Being Real Cheesy

I have a theory about the way they constructed stories for the early cartoons at the Van Beuren studio. They just kept throwing stuff on screen until things couldn’t get more bizarre and they ended the cartoon.

That seems to be what happened in “A Swiss Trick,” which hops along from routine to routine, featuring a shout that forms letters that decapitate a head, a train that leaps away on clouds, singing mountains and goats that butt each other in the butt. Oh, yes, and a pet swiss cheese. On a leash.



And that’s not even getting to the strange part. Tom and Jerry follow the cheese to an inn where they dance, play musical instruments and yodel, accompanied by Gene Rodemich’s usual fine score. They sneak away to get the pet cheese as a moosehead sleeps on the wall.



Mission accomplished. They eat the swiss cheese.



Horrors! They grow holes, just like the cheese. Why? Well, because it’s a Van Beuren cartoon.



That’s not the worst of it. Mice hiding in the room pop up and start chasing the cheesy Tom and Jerry. Patrons at the inn point and laugh. Cut to Tom and Jerry running away from the mice to end the cartoon.



The whole thing is just so baffling, you have to love it.

George Rufle and John Foster get the credits on this one.