Lady and the Tramp

Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated musical romance film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. It was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske, and features the voices of Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucom, Verna Felton, and Peggy Lee. The film was based on the 1945 Cosmopolitan magazine story "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog" by Ward Greene, and tells the story of Lady the pampered Cocker Spaniel as she grows from puppy to adult, deals with changes in her family, and meets and falls in love with Tramp the homeless mutt.

This article is about the 1955 Walt Disney animated film. For the live-action remake, see Lady and the Tramp (2019 film). For the 2019 film's soundtrack album, see Lady and the Tramp (soundtrack).

Lady and the Tramp

"Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog"
by Ward Greene

Walt Disney

Don Halliday

Oliver Wallace

Walt Disney Productions

Buena Vista Film Distribution

June 22, 1955 (1955-06-22)

76 minutes

United States

English

$4 million^[1]

$187 million^[2]

Lady and the Tramp was released to theaters on June 22, 1955, to box office success. It was the first animated film to be filmed in the CinemaScope widescreen film process,^[3] as well as Disney's first animated film to be distributed by their Buena Vista division following their split from RKO Radio Pictures. It initially received generally mixed reviews by film critics, but critical reception for the film has been generally positive in modern times. A direct-to-video sequel, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, was released on February 27, 2001, and a live-action/CGI hybrid remake premiered on November 12, 2019, as a launch title for the Disney+ streaming service.

In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."^[4]

Plot

In 1909, in a small town, "Jim Dear" gives his wife "Darling"^[a] a cocker spaniel puppy as a Christmas present. The puppy, named Lady, grows up pampered by her doting owners, and befriends her neighbors' dogs Jock (a Scottie) and Trusty (an elderly Bloodhound). Meanwhile, across town, a stray terrier-mix named Tramp feeds on scraps and handouts, and frees his friends Peg the Pekingese and Bull the Bulldog from the local dogcatcher.

Fleeing the angry dogcatcher, Tramp finds himself in Lady's neighborhood. He overhears a distraught Lady conversing with Jock and Trusty about her owners' suddenly distant behavior towards her. When Jock and Trusty deduce this is because Darling is pregnant, Tramp inserts himself into the conversation as the "voice of experience", and warns Lady that "when a baby moves in, a dog moves out". Annoyed, Jock drives him from the yard. Tramp's words cause Lady to fret throughout Darling's pregnancy, but when the baby boy arrives, she is allowed to meet and bond with him, dispelling her fears.

Later, Jim Dear and Darling take a short trip, leaving the house, Lady, and the baby in the care of Jim Dear's aunt Sarah, who brings along her two Siamese cats Si and Am.^[b] Sarah dislikes dogs, and prohibits Lady from seeing the baby; later, the cats destroy the house, and pin the deed on Lady by pretending she injured them. Sarah takes Lady to the pet shop, and has a muzzle put on her; Lady panics and flees into the street, where she is pursued by three savage dogs, until Tramp intervenes to protect her.

Tramp takes Lady to the zoo to have the muzzle removed by a beaver; he then shows Lady his owner-free lifestyle, and they explore the town. The kindly proprietor of Tony's Restaurant gives them a spaghetti dinner to share, before they end the evening with a walk in the park. The next day, Tramp tries to convince Lady to live "footloose and collar free" with him; despite liking Tramp, she decides her duty is to watch over the baby. As Tramp escorts Lady home, he stops to chase some chickens; the dogcatcher pursues them both, but only Lady is caught. At the pound, she meets Peg, Bull, and some other strays, who all know Tramp. They reveal he has had many girlfriends in the past, and claim that females are his weakness.

Sarah comes to claim Lady, and chains her in the backyard as punishment for running away. Jock and Trusty propose that Lady should marry and come live with one of them, to escape the abuse, but she gently refuses them. When Tramp arrives to apologize to Lady, she berates him for his many girlfriends and sends him away, too. Afterwards, Lady notices a large rat sneaking into the house through the baby's bedroom window. Her attempts to alert Sarah fail, but Tramp hears her barking, returns, and enters the house himself to save the baby. Lady breaks her chain and follows soon after. Tramp is wounded in the battle with the rat, but manages to kill it behind a curtain. During the struggle, the baby's crib overturns, and he begins to cry; Sarah comes to investigate, and assumes the dogs attacked the baby.

Jim Dear and Darling return home to find that Sarah has locked Lady in the cellar and handed Tramp over to the dogcatcher to be euthanized. Disbelieving Sarah's story, Jim Dear frees Lady, who immediately shows them the dead rat. Overhearing the truth, Jock and Trusty pursue the dogcatcher's cart and try to stop it; the horses spook, causing the cart to crash. Jim Dear and Darling arrive with Lady to rescue Tramp, but Trusty is badly injured in the wreck.

