Original subtitles

- Well, as soon as you clean up your plate real good,

we'll have desert.

I baked a pie.

- Oh, boy, pie!

What kind, Mom?

What kind of pie?

- It's a surprise.

- Boy, I hope it's the kind Dad had when I had lunch with him

downtown yesterday.

It was a new kind, just made out of sugar.

- Made out of sugar?

What kind was that, dear?

- I don't remember.

I think it was coconut cream.

- That's not what the waitress called it.

Don't you remember, Dad?

She said what do you want little boy?

And I said ice cream.

And then she said to you, what will you have, sugar pie?

- Sugar pie?

[theme music]

DENNIS (OFFSCREEN): Hi, Mr. Wilson!

Did you have a flat tire?

- Yes, I had a flat tire.

Where'd you come from, a whole in the ground?

- No, around the corner of your house.

Can I use your hammer, Mr. Wilson?

- You cannot.

Use your Dad's.

- He doesn't have any.

They got lose somehow. [mr. wilson chuckling]

- I'll bet.

- You know what I wish I had more than anything in the world?

A tool chest.

- Oh, now there's a frightening thought.

- Can't I just user your hammer?

It'll only take a minute.

- Dennis, you can't use any of my tools.

Every time you do, you either lose

them or something goes wrong.

- This time it's different.

This time I want to do something nice for ya.

- What do you want to do?

- Do you know that fence between your backyard and my backyard?

- You may think of it as a fence.

I think of it as a barricade.

- Well, it's so high, I can't even look over it.

[mr. wilson chuckling]

- Yes, I know.

- And I figured if you'd lend me your hammer,

I could make some knot holes so you

and me could look at each other.

- Don't you touch that fence.

Great Scott!

- But we may need some holes.

What if we want to pass secret messages to each other?

- Dennis, I have a secret message for you right now.

If you touch that fence, I will be

forced to speak to your father about you.

- I guess he's just nervous today.

- Yeah, maybe I better not remind him

that I can already look in his yard from my tree house.

Boy, I'll say he's nervous.

He even forgot to close his trunk.

I'll do it for him.

[calling for cat]

- Oh, little boys, have you seen my cat?

- Not since yesterday when me and Tommy

were making electricity with his fur.

- You what?

- Did you lose him?

- Well, I can't find him.

I've been all over the block.

- Why don't you try the next block.

- Well, I haven't the time.

I have to get home. I have something in the oven.

- Oh, is that what we've been smelling?

- Smells like cookies.

- Yeah, chocolate ones with nuts in them.

- Well, it's not cookies exactly.

It's brownies.

Now, if you'll excuse me. - Hey, Miss Cathcart?

Yeah?

- You want us to try them for you and tell you

whether they came out all right?

- No, Dennis.

They're for a gentleman caller who's

dropping by this afternoon.

- Mr. Dorfman, the mailman?

- No, Tommy.

- Mr. Maurice, the man that services your TV set?

- No, Dennis.

It's a Mr. McDougall.

I don't think you know him.

- Did you give up on Mr. Dorfman and Mr. Maurice?

- Well, suffice it to say, Mr. McDougall

is a little more attentive.

Now, I have to get back to the house.

- Hey, Miss Cathcart?

- Yes?

- If we promise to find your cat for ya,

can we try your brownies?

- Say, that's an idea.

I haven't time to look for him myself.

Maybe we could make a deal.

- Maybe we ought to go over to your house to make it,

Miss Cathcart.

Those brownies smell done.

- Come on.

- Now, I thought I left that open.

Huh.

[cat meowing]

[clearing throat]

- Here's the fork, Miss Cathcart.

- You don't have to wash it because we really

didn't use it.

Just stick it in another one of those good old brownies

and give it to us.

- I think you'd had enough, boys, because I'm

going to have to save them for my caller.

[miss cathcart chuckling]

- Does he come to see you very often, Miss Cathcart?

- Quite often.

Boys, let's talk about my cat.

- OK.

His name's Mike.

- His name used to be Mike.

I changed it.

His name's Theresa.

- Jeepers!

