Back Alley Oproar

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.

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.

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?

Best cartoon ever. Has my children in stitches every time they see it, and they've seen it hundreds of times. Who hasn't been interrupted when they want to sleep by someone being very annoying?

Great line up of old songs. That's partly why I love these vintage Looney Tunes cartoons, it keeps these great old songs like "You're Just An Angel In Disquise" and "Some Sunday Morning" alive for new generations to discover.

As usual the voices are great. Mel Blanc was a phenomena. Too bad they don't have the intelligence to make cartoons like this anymore. The cartoons today are so vapid and devoid of real charm and humor. This one delivers in droves.

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.