Back Alley Oproar

Film Review by Dean Duncan Jul 13, 2015

Elmer was in that bed before the light went out! There’s a very nice composition with Sylvester on that wall in front of the full moon. Grease on the stairs, and tacks at the bottom. Twice. Kindly cartoons… Here’s more great song selection. “You never know where you’re going ‘til you get there…” That big, dumb-looking cat turns out to be a coloratura soprano. That’s comedy—an unexpected, even impossible combination assumes the force of inevitability after they’ve gotten through with it. This isn’t Henry James, it’s Mark Twain: high culture gets it on the noggin with a baseball bat. (Cf. Margaret Dumont, etc.) Here’s some superb malice: Sylvester sings Elmer a lullaby and gently puts him to bed, just so that he can wake him up again. As in Ballot Box Bunny, this one has a superb post-concussion trombone solo. Alum jokes don’t play very well these days. Sylvester’s last dance—he doesn’t usually prevail, does he?—is reminiscent of the best early Daffy Duck nuttiness.