No wonder he ran away.

- Dennis, you don't understand.

You see, Mike turned out to be a she.

And now, she's going to have a family.

- Kittens?

- That's right.

- Boy, I bet you were surprised, huh, Miss Cathcart?

- If you think she was surprised, think

how surprised Mike must have been.

- Boys, the point is that cats are

apt to have their kittens in mighty strange places.

Now, I want Theresa to have hers right here at home.

- We'll find your cat for ya, Miss Cathcart.

- We sure will.

And you know what else we'll do?

We'll build her a little house to have them in.

- Fremont, bad dog, stop it!

- Hi, Mr. Wilson.

What's going on?

- Ah, I've been trying to find a squeak in my car.

I just oiled the springs.

- You're a real perfectionist, Mr. Wilson ,

where that car is concerned.

- Well, I believe in seeing machinery in top condition.

Besides, this is the darnedest noise you ever heard.

Hey, oh, thank you.

Let's see if I've gotten rid of it.

[cat wailing]

- Do you hear that?

[fremont barking]

[cat wailing]

- That is the darnedest thing I've ever heard.

[mr. wilson chuckling]

- Oh, shut up, Fremont, quiet!

Hah!

That poor, confused canine thinks it really is a cat.

Quiet, Fremont!

- What are you going to do now?

- Well now I'm going to tighten every knot

and bolt in this entire car.

- That'll be some job.

You want me to help you?

- Why, that's very generous of you, Mitchell.

I certainly appreciate it.

- Just let me change my clothes.

[mr. wilson chuckling]

[cat wailing]

- Oh, quiet Fremont!

Quiet.

- And you know why she can't go look for her cat?

Because she's having a gentlemen caller.

- Oh, that's nice. Mr. Dorfman--

- It's not Mr. Dorfman.

It isn't even Mr. Maurice.

- Oh, I wonder who--

- Do you want us to go peak in a window?

- No, I certainly do not!

I don't want you ever peaking in anybody's window.

- Well, OK.

Anyway, me and Tommy are going to find her cat for her,

and we didn't even ask for a tip.

- Oh, you're good boys.

- We just asked for brownies.

- A person shouldn't ask for something

in return for a favor.

- How about if he does a job?

- What kind of a job?

- Like building a house.

- Well, that's different.

A carpenter has to be paid.

- Then how much money do you think we ought to charge her?

- Who?

- Miss Cathcart.

- We're going to build a house for her cat.

- I don't want you to charge her anything.

- Jeepers, Mom, it was your idea.

All I wanted was brownies.

Have you got any wood we can use?

- There's part of a wooden box out in the garage.

You can use that.

- Hey, Dad.

Guess what me and Tommy are going to do.

We're going to build a house for Miss Cathcart's cat.

- Well, good for you.

- He's going to have kittens.

- Well, good for him.

- He used to be a him.

Now him's a her.

- Her name's Theresa.

- You know what I need, Dad?

I need a tool chest.

- We'll think about it.

- If I had a tool chest of my own,

I could do all kinds of jobs around the house for ya.

- We'll talk about it later.

- Why don't we talk about it now?

- Well, for one thing, I've got to go change my clothes.

I'm going over and help Mr. Wilson.

He's trying to get a squeak out of his car.

MR. WILSON

can you get that one fitting over there?

Though ought to finish it.

HENRY MITCHELL (OFFSCREEN): Yeah, hand me the grease gun.

MR. WILSON (OFFSCREEN): Oh, there you are.

HENRY MITCHELL (OFFSCREEN): Thanks.

Oops!

MR. WILSON (OFFSCREEN): Oh, Great Scott!

[mr. wilson groaning]

- I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Wilson.

- Well, you should be.

- Well, see the-- the grease gun slipped.

- Well, you should never point a gun at anybody.

- It was very careless of me, but I got the fitting.

- Oh?

Well, thank heaven for small favors.

Well, Mitchell, we face the moment of truth.

We've tightened every nut, and bolt, and screw

in the entire car.

- And a double shot of grease in every fitting.

- Yeah, and a shot for the face.

