with an equally satisfied expression (animated by Ken Harris).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