A Hare Grows in Manhattan (1947)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Virgil Ross
Happy New Year!
For this installment, we’re looking at “A Hare Grows in Manhattan” one of the more underrated Bugs Bunny shorts ever produced. It’s hysterical, it’s quotable, and it features another one and done villain but one of his most common foes: The dog. The dog has always been a very multi faceted villain for the Warner universe, as the dog is always the predator for traditionally prey like rabbits, ducks, and chickens. By now Bugs has come face to face with at least a dozen dog foes, all of whom we were either working with Elmer Fudd, or working on their own.
This time Bugs isn’t going against a dog so much as he’s going up against a pack of dogs. And rather than being the bully, this short finds Bugs pretty much being bullied by these pack of thugs, only for him to use his tricks to drive them crazy. It works surprisingly well as the writers always manage to find new ways to rework what could have been a stale trope by now. I’m still not sure what the set up for the short has in common with the premise, and I don’t really care. Frankly, that’s all apart of what makes “A Hare Grows in Manhattan” so much fun. It’s so random most of the time that you just kind of accept it and go along for the ride.
The writers get meta with the short presenting itself as a gossip show with Lola Beverly (Bea Benaderet returns) digging in to Hollywood’s newest star, Bugs Bunny. After sprucing himself up for Lola, he recalls the story of his original entrance in to New York as a young rabbit. From there we go in to the traditional short where we meet Bugs Bunny, a young rabbit who happens to come across a pack of bully dogs. The leader is Hector the Bulldog (voiced by Tedd Pierce), the future nemesis of Sylvester and Tweety in their shorts. He’s a great foe to the pair of rivals and manages to really stand out beyond Bugs and find his own niche.
He feels very similar to Spike from “Tom and Jerry” but I dare say he’s funnier than Spike. For this short he’s virtually nameless and a goon who decides to pick on Bugs with his friends. From there they match wits with Bugs, taunting him and even indulging in a “Dogpile” which results in one of the more memorable instances of short “Dogpile on the Rabbit!” Of course Bugs ends up being so much smarter and clever than either of them think; he manages to drive Hector up the wall. There’s a fun gag involving an Egyptian billboard for Cigarettes that I still think is kind of funny, even today.
I only have memory of it thanks to its highly edited and censored version on Saturday morning television airings, but in its uncut version it derives some good laughs. I’m also a fan of Hector going through his guys like a door, and even the big closing gag. It’s such a random, inexplicable final elbow in the gut of the audience that even today it is hilarious how out of left field it manages to be. I didn’t even know what “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” was even about, I just found the connection between trees and dogs and it always cracked me up. Maybe I should get around to reading it, too.
I do wish the writers had addressed and resolved the initial set up of the short with Lola Beverly interviewing Bugs, but I think the joke gets through fine enough. Plus the B story involving Bugs entrance in to New York is so much funnier. Bugs is such a lovable underdog protagonist that you’re interested in learning more about him, even if none of it ever really plays a large role in future shorts.
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