Felix Gets Revenge is a 1922 Felix the Cat cartoon, directed by Otto Messmer and produced by Pat Sullivan.
The film opens with a kid climbing over a fence to get at an apple tree. He climbs up and plucks two apples, only to get spotted and chased by a nearby dog. The kid leaps onto a tree branch as the dog bites his shorts, trying to pull him down. Felix, who is walking nearby, hears the kids cries for help, and runs over to fight the bulldog for the kid. After a brief fight, Felix comes out on top, knocking out the bulldog by using his tail like a club. The kids comes down from the tree and thanks Felix for helping him, offering him to come and live at his house. Felix accepts the offer, playing leapfrog with the kid before the kid carries the cat off to his new home. They arrive, but as soon as Felix sets foot inside, he is beaten up and thrown out by the kids father, who yells at Felix to “Git back to the Garbage Can where you belong! Scat!” and throws a vase at Felix to scare him away. Felix arrives at the window to see the father beating his son, making it clear to him that there will be no cats allowed in the house. Felix is upset at this outcome, and paces around to think. Then he gets an idea.
He detaches his tail and drills a hole in the ground with it, crawling in. Inside the house, the father is sleeping on his chair as Felix makes his way inside via a hole in the floor. Looking around, Felix notices the father and that there are bugs buzzing around his nose, annoying him from resting. Felix takes a closer look at his bald head and sees the flies dancing around on it. Felix has a laugh and decides that if he gets rid of the flies, the man would surely like him. Felix tries swatting at the flies, but fails to get them. He thinks, and a question mark appears above his head, which he grabs and turns into a club, which he uses to whack the flies—unfortunately, this also lands a blow on the head of the father. Enraged, the father punches Felix so hard, he's smashed right through the wall and back outdoors. Felix, dejected, walks off. While walking, he comes across a public telephone box, and decides to make a phone call to the residence of the man. By chance, the kid is near the phone at home and answers. After a quick chat, Felix uses the phone line as a way of traveling inside the house. He pops out of the phone, shakes hands, and does a little dance for the kid. Unfortunately, the father is right around the corner, and Felix escapes by climbing out of the chimney. The father chases Felix up it, and scares off Felix with a shotgun.
Felix isn't defeated, though. Shouting "I'll find a way to get even with you," he approaches a food store where a sign advertises a "new shipment of very old cheese." Felix lassoes a large, stinky cheese with a string, then carries it to a farmyard, setting it down by a barn. Instantly a bunch of rats rush out of the barn toward the smelly cheese. Now Felix only needs to drag the cheese behind him by the string to make all the rats follow. He tosses the cheese into the father's house through a window and shouts "Suffer, doggone yer," as the rats swarm in after it! Soon the father sees rats dancing around the house, sleeping in his bed, and causing chaos. In desperation, father calls out the window to Felix: "Come on. I'll give you a home." "Keep it," Felix laughs, and smugly walks away.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: The father of the kid violently beats his son for bringing Felix into the house.
- Cartoony Tail: Felix uses his tail as a club twice in the cartoon—first to knock out the bulldog, and later on to try and swat some flies.
- Downer Ending: Felix's attempts to keep getting back into the house and accepted are thwarted and he's chased off by the father with a shotgun.
