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Mouse in the House is a 1961 American animated slapstick comedy film produced and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. The film stars the voices of Bud Abbott, Joe Besser and Mel Blanc and was co-directed, co-produced and written by Tex Avery in his only feature-length film project.
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The film was released on September 6, 1961 in United States, receiving mixed reviews and grossed with $16.7 million in the box-office. Over time, Mouse in the House became more successfull on television airings and became a cult classic. A live-action remake, Mouse Hunt, was released in 1997.
Summery[]
Two Laurel and Hardy-like brothers struggle against one small house mouse for possession of a house that was willed to them by their late father, but the intelligent and crafty mouse outwits them completely.
Plot[]
When once wealthy string magnate Rudolf Smuntz dies, he leaves his outdated string factory and a run-down mansion to his two sons, Lars and Ernie. When Lars refuses a proposal by representatives from the large Zeppco conglomerate to purchase their string factory, his self-centered, money-hungry wife April throws him out. Meanwhile, Ernie serves Mayor McKrinkle at his restaurant in anticipation of becoming a famous chef for serving such a high-profile guest. However, the mayor is poisoned by a cockroach (which came from Rudolf's old box of Cuban cigars that Ernie took for himself) and suffers two heart attacks, with the latter fatal. As a result, Ernie's restaurant is closed down by the Board of Health. The despondent brothers encounter each other and find solace in their father's mansion.
Finding the mansion's blueprints, Ernie and Lars discover that it is a lost masterpiece designed by famous architect Charles Lyle LaRue. LaRue collector Alexander Falko makes a proposal, but Ernie refuses under the belief they can make a larger profit by restoration and auction. However, the brothers have already realized that the house has one stubborn occupant: a tiny and crafty talking mouse named Squeaky. Lars is initially dismissive of Squeaky but Ernie, remembering the cockroach incident, is determined to rid the house of any vermin that could potentially ruin their plans.
When a single mousetrap proves to be useless against Squeaky, Ernie and Lars try all sorts of tactics to kill the rodent, each of which fail spectacularly and damage the house even more. To make matters worse, the brothers are served with a repossession notice by the bank, who warn them that they will lose the house unless they make an overdue mortgage payment of $1200 within two days. They initially attempt to raise the money by withholding the pay of the workers at the factory but this suggestion triggers an angry response from the workers who then go on strike. In desperation, Lars tries to run the factory on his own but ends up losing his clothes after accidentally feeding a loose thread from his jacket into the machinery while damaging the machine's fuse box. He is then unexpectedly reunited with April, who has learned of the auction and the brothers' plans to get rich.
The brothers purchase a monstrous cat named "Catzilla" to deal with Squeaky. Catzilla chases Squeaky throughout the house while destroying everything, but gets tricked onto the house's dumbwaiter as the mouse sends him down to his demise. They then hire an eccentric exterminator, Caesar, to handle Squeaky, though he is severely injured and hospitalized after Squeaky attaches him to the winch of his own truck which then violently drags him out of the house and destroys the plumbing. Meanwhile, Ernie goes behind Lars' back and tries to revive the deal to sell the factory to Zeppco but his meeting with them is thwarted when he is hit by a bus while trying to impress two Belgian hair models. As Ernie is taken into hospital, Lars arrives (while wearing April's coat and hat) and informs him that April has given them the $1200 to pay off the mortgage.
After getting back to the house and witnessing the damage caused by Catzilla and Caesar, Ernie chases Squeaky up a chimney and gets stuck, and Lars attempts to light a match while Squeaky starts a gas leak, creating an explosion that blasts Ernie out of the chimney and into the lake where he and Lars lost a tub that they were trying to bring in. Driven to the brink of insanity, Ernie takes a shotgun to shoot Squeaky, accidentally shooting a compressed can of pesticide that Caesar left behind, blowing a huge hole in the floor. The brothers then get into an argument after an answerphone message from Zeppco reveals Lars turning down their offer without telling Ernie and Ernie attempting to sell the factory in secret, which results in Zeppco's proposal being withdrawn, which culminates with Lars throwing an orange at Ernie which accidentally knocks Squeaky unconscious. Unable to finish him off, they instead seal Squeaky in a box and mail him to Cuba. Elated, the brothers quickly reconcile and finish renovating the house.
When the night of the auction arrives, Lars discovers Squeaky's box in the snow returned due to insufficient postage and with a big hole gnawed through it. Lars and Ernie panic upon seeing him return, but attempt to maintain their composure as the auction continues. Squeaky also devours Rudolf's "lucky string," which he gave to the brothers before his death, making their vendetta even more personal. The brothers desperately attempt to flush out Squeaky by feeding a hose into the wall. As the auction reaches a record $25 million bid, the house rapidly floods through the walls and the floors, causing everyone to be washed out of the house as it promptly collapses. The bidders leave, and April leaves Lars for good and tries to get a particularly rich bidder's attention but she is arrested by the police because Squeaky framed her for a bank robbery before the auction begun. April tries to claim her innocence, but the cops arrest her anyways.
The brothers' only consolation is the fact that Squeaky must finally be dead as their father's "lucky string" is found in the wreckage. With nowhere else to go, the brothers return to the factory and fall asleep, with only a single chunk of cheese for food. Having survived his apparent death and followed them, Squeaky, feeling guilty for anything he has done, restarts and feeds the cheese into the machinery inventing the world's first string cheese, which inspires Ernie and Lars. Ernie and Lars end their war with Squeaky and have successfully rebuilt the factory as a novelty string cheese company. Lars has begun a relationship with one of the Belgian hair models, Hilde, and Ernie puts his culinary skill to work in developing new cheese flavors with Squeaky as his personal taste tester.
Cast[]
- Bud Abbott as Ernie Smuntz
- Joe Besser as Lars Smuntz
- Mel Blanc as Squeaky the Mouse, Caesar, police officers, additional voices
- Audrey Meadows as Alice Smuntz
- TBD
- Jim Jordan as Ernie and Lars' lawyer
- TBD
- TBD
- Lennie Weinrib as Mayor McKrinkle
- June Foray as Catzilla
Production[]
In the mid-1950s, Tex Avery, during his career at Walter Lantz Productions, got a call from Dora Wilson for an agreement for a few projects. Many of Avery's projects were sent to Wilson, including King Julien for the Dreamtoons series which was created in 1955 (five years before his debut); scripts for several Dreamtoons shorts; and a completed script for a feature project is a slapstick comedy about two brothers attempting to kill a mouse dominating their house. The script was originally pitched to be as a Dreamtoons one-shot short, until it was switched to be an original animated feature to inform the plot superior.
In 1955, after Avery left Walter Lantz, he informed Wilson that after his projects, including Mouse in the House (along with co-director Shaun Cove), he would end his theatrical animation career.
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Quotes[]
Squeaky: (repeated line) Sufferin' Swisscakes!