The Fella with the Fiddle

Deprecated

We have moved to portable infoboxes using the new Template:Shorts

Please do not use this template anymore. It is left here for reference purposes.

The Fella with the Fiddle

Directed By: I. Freleng Produced By: Leon Schlesinger Released: March 27, 1937 Series: Merrie Melodies Story: possibly Sid Marcus Animation: Cal Dalton Cal Howard Ken Harris (uncredited) Layouts: TBA Backgrounds: TBA Film Editor: Treg Brown Voiced By: Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher Bernice Hansen Music: Carl W. Stalling Starring: J. Field Mouse Fiddling Mouse Tax Collector Little Mice Preceded By: I Only Have Eyes for You Succeeded By: Porky's Romance

The Fella with the Fiddle is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short released in 1937, with a theme song written by Charlie Abbott.

Synopsis

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 Blue Ribbon re-release as The Fella with a Fiddle.
• Final cartoon to be re-issued 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

Original ending titles have been found on a 8mm VHS.

Clips

The clips below are from a EU dubbed print.

The Fella With A Fiddle Clip 1

The Fella With A Fiddle Clip 2

The Fella With A Fiddle Clip 3

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/