Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released to theaters on June 22, 1955, by Buena Vista Distribution. The fifteenth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, it was the first animated feature filmed in the CinemaScope widescreen film process.[1] The story centers on a female American Cocker Spaniel named Lady who lives with a refined, upper middle-class family, and a male stray called the Tramp.
On Christmas morning in 1909, in Norwalk, Connecticut, Jim Dear gives his wife Darling a cocker spaniel puppy that they name Lady. Lady enjoys a happy life with the couple and with a pair of dogs from the neighborhood, a Scottish Terrier named Jock and a bloodhound named Trusty. Meanwhile, across town by the railway, a stray silver mutt, referred to as the Tramp, lives life from moment to moment, be it begging for scraps from an Italian restaurant or protecting his fellow strays Peg (a Lhasa Apso) and Bull (an English bulldog) from the local dog catcher.
Later, Lady is saddened after Jim Dear and Darling begin treating her rather coldly. Jock and Trusty visit her, and determine that the change in behavior is due to Darling expecting a baby. While Jock and Trusty try to explain what a baby is, the eavesdropping Tramp, a schnauzer-mix, enters the conversation and offers his own opinions. Jock and Trusty take an immediate dislike to the stray and order him out of the yard as Tramp leaves, he makes a final speech that "when the baby moves in, the dog moves out".
In due course, the baby arrives and Jim Dear and Darling introduce Lady to the infant. Soon after, Jim Dear and Darling decide to go on a trip together, leaving their Aunt Sarah to look after the baby and the house. Aunt Sarah, however, hates dogs and refuses to let Lady near the baby. When Lady clashes with Aunt Sarah's two trouble-making Siamese cats, Si and Am, she takes Lady to a pet shop to get a muzzle. A terrified Lady escapes, but is pursued by some street dogs. Tramp sees the chase and rescues Lady. The two then visit a zoo, where Tramp tricks a beaver into removing the muzzle. That night, Tramp shows Lady how he lives "footloose and collar-free", culminating in a candlelit Italian dinner.
The famous spaghetti dinner scene.
As Tramp escorts Lady back home, Lady is caught by the dog-catcher. At the pound, the other dogs admire Lady's license, as it is her way out of the pound. Soon the dogs reveal the Tramp's many girlfriends and how he is unlikely to ever settle down. Eventually, Lady is collected by Aunt Sarah, who chains Lady to a doghouse in the back yard. Jock and Trusty visit to comfort her, but when Tramp arrives and tries to apologize, thunder starts to rumble as Lady furiously confronts him due to the other dogs at the pound telling her about his past girlfriends (Trixie, Lulu, Fifi, Rosetta, Peg, etc.) and him not coming to rescue her, after which Tramp sadly leaves.
Moments later, as it starts to rain, Lady sees a rat trying to sneak into the yard (which is the same rat that she chased out of the yard at the beginning of the film). While the rat is afraid of Lady, it is able to evade her and enter the house. Lady barks frantically, but Aunt Sarah yells at her to be quiet. Tramp hears her and runs back to help. Tramp enters the house and finds the rat in the nursery. He and the rat start fighting each other. Meanwhile, Lady breaks free and races to the nursery to find the rat on the baby's crib. Tramp pounces on the rat, but knocks over the crib in the process, awakening the infant. Tramp kills the rat, but when Aunt Sarah comes to the baby's aid, she sees the two dogs and thinks they are responsible. She pushes Tramp into a closet and Lady into the basement, then calls the pound to take the Tramp away.
Jim Dear and Darling return as the dogcatcher departs. They release Lady, who leads them to the dead rat, clearing Tramp. Aunt Sarah, despite the evidence vindicating Lady and Tramp, still thinks that the dogs attacked the baby and refuses to believe otherwise and angrily leaves. Jock and Trusty, having overheard everything, chase after the dogcatcher's wagon. Jock is convinced Trusty has long since lost his sense of smell, but the old bloodhound is able to find the wagon. They bark at the horses, who rear up and topple the wagon onto a utility pole. Jim Dear arrives by car with Lady, and Lady is happily reunited with Tramp. Unfortunately, Trusty is injured in the struggle. Horrified by seeing his limp body, Jock howls in sorrow.
A year has gone by, Christmas has arrived, and Tramp, now a part of Lady's family, has his own collar and license. It is also revealed that Aunt Sarah has made amends with Lady by sending her a box of dog biscuits as an apology for mistreating her. Lady and Tramp also have their own family, a litter of four puppies: three resemble Lady (Annette, Danielle, and Collette) and the other resembles Tramp (Scamp). Jock comes to see the family along with Trusty, who has a broken leg.
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