Release Date:

October 7, 1950

Main Character(s):

Tweety and Sylvester, Granny

Summary:

Spotting Tweety in the “Broken Arms” Hotel, Sylvester finds that cats and dogs are not allowed in the hotel and attempts several schemes to get to Tweety. Most of his attempts are foiled by Granny.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1136 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. The original restoration on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 DVD set in 2003 uses the Blue Ribbon titles. It was re-restored again for the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 3 Blu-ray set in 2014 with the original opening rings put back in.

This is the first appearance of Granny, the elderly woman who is Tweety’s protective owner. She may be a very kind motherly figure but to Sylvester, she more than proves to be a force to be reckoned with. From this cartoon up until 1955’s “Sandy Claws”, Granny was voiced by Bea Benaderet. Afterwards, she was voiced by June Foray, who actually continued voicing Granny after the Golden Age up until her death in 2017 (where Foray had nearly lived to be 100!).

Tweety sings the “Gilded Cage” song over the opening credits.

The title is a pun for the 1945 John Steinbeck novel, “Cannery Row”. Another cartoon that has this pun is McKimson’s “Cannery Woe” (1961), which is a Speedy and Sylvester cartoon.

This is the last Freleng cartoon solely written by Tedd Pierce until 1956’s “Two Crows from Tacos” (Pierce co-wrote 1951’s “Room and Bird” with Warren Foster).

The name of the hotel “Broken Arms” is reused from “Porky Pig’s Feat”.

Whenever Sylvester is on the ground pacing (animated by Arthur Davis), a billboard is seen advertising “Drink Friz! Six Delicious Flavors”. This is a reference to Freleng. Another reference to him is seen on a building in the distance called “Frisby”.

During the scene where Sylvester’s attempt to go up through the drainpipe is thwarted by Tweety throwing a bowling ball into the drainpipe, resulting in Sylvester swallowing it, Sylvester rolls past a store that reads “Champin 5 and 10”, with this being a reference to Ken Champin.

In the same scene, there is also a “Mike’s Grill”, which is presumably a reference to Michael Maltese.

The cartoon was considered for an Academy Award but was withdrawn.

From when I first saw this one in 2013 up until 2016 perhaps, I misinterpreted Granny saying, “Yeah! That’ll teach you! Next time I’ll give you what for!” as “Next time I’ll give you wet fur!”

The commentary for this cartoon on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 is the first commentary that Jerry Beck provided.

The cartoon was released five days after the first comic strip in Charles Schulz’ “Peanuts” was published.

What I Like About This One:

In a building called the “Bird Watchers’ Society”, Sylvester looks through his binoculars and finds Tweety also looking through binoculars in one of the hotel windows. Excited, Sylvester runs out of the building and goes right in to the hotel, but doesn’t notice the “No Cats or Dogs Allowed” sign on the hotel. After a few noises are heard inside, Sylvester is kicked out and a voice is heard yelling, “And stay out!” Piled up, Sylvester sulks, “Spoiled sport!” (animated by Ken Champin)

As Tweety is singing “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”, Sylvester climbs up the drainpipe and is soon next to him, waving his finger as if he’s guiding him in the manner of a conductor. Tweety stops his singing upon sensing Sylvester’s presence with Sylvester waving at him. Tweety starts calling out, “Help! Help! The bad ol’ putty tat is after me!” Sylvester attempts to go in after him, but he is tossed out by Granny, who shouts down to him, “Yeah! That’ll teach you! Next time, I’ll give you what for!” Tweety adds, “Bad ol’ putty tat!” (animated by Virgil Ross)

Sylvester decides to climb inside the drainpipe but Tweety throws a bowling ball down the drainpipe, which ends with Sylvester swallowing it. Coming out of the drainpipe and rolling down the street on his rear end, Sylvester rolls all the way into the bowling alley with the loud clattering noise offscreen indicating that he got a strike (animated by Arthur Davis).

Seeing an organ grinder and his monkey across the street, Sylvester sneaks over to a corner near them and lures the monkey away by offering him a banana. He then clouts the monkey offscreen and steals his clothes and cup to imitate him. Witnessing this, Tweety realizes, “Uh oh. That putty tat after me again!” A chase into the apartment begins before Sylvester skids to a stop upon seeing Granny and starts chittering like a monkey. Seemingly fooled, Granny remarks, “Well, look at this. A darling little monkey!” Sylvester looks under a tablecloth, under an armchair, under Granny’s outfit, and under a rug. Granny offers him, “Here, monkey. Here’s a nice new penny for ya”. Sylvester collects it and briefly tips his cap as a sign of politeness. Granny whacks him with her umbrella and reveals she wasn’t fooled at all. “Ah ha! Thought you could outfox old Granny, heh? Well, I was hep to ya all the time!” (animated by Ross)

Later, the phone rings at the clerk’s desk. After the clerk rushes for his phone in an angry-like manner, he then reverts to calm as he answers, “Yes?” On the other end is Granny asking for a boy to pick up her bags and bird as she’s checking out. Sylvester, hiding in the cupboard on the wall, hears that Granny’s room is 158 and sports an evil smile after the clerk hangs up (animated by Davis).

Disguised as a bellboy, Sylvester knocks on Granny’s door and asks, “Your bags, madame?” after she asks who it is from the transom. Granny tells him, “Oh, yes. Um, just a minute” and zips down from the transom. Upon hearing her say, “Okay, they’re right behind the door. I’ll see you in the lobby”, Sylvester enters the apartment, and exits with both the suitcase and cage but throws the suitcase aside before descending down the “stairs to rear” and heading out the “Service Entrance” towards the alley. In the alley, Sylvester takes the cover off to enjoy his meal, but finds that Granny has stuffed herself inside the cage to ambush him! She shouts, “Ah ha!” and chases him down the street with the cage still on her body (animated by Davis)

Sylvester next sets up a makeshift teeter board with a box and a plank and throws a 500-pound weight on the other end to propel himself upward to Tweety and grab him. This works, as he is able to run off with him, only for the weight to land on his head and flatten it (animated by Emery Hawkins).

As Sylvester is drawing up his next plan in the Bird Watchers’ Society, Tweety wonders, “Now what you suppose that putty tat up to now?” This plan involves Sylvester swinging from a rope into the hotel only for him to smack into the wall. After he falls, Tweety remarks, “That putty gonna hurt himself if he not more careful” (animated by Champin).

Finally, Sylvester attempts to walk across the electric wires to the hotel. Suddenly, an electric-powered trolley approaches behind him, and in tune to a very fun and rousing rendition of “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”, Sylvester has to outrun it to avoid trolley electrocution, getting two tremendous shocks in the process. It’s revealed that the trolley is operated by both Tweety who remarks, “I tawt I taw a putty tat!” and Granny who answers, “You did! You did! You DID taw a putty tat!” as they continue to chase and shock Sylvester into the distance (animated by Gerry Chiniquy)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