Back Alley Oproar

Back Alley Oproar
Merrie Melodies (Sylvester/Elmer Fudd) series
Sylvester does a wild musical number in Elmer's back yard inspired by Spike Jones.
Directed by	I. Freleng
Produced by	Edward Selzer (uncredited)
Story by	Michael Maltese Tedd Pierce
Voices by	Mel Blanc (Sylvester) Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd-uncredited) Gloria Curran (Female Cat Singer)
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Gerry Chiniquy Manuel Perez Virgil Ross Ken Champin
Layouts by	Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by	Paul Julian
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	March 27, 1948 (Original) February 5, 1955 (Blue Ribbon Re-Issue)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7:40
Language	English

Back Alley Oproar is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies (Blue Ribbon reissue) animated short directed by Friz Freleng and originally released in theaters on March 27, 1948. The short features Sylvester and Elmer Fudd as its main characters, voiced by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan respectively. The title is a play on "uproar" and "opera". This is a rare exception for Sylvester as he wins in this cartoon.

Elmer is ready for bedtime, 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 gets defeated 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.

The cartoon 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 doesn't have the characters die from an explosion (instead, the cat dies from getting shot, and returns as nine singing angels), and the roles of Elmer and Sylvester were taken by Porky Pig and an unnamed alley cat (the latter bearing a striking resemblance to the cat from Bob Clampett's The Hep Cat), respectively. Back Alley Oproar is one of the very few shorts in which Sylvester "wins out" over another character, albeit at the presumed cost of his life.