Here Today, Gone Tamale

Here Today, Gone Tamale
← Previous	Cat's Paw
Next →	Bonanza Bunny
Airdate:	29 August 1959
Series:	Looney Tunes
MPAA Number:	19268
Production Number:	1530
Vitaphone Number:	2895
Runtime:	6 minutes, 18 seconds
Copyright Renewed:	22 May 1987
Starring:	Sylvester Speedy Gonzales Pablo Fernando
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Daws Butler Tom Holland
Director:	Friz Freleng
Written By:	Michael Maltese
Producer:	John W. Burton
Animated By:	Gerry Chiniquy Art Davis Virgil Ross
Layout Artist:	Hawley Pratt
Background Artist:	Tom O'Loughlin
Film Editor:	Treg Brown
Musician:	Milt Franklyn

Here Today, Gone Tamale is a 1959 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng.

Title

The title is a play on the saying "here today, gone tomorrow."

Plot

Several starving mice are near a dock, when the ship Dutch Treat arrives at the port with crates of cheese. As the mice runs towards the ship, they are forced off by Sylvester, the ship's guard. Seeing the shipment go into waste, one of the mice calls Speedy Gonzales to fight off the cat. Sylvester taunts Speedy that he won't get any cheese, but his attempts to stop the fast rodent is futile:

1. After Speedy outpaces Sylvester and takes a slice of cheese from the ship, Sylvester uses a net to catch Speedy. However, Speedy runs throughout the ship, carrying Sylvester until the cat crashes into a fence.
2. Speedy yeehaws behind Sylvester, slamming him into a pole. Grabbing a pipe, he tries to smash Speedy, but the mouse locks him inside a room full of limburger cheese where Sylvester nearly suffocates.
3. Sylvester decides to trick Speedy into taking a cheese from him for free, and Speedy falls for it. However, Speedy quickly nabs the cheese from Sylvester's hand as he tries to smash the mouse with a mallet, which crushes his hand instead.
4. Sylvester builds a guilotine at the front of the boat, although Speedy enters using a rope nearby. When Sylvester pursues Speedy, they run past the guillotine and Sylvester is nearly chopped in the back ("I forgot all about that silly thing!").
5. Finally, Sylvester builds a pipe at the entrance and opens his mouth at the end of the pipe. Speedy runs inside of Sylvester's mouth and exits by the tail, all while still carrying cheese.

The mice has claimed all the cheese from the ship for themselves, and celebrate with a dance fiesta. Sylvester surrenders, and decides to join the fiesta, while Speedy calls him "muy loco en la cabeza".

Availability

(1984) VHS
The Looney Tunes Video Show, Volume 17

(1985) VHS
Speedy Gonzales' Fast Funnies

(1995) VHS
Classic Collection (WHSmith Exclusive Video)

(1996) VHS
Looney Tunes Collection - Speedy Gonzales

(2000) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Vol. 9: A Looney Life

(2003) VHS
Speedy Gonzales (2003)

(2003) VHS
Wile E Coyote & Road Runner Speedy Gonzales

(2006) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc Three (Not included in the Region 2 version)

Streaming

iTunes ( - ) (restored)

Censorship

• On Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Boomerang, the scene of a famished Fernando putting a gun to his head and giving his sombrero hat to his friend (who asks him if he can have it when Fernando is dead), only to be spared from suicide after being told that Speedy Gonzales will save them is cut.

Notes

• This is the only Speedy Gonzales cartoon written by Michael Maltese.
• The guillotine gag is recycled from "Stork Naked"; both cartoons were directed by Friz Freleng.
• Despite this cartoon starting with blue rings, it ends with red rings. It is the last cartoon to use the 1957-59 blue Color Rings and the first to use the 1959-64 red Color Rings.

Gallery

Lobby card

Lobby card

External links

• "Here Today, Gone Tamale" at the SFX Resource