A Bird in a Guilty Cage

Plot

Sylvester spots Tweety in the window of a store called Stacy's. He enters through the package slot, closes the curtains, and climbs to Tweety's cage.

Tweety asks what Sylvester intends to do; after an aside to the audience about naivety, Sylvester proposes a game called Sandwich, in which Tweety would be placed between two slices of bread and nearly eaten. Tweety refuses, saying he does not like that game, and flees. Sylvester pursues him, stacking mannequins to reach the canary hiding in the lighting.

Tweety descends, puts skates on a mannequin statue, and pushes the structure down stairs. Returning, the chase continues into a hat sale, where Sylvester tries on hats and finds one with Tweety on top; his attempt to smash the bird results in hitting himself. Tweety hides in a dollhouse; Sylvester reaches in and gets his index finger covered in yellow dye. Mistaking the dyed finger for Tweety, Sylvester produces a revolver, points it into the dollhouse, and fires, shooting his own finger.

Undeterred, he grabs a hunting rifle and fires at Tweety, leaving bullet holes in the floor and wall. Tweety scrambles into a hole in the wall; Sylvester shoves the rifle muzzle into that hole, but the muzzle appears to emerge from a hole in the floor aimed at his rear. Sylvester ties a red ribbon around his rifle muzzle and reinserts it; from the floor hole emerges a muzzle with a yellow ribbon. Convinced the lower muzzle is a fake, Sylvester fires, but the gun below shoots him in the buttocks.

He yanks his rifle out to find it has the yellow ribbon. Tweety then goes through the store's pneumatic tubes; Sylvester goes to the other end to catch him, but Tweety exits a different hole and places a stick of dynamite into the tube. Sylvester swallows it, thinking he has caught Tweety, and strolls away before the dynamite explodes, blackening him. He decides to cross birds off his diet, remarking that this one upset his stomach.

Trivia

Sylvester crossed birds off his menu in two more cartoons: Tweet Zoo and Trip for Tat. In this short, Mel Blanc’s Tweety voice was pitched higher, a change that first appeared in Canary Row (1950) but reverted for Putty Tat Trouble (1951). This higher pitch then stayed until Muzzle Tough in 1954. The rifle gag was reused in A Star is Bored, directed by Friz Freleng, and Tease for Two, directed by Robert McKimson; in both, Daffy Duck took Sylvester’s place.