THE HERMAN-HENRY CARTOONS (1944-46)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

On broadcast TV, I had never seen the Famous Studios character of Herman the Mouse except in shorts where he tormented his partner-in-enmity Katnip the Cat, and even as  a kid I didn't have a high opinion of them. But it was a (very minor) revelation when I learned today that Herman made his 1944 debut partnered with a far more obscure continuing character, Henry the Henpecked Rooster.

HENPECKED ROOSTER sets up the standard Tough Wife scenario. Henry's a small, scrawny rooster, and his much bigger wife Chicken Pie can easily bully him into doing her home-chores. Then Herman the Mouse sashays in, and the Tough Wife screams for her hubby to get rid of the revolting rodent. Henry catches Herman in a cage (an important detail not here, but in the NEXT cartoon), but Herman talks fast, convincing Henry that he can rule the roost (heh) if he keeps Herman around and keeps Chicken Pie at arm's length. Once Chicken Pie figures out what's going on, she writes a letter to a "Mrs. Mouse." Minutes later, while Herman and Henry are celebrating their victory, Mrs. Mouse shows up and drags Herman away to his own marital hell. Chicken Pie winds up to massacre Henry, but he escapes, and dons a mouse costume, scaring her again. Yet a hungry cat renders Henry's triumph nugatory.

SCRAPPILY MARRIED is almost a remake of HENPECKED, but this time Famous flashes a still showing Henry and Herman together in-frame, to indicate they're partners, though they seem to be meeting again for the first time. The main difference is that this time, Chicken Pie strikes back again the bonded males by dressing up in a cat costume. Herman sees through the charade and scares the Tough Wife away once more. But her next foray consists of getting a real cat to go after Herman. While Herman's busy with the feline, Chicken Pie once again almost massacres Henry. However, that mousetrap-cage is still around from the last cartoon, allowing Herman to entrap the cat and once more scare Chicken Pie away.

The final cartoon in the series, "Sudden Fried Chicken," is Herman and Henry's last original story. Herman sees a poster advertising a cash reward for anyone able to survive a full round with a burly boxing rooster, name of Hogan. The avaricious mouse thinks that if anyone's built up endurance to pain, it's Henry, and indeed, when Herman seeks out the happy couple's roots, he finds Chicken Pie slapping Henry around as usual (while making the expected jokes about her being a weak woman). Herman scares the Horrid Hen away and somehow talks Henry into getting into the ring, with the promise that if Henry wins, he'll be able to go around canoodling with hot chicks (meaning young hens this time). 

Boxer Hogan spends more than a minute of this seven-minute cartoon using Henry as a punching-bag. And as the laws of comedy dictate, it's only after Henry gets beat to a pulp that Herman finally pulls a cheat so that Hogan is knocked out. Nonetheless, Henry recovers in no time and the two friends celebrate with beer and skinny young hens. Then Chicken Pie shows up. Herman's presence scares her away, but from a distance she manages to knock him out of the room, so she can have some "alone time" with Henry. She spends far less time than Hogan did in slaughtering Henry with punches and clubbings, but she may be stronger than the boxer, because after her pummeling, the battered rooster ends up in the local hospital. While Herman visits him, the mouse brags about having clobbered Hogan-- who is of course in the next bed. Still, the short wraps up with Herman clobbering the boxer again, and the two buddies run off into the sunset. The duo may not be able to permanently cancel the power of a termagant wife, but at least they can get away from her.

"Sudden" was Henry's last rodeo, but Herman started getting solo cartoons the same year, 1946. And thus when the rotten rodent was teamed up with a prototypical version of Katnip (who had also appeared elsewhere) in 1947's NAUGHTY BUT MICE), this was a crossover of sorts-- which I'll discuss a little more in my "Crossover Madness" series.