The Fella with the Fiddle



The Fella with the Fiddle is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short released in 1937, with a theme song written by Charlie Abbott. This is the first cartoon to feature Mel Blanc, a career that would last 52 years with WB.

Plot summary
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, turns out to be a mansion where he lives it up with his riches. All the fiddler's luxury is in jeopardy when the 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 coin there. And that, says J. Field Mouse to his grandchildren, was the end of the greedy mouse. But one of his grandchildren notices a gold (cat's?) tooth hanging on display and realizes that things weren't quite what they seem.

The cartoon appears in Blue Ribbon re-release as The Fella with a Fiddle.