A Hare Grows In Manhattan
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A Hare Grows In Manhattan is a 1947 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Bugs Bunny (voiced by Mel Blanc).
[edit] Plot synopsis
The cartoon begins with the voice of an apparent Hollywood gossip queen named "Lola Beverly" talking behind the camera as it pans across Beverly Hills, settling in on Bugs Bunny's "mansion", which is actually a rabbit hole with fancy trimmings such as columns and a swimming pool. Lola (or "Lolly" as Bugs calls her familiarly, also effecting her hoity-toity manner of speech) coaxes a biographical story out of Bugs, and he talks about growing up on the lower east side of New York (presumably accounting for his accent). He is seen tap-dancing down the streets of the Big Apple and singing "She's the Daughter of Rosie O'Grady".
Most of the story involves Bugs being repeatedly assaulted by a "street gang" consisting of a pack of stray dogs, led by a tough-talking but none-too-bright bulldog. Various mayhem ensues, including one scene in which the bulldog is hanging by one "hand" from a clothesline. Bugs, on an adjacent line, plays Tweety's time-honored "this little piddy" game (even talking in something close to Tweety's voice), peeling the dog's "fingers" from the line one by one. When he "runs out of piddies" and the dog falls, Bugs reverts to his normal voice, and his famous aside to the audience, "Gosh, ain't I a stinker?"
Bugs thinks he has dispatched the dogs. He goes back to his tap-dancing and singing, and suddenly finds himself in a blind alley next to a newstand. The gang of dogs reappears and marches in on Bugs menacingly. Bugs grabs a book and threatens to hit them with it in his "last stand". The dogs' eyes open wide when they see the book, and they turn around and race to, and across, the Brooklyn Bridge. The puzzled Bugs looks at the book and sees that it is the then-recent and famous novel, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, which was obviously the inspiration for the cartoon's title (it's also assumed the audience knows why dogs like trees).
Bugs says to himself and the audience, in a rare quiet and reflective moment, "Ya know, maybe I oughta read dis t'ing!" As the underscore reprises an instrumental bar of "Rosie O'Grady", Bugs is seen walking away from the camera and toward the city's skyscrapers, while reading the book until iris out.
