Everything about Long-haired Hare totally explained
Long-Haired Hare is a
1948 Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in
1949, directed by
Chuck Jones and written by
Michael Maltese. In addition to including the homophones "hair" and "hare", the title refers to the characterization of classical music aficionados as "longhairs".
It is also one of the few shorts in which Bugs is shown (albeit briefly) without his trademark gloves, at least on his left hand.
Synopsis
The cartoon opens with Bugs enthusiastically playing a
banjo and singing "A Rainy Night in Rio." Nearby, an
opera singer named Giovanni Jones (whose house is a modern unit with
Frank Lloyd Wright architectural influence) rehearses for a performance but as he proceeds into his aria, he absent-mindedly finds himself singing along with Bugs instead. Rather than politely ask Bugs to stop playing during his rehearsal, the irate Jones confronts Bugs and, without a word, breaks the banjo strings and slams the banjo itself onto Bugs. Shrugging off this incident ("Music-hater," Bugs guesses.), Bugs is playing a new instrument, a
harp, and a new song by the time Jones returns to his house. Again finding himself singing along with Bugs (and even dancing to the tune), Jones returns and, ignoring Bugs's greeting of "What's up, Doc?", breaks the harp strings and crushes Bugs in the harp like a vise. Deciding Jones is also a "rabbit-hater," Bugs takes this second assault in equal stride and switches to a
tuba, which one might think would solve the problem of Jones singing along with Bugs since since Bugs
can't sing while playing a tuba. The tuba, however, is simply too loud for Jones, and though Bugs ducks into his rabbit hole as Jones returns, Jones pulls him out, ties him by his ears to a tree branch, and yanks him down so that he bounces up and down beneath the branch, striking his head repeatedly. Finally angry himself, Bugs faces the audience and declares his time-honored,
Groucho Marx-inspired warning: "Of course you realize, this means war!"
Bugs exacts his revenge against Jones though a series of public humiliations. First by hammering the roof of the "acoustically perfect" concert hall (presumably the
Hollywood Bowl, due to its shape) to disrupt the singer's vocals and send him flying off the stage into a tuba, where he's trapped, screaming, "Help! Help!". Second by spraying his throat with "
liquid alum" which shrinks his head as well his voice. Next, Bugs dresses up as an adoring teenage female fan and asks Jones for an autograph, only the pen is a stick of
dynamite. After the explosion, a dazed Jones steps out to the stage with a face covered in soot and evening wear torn to shreds.
Finally, for the
coup de grâce, Bugs poses as the highly respected "Leopold" (
Leopold Stokowski) to take over the conducting duties. Bugs conducts Jones through a virtuoso (albeit unorthodox) performance before administering the final blow: holding a singular note until Jones can hardly endure the strain (at one point, Bugs leaves his glove hovering in the air and steps outside to order a pair of ear muffs). Giovanni's face turns different colors as his tailcoat unravels under the pressure (collar detaches, vestee bursts off, dickey rolls into face, suspenders give and slacks fall around ankles). Bugs returns to his glove to find Jones on the floor banging his fists in what's left of his torn apart tailcoat and flowered boxer shorts. Eventually the concert roof comes crumbling down on top of the unfortunate singer. When Jones climbs out of the rubble, he takes a bow in shreds that were once a tuxedo. His face is beaten in and bruised purple and blue. Bugs again cues Jones to sing the same note so that a boulder, precariously balanced on a steel girder, falls and crushes the singer's head.
To add insult to injury, Bugs removes his wig and closes out the performance by strumming the old vaudeville-era four-note tune, "Good Evening Friends", on his repaired banjo.
Music
The film's musical score includes original music by
Carl Stalling, but a significant proportion of the score is pre-existing music, including several
operatic pieces. The following pieces are used in the film:
Giovanni Jones' singing voice remained uncredited and unknown for many years. It was since revealed to have been provided by opera singer
Nicolai Shutorov. This is noted in the commentary voice-over provided on the DVD.
Also noted on the DVD commentary is Bugs Bunny's conducting performance as "Leopold", as a send-up of conductor
Leopold Stokowski's energetic style, including his shunning the baton: Bugs makes a point of snapping the baton in half and discarding it. As Bugs enters the concert hall wearing a Stokowski-like hairpiece, the orchestra members begin whispering among themselves, "Leopold! Leopold!" The DVD commentator also notes that Stokowski conducted many performances at the
Hollywood Bowl, where the second half of this film is set.
Censorship
An edited version of Long-Haired Hare was included in The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979).
The ABC version of this cartoon cuts the entire sequence where Bugs is dressed as a bobby-soxer looking for Giovanni Jones's autograph and gives him a dynamite stick disguised as a pen.
The CBS version of this cartoon is a little more heavily edited (as the censors hated the cartoon due to its violence). Not only is the bobby-soxer sequence that was cut from ABC also cut here, but also the scenes where Giovanni Jones beats Bugs up every time he ruins his singing lessons (for example, Jones breaking, then smashing Bugs' banjo over his head; Jones slamming Bugs' harp on his neck; Jones pulling Bugs from the tuba, tying his ears to a tree branch, and pulling his body back so it'll snap back and have his head hit the branch).Further Information
Get more info on 'Long-haired Hare'.
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