| The Fella with a Fiddle | |
| Director: | I. Freleng |
| Animator: | Cal Dalton Ken Harris |
| Starring: | Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher Bernice Hansen |
| Music: | Carl Stalling |
| Producer: | Leon Schlesinger |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. Vitaphone |
| Color Process: | Technicolor |
| Runtime: | 7:22 (one reel) |
| Language: | English |
The Fella with a Fiddle is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.[1] The short was released on March 27, 1937.[2]
The title is derived from the cartoon's theme song, written by Charlie Abbott.
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, is in fact a mansion where he lives a lavish lifestyle with his riches. This life of luxury is in jeopardy when a 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 crown there. That, says J. Field Mouse to his grandchildren, was the end of the greedy mouse. One of the grandchildren asked if the greedy mouse was eaten. The grandfather says, "Yes, he ate him all up". But one of his grandchildren notices a gold tooth hanging on display and realizes that things were not quite what they seem.