Back Alley Oproar (1948)

Back Alley Oproar Review

Back Alley Oproar is a 1948 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a disappointing flick.

Sylvester doesn’t give Elmer room for sleep as he is singing constantly and annoying him until his death literally. Yes, what is great here is that ending which was unexpected and brave. Basically, the two both died and the cat continued to pester Elmer even in heaven. This is one of the rare instances where Sylvester genuinely won at the end of the film so it’s quite authentic in that regard.

Regardless of that, the movie is otherwise inherently flawed for being again a film about a character’s disruption of sleep. That is a trope that this series has done do death. Also, no matter how good they both are here, I still do appreciate my Sylvester cartoons with Tweety much more and I can’t wait to see more of that.

Back Alley Oproar has a great, brave ending, but otherwise it’s pretty much the case of been there, done there in terms of plotting.