[chuckling]

- Well, should we give it a try?

- Might as well.

I don't see how it can possibly squeak now.

- Well, here goes.

[cat wailing]

- Oh, blast!

- Mr. Wilson, that does sound like a cat.

- Of course it sounds like a cat.

What do you think I've been saying?

I'm about to offer the car some cream.

- I don't think that'll do any good.

Maybe we better give up.

- Not on your life.

Do you know what I'm going to do now?

I'm going to remove both fronts fenders.

DENNIS (OFFSCREEN): Hi, Mr. Wilson.

Hi, Dad.

- Boys, you've come at a very bad time.

Why don't you go over to the park and play?

- We're not playing.

- We're working, and we want to borrow a hammer,

and saw, and crowbar from Mr. Wilson.

- Well, you're out of luck.

- But jeepers--

- Dennis, if you're going to stay here,

you'll have to be very quiet.

Mr. Wilson and I are discussing something important.

- Yes, now, as I was saying, I'm going

to take off both front fenders.

- Mr. Wilson, that's pretty drastic.

Your car will look like--

- Oh, well, I'll put them back on, of course.

But you see, I'll put strips of inner tube

between the car and the fender.

And then I guarantee they won't squeak.

- That should do it.

- Eh, you don't happen to have any old inner tube, do ya?

- I have.

It's the one I make sling shots out of.

- Oh, well, Dennis, do you suppose your old friend

Mr. Wilson could buy a few strips of inner tube from ya?

- Jeepers, I wouldn't charge you for it, Mr. Wilson.

- Good boy, son.

- You can have all you want for free.

- Well, thank you, Dennis.

- If you let us use your hammer, and saw, and crowbar.

- Great Scott. Trapped again.

- Dennis, that's out of the question.

What do you want the tools for anyway?

- Me and Tommy are going to build a house

for Miss Cathcart's cat.

- Well, you know how Mr. Wilson feels his tools.

- Oh, well, that's all right, Mitchell.

I want that inner tube.

All right, boys.

I'll let you use my hammer and saw just this once.

But I don't have a crowbar.

- Well, we gotta have one.

Some of these boards are held together with big spikes.

- Well, I'm sorry.

Uh, you go get my hammer and saw off the workbench

and tell Mrs. Wilson I said it's all right.

- Thanks, Mr. Wilson.

- Yeah, thanks a lot.

- These really are spikes.

- Yeah.

Say, you know what they could use in place of a crowbar?

A tire iron.

I-- I-- I've got one here in the trunk of my car.

- You're very kind, Mr. Wilson.

I know how you value your tools.

- Oh, that's all right, Mitchell.

Dennis is doing something for me, too.

[mr. wilson chuckles]

- Well, I'm going to see that you're never

put into this position again.

As soon as we're finished fixing the car, I'm going downtown

and buy Dennis a tool chest.

- Oh, Mitchell.

Do you think that's wise?

He could ruin the neighborhood.

- It'll just be a little boys tool chest.

You know, junior size tools?

- A termite's less than an inch long, but it can ruin a house.

- Mr. Wilson, I'm going to lay down some hard and fast rules

as to when and where Dennis can use this tool chest.

- That sounds good.

- And remember, if he has his own tools,

he won't be borrowing yours.

- Mitchell, why don't you go get him his tool chest right now?

[henry chuckling]

- We're not finished with the car yet.

- I-- I'll handle the car.

You go get his tool chest.

Maybe you can get back here before he

has a chance to lose my hammer or saw.

- Oh, George, you've spent most of the day on this car.

What about the trellis?

- Well, Martha dear, this is the last fender.

When I get it on, if the squeak is gone,

I'll get to the trellis.

- Boy, this is exactly what I wanted.

What do you want me to do first?

- Well, with those tools maybe you

could build some income property.

- Come on, honey, it's not that elaborate.

- After I finish the house for the cat,

I'll fix that jiggle in the kitchen table, Mom.

- Now, Dennis, until you get a little older,

I don't want you trying to fix anything here in the house.

- I should say not.

- OK, maybe there's something I could do for the Wilsons.