Later, at Christmastime, Tramp has become an official part of the family, and he and Lady have four little puppies of their own. Jock and a mostly healed Trusty visit the family; the puppies now provide Trusty a new audience for his old stories, but he has forgotten them, much to his and everyone else's amusement.

as Lady, an American Cocker Spaniel, who is the primary character in the film. A Christmas present to Darling from Jim Dear, she quickly becomes the center of their lives, but is then subconsciously neglected due to the birth of a human baby who she comes to love unconditionally. Her experiences outside the household, and her encounter with Tramp force her to question the nature of her relationship with her humans (who she never sees as her owners), and give her a new understanding of the world around her.

Barbara Luddy

as Tramp, a mongrel (with a mixture of a schnauzer and a terrier), with a talent for escaping dog-catchers. He nicknames Lady "Pidge", short for Pigeon, which he calls her owing to her naivety. He never refers to himself by name, although most of the film's canine cast refer to him as the Tramp. It is not until the sequel in which any humans call him Tramp, and it is never explained why they "name" him with the very name he was known by on the streets. Tramp had other names in the film, and when asked by Lady about having a family, Tramp states that he has, "One for every day of the week. Point is, none of them have me." Each family mentioned called him a different name (such as Mike or Fritzi). The families also had different nationalities (such as Irish or German). As he did not belong to a single-family, Tramp implied that it was easier than the baby problems Lady was going through at the time.

Larry Roberts

as Jock, a Scottish Terrier who is one of Lady's neighbors. Thompson also voiced Joe, Tony's assistant chef; Bull, a stray male bulldog from the dog pound who speaks with a Cockney accent; Dachsie, a stray male dachshund at the dog pound who speaks with a German accent; an Irish-accented policeman; and Jim's friend.

Bill Thompson

Bill Baucom as Trusty, a who used to track criminals with his Grandpappy, Old Reliable, until he lost his sense of smell.

bloodhound

as Aunt Sarah, Jim Dear's aunt (revealed to be the sister of Jim Dear's mother in Ward Greene's novelization of the film) who comes to take care of the baby when Jim Dear and Darling leave for a few days. She is a well-meaning busybody of a maiden aunt who adores her Siamese cats but does not believe that dogs should be around babies. She blames both Lady and Tramp for the baby's crib being knocked over, not knowing that they were actually protecting the baby from a vicious rat. However, she sends a box of dog biscuits for Christmas in the final scene of the film in a presumed attempt to make amends for her mistreatment of the two dogs.

Verna Felton

as Tony, the owner and chef of Tony's Italian restaurant. He and Joe both have great affection for Tramp.

George Givot

Lee Millar as Jim Dear, the fatherly human figure and Darling's husband. Millar also voiced the Dogcatcher.

as Darling, the motherly human figure and Jim Dear's wife. Lee also voiced Si and Am, Aunt's Sarah's twin Siamese cats with a knack for mischief and never-ending trouble; and Peg, a stray female Pekingese whom Lady meets at the pound (along with the other dog inmates she was put in a cage with). The names of Si and Am are a pun on the country of Siam. It is implied that Peg had a relationship with Tramp in the past, through the lyrics of the song she sings (He's a Tramp). Peg was formerly from the "Dog and Pony Follies" (dog and pony show); either the show ended or she was left behind. Peg has a Brooklyn Accent.

Peggy Lee

as the beaver, a diligent, absent-minded beaver at the zoo who speaks with a lisp. He gnaws off the muzzle that Aunt Sarah had placed upon Lady after Tramp realizes that the muzzle is just what the beaver needs for pulling logs. This character would later serve as the inspiration for Gopher from Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), down to the speech pattern (a whistling sound when he makes the "S" sound). On the 2-Disc Platinum Edition DVD, Stan Freberg demonstrates how it was done and that a whistle was eventually used because it was hard to continue repeating the effect.

Stan Freberg

as Boris, a stray male Borzoi from the dog pound. He speaks with a Russian accent.

Alan Reed

as Al the alligator, an alligator that Tramp asks to remove the muzzle from Lady. However, he instead almost bites Lady's head off.

Thurl Ravenscroft

as Toughy, a stray male mutt from the dog pound. He speaks with a slight Brooklyn accent, like Peg. McKennon also voiced Pedro, a stray male Chihuahua from the dog pound who speaks with a Mexican accent; a professor, and a laughing hyena.

