The Alley Cat

A penthouse-dwelling society kitty finds herself attracted to the black cat serenading her from the alley. The pompous butler sends the bulldog after him, but the cat is too tricky and the dog is too easily intimidated. The alley cat eventually makes his way into the apartment where he and the rich feline dance to "La cucaracha" on the radio. The bulldog returns to continue the battle, resulting in the complete destruction of the apartment.

The animation is typically lush for this Hugh Harman production, but the story, gags and characterizations are also typically weak. Any short piece of this film would make it look sprightly and amusing, but the plot has no momentum and the whole thing is an obese nine-and-a-half minutes, when cartoon short subjects of the day were typically six to seven minutes. The alley cat has an annoying Donald Duck-like voice, which the society cat, for some reason, adopts at odd times. The film looks especially weak next to the "Tom and Jerry" series, which was just about to begin officially. "Tom and Jerry," in fact, did variations on this particular story several times, and each time did it far better.

A highbred domesticated cat is serenaded by an alleycat and his chorus of fellow alley dwellers in this Hugh Harman cartoon. But a bull dog is sent out to deal with the would-be lover.

Harman and his partner, Rudolf Ising, had been taken down a peg by the new regime at MGM's cartoon division. They got the world and began to produce more raucuous cartoons, although they would occasionally return to their mother-knows-best formulas. But although Harman tries here, it still appears that he really loves the elaborate candybox designs of his backgrounds more than the gags. These characters would appear, streamlined, in Hanna & Barbera's Tom & Jerry cartoons; in fact, Hanna provided the singing voice for the cat here.

Society Cat is a well-pampered penthouse female feline. Alley Cat eats out of the garbage on the streets below. They start singing to each other. An annoyed neighbor sends in his Bulldog. It is chaos as the Bulldog pursues the Alley Cat into the building.

This is a Hugh Harman MGM cartoon. There isn't much to say. I don't like the Alley Cat's voice. I don't really care for any of the voices. The animation is fine for the times. None of the characters have names and that is a weakness. There are lots of weaknesses, but it is fine for what it is. This is not going to lead to a long running series.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Tex Avery, Hanna Barbera, Studio Ghibli and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With significantly broader knowledge of different directors, animation styles and studios, actually appreciate and love it even more now. Have seen plenty of Hugh Harmon cartoons, and have liked enough of them. They are though a mixed bag, excelling best when tackling bold themes or adopting the sweet and amusing approach and not so good when going too far on the sentiment.

Which is pretty much the same with Rudolf Ising. 'The Alley Cat' is not one of Harmon's best cartoons by all means and anybody who has seen this premise before well before seeing this for the first time (like me) will not find anything that original here. 'The Alley Cat' though is still charming and amusing and despite being hampered by the length it does have enough spirit. If asked whether it's recommend, my answer is yes while not being ecstatic over it.

'The Alley Cat' is about 2 minutes too long and as a consequence the momentum sags somewhat at times.

It is not really worth mentioning the story, as that is pretty much non existent and this reviewer has seen it before many times (including a few times on Tom and Jerry) and with more imagination and consistent energy.

However, there is a lot to like here in 'The Alley Cat'. The animation is rich in detail for design and backgrounds, vibrant in colour and crisp. Composer for the prime-era 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons and regular Tex Avery composer Scott Bradley provides a lush and atmospheric music score.

Enough of the cartoon has a good deal of charm, there is enough zippy energy with some imagination going on visually in the action (who is not uncompromising but isn't too tame) and the quite plentiful gags are amusing, even if not winning points for originality. The characters appeal and have personality, had no issue personally with the quite crafty lead character's Donald Duck-like voice.

Concluding, quite fun if not mind blowing. 7/10.

Generally,as far as most of the animated shorts that MGM produced back in their glory days (the 1940's & 1950's), I most admired the work of Hanna/Barbara & Tex Avery. Most of the Hugh Harmon shorts, although beautifully animated, were far too cute for their own good (I mean, how many times do you want to see cute,little fluffy wuffy bunnies in danger in the forest prime evil?). Harmon, however did manage to break out of this groove & surprised everyone with an animated short that not only entertained the little ones, but the parents too. The Alley Cat from 1941 was one of these surprises. A high society cat is romanced by a rather scruffy alley cat (who sounded very much like Donald Duck--but is not voiced by Clarence Nash,just somebody who sounded like him). The only thing keeping this lady cat from being with Mr.alley cat is the family butler who turns the bulldog loose on Mr. Cat. What results is a fast paced,funny short that can (and does)appeal to the grown ups, too. Harmon directed/supervised some other quality shorts for MGM, as well (read the various blogs for 'The Blue Danube',from 1939)