- Uh, Dennis, when a boy gets his first tool set,

he and his father--

- And his mother.

- And his mother have to get together

and establish a few rules.

- Rules?

About what?

- There we go.

[mr. wilson chuckling]

- Oh, George, I hope this does it.

- We'll soon see, Martha.

We'll soon see.

- Hi, Mr. Wilson.

I see you've got them all on again.

- Oh, yes, just finished.

Once again, we face that moment of truth.

- Hey, Mr. Wilson, you want to see my tool chest?

- No, not now, Dennis.

I'm about to test my car for squeaks.

I must ask you all for absolute silence.

This must be the way the Wright brothers felt just

before that first fateful flight.

Well-- Ah.

- George, you're flying!

- Congratulations, Mr. Wilson!

- Yeah, it doesn't squeak, does it?

- No Dennis, little friend, it does not!

- You know, I think there's a lesson in this for all of us.

- What do you mean, Mr. Wilson?

- This demonstrates that with careful planning, perseverance,

and care, man can accomplish anything.

Now today, Dennis, you have your first tool chest.

Use it well.

Value your tools.

Use them with love, care for them,

and never, never lend them.

- Never Mr. Wilson?

- Never.

And now Martha, let's get to that trellis.

- Oh, there you are, Mitchell.

- Well, that came off easy enough.

- Yeah, now just help me carry this around the side,

and we'll get the new one.

That's it.

[cat meowing]

- Ah, I certainly appreciate your help, Mitchell.

- Oh not at all, Mr. Wilson.

You've helped me enough.

- That's it, there, get it centered.

That's fine.

Oh, thank you.

Now, I just get a few nails in here, and I'm all through.

- Then you can go in and rest.

- Right.

[mr. wilson chuckling]

- You know, I don't know what I want most, a hot shower,

a cup of coffee, or a snooze.

[mr. wilson chuckling]

[cat meowing]

[cat meowing]

- Martha, don't do that, please.

- I didn't do it, George.

[cat meowing]

- Martha, you're imitating the squeak in my car.

- No I'm not, George.

I think it's a cat.

[cat meowing]

[cat meowing]

- Why, It's coming from the wall!

- I think it is.

But how could a cat get in the wall?

- I haven't the remotest idea.

- Are there any openings under the house?

- Well, there are the air vents.

Great Scott!

When I tore down the old trellis,

I exposed one of-- do you suppose a cat could have-- Oh!

- Hi, Mr. Wilson. Huh?

Oh, don't bother me now, Dennis.

- But you haven't looked at my tool chest yet.

- Oh, so I haven't, Dennis.

Let's see.

I could your hammer, and your new saw.

- But you told me not to loan them to anybody.

- Dennis, this is an emergency.

There's a cat in the wall.

- But you said--

- Nevermind what I said, for heaven sakes.

- A cat?

Jeepers, I wonder if it's Miss Cathcart's cat, Theresa.

She's missing.

- Oh, for heaven sakes.

Well, just a minute.

Watch it now.

Oh.

There we go.

Oh, dear.

Here, Theresa!

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kit-- well,

if it is Miss Cathcart's cat, I don't

know why I'm going to all this trouble for.

- What do you mean, George?

- Well, I'm going to call Miss Cathcart on the phone

and tell her to come and get her own cat out.

- Now, just a minute, George.

- Is she still entertaining, Dennis?

- Wow, is she!

When I took the house for the cat over there,

they were sitting on the sofa with their heads together.

- I won't let you interrupt her, George.

- Now, Martha--

- I won't stand for it, George.

If this man is serious, it may be her one chance

to find happiness.

- Well, I wouldn't want to stand in the way of that.

- My, you certainly are a good cook.

- Thank you, Humphrey.

That's a talent I inherited from my mother.

- Ah, yes.

Well now, Esther, am I going to get my answer today?

- Well, I don't know, Humphrey.

- Well, I've been calling on you for several weeks now, Esther.

- Yes, I know.

- Well, it isn't fair to keep a man dangling forever.

- I don't mean to be unfair, Humphrey,

but it's such a big decision.