Dallas McKennon

(Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee, Max Smith, Bob Hamlin and Bob Stevens) as Dog Chorus

The Mellomen

Production

Story development

In 1937, Walt Disney Productions story artist Joe Grant came up with an idea inspired by the antics of his English Springer Spaniel Lady, and how she got "shoved aside" by Joe's new baby. He approached Walt Disney with sketches of Lady. Disney enjoyed the sketches and commissioned Grant to start story development on a new animated feature titled Lady.^[6] Through the late 1930s and early 1940s, Joe Grant and other artists worked on the story, taking a variety of approaches, but Disney was not pleased with any of them, primarily because he thought Lady was too sweet, and there was not enough action.^[6]

Walt Disney read the short story written by Ward Greene, titled "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog", in the Cosmopolitan magazine, published in 1945.^[7]^[8] He thought that Grant's story would be improved if Lady fell in love with a cynical dog character like the one in Greene's story, and bought the rights to it.^[9] The cynical dog had various names during development, including Homer, Rags, and Bozo, before "Tramp" was chosen.^[7]

The finished film is slightly different from what was originally planned. Lady was to have only one next-door neighbor, a Ralph Bellamy-type canine named Hubert. Hubert was later replaced with Jock and Trusty. Aunt Sarah was the traditional overbearing mother-in-law. In the final film, she is softened to a busybody who, though antagonistic towards Lady and Tramp, is well-meaning (she sends a packet of dog biscuits to the dogs at Christmas to apologize for mistreating them). Aunt Sarah's Nip and Tuck were later renamed Si and Am.^[7] Originally, Lady's owners were called Jim Brown and Elizabeth. These were changed to highlight Lady's point of view. They were briefly referred to as "Mister" and "Missis" before settling on the names "Jim Dear" and "Darling". To maintain a dog's perspective, Darling and Jim's faces are rarely shown, similar to Tom's various owners in the Tom and Jerry cartoons. The rat was a somewhat comic character in early sketches, but became a great deal more frightening, due to the need to raise dramatic tension. A scene created but then deleted was one in which after Trusty says "Everybody knows, a dog's best friend is his human", Tramp describes a world in which the roles of both dogs and humans are switched; the dogs are the masters and vice versa.^[6] There was a love triangle among Lady, Tramp, and a Russian wolfhound named Boris (who appears in the dog pound in the final version).^[10]

The film's opening sequence, in which Darling unwraps a hat box on Christmas morning and finds Lady inside, is inspired by an incident when Walt Disney presented his wife Lily with a Chow puppy as a gift in a hat box to make up for having previously forgotten a dinner date with her.^[11]

In 1949, Grant left the studio, yet Disney story men were continually pulling Grant's original drawings and story off the shelf to retool.^[6] A solid story began taking shape in 1953,^[9] based on Grant's storyboards and Greene's short story.^[6] Greene later wrote a novelization of the film that was released two years before the film itself, at Walt Disney's insistence, so that audiences would be familiar with the story.^[12] Due to Greene's novelization, Grant did not receive film credit for his story work, an issue that animation director Eric Goldberg hoped to rectify in the Lady and the Tramp Platinum Edition's behind-the-scenes vignette that explained Grant's role.^[6]

Singer Peggy Lee not only voiced four characters but co-wrote six songs for the film.^[13]

Animation

As they had done with the deer on Bambi, the animators studied many dogs of different breeds to capture the movement and personality of dogs. Although the spaghetti eating sequence is probably now the best-known scene from the film, Walt Disney was prepared to cut it, thinking that it would not be romantic and that dogs eating spaghetti would look silly. Animator Frank Thomas was against Walt's decision and animated the entire scene himself without any lay-outs. Walt was impressed by Thomas's work and how he romanticized the scene and kept it in.^[6] On viewing the first take of the scene, the animators felt that the action should be slowed down, so an apprentice trainee was assigned to create "half numbers" in between many of the original frames.^[14]

Originally, the background artist was supposed to be Mary Blair and she did some inspirational sketches for the film. However, she left the studio to become a children's book illustrator in 1953. Claude Coats was then appointed as the key background artist. Coats made models of the interiors of Jim Dear and Darling's house, and shot photos and film at a low perspective as reference to maintain a dog's view.^[12] Eyvind Earle (who later became the art director of Disney's Sleeping Beauty) did almost 50 miniature concept sketches for the "Bella Notte" sequence and was a key contributor to the film.^[12]

Reception

Critical reception

During its initial release, the film initially polarized critics.^[30] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times claimed the film was "not the best [Disney] has done in this line. The sentimentality is mighty, and the CinemaScope size does not make for any less aware of the thickness of the goo. It also magnifies the animation, so that the flaws and poor foreshortening are more plain. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, the artists' work is below par in this film."^[31] Time wrote "Walt Disney has for so long parlayed gooey sentiment and stark horror into profitable cartoons that most moviegoers are apt to be more surprised than disappointed to discover that the combination somehow does not work this time."^[32] However, Variety deemed the film "a delight for the juveniles and a joy for adults".^[33] Harrison's Reports felt the "scintillating musical score and several songs, the dialogue and the voices, the behaviors and expressions of the different characters, the mellow turn-of-the-century backgrounds, the beautiful color and sweep of the CinemaScope process — all these add up to the one of the most enjoyable cartoon features Disney has ever made."^[34] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times described the film as a "delightful, haunting, charmed fantasy that is remarkably enriched with music and, incidentally, with rare conversations among the canine characters."^[35]