The Fella with the Fiddle
| The Fella with the Fiddle | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies series | |
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Voices by |
Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher Bernice Hansen |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by |
Cal Dalton Cal Howard |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Vitaphone |
| Release date(s) | March 27, 1937 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7:22 (one reel) |
| Language | English |
The Fella with the Fiddle is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short released in 1937, with a theme song written by Charlie Abbott.
Plot summary
When the kids fight over a coin for ice cream, J. Field Mouse tells his grandchildren the story of a mouse whose greed and dishonesty became his undoing. Feigning blindness and playing the fiddle, he collects enough money to live an opulent lifestyle. His home, marked by a shabby exterior, turns out to be a mansion where he lives it up with his riches. All the fiddler's luxury is in jeopardy when the tax assessor knocks on the door. The fiddler hurriedly presses a series of buttons to hide his opulence and make his home look like a hovel. He succeeds in confusing the tax assessor to the point that he flees in frustration, but an eavesdropping cat plays on the fiddler's greed and lures him into his jaws by placing a gold coin there. And that, says J. Field Mouse to his grandchildren, was the end of the greedy mouse. One of the grandchildren asked if the greedy mouse got eaten. The grandfather said, "Yes, he ate him all up,". But one of his grandchildren notices a gold (cat's?) tooth hanging on display and realizes that things weren't quite what they seem.
Trivia
- The cartoon appears in the Blue Ribbon re-release as The Fella with a Fiddle.
- Final cartoon to be reissued by Leon Schlesinger even though it was reissued in 1945 still having his credits.
- This short is notable to be the first Merrie Melodies short where Mel Blanc voices characters.
Status of original titles
The original titles are lost forever due to reissue cuts.
Also, due to the LaserDisc release of the 1995 dubbed version, the original ending is lost forever.[1]
CN USA and CN Latin America both play the 1995 dubbed version, so the original ending does not survive through CN Latin America.
References
External links
- Big Cartoon Database entry at http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/143-Fella_With_A_Fiddle.html
- Internet Movie Database entry at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028859/