- I know, Esther, but I must have your answer today.

Now yes or no?

When a man gets my age, he can't-- well, to speak frankly,

waste his time.

- All right, Humphrey.

I'll take a $5,000 policy of straight life.

- I have the application form right here.

- But George, aren't you going to do anything?

- Yes, I am.

I'm going to sit right here and have another cup of coffee

if there is any.

The cat can find her own way out.

- But I think you ought to do something.

- Oh, Martha, you're just saying that because you love cats.

I hate cats.

They love me, but I hate them.

- Did I tell you the cat's going to have kittens?

- Kittens?

Oh, for Pete's sake!

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty,

kitty. [cat meowing]

- Miss Cathcart said she could have them any minute.

[mr. wilson gasping]

- Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty.

- George, what if she has her kittens in there,

and the poor little things can't get out?

- Well, we'll just have to get her out of there

before that can happen.

- You want me to call her?

- No, just keep out of the way.

Here, Theresa!

Here, kitty dear!

- George, let me try it.

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!

- You want me to call her?

- No, Martha, we've got to take some drastic action.

We can't let that poor cat stay trapped in the wall.

- What are we going to do, Mr. Wilson?

- We are not going to do anything.

Now you just stay out of my way.

- But, George, what are you going to do?

- I'm going to break through the wall.

That's what I'm going to do.

- George, it's just been painted.

- Well, I can't help that.

That dear cat must be rescued.

I'm going to use your hatchet, Dennis.

- Before you do it, don't you want me--

- Dennis, I don't need any help from you!

- Oh, my lovely room!

- At time of emergency, George Wilson is a man of action.

- Hey, Mike, are you in there?

[cat meowing]

- Well, come on out.

Boy, will Mr. Wilson be happy to see that I got you out!

- When an animal's life is in jeopardy,

no sacrifice is too great.

- Hey, Mrs. Wilson.

[hammering wall]

- Quick, Dennis, give me the cat.

Scat!

- What are you doing?

- Dennis, this is our secret.

Mr. Wilson must never know that he

didn't have to break through the wall.

Promise me you will never tell anyone.

- I promise, Mrs. Wilson.

- Martha, I've got her.

I've got the cat!

- George, I'm proud of you.

- Oh, it's nothing that any red-blooded American

with a spark of decency in him wouldn't have done.

Now, I want you both to promise me something.

- What's that, Mr. Wilson?

- Not a word of this to the newspapers.

There'd be photographers coming around for pictures,

the Humane Society would give me a citation, maybe even a metal.

- And you don't like fuss.

- Yes, that's right.

- Don't worry, Mr. Wilson.

We won't say a word.

- Oh.

You know, cats just love me, But I hate them.

- Hi, Mrs. Wilson.

Oh, hi, Mr. Wilson.

Look what Miss Cathcart sent ya.

- Oh.

- One of Theresa's kittens.

- We don't want it.

- But it's free.

It's a present.

- I wouldn't take it if it were wrapped in $10 bills.

- Let me see, dear.

- His name's Buster.

- Buster?

- At least it is so far.

- Oh, isn't he cute?

Look, George.

- Eh.

- Should we get him some milk?

- Yes, well, he loves it.

So do I with cookies.

- All right.

We'll look in the cookie jar, too.

- Dumb animal.

Stupid cat.

I wouldn't own a cat if my life depended on it.

Gee.

Cats are nothing but trouble.

Give me a dog anytime.

You're a stupid cat.

[kitten purring]

- Hey, you motor is running.

[kitten purring]

- You're a stupid little kitty.

[kitten purring]

- Yes, you are a stupid little kitty.

- Well, George.

[mr. wilson stuttering]

- I was just looking at him.

- Do you like Buster?

- Well that's no name for a cat, Dennis.

- Well, what shall we call him?

- Let's call him Frisky.

[laughing] - Go on.

Have some milk.

[laughing] - Thank you.

[laughing]

[theme music]

NARRATOR: This has been a Screen Gems Film Production

from the Hollywood Studios of Colombia Pictures.