If you know Tom & Jerry a bit, world's most famous cat and mouse duo, then you certainly also know the general idea behind these many many cartoons starring the two. Cast hunts mouse and mouse fights back most of the time. But this one here is different. It is basically Tom and another cat arguing who gets Jerry for dinner. Jerry plays along until almost the very end, but then the phrase "When two fight, the third one laughs last." becomes reality and Jerry shows us what he is capable of. Sadly, I would say that this approach and plot idea are not really working and I found most of the comedy fairly forgettable and the slapstick also wasn't too great to be honest. It is probably among Hanna/Barbera's more known T&J works, even if it did not get the Oscar nomination, but it's certainly not among their best. Basically every time Jerry is on screen, it gets better, but it's just not (frequent) enough. At 8 minutes, it is slightly longer than they usually are. The year of production is 1943 (75th anniversary in 2018), the days of WWII still, and this time is probably also when Tom and Jerry may have been at their peak in terms of popularity. The good thing as always is that you can enjoy it pretty much without subtitles, even if you don't speak English at all. Even the scene towards the end with little devil Tom speaks for itself. All in all, this is one of the weaker recent episodes from the series. I give it a thumbs-down and don't recommend checking it out.

Sufferin' Cats! (1943) *** (out of 4) Jerry is once again running away from Tom who wants to eat him but he makes the mistake of running into another cat. Af first Jerry thinks he's safe but it turns out this cat wants to eat him too so now the mouse finds himself running away from two cats. SUFFERIN' CATS! is another winner for the series and once again we're taken away from the house setting, which allows for some new and creative action. One of the highlights happen when the cats agree to cut Jerry in half and share him but of course something else happens. This short is fast, fun and contains enough action to keep it entertaining throughout.

Nothing of any particular interest or originality happens in this short. Tom is having his usual fun tormenting Jerry but the mouse runs into a stray cat and pretends to be best friends with him (by kissing him-gay lovers?) to upset Tom. Soon both cats are feuding over Jerry whilst being set-up by him. Oh, do watch my sides as they just might split! I wasn't really impressed and there's not a lot to laugh at in the 8-minute running time. The short actually has some dialogue in it but there's no credited voices for some reason on this page. There's nothing I can recommend about this cartoon as it is Tom and Jerry at their most basic. The title is rather generic too.

MGM animation of the thirties and forties could often seriously rival the Disney studio for sheer lushness and elegance, and generaly had them beat for comedy. "Sufferin' Cats" is a charming and funny early Tom and Jerry romp in which Tom is allowed to display a resoucefulness almost on a par with his rodent rival.