Back Alley Oproar

Sylvester the cat is one of the great, underrated performers. He's certainly underrated by Elmer Fudd who only wants a good night's sleep, not a late-night opera from a caterwauling cat. Elmer's shoe to the cat's noggin ends the kitty's Rossini performance. But that unkind gesture makes the red-clown-nosed kitty mad; and for his next performance he clomps up and down the stairs doing Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody."

This means war. Elmer throws books at him, ties him up, feeds him alum and tries to blow him up with dynamite. The kitty retaliates with a greased staircase, a floor full of thumb tacks for Elmer's bare feet and a surprising ability to chase him into the hereafter.

Meanwhile, a tabby cat with an unexpectedly beautiful female singing voice, becomes an unwitting participant in this mess. "You Never Know Where You're Going' Till You Get There" sings Sylvester; and that proves true for him, the tabby and especially Elmer.

Warner Brothers cartoons prove again and again that following a formula does not inhibit success—it creates it. A cat that sings all night and keeps some poor sap awake? It was done before; it was done later. This remake of "Notes to You" (1941), which starred Porky Pig and an anonymous cat, stands out not because of a novel premise. It stands out because it's very, very funny.

As the cartoonist Greg Ford says in his DVD commentary track ("Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two," Disc 4), this is Sylvester's finest hour. Sylvester—meaning Mel Blanc, his director Friz Freleng, and his animators—tops his work with Tweety, Speedy Gonzales and certainly Sylvester Jr. It's a great musical-comedy performance worthy of Danny Kaye (and worthy of Daffy Duck's imitation of Danny Kaye in "Book Revue" (1946)). It's so good that somehow we side with him over Elmer, even though he's completely in the wrong and Elmer is totally in the right.

Elmer is an excellent straight man—a thankless job, as Bud Abbott, Dean Martin and countless others will tell you. We also get a hilarious cameo performance from an unnamed orange cat who looks too stupid to sing like Jeanette MacDonald. But he—she?—does. Thanks for the laugh, unnamed kitty.

NOTE: Beware of censored TV prints that cut out the scene where Elmer walks over the thumbtacks with his bare feet. Why was it cut? Did someone worry that kids would imitate Elmer Fudd and walk over thumbtacks themselves?

Elmer Fudd settles into bed hoping to get a good night's sleep ("I could sweep for a week stwaight"). Unfortunately Sylvester the cat has chosen tonight to practice his opera singing on the fence in Elmer's backyard. What follows is a series of attempts by a frustrated Elmer to shut Sylvester up, only to have the cat come back more and more annoying each time. Very funny short with lots of good gags. The wonderful voicework (and singing) from the great Mel Blanc is the highlight. Lovely animation, of course. It's a remake of Friz Freleng's earlier Notes to You, a funny Porky Pig short. I prefer this one to that but both are good.

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.

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!

Elmer is "weally sleepy" and quickly heads to bed. Seconds later, Sylvester is climbing the fence, sets up a music stand, works on his pitch with a harmonica....and then starts his opera singing in front of a beautiful, full moon.

Elmer is quickly at the window, telling the cat to scram. Sylvester continues to literally spit out "Figaro," while dodging objects thrown at him. Each time the cat's singing is interrupted, he comes back with a different kind of song (he has a full repertoire) and torments Elmer from outside and later inside the house. I never realized Sylvester had such a good singing voice! (Mel Blanc, the voice of all these Looney Tunes characters, was unbelievably talented.)

This was terrific; much funnier than I expected.