Hook and Ladder Hokum

Tom and Jerry, a human comedy duo, are firemen at a fire station. The short opens with the pair whiling away their time playing checkers and preparing for bed. The moment they settle in, the fire alarm rings and they scramble to respond, heading out with their horse to a burning boarding house or apartment building. Once on the scene, Tom, Jerry, and their horse prove to be spectacularly incompetent rescuers. Their attempts to fight the fire and help the trapped residents accomplish nothing useful. The humor is largely silent-comedy in style, built on visual gags and gestures rather than dialogue — at one point flames themselves spell out words like 'help' and 'hurry' for comic effect. The horse, rather than aiding the effort, ends up causing even more destruction, ultimately destroying what remains of the building entirely. The film ends with the firefighters having made everything worse rather than better. It is the 23rd entry in the Van Beuren Studios Tom and Jerry series and marks an early directing credit for Frank Tashlin.

Sources: Dr. Grob's Animation Review