Konzertanter Katzenjammer

In what seems to have been the only pairing of Elmer Fudd and Sylvester the Cat, the former tries to get some sleep, but the latter keeps singing and keeping him awake. While Elmer keeps trying to go after Sylvester - often pretty violently - Sylvester is always ahead of him. "Back Alley Oproar" is, if nothing else, an example of the great results when certain characters co-star. Those guys behind the Looney Tunes cartoons were never afraid to come up with any wacky thing that they wanted. I'll admit that I figured out what was going to happen at the very end before it came, but the rest of the cartoon more than made up for that. Really funny.

Grease and nails...what a combo.

I love opera and I love Looney Tunes, so when I heard of Back Alley Oproar, I thought after the wonderful What's Opera Doc and Rabbit of Seville, this is yet another perfect match made in heaven. And so it was. The animation is very good, with lovely backgrounds and the characters are well drawn. The story may be formulaic at first glance but it works really well. Where Back Alley Oproar really works though is in the music, it is outstanding and put to hilarious use. It is not everyday you hear Sylvester singing "Largo Al Factotum", Elmer getting increasingly tormented by Sylvester, and all those cats in heaven singing the Lucia Di Lamermoor sextet. The latter was hilarious especially. Sylvester is on top form here, one of my favourite performances of his, while Elmer is a perfect match for him. And as usual, Mel Blanc is absolutely fantastic, his singing voice here is brilliant. Overall, a complete delight and hilarious. 10/10 Bethany Cox

It's a classic, but is actually a remake of an earlier (pre-War) cartoon with Porky Pig in Elmer Fudd's role, and an anonymous cat. I wish I could recall the name of the original, but it is seen far less than this remake. Michael Maltese also wrote the original. The book gag is in the original, only Porky throws "The Falcon" and gets clobbered with "The Falcon Returns." I believe (not 100% certain), that Sylvester's 9 lives singing the "Sextet from Lucia" at the end of "Back Alley Op-roar" is a straight dub from the original's closing gag.

There are some great gags here, and tho' maybe overused, I've always enjoyed where a singer takes in a little alum, tries to sing, and then we watch his head shrink to the size of a pin while his key goes up several octaves!

This is a prime example of a cartoon that is superior to its original inspiration. This is a remake of Friz Freling's "Notes To You" (with Porky Pig in Elmer's spot). Warners spent a good amount of their releases in the 1940's updating and colorizing old B & W classics in their catalog. Also, they often re-used old gags from other releases, of which this possesses several 'redone' bits.

However, what raises this cartoon to the level of classic is the inspiration that surrounds the reused material. Virtually all sung dialog drives the action as Sylvester leads a backyard cat concert for the suffering Elmer. The ultimate push for genius status goes to the sequence where Sylvester--fleeing Elmer--hands off his songbook to a strange tabby, who appears for all intents to be a chubby male. His transformation into an operatic soprano (just by flipping the songbook over!)is as inspired as any classic moment in the Warner canon.

The tragedy is that this cartoon missed out on TV immortality by just a few months. The TV deal that Warners struck made for all their cartoons produced before June 1948 to be sold into syndication ("Oproar" came out in March), and reserved the rest for what would become that Saturday morning staple, "The Bugs Bunny Show". Still, it has become a constant presence on the BOOMERANG network, so we should be grateful.

Elmer Fudd is settling in for the night when he's constantly disrupted by Sylvester cat's singing. Fudd will go to any lengths to get a good night sleep, which makes the ending all the more funny. This is just simply a cute cartoon with all the singing and commotion and what not. It's a remake though which I can't help but hold against this short, but it's still good for what it is. That being a musical centric cartoon. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and also features an optional commentary by Greg Ford.

My Grade: B-