At the end of this cartoon (you've been suitably warned of a spoiler), a radio announcer, who has been issuing dire warnings about a white mouse that escaped from a laboratory and contains enough explosives to destroy the city, reverses himself and cheerfully announces that the white mouse will not explode after all. Tom, who has been doing great violence to himself in an effort to prevent the mouse from getting jostled, is greatly relieved and delivers a swift kick to the mouse's rear--which immediately causes a tremendous explosion that leaves the city in ruins. The radio announcer says, "I repeat, the white mouse will not explode." Tom emerges from a pile of rubble and says, as if from an echo chamber, "Don't you believe it!"
This was clearly a well-known catchphrase. But from what? This film may provide a clue: Don't You Believe It (1943) (1943). Did the narrator, John Nesbitt, use this phrase in the same echoing voice? Were there several "Passing Parade" shorts, like this one, that were devoted to debunking popular falsities?
Or did the catchphrase come from radio? A show called "Don't You Believe It" ran from 1938-1947.
Anyone who knows this answer for certain is invited to edit this entry. Note that Tom used the phrase before in Mouse Trouble (1944) (1944). And Bugs Bunny says it in Big Top Bunny (1951) (1951).
See: a discussion of this question on Google
See: another discussion on TV.com
This was clearly a well-known catchphrase. But from what? This film may provide a clue: Don't You Believe It (1943) (1943). Did the narrator, John Nesbitt, use this phrase in the same echoing voice? Were there several "Passing Parade" shorts, like this one, that were devoted to debunking popular falsities?
Or did the catchphrase come from radio? A show called "Don't You Believe It" ran from 1938-1947.
Anyone who knows this answer for certain is invited to edit this entry. Note that Tom used the phrase before in Mouse Trouble (1944) (1944). And Bugs Bunny says it in Big Top Bunny (1951) (1951).
See: a discussion of this question on Google
See: another discussion on TV.com
A bottle of white shoe polish spills on him.
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