Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Movie number 73: Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson & Hamilton Luske, 1955) 

The first half of the 1950s was a fairly prolific time for Disney animation. Although production of shorts was dwindling, 1955’s Lady and the Tramp was the fourth feature film released that decade. 

A departure from recent Disney animations - both Alice in Wonderland (Geronimi, Jackson & Luske, 1951) and Peter Pan (Geronimi, Jackson & Luske, 1953) were based on classic British children’s literature - Lady and the Tramp was a largely original story; initially inspired by story artist Joe Grant’s own pet Spaniel and incorporating elements of a story by Ward Greene.

The movie draws upon Walt Disney’s love of turn of the century small town America (Disneyland’s loving recreation of the era, Main Street USA, opened the same year) and after Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, 1941) is the only other Walt-era animated movie to feature an (almost) contemporary US setting. 

The tale of pampered Cocker Spaniel Lady (voiced by Disney regular Barbara Luddy) and street mutt Tramp (Larry Roberts) who fall in love over a plate of spaghetti is a fairly conventional story of star-crossed young lovers, one that dates back at least as far as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However, the novel use of canine protagonists, witty dialogue and inventive scenes, such as the famed pasta-fuelled kiss, lift the familiar story above the mundane.

Where Lady and the Tramp most impresses is in its outstanding animation. Thanks to the artists’ extensive research of real life dogs, the movie has a less ‘cartoony’ feel to other Disney animations of the era; neatly capturing the movement and personality of our furry friends and displaying the most realistic animation in a Disney movie since Bambi (David Hand, 1942). 

The first animated feature produced in the new widescreen CinemaScope format, this provided some problems for the artists accustomed to animating for the squarer Academy ratio of earlier films. With less opportunities for character close-ups and the need to fill otherwise empty space with scenery, the Disney artists created a beautifully detailed and idealised recreation of a late Victorian era America town, thought to be based on Walt’s boyhood home of Marcelino, Missouri. Viewed entirely from a dog’s perspective, the elegant backgrounds and superior character animation combine to make Lady and the Tramp one of Walt Disney’s most visually attractive feature films. 

Equally a treat for the ears is Oliver Wallace’s evocative musical score and a handful of superb songs co-written by Peggy Lee and Sonny Burke. The legendary Lee adds her considerable vocal talent to showstoppers He’s a Tramp and The Siamese Cat Song in one of the greatest Disney musical scores. 

As you may have guessed, I love Lady and the Tramp. Watching it again after a few years was a genuine revelation. It might not immediately come to mind as one of Walt Disney’s greatest movies, but it really should. It is a warm-hearted, intelligent romance; charming and nostalgic by turn. With its first rate animation, vocal performances and music it doesn’t put a paw wrong. If it’s a while since you revisited Lady and the Tramp, or indeed if you have never seen it, I can wholeheartedly recommend this lovely and lovingly crafted jaunt into America’s (idealised) past.