Let It Be Me

Let It Be Me

Directed By:		I. Freleng
Produced By:		Leon Schlesinger
Released:		May 9, 1936
Series:		Merrie Melodies
Story:
Animation:		Bob McKimson Don Williams Rod Scribner (uncredited)
Layouts:
Backgrounds:
Film Editor:		Bernard B. Brown (uncredited) Treg Brown (uncredited)
Voiced By:		Berneice Hansell
Music:		Bernard Brown Norman Spencer (uncredited)
Starring:		Emily the Chicken Mr. Bingo Clem Chanteuse
Preceded By:		Plane Dippy
Succeeded By:		I'd Love to Take Orders from You

Let It Be Me is a 1936 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.

Plot

All over town, hens are swooning for Mr. Bingo, who sings like Bing Crosby. Out in the country, Clem, a hayseed rooster, brings flowers to his sweetie, Emily the Chicken. Mr. Bingo drives by and stops to ogle Emily's legs. He offers to show her the city and she hops into his car, leaving the hayseed green with envy. Mr. Bingo takes her to a nightclub and gives her her first taste of wine. When the chanteuse shows interest in him, he kicks Emily to the curb.

As "time staggers on," Emily struggles to survive in the city. Meanwhile in the country, Clem still pines over his picture of Emily. When one of Mr. Bingo's songs comes on the radio, he smashes it and, braving a blizzard, trudges into the city to strangle the singer. When he finally reaches the radio station he enters and closes the door behind him so we can only hear the beating he gives him. He walks around the corner and finds Emily selling violets on the street, and both rejoice at the reunion.

Back home in the country, Clem and Emily sit in front of the fireplace, watching their chicks play. One of the chicks wanders over to the piano, spies some sheet music, and begins to sing a Mr. Bingo song, and a book promptly smacks him in the head.

Availability

(1993) LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 4, Side 5, Radio Daze
(2005) DVD - Follow the Fleet (USA 1995 Turner print)

Notes

While this short airs using the a.a.p. print on the Turner networks, evident from the Toonheads episode, "Emily the Chicken", the USA Turner print was released on the Follow the Fleet DVD.
This short and Bingo Crosbyana were the two Warner Bros. shorts which Bing Crosby initiated lawsuits to suppress because they portrayed him in what Crosby considered a defamatory light.^[1] In this case, he objected to his portrayal as unfaithful to women and to the imitation of his voice.^[2] In the end, the court ruled in favor of Warner Bros. and allowed the distribution of the two short subjects to continue.

Gallery

References

↑ Karl Cohen (2004)
↑ Cohen (2004), p. 39-40

Sources

[0] Karl Cohen (2004)

[Cohen-1] Cohen (2004), p. 39-40

[1]

[2]