Back Alley Oproar
Back Alley Oproar is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng[2] The short was released on March 27, 1948, and features Sylvester and Elmer Fudd.[3] The title is a play on "uproar" and "opera". This is a rare exception for Sylvester as he wins in this cartoon. It is a remake of Freleng's Notes to You (1941).
| Back Alley Oproar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer (uncredited) |
| Story by | Michael Maltese Tedd Pierce[1] |
| Starring | Mel Blanc (Sylvester) Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd) Gloria Curran (Female Cat Singer) |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Edited by | Treg Brown (uncredited) |
| Animation by | Gerry Chiniquy Manuel Perez Virgil Ross Ken Champin A.C. Gamer (uncredited) |
| Layouts by | Hawley Pratt |
| Backgrounds by | Paul Julian |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 7:40 |
| Language | English |
Summary
Elmer is ready for bed, but Sylvester has other plans as he starts singing in Elmer's back yard. A series of gags play out, as Elmer tries everything up his sleeve to get rid of that unwanted pest. Elmer eventually confronts Sylvester, but before Elmer can blast him with his shotgun, Sylvester sings a sweet, gentle lullaby to ease him into a deep sleep. However, this doesn't last, and the insanity continues.
Elmer eventually dies from explosives from his attempts to get rid of Sylvester. His spirit ends up in Heaven, on a cloud ascending into space. Momentarily, he thinks he will finally get some peace and quiet. However, the spirits of Sylvester's nine lives ascend around him, with the male and female cloned ones following them, each with a numeral on its back, singing in a multi-nonet from "Lucia di Lammermoor", with their voices. Just after one of the cat spirits steals his halo, Elmer's spirit dives off his cloud and a crash is heard off-screen.[4]
Production
Back Alley Oproar is a remake of Notes to You (1941), a Looney Tunes short that was also directed by Freleng. It has a similar plot, although the ending of the original does not have the characters die from an explosion (instead, the cat gets shot, and returns as nine singing angels), and the roles of Elmer and Sylvester were taken by Porky Pig and an unnamed alley cat. Back Alley Oproar is one of the few entries in which Sylvester "wins out" over another character, albeit at the presumed cost of his life.[5]
Back Alley Oproar was remade by Freleng in 1967 for The Inspector series as Le Quiet Squad.
Reception
Greg Ford calls this cartoon "Sylvester's finest hour", writing, "Back Alley Oproar's Sylvester exudes enormous appeal as he tunefully harasses Fudd, his merry medley aided and abetted by Carl Stalling's score, Mel Blanc's virtuosic vocalizations, and Freling's A-list animation team, here led by song-and-dance impresario Gerry Chiniquy."[6]
Release
Back Alley Oproar was reissued with new Blue Ribbon opening titles and aired on television like this as well. The original title card was restored for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 2 DVD and Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, uncut and uncensored.[7]
Availability
References
- Beck, Jerry (1991). I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety. New York: Henry Holt and Co. p. 93. ISBN 0-8050-1644-9.
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 183. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 140–142. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- Back Alley Oproar on the Internet Archive
- BCDB.com
- Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.
- Looney Tunes Golden Collection - Vol. 2- Barnes & Noble
