Slick Hare is a 1947 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.
Title[]
As is typical for Bugs Bunny cartoons, the title is yet another play on "hair/hare."
Plot[]
Famous 1940s celebrities are dining and hanging out at The Mocrombo Club, including such personalities as Frank Sinatra (depicted as long and skinny, so much so that he slips into his straw while trying to take a sip from his drink) and Ray Milland (in a parody of The Lost Weekend, where he pays for his drink with a typewriter and receives little typewriters as change). Fudd is a waiter at the Mocrumbo and comes out to find that his next customer is Humphrey Bogart.
Bogart lets Elmer know that he wants fried rabbit, and he wants it within the next twenty minutes—or else! (pulling out a Tommy gun). This puts Elmer in a bind, as the restaurant is "fwesh out of wabbit." However, as he is scouring the kitchen, Elmer hears the familiar sound of Bugs munching on some carrots in a corner of the kitchen. Elmer lets Bugs know that Bogart wants to "have" him for dinner. Bugs immediately dresses in a tuxedo and wants to have a peek at what is cooking. Elmer quickly puts a mirror into a pot. Bugs takes a look inside, soon realizes that he himself is the main course, and makes a quick getaway.
Bugs eventually manages to get out of the kitchen, dressing like Groucho Marx in an attempt to fool Elmer—but the waiter is dressed as Harpo. Bugs tries to make a getaway, but is stopped by the large stomach of Sydney Greenstreet. He runs into Carmen Miranda's dressing room and hides in her famous fruit hat. Carmen then does a song and as she walks off the stage, Elmer starts chasing Bugs. Elmer runs away from the audience leaving Bugs to dance to the same song Carmen did.
Bugs then finishes his act by dancing his way back to the kitchen, where he enjoys the audience loving his performance. He saw Elmer approaching, so he then pretends to be a waiter with an order for lemon meringue pie that Elmer makes for pickup, only for that pie to be splattered in his face upon delivery. Elmer tries to give chase only to fall again to the same gag with a banana cream pie instead. On the third pie which was a coconut custard pie with whipped cream, Elmer realizes that Bugs is the pie waiter, so he threw that last at Bugs. When Bugs manages to duck that pie, it hits Bogart in the face. Bogart grabs Elmer and asks him, "Why did you hit me in the face with a coconut custard pie with whipped cream?" Bogart then warns Elmer that he has just five minutes to come up with his fried rabbit. Elmer searches frantically, but cannot find one in time. Bogart comes in, and Elmer thinks he's about to die. Bogart sticks his hand in his jacket, only to pull out a handkerchief and dab his forehead as he resigns, "Baby will just have to have a ham sandwich instead." Upon hearing "Baby", Bugs jumps out of his hiding place which was the clock that told Elmer his time was up (it was assumed that Bugs himself tampered with the clock) and takes his place as the main course (Lauren Bacall being "Baby"), noting, "Remember, garçon, the customer is always right! If it's rabbit Baby wants, rabbit Baby gets!", before whistling, barking and howling affectionately at Bacall.
Caricatures[]
- Zachary Scott
- Barbara Stanwyck
- Alexis Smith
- Jack Carson
- Leopold Stokowski
- Gregory Peck
- Ray Milland
- Frank Sinatra
- Humphrey Bogart
- Harpo, Chico, and Groucho Marx
- Sydney Greenstreet
- Carmen Miranda
- Lauren Bacall
Availability[]
Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Cartoon Festival Featuring "Wabbit Twouble"
Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Vs. Elmer
Bugs Bunny Collection: Bugs Bunny's Greatest Hits
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes: Vol. 1, Side 9: Hooray for Hollywood
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes: Vol. 9: Hooray for Hollywood
Bumper Edition (Woolworths Exclusive)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc One (restored with DVNR)
Dark Passage (1995 dubbed version)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc One (restored without DVNR)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc One (restored without DVNR)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 8 Disc 1
Dark Passage (restored)
Streaming[]
Notes[]
- The working title was "The Time, The Chase, and the Rabbit".
- Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce are caricatured.
- Michael Maltese said in the DVD commentary, "I almost got my ass in a sling!" for giving viewers his impressions of the kitchen of the Mocambo. He drew what he saw, including grease dripping from the refrigerators and crates of vegetables lying around on the ground.
- The cartoon displays both Humphrey Bogart's "tough guy" image and his real-life softer side, more interested in tending to Lauren Bacall than in instigating violence.
- Three sequences from the storyboard were cut from the finished short. These include a gag depicting Red Skelton as "Mr. Red Skeleton," a view of the "Horror Corner" from the club, and an alternative scene in which Elmer Fudd disguises himself as a garland of flowers to ambush Bugs Bunny after his dance.
- The Cartoon Festivals print is a damaged a.a.p. print where the a.a.p. logo plays first, then the 1947-49 Blue Ribbon Color Rings from the "Inki and the Lion" opening card, also including light blue borders. The 1939–40 version of "Merrily We Roll Along" plays instead of the 1941–45 version. The print then changes to another print that says "Slick Hare". This is a MGM/UA print and probably was hacked off by United Artists in the 1980s. This print had aired on TBS, TNT, and later Cartoon Network before 1995.
- This is the last cartoon to use the 1946–47 color rings at the end.
- This cartoon was shown in theaters with That Hagen Girl during its original release.
- Although Bugs is mostly known to have been inspired in his manners by Groucho Marx as early as the first proto-Bugs short, "Porky's Hare Hunt", this is the first short where he pretends that he is Groucho to avoid Elmer.
- This cartoon was originally intended to be included on the The Man I Love Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray release as a bonus feature, but was swapped out with "Rabbit Transit" at last minute.[2]
Gallery[]
_-_No_Credit.jpg "Slick Hare (1947) - No Credit.jpg (119 KB)")
References[]
External links[]
- From Story to Screen: "Slick Hare" (1947) at Cartoon Research