Greetings, Bait!

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Airdate:
15 May 1943 Blue Ribbon reissue: 28 August 1948

Series:

Merrie Melodies

MPAA Number:	Production Number:	Vitaphone Number:
8313	MM-10-12	973

Runtime:

7 minutes (reissue)

Copyright Renewed:

22 January 1971^[1]

Crew

Greetings, Bait! is a 1943 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a play on Jerry Colonna's catchphrase "greetings, gate!"

Plot[]

A fisherman uses a Jerry Colonna-esque worm as live bait. After getting used to the water's cold temperature, the worm sets up his first bait, being an underwater sandwich. A fish takes the bait and gets ensnared, but when the worm sees a larger and fatter fish, the worm discards the original catch for the larger fish.

The worm tries to lure a lazy fish that won't want to nab him, so he performs an acrobatic act trap that the lazy fish falls for. Next, the worm disguises himself as a mermaid singing "Trade Winds", and a fish falls for this bait. However, a crab has clipped off the line and reels up the line instead. A chase pursues as the crab (with periodic split-screen view on its point-of-view) tries to pinch the worm, but the worm outwits the crab by tying his eyestalks around a rock and later ramming the crab into another rock in a high-speed chase. The worm tells the crab to fight like a man without his shell. After shedding the shell, the worm and crab duels, but the crab is the victor, and the worm is fished out of the water, badly injured. He states, "I could be wrong, you know," as the Jerry Colona-esque fisherman replies "Ah yes, embarrassing, isn't it?"

Caricatures[]

Jerry Colonna
Lon Chaney Jr.'s character Lennie - fish

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Notes[]

This short was nominated for an Academy Award in 1944, but lost to the Tom and Jerry cartoon "The Yankee Doodle Mouse".^[3]
The worm from "The Wacky Worm" returns in this short.
This short is notable for being the earliest released cartoon to feature music written by Raymond Scott, as Warner Bros. had purchased the license to his music.
Publicity material suggests that the short was originally called "Greetings, Bait!" with punctuation. However, the punctuation seems to be removed in the Blue Ribbon reissue.
The Blue Ribbon title card dates the cartoon MCMXLI (1941) instead of MCMXLIII (1943).

Music-Cues^[4][]

Keep Cool, Fool (by Josef Myrow and James P. Johnson)
- Plays during the opening credits^[5]^[6]
Memories (by Egbert Van Alstyne & Lyrics by Gus Kahn)
- Sung by Mel Blanc (as the Wacky Worm) as the Wacky Worm is setting up the sandwich
Trade Winds (by Cliff Friend & Lyrics by Charles Tobias)
- Sung by Mel Blanc (as the Wacky Worm) Harp played by an unknown musician (as the Wacky Worm)
Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals (by Raymond Scott)
- Plays when the crab chases the Wacky Worm
Light Cavalry Overture (by Franz von Suppé)
- Plays when the seahorses go by
Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals (by Raymond Scott)
- Plays again when the Wacky Worm and crab fight off-screen