Tom's Photo Finish is a 1957 Tom and Jerry cartoon produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Plot[]
Tom sneaks into the kitchen to the fridge. He grabs a whole chicken and takes a couple of bites out of it before he hears George coming his way. Tom hurriedly shoves the chicken back into the refrigerator and hides. George, upon discovering the half-eaten chicken, first asks his wife Joan whether she has eaten the chicken before concluding that either Tom or Spike is guilty and is determined to figure out which, even if it means X-raying them. Panicked, Tom frames Spike; he creates phony ink footprints leading from the sleeping dog to the refrigerator. As Tom moves to plant the chicken on Spike, a bright light flashes, and Jerry, holding a camera, runs off. Joan and George see the "evidence" implicating Spike and kick him out of the house. Spike laments being framed as he watches George and Joan allow Tom to gobble down the remainder of the chicken.
Meanwhile, Jerry happily emerges from his darkroom, having made numerous copies of his photo of Tom framing Spike. He plants copies of the photos in places where George or Joan are likely to see them, hoping to get Tom expelled from the house and clear Spike's name in order let him back inside as an apology.
Realizing that Jerry knows the truth about him framing Spike, Tom is forced to use the guise of being a recklessly playful cat as he swoops in to destroy the photos before George and/or Joan see them in an attempt to prevent from getting kicked out of the house and clearing Spike's name. To make matters worse, Tom taunts Spike from inside, leading George to think that the cat has gone crazy, and pulls down the window-shade with the photos. But Joan tries to convince him otherwise.
Jerry begins folding the photos into paper airplanes and tosses them towards Joan in the kitchen and George in the den. Tom swallows the airplane and the cake meant for Joan and begins frantically chasing the airplane headed towards George with a pair of scissors. Tom's efforts to stop the plane only serve to cut up George's newspaper and his trousers. George intercepts him right before the cat nearly cuts his head off and Tom flees, but George grabs him by his tail with one hand after having enough of his crazy behavior. He prays for mercy as George catches the paper plane with his other hand and unfolds it. Upon learning about Tom's deception in framing Spike now knowing it was Tom who really did eat the chicken, he decides to kick him out of the house as his punishment for deceiving them.
As George kicks Tom out of the house, Jerry has his camera out again and photographs the moment. Joan and George let Spike back into the house and ask for forgiveness for falling into Tom's deception, which the dog gladly grants. Then, Jerry calls Spike over and gives him something that he laughs over: a photo of Tom being kicked out of the house by an angry George in his boxers.
Notes[]
- This short was considered for an Academy Award in 1957, but was not nominated.[3]
- This is the last appearance of Spike Bulldog in an MGM cartoon, not counting a brief cameo in Tot Watchers and archive footage in Matinee Mouse.
- The unnamed blue bulldog in Switchin' Kitten resembles Spike.